Like I said when I was out there Staton, you live in San Franciscoland, which is a magical kingdom that has little basis in reality. You want to play in higher ed land, which is its own ecosystem that, again, has very little basis in reality. But the thing is when you come to play in someone else’s space, you’ve got to play by their rules. Higher ed wants to embrace innovation but startups are oftentimes their own worst enemies in being taken seriously in this space. Don’t blame the journalists for that – they are far from the end all be all way to get seen in this space. I don’t care if you’re a startup or a company that’s been around for 100 years – show me value AND show me that you care about customer service. Right now, I’m on the verge of nixing my relationship with a startup who’s product I absolutely love and think is extremely valuable because I’m so sick of dealing with the attitude that I routinely see from this type of company….we know better than you because we’re super cool startup kicks and don’t feel like we have to prepare for meetings or be responsive or really listen to the things you’re telling me. This is the same thing I’ve seen over and over and over again from startups, and the product they provide me is rarely worth the aggravation. Every once in a while it is. I like a good rant as much as the next guy, and do agree with some of the things you’ve said here….But this is also the response that you see from startups all the time…it’s everyone else’s fault except our own. Don’t pass the buck. Look at yourselves. People will respond if you show them value and service. 

When reading an article in Money Magazine this month about digital textbooks, I was surprised that  they did not include Inkling as one of the companies reviewed, despite its traction.  Small companies are often ignored as you say. So, I wrote a letter to the magazine. If those of us in education start-ups keep drawing attention to each other in the press, we’ll begin to create our own buzz. 
As an educator engaged in an ed tech start-up, LessonCast (PD that features two-minute videos that explain the what, why and how of a single lesson idea or classroom management technique), I’m also having to educate myself on the tech world outlets. I know the education world well, including the media outlets to reach, but those are often quite different than those that the tech world reads. Very few folks live in this crossover space. We were fortunate that Audrey Watters wrote a great MindShift piece on us after our launch at ISTE but there aren’t many journalists like her. Another part of the problem you’ve raised is that the tech world doesn’t always understand education well. When we were at the Education Start-Up Weekend in San Francisco (highly recommend for anyone wanting to launch an ed tech start-up!), there were very few true educators in the room. The handful of us participating all agreed on which 5 projects we felt would genuinely be effective in the classroom. What was striking is that most of the rest of the room, including investors, didn’t always agree with our choices.  In fact, they were enamored with a few projects that all of the teachers knew would not work. 

Michael, you were a teacher, as was Audrey, so you both “get” it. I don’t know the answer to getting us more coverage but I do know that as ed tech start-ups we can do more to advocate for ourselves by reaching out to more bloggers and sharing the work of our start-up colleagues. 

As someone from the K-12 world, I often get frustrated that there aren’t enough tools for our market, especially to use with younger students.  Some technologies have done a great job of addressing the privacy and functionality needs for our teachers, but most fall far short and we can’t even begin to think about using them.  Notable exceptions are Wikispaces, Glogster, Animoto, GoAnimate, VoiceThread, and the like that have clear .EDU versions.  When companies go that extra mile to make it easy for us, I see that teachers often decide to purchase the premium version later to get even more functionality.

Audrey Watters has nailed it here: http://www.hackeducation.com/2011/08/23/why-the-educationtechnology-press-ignores-ed-tech-startups-what-we-can-do-about-it/. When I was an editor at Forbes, we only
occasionally covered edtech companies because our traffic numbers said
our audience didn’t go for those kinds of pieces unless they had BIG
headlines (“How Lady Gaga Teaches Math”) That’s EXACTLY why journalists
such as Audrey and our group, EdSurge, pop up — to cover emerging
sectors. Environmental folks, nanotech folks–they all grit their teeth
about the lack of coverage from the “mainstream” media, too. (And guess
what: little companies are seldom ready for the glare of mainstream
press. Those bright lights can show up alot of teenage acne that ain’t
pretty). The smart thing to do: make use of the evolving media
coverage. Comment more on Audrey’s blog. Write a note to EdSurge! And
yes, the point that comes out in these comments is directly on target:
lavish your customers with attention and great products and the
mainstream press will pay attention. Don’t waste much money on
perfecting a “pitch” for mainstream media. The best pitch is when your
customers can’t stop talking about you.   and oh yeah: http://www.edsurge.com

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Teachers use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their classes. I think we’d be amiss not to recognize the power of those tools. The fact of the matter…what those in education want is simplicity, ease of use, and most important — critical mass.

The best education software providers (we’d be amiss not to mention the exceptional work Blackboard has done over the years) need critical mass to be useful to both administrators and/or professors. 

Students and faculty alike like tools like Dropbox, Twitter, and Facebook — not because they were created for education in mind, but because they are backbones to the Internets of today and tomorrow. It’d be like dismissing the iPad instead of embracing it because it wasn’t specifically created with the classroom in mind. 
As the founder of my own education startup, I’m right there with you Michael.

But as Paul Graham says, as we “make something people want” I believe it’ll get the attention it deserves.

I look forward to seeing you at the educause conference. 

Sincerely,
David