Creating an EdTech Ecosystem
LearnLaunch was founded in 2012 to connect, educate, and grow an ecosystem of education technology entrepreneurs, educators, investors, and other support organizations to drive innovation and transform learning. It was built in Boston to take advantage of both the rich education community and the entrepreneurial ecosystem that already existed there.
In 2012, edtech innovation in Boston was coming to a boiling point. The Greater Boston area was home to over 50 colleges and universities, including Harvard and MIT. Boston Public Schools had been recognized as one of the top school districts in the country. Pearson North America, HMH, and McGraw-Hill Education had headquarters in the Boston area, and were starting to invest in digital products and acquire startups to support their technological growth. EdX was founded by leaders at MIT and Harvard, kicking off the explosion of MOOCs in the industry.
Despite Boston’s rich ecosystem of talent, leading K-12 educational system, strong political support for education, wealth of industry partners, and numerous venture capital investors, there was no connective tissue at the time that allowed these organizations and people to interact with one another in a meaningful way.
As this problem became more evident, several edtech leaders in Boston started seeking ways to bring the community together. Initiating and building this ecosystem has resulted in a thriving community, today, supporting learning, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Marissa Lowman was a former educator with experience in edtech startups and educational ventures. She had founded EdTechup to bring together industry leaders through monthly meetups. These meetup events quickly became a key networking hub, attracting top innovators in the field.
Jean Hammond, a prolific angel investor, had attended several EdTechup events. Hammond had previously started Kidsclub, a group that brought together above twelve kid and education-focused companies once a month to share learnings and methods. As an active investor, she saw edtech companies face a challenging funding environment and was interested in supporting the growth of a successful edtech investment ecosystem.
Eileen Rudden, a long-time Boston software executive and former Broad fellow, had just returned from serving as Chief of College and Career Preparation for the fourth largest school district in the U.S., Chicago Public Schools. Her interest and experience had her serving on the boards of many local and national education-related organizations, including Brown University.
Hakan Satiroglu, a serial edtech entrepreneur, had founded and sold an e-textbook delivery platform called Xplana to MBS (part of Barnes and Noble group). After his own successful exit, he wanted to share his own experience and mentor other edtech founders. To bring the community together, Hakan founded Exponential Techspace, a forerunner of LearnLaunch Campus.
Mark Miller founded his first edtech company, TakeNote, as an undergraduate, winning the Cornell Business Plan competition. He then led several educational technology and publishing startups with exits, and advised Satiroglu on the successful sale of Xplana. After years of serving as an investor and M&A advisor, Miller built Good Harbor Partners, a boutique M&A advisory firm serving education growth companies.
Vinit Nijhawan was a technology entrepreneur with 25 years of experience, including several years working at a venture capital firm. At the time, he was a Questrom MBA lecturer, and oversaw the technology transfer office at Boston University.
Asad Butt was working on an edtech startup and had spent time at one of the first accelerator programs in Los Angeles. He wanted to help bring the accelerator model to the edtech community in Boston.
Inspired by the success of EdTechups, Marissa Lowman, Eileen Rudden, and Jean Hammond started the nonprofit LearnLaunch Institute in the fall of 2012. Meanwhile, Mark Miller, Vinit Nijhawan, Hakan Satiroglu, and Asad Butt had been developing an edtech accelerator program.
Though they had already started working on separate edtech startup support initiatives, these leaders realized they could make a larger impact if they worked together to build out the edtech ecosystem. In February 2013, just one day before the first Across Boundaries Conference, the co-founders met at Rudden’s carriage house and officially combined forces into a single entity: LearnLaunch.
The shared vision of LearnLaunch rested on three pillars that were needed to build out the community: LearnLaunch Institute, LearnLaunchX (later LearnLaunch Accelerator), and LearnLaunch Campus.
LearnLaunch Institute embodied the community piece of the puzzle. In early 2013, the Institute hosted its first edtech conference called Across Boundaries at MIT. The conference sought to break down barriers between educators, administrators, investors, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and students, combining these typically siloed audiences into one cooperative ecosystem. As the community expanded, new LearnLaunch Institute initiatives evolved, including an edtech job board, monthly meetups, a K-12 educator network, and collaborations with local and national policymakers.
LearnLaunch Accelerator bridged the funding and mentorship gap for early stage edtech startups. The first LearnLaunch Accelerator cohort began in 2013, to help early stage edtech startups scale through mentorship, peer learning, and investment capital. Cognii, Empow Studios, and Listen Edition (now Listenwise) were just a few of the companies that joined the Accelerator that year. Since that first cohort, LearnLaunch Accelerator quickly rose to fame as the leading early stage edtech startup accelerator, and introduced a growth-stage accelerator program in 2017.
The LearnLaunch Campus provided a physical co-working space where like-minded edtech founders could work closely with their peers and tap into the edtech community daily. Home to over 40 startups during its 8-year tenure, the LearnLaunch Campus hosted each accelerator cohort during their residency in Boston. Through this close-knit network, edtech startups were able to more easily find partnerships, employees, and investment opportunities. While the co-working space closed during the pandemic, many of the connections made at the LearnLaunch Campus are still working together on edtech ventures today.
Over the past years, the edtech industry has evolved significantly – as has LearnLaunch. In 2025, the most active part of the family is the LearnLaunch Fund + Accelerator. Operating an acceleration support program: Breakthrough to Scale, this edtech accelerator program helps entrepreneurs develop scalable strategies. In the meantime, LearnLaunch, Inc. the non-profit has been supporting community activities. The foundation of the edtech community that LearnLaunch helped build still stands strong, and we hope it will leave a lasting legacy on the Boston edtech ecosystem for years to come.
