Talking Impact for EdTech Founders cover art

Talking Impact for EdTech Founders

Talking Impact for EdTech Founders

Written by: ImpactEd Group
Listen for free

About this listen

Welcome to Talking Impact for EdTech Founders with your host, Kristy Evers, Director at ImpactEd Evaluation.


This Autumn, we're diving deeper into one of the most critical aspects of making educational technology impactful and successful: evaluation. If you're an EdTech founder wondering how to move beyond vanity metrics and truly demonstrate that your technology drives meaningful learning outcomes, this series is for you.


Over the coming episodes, we'll explore how rigorous evaluation can become your competitive advantage, turning evidence into your most powerful sales tool. We'll break down the practical steps to design evaluations that actually work, share real founder stories of evaluation successes and failures, and give you the basics you need to build learning impact right into your product development cycle.


Whether you're a pre-seed startup looking to validate your concept or a scaling company preparing for your next funding round, understanding evaluation isn't just nice to have—it's essential for sustainable growth in today's evidence-driven education market.


So let's get started on your journey from building EdTech to building EdTech that works.


Subscribe on your podcast platform of choice to listen in.

© 2025 Talking Impact for EdTech Founders
Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Kristy Evers speaks with Bozhidar Bashkov at IXL about practical evaluation at scale
    Dec 18 2025

    Most conversations about EdTech evaluation focus on early-stage startups trying to prove their concept works. But what happens when you're no longer a scrappy startup? How do you approach evaluation when you're operating at massive scale, serving millions of learners across different markets and contexts?

    Today, I'm speaking with Bozhidar Bashkov from IXL, one of the world's leading EdTech platforms. IXL serves students across multiple subjects and grade levels, which means their approach to evaluation needs to be both rigorous and scalable.

    In this conversation, we'll explore how a mature EdTech company thinks about impact measurement, the practical challenges of conducting evaluation when you're already at scale, and how evidence generation evolves as your company grows. We'll also discuss what early-stage founders can learn from IXL's approach, even if they're nowhere near that scale yet.

    Whether you're dreaming of reaching millions of learners or just trying to prove impact with your first hundred users, this conversation offers valuable insights into how evaluation practices need to adapt as you grow.

    Show More Show Less
    21 mins
  • Kristy Evers speaks with Marjo Kenttälä on EdTech Testbeds
    Dec 1 2025

    Today, I'm speaking with Marjo Kenttälä, an expert in EdTech testbed programs, to unpack what testbeds actually are, how they differ from traditional evaluation approaches, and why they might be the competitive advantage your startup needs.

    We'll explore how testbeds create structured environments for testing educational technology in real-world settings, what founders should expect when entering a testbed program, and how to make the most of these opportunities to gather the kind of rigorous evidence that investors, schools, and procurement teams are increasingly demanding.

    Whether you're considering applying to a testbed program or just curious about alternative pathways to validation, this conversation will give you practical insights into an evaluation model that's gaining momentum across Europe and beyond.

    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • Kristy Evers speaks with Professor Alison Clark-Wilson on evaluating edtech
    Oct 17 2025

    Episode 1: Kristy Evers speaks with Professor Alison Clark-Wilson UCL IOE on her experience evaluating edtech throughout her career

    Professor Alison Clark-Wilson is a former secondary school mathematics teacher with a 30-year career focused on all aspects of EdTech, from digital resource and curriculum design to teacher professional development and mentoring hundreds of EdTech startups.

    This conversation provides EdTech founders and practitioners with crucial insights into:

    - How to approach evidence generation through systematic testing environments
    - The importance of authentic school-based trialling for product validation
    - Global standards and frameworks for responsible EdTech development
    - Collaboration opportunities with the international testbed community

    Show More Show Less
    26 mins
No reviews yet