Edward Baker explains why UK education startups need their own leg-up to centre-stage
Each year at BETT, behind the big shiny stands dominating the front of Olympia, is a hungry fringe of small companies promoting exciting new products or services to visitors. They hope to persuade IT managers, head teachers and local authority purchasers that their innovative new products are worth the punt.
For a small startup it’s a huge step to exhibit at BETT and it really can be make or break. So how do they get started and why are they important to education?
The UK is a world leader in educational technology and it has been successful because of an ecosystem that spans some of the world’s largest companies such as Pearson and Microsoft to small tech start-ups like Pora Ora and Made In Me. But these young companies are essential to inject both innovation and change into the sector and to push boundaries that well established incumbents have little appetite to push themselves.
The success of a show like BETT, which is one of only a few exhibitions with enough pull to unite global opinion shapers and policy makers, reflects the UK’s dominance and robust education sector. Now approaching its 28th year, BETT demonstrates how mature the education sector is.
However, BETT also suggests something else: that there is a big opportunity for startups to disrupt an established market. There is huge potential for this space to be shaken up over the next few years through the innovative application of technology, whether that be social gaming, social mobile or cloud technology, and it will be start-ups that will lead this if they can get the support they require.
A glance across the pond shows that US-based educational technology start-ups are already causing disruption. Companies like Edmodo, Grockit or Khan Academy are rapidly transforming this landscape and they provide a high benchmark with which to match success in the sector. But there is also much more comprehensive support for education startups with greater access to finance, accelerator programmes specifically for education startups and support networks.
54 hours to come up with a viable education app worthy of a credible business
So, to help matters, this weekend we are hosting Startup Weekend Edu London, a specific education event that is based on the tried and tested Startup Weekend formula (35,000 people have been through its doors). The event is an intense 54-hour event, which focuses on building a web or mobile application with an education focus, which could form the basis of a credible business.
The weekend brings together people with different skill sets – software developers, educators, graphic designers, and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them, culminating in a pitch to a panel of industry experts and investors on the Sunday evening. Already supported by Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), Pearson, 02 Learn and Ariadne Capital, we hope this event will help to provide the support needed to enable the education technolog start up scene in the UK to become truly disruptive.
While the UK is not lacking in ambition, aptitude or talent – and while great things are happening and are underway – many within our education technology start-up community feel that there is a need for recognition and support at a government level if we are going to be more than just the struggling fringe at the back of BETT each year.
Edward Baker is the UK host of StartUp Weekend Edu London, November 25-27, at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA
More information
Details are available from http://londonedu.startupweekend.org
Edward Baker can be contacted at
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See also "Boardroom beckons for teachers – Startup Weekend"
