K12 EdTech Connection

Most vendors pitching Leadways imagine they're pitching a district. They're not. Joseph Dalton-Stark is the founding principal of a microschool in Cupertino, CA, with roughly thirty students and families who work at Google and Apple down the road. The site licenses, the five-year rollouts, the "we work with 400 districts" pitches: none of it fits, and most reps don't bother to find out before they...

Most vendors approach Compton Unified assuming three things: that the money is there, that David Platt controls it, and that he's already interested. Usually none of the three is true. As EdTech Coordinator at the Southern California district, Platt sits between Ed Services, IT, CTE, and curriculum, and he's the one deciding whether a STEAM tool earns a place in classrooms or quietly dies on a she...

Chris Bell runs technology for Huntington Beach City School District, a K-8 public district with about 4,700 students. John runs tech at a K-8 private school in DC. Same grade levels, completely different procurement realities. We put them side by side to show vendors what actually changes when you're selling into public vs. private. Budget cycles, approval chains, decision speed, and who holds th...

Our first guest episode. Ryan Patenaude co-founded FEV Tutor, built it from zero to $50 million in revenue with no outside funding, and scaled to 5,000 employees before the company was acquired in 2022. He now runs RP Impact Partners, helping mission-aligned EdTech companies accelerate growth. Ryan tells the story of an early Zoom call with the CEO of a 200,000-student district where he led with a...

You had a great demo. They said they'd follow up. Then... nothing. We open with two ghost stories. John's: a CEO who demoed three times over 18 months and never sent a quote. Peter's: an executive who over-communicated so aggressively that he drove an internal champion to ghosting and lost a six-figure renewal. Then we dig into the real reasons buyers disappear: shifting priorities, budget realloc...

Most EdTech vendors either blast the same generic message to everyone, talk to only one person, or try to leapfrog the tech director straight to the superintendent. All three approaches fail. K-12 purchases aren't made by a single buyer—they're made by informal coalitions. Curriculum directors, tech directors, teacher champions, principals, and sometimes counselors all have to align before anythin...

Episode 3, Part 2: Make Your Website an Inbound Lead Generation Machine Traditional SEO still matters, but it's declining. In 2026, your content needs to answer questions, not just rank for keywords. Welcome to AEO—Answer Engine Optimization. In Part 2, we get into what actually makes buyers give up their email (hint: not "The Future of K-12 Education in 2026"). John shares that out of ~100 cold e...

Episode 3, Part 1: Make Your Website an Inbound Lead Generation Machine Most EdTech websites are expensive digital brochures. They look great, list features, and generate zero qualified leads. In Part 1, we dig into why: the "curse of knowledge" that makes vendors speak jargon instead of solving problems, and the vanity metrics trap that confuses traffic with actual buyers. Your curriculum directo...

It’s a new year—and for K–12 EdTech teams, 2026 is not the year to “do more.” It’s the year to get sharper . In this episode of K–12 EdTech Connection , Peter Polygalov (EdWave Marketing) and John Faig (K–12 tech director) build a practical planning framework for founders and lean teams who want clarity, traction, and repeatable momentum —without wasting months on channels that don’t convert. You’...

Are K–12 EdTech conferences actually worth it for vendors—or just an expensive field trip? In this episode, we break down how to show up at conferences so buyers actually want to talk to you. EdTech marketer Peter Polygalov and school tech director John Faig share real stories and hard-won lessons from both sides of the booth. They unpack why conferences still matter in 2025, why the real ROI come...