Reach Capital

“Swing Education gave me the opportunity to step it up — to become, finally, a teacher of my own classroom.” “AfterSchool HQ allows us to have more direct parent communication and more direct dissemination of information with our families.” “The biggest challenge that KaiPod Learning has helped me to overcome is thinking like a business owner…I’m so laser focused on being a teacher, and the program really taught me about financial models and to be forward-thinking as it relates to expenses and costs. Even though this is a micro school, this is also a business.” For teachers, afterschool providers and school founders, Reach portfolio companies are making a big #impact when it comes to expanding access to #education and career opportunities. Hear from a few of the many people whose lives they touch.

In proper back-to-school fashion, the Reach team has been quite busy lately. Last week, our team attended the Swing Education Summit 2024. We shared insights on macro-level trends in #VC and #edtech, the value VCs add through portfolio support, and how we specifically support Swing's team. The remarkable team is dedicated to matching and placing #substitute teachers in #k12 districts nationwide at a time when staffing shortages remain acute across the country. “One of the most energizing aspects of the Swing Offsite was seeing firsthand the thoughtfulness, mission-driven focus, and ambition of the Swing Education team,” says Demetrius Palmer. “They are deeply committed to addressing the critical challenge of labor capacity in classrooms across the country. At a time when this issue is so desperately urgent, Swing is not just filling gaps, but doing so with a clear vision for the future of education.” Thank you for inviting Reach Capital and Kapor Capital, we are all so excited for the next phase of growth and impact Swing Education! #FOL

📢🔔 Event Alert Shauntel Garvey, General Partner at Reach, will discuss the Future of #Work and #Learning in Wednesday's How Women Invest conversation. She'll join other expert investors and founders from across the VC ecosystem to share the latest trends and valuable insights into #FOW and #FOL. Can't wait!

Always a great way to end the week with a little roast — as informative and insightful as it is fun and sizzle 🔥 Earlier today Jonathan Levav, Professor of Marketing at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, led a masterclass with the Reach portfolio on website messaging, using visual illusions, actual websites, and wisdom from Mister Rogers and Snoop Dogg to show how consumer behavior and behavioral decision theory influence how people view your website and the actions they take. Three important principles to keep in mind: 1️⃣ Simplicity rules: Keep stories simple and focus on expressing one clear solution, as people can really only concentrate on one thing at a time. 2️⃣ The mind fills in the blanks: Make sure your story is tight and has no gaps that people can fill in with incorrect information or assumptions.  3️⃣ Expectations and context determine judgment: Perception is contextual. Value is relative to what it’s compared to, and it’s your job to manage the comparison (i.e., how you position your product). And finally, this quote from Mister Rogers below, which is beautiful yet incredibly difficult to pull off. Yet the endeavor “will inform your product in ways that you don’t expect. It will make you stop thinking of just building features and make you start thinking of building value,” says Jonathan. (Thank you for joining us and our founders!!)

Please help by resharing this post! 📣🙏🏽 I’m working to reduce the fragmentation of resources within the #Edtech space. While Reach Capital has a strong network, it’s not all-encompassing. To address this, I’m compiling a list of resources across various domains to share openly, to benefit the broader education tech ecosystem. 🧑🏽💻📚 The questions are straightforward. If you’re affiliated with, know of, or work at an organization— or even if you just have the name and website —please contribute. You can add to the list here: https://lnkd.in/gXYpA_x5 If you’re interested in receiving the final list, please comment “Interested.”

It truly starts with knowing the challenge firsthand… We're sharing a heartwarming throwback interview featuring amazing parent and co-founder San Pathak (aka Dad) explaining how AfterSchool HQ is working its software magic to help connect students with enriching after-school and summer activity programs in their communities. https://lnkd.in/eSJiwirD #afterschoolprograms #k12 #edtech

Grow with Us: Exciting New Roles Available in Our Portfolio! Reach’s job board has roles for talented and passionate individuals: from #designers to #marketers to #recruiters to #engineers. There’s an extensive list of incredible companies doing big things (including #hiring) in our network to check out. A couple of standouts: 📣 WorkWhile, an on-demand labor marketplace that gives workers flexibility and stability, is hiring across the board - https://bit.ly/3SUM77I 📣 KaiPod Learning, which helps entrepreneurial educators launch and operate successful Microschools, is hiring educators and learning coaches - https://bit.ly/4dPiqNr 📣 Handshake, an early career platform for students, universities, and recruiters, is hiring a Senior Manager in R&D Strategy & Operations - https://bit.ly/4ctc7xK Link to the full job board in the comments 👇👇

🎉 Congratulations to WorkWhile for making the Inc. 5000 List 🎉 In its first year of eligibility, WorkWhile ranked #412 (out of 5000 — top 10%!) among America's fastest-growing private companies and #23 in the Human Resources category! WorkWhile connects workers with shifts in warehouse and light industrial, last-mile delivery, event services, food production, hospitality and other industries, providing next-day pay and flexible shifts that fit their lives. This is truly a testament to their incredible team — doing good by doing right for workers. Congratulations Jarah Euston, Amol Jain, and team 👏 #Inc5000 #Growth #FutureOfWork

Thank you, Lainy Painter Singh from Craft Ventures, for talking with the Reach community last week about what efficient growth looks like as we move from ZIRP to a high-interest market accompanied by higher expectations. Incredibly insightful to see what the new industry #SaaS benchmarks (Craft’s special craft) mean for sales efficiency, compensation, quota capacity and the “Magic Number.” Super helpful for all founders to get into the weeds to stay on top of this new capital environment!