What Type Of Person Thrives In The Education Technology Industry According To A Chief Revenue Officer At Braintrust Tutors
Jon, a CRO at Braintrust Tutors, highlights the key attributes for success in educational technology: a "teacher's mindset" combined with a strong understanding of sales and business. This resonates with their experience, echoing a former CEO's assertion that the core of Kaplan's success lay in "we teach and we sell," a principle that has guided their career.
Teacher's Mindset, Sales and Business Acumen, Balancing Teaching and Sales, Education Technology, Leadership in EdTech
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Jon Small
CRO
Braintrust Tutors
McGill University 2000
MA NYU and MBA UCLA
Fine Arts, Music, Psychology
Education
Education
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. A teacher's mindset is crucial for success in the education technology industry.
2. There's a necessary balance between teaching and sales/business acumen.
3. The core functions of the education industry are teaching and selling; understanding both is key to success in the field.
Transcript
How would you describe people who typically thrive in this industry?
I give it to thrive in education technology, and I had some of this in my background: you have to have a teacher's mindset. So, one of my first jobs at Kaplan was teaching the GMAT preparation course.
You have to come in with that mindset because it's so core to everything done in the education industry. But then, you also need to understand what sales and business really are in America.
Then, you have to understand that there's a balance that needs to be struck. I remember the CEO of Kaplan, or a major senior guy at our company when I was first there in the mid-2000s, boiled down the whole business of Kaplan into two things.
He said, "You can get very complex at a multinational corporation, and if you're ever wondering, 'What am I doing? What are my day-to-day responsibilities? And how does it fit into the goals of the company?' Really, we only do two things at Kaplan: we teach, and we sell." He said those two things have resonated with me throughout my whole career, and I think it's as true as ever today.