Episode Overview
Season 3 of the Education Business Podcast closes with a reflective and practical solo episode from Claire Riley. After interviewing more than 50 education entrepreneurs, Claire shares the biggest lessons and recurring themes that emerged throughout the season — from starting before you feel ready, to staying resilient when business feels hard, to creating a business rhythm that genuinely works for your life and family.

This episode is both a celebration of the education business community and a motivating reset for founders heading into the next season. Claire also reflects on the realities of entrepreneurship in education, the importance of listening to teachers and schools, and why persistence matters more than perfection.

Perfect for tutoring businesses, education founders, school service providers, and anyone building a mission-led business in education.

Sponsored by https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/

00:00 – Welcome to the Season 3 Finale
01:00 – Thank You to Guests and Listeners
02:00 – Why Reviews and Sharing Matter
02:45 – Lesson One: Just Start
03:50 – Launching New Products Without Perfection
04:05 – Lesson Two: Keep Going
04:45 – Handling Difficult Business Seasons
05:00 – Finding Your Own Rhythm as a Founder
05:45 – Balancing Business and Family Life
06:10 – The Advantages of Seasonality in Education
06:35 – Build What Teachers and Schools Actually Need
07:00 – Looking Ahead to the New Season
07:20 – How Education Business Club Can Support You

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/educationbusinessclub/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/education.business.club/

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Episode Overview
This episode explores what makes selling into education fundamentally different from other sectors. Steve Whitley shares four decades of experience across EdTech, international education markets, and consultancy, offering practical insight into long sales cycles, trust-based selling, exhibitions, MAT buying structures, and the financial realities facing schools.

The conversation focuses on how education businesses can grow sustainably while staying grounded in the realities schools face today. Steve also explains why empathy matters more than traditional sales tactics in education and why understanding the end user is critical.

00:01:00 – Steve’s journey into education and EdTech
00:04:20 – Why education sales are different
00:09:55 – Managing long sales cycles in schools
00:12:05 – Are exhibitions and BETT worth it?
00:19:40 – How to spend a small marketing budget
00:23:40 – Email marketing and database strategy
00:27:50 – How MATs are changing school buying
00:31:10 – Why the student is still the real end user
00:32:10 – The pressures schools are facing right now
00:35:05 – Final reflections on supporting schools

All About Steve:
Steve Whitley: A Seasoned Technology Leader
With over 40 years of experience in the EdTech industry, Steve has a deep-rooted understanding of the global education technology landscape. Starting his career in a local education authority, he transitioned to commercial roles, where he successfully sold technology products to governments, schools and institutions worldwide.

As a key leader in a prominent EdTech company for over 26 years, Steve oversaw worldwide sales, marketing, and development teams. The company's innovative STEM education products are used by K-12 students across the globe.

EdTech Consulting: Tailored Solutions for Success
Leveraging his extensive experience, Steve founded EdTech Consulting. The company offers a range of services designed to help technology companies thrive and grow, including:
• Go to market strategy development
• Executive mentoring and support
• Sales and marketing training
• Project management
https://edtechconsulting.co.uk

Volunteering

Discovery Educational Trust
Discovery Educational Trust is a Multi Academy Trust, based in South Essex and currently comprising five schools.

As vice-chair of trustees, Steve is actively involved in all aspects of governance of the schools in the trust. In addition to being vice-chair of the main trust board, he also sits on the Audit & Risk and Finance & Resources committees and is the chair the Human Resources committee.
https://www.discoveryeducationaltrust.co.uk

Education Research & Development Institute (ERDI)
Based in Chicago USA, ERDI work to create a rich and meaningful forum for education leaders and solution providers to collaboratively discuss, design, and shape the products and services, that support K-12 education.
As an expert network volunteer, Steve participates in ERDI events where he offers guidance, support, and mentorship to solution providers seeking to understand and launch into new international markets.
https://www.erdius.org

AI in Education
Steve is a member of the EdTech panel, guiding and supporting AI In Educations mission to ensure that every learner and educator in every school and college, is ready for an AI-powered future - one that nurtures not just knowledge and skills, but well-being, agency, creativity and lifelong adaptability.
https://www.ai-in-education.co.uk

Website: https://edtechconsulting.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenwhitley

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Episode Overview

Phil Robinson shares the unconventional journey that led him from military service and central government IT programmes into education and eventually founding Tide Education.

In this conversation, Phil talks openly about the realities of building an education business from scratch. He explains how his experience working inside schools revealed both the pressure teachers face and the operational gaps that still exist around student support and communication.

The episode explores leadership, trust, systems, scaling, networking in education, and the financial realities of launching an edtech company without major backing.

Phil also reflects on what founders often underestimate when entering the education sector, including time, trust, visibility, and the challenge of simply getting people to engage with a new product.

00:01:00 – Phil’s career journey from engineering to the Army
00:03:35 – Moving into education and discovering the problem
00:05:00 – Why Phil founded Tide Education
00:08:00 – Similarities between military leadership and schools
00:12:10 – What founders should do first with an idea
00:16:20 – Why networking matters in education
00:17:05 – The realities of funding and marketing an edtech startup
00:22:05 – The hardest part of building Tide Education
00:27:15 – Scaling, automation and reducing barriers for schools
00:29:25 – Final reflections on building an education business

All About Phil:

Philip Robinson is a dad, technologist and veteran with a background spanning defence, UK Government and education. A former Major in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Philip served for 16 years, culminating in leading mission-critical IT system in Afghanistan.

On retiring he worked in central government leading IT programmes and portfolios for a number of years before moving into education as Head of Business Intelligence in a medium-sized Multi-Academy Trust. Here he brought together fragmented information to create 360-degree views of students, enabling better insight, coordination, and outcomes across schools and trust.

Philip is the founder of Tide Education, a real-time inclusion support platform for teachers, providing one view, one timeline, and one shared understanding of each child’s support journey.

Website: www.tide.education
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-robinson-22ba9a30/

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