手把手教你做一家 “2 万亿” 美元的教育公司
编者按：互联网的普及，创造了互联网教育平台，移动端的出现，带来了在线教育；现在越来越多的创业者把目光放在教育行业。
尽管它比较热门，但真正成功的公司还是比较少的，在成功的案例中，其中2U 教育公司去年以 5 亿美元的估值正式上市，另一个不太出名的教育公司EdTech去年的市场资本额已达 15 亿美元；另外，在线教育平台Lynda以 15 亿美元被LinkedIn收购。教育创业公司如何发展？如何塑造未来估值可达 “2 万亿” 美元的成功企业？投资人 Mahesh Vellanki谈了他关于教育创业公司未来发展的看法。
就美国而言，每年在教育行业的投资可达 1.6 万亿美元，其中政府投资可达 1 万亿美元，K12 教育市场和高等教育市场资本额分别为 6880 亿美元和 5350 亿美元。尽管拥有大量的资金支持，但教育行业的现状和创业公司的发展都不容乐观。
教育行业现状
1、贫困家庭学生大学入学和学费压力
学费上涨，教育变得越来越昂贵，贫苦家庭和学生早已负担不起。
2、失业率上涨
教育成本变高，但学生数量并没有减少，就业压力依旧巨大，失业率近些年呈上涨趋势。
3、过时的学习模式
现阶段大学的学习模式已经延续了几百年，大都是照本宣科，创新能力较低。根据现在社会的发展来看，这种模式已经过时，不适合培养当代人才。
我们要做什么？
纵观当下的教育行业，会发现在 K12、高等教育和成人教育类别中出现了很多的创业公司，他们会为教育行业的发展带来新的希望。
未来发展的想法
我认为对于教育行业的创业公司来讲，2U 公司和 Lynda 公司是一个可以借鉴的成功案例。2U 专注于提供名校在线学位课程，它与美国名牌大学达成合作，为学生提供虚拟课堂服务，为大学提供工具、技能、资金等来帮助大学管理在线教育项目，同步大学教学课程。而 Lynda 是一开始就使用收费订阅，打造丰富优质的教学课程，让用户养成付费阅读的习惯。
与其他教育机构合作。在公司固有结构的基础上与学校等其他教育结构达成合作，借用其生源优势和影响力。
学习硅谷客户营销策略。树立产品观念，通过免费商业模式以及病毒式传播等方式扩大影响力，增加客户群。
基础内容建设。对于一些初创公司，最根本的还是要通过技术和服务建立丰富教育资源，内容为王。完善公司即教育平台的基础性服务。
教育行业的创业公司更多依靠着网络，优化网络技术平台，为在线教育提供技术支持。
未来教育会变成什么样？
在这里让我大胆的预测一下：
· 学习成果优先化。
· 教育结构的规模变大。
· 去大众化，更多 “个人核心” 内容。
· 减少人力教师，利用技术和自动化教学。
· 远程学习和在线课程将成为解决教学问题的主要模式。
而这些情况则需要当下的教育创业公司来实现，他们的成功将改变教育的模式。
本文来源：编译自Mahesh VC
How Startups Are Shaping The Future Of The $2 Trillion Education Industry
Education is the second largest industry in the US following healthcare. Yet despite it’s gargantuan size, start-ups have had a difficult time navigating it and achieving success. One of the few recent success stories is 2U (in Redpoint’s portfolio), a company that partners with top colleges and universities to bring their degree programs online. 2U went public at a half billion dollar valuation last year and has quietly traded up to $1.5B in market cap – it’s one of the biggest EdTech companies that you have never heard of. Separately, online learning platform Lynda.com was acquired by LinkedIn for $1.5B.
I want to see more case studies like 2U and Lynda in other areas of education. While the US was once the clear leader in global education, that is no longer the case in the K-12 sector – the largest of the education markets – with fears that the post-secondary sector may soon follow down that path.
There is $1.6 trillion spent annually in the US on education, and $5.5 trillion globally. The government alone spends $1 trillion. The US K-12 market and US post-secondary markets (both public and private funding combined) are $688 billion and $535 billion in size, respectively. To tackle this market, start-ups have also raised a fair amount from venture investors – $320 million in 2009 and approaching $2B in 2015. It’s easy to throw around big numbers, but what’s really going on?
Key Problems and Trends in Education
1) Enrollment and pricing pressure on universities due to families’ inability to pay
Following the financial crisis, there has been a 39% decline in family net worth. Student loan debt has also been steadily rising, reaching about $30k on average today. Education is already expensive but it is becoming increasingly difficult for students and families to pay up.
2) Growing budgetary pressure to find cheaper solutions
Annual spend by educational institutions has increased as a percentage of GDP every year. Despite all of the increased spend, the US Department of Education, State, and Federal departments have all been facing budget cuts. At least 34 states are providing less funding per student for the 2013-2014 school year than they did before the recession hit. There is also growing regulatory pressure for better student outcomes and analytics.
3) Poor educational outcomes despite increasing expenditures and student debt
The unemployment curve today, particularly for younger people, is far worse than when compared to pre-financial crisis. Institutions are receiving less government funding and as a result students have to pay more. Adding in poor job placement to the mix is basically adding salt to the wounds.
4) Inefficient and bureaucratic organizational structures
It is just plain hard to weed through the bureaucratic and organizational mess that is education. Start-ups have to figure out how to navigate existing processes, deal with compliance, find the right budgets and decision makers, and determine the proper go-to-market strategies.
5) Antiquated learning models
Our current learning model, i.e. college degrees, textbooks, learning pedagogy, etc are all antiquated. Most of our institutional learning was developed a couple hundred years ago and has changed at a snail’s pace in regards to technology when compared to other industries. There are better ways to learn.
What Could The Future of Learning Look Like?
Let me take a stab at the future here (applies to both K-12 and post-secondary):
Outcomes-based learning will be front and center
Education will be more about mass customization versus today’s structured and regimented learning
Less Common Core (wikipedia), more “individual core”
Focus on adaptive learning in capsules rather than a one-size-fits-all approach (Altschool is a good example)
Rather than teachers lecturing a class, they will instead employ a hybrid model where the teacher shepherds the learning process and leverages technology and automation in the classroom
Vast amounts of data will be created which will reinforce the mass customization element
Distance learning and online programs will solve issue of university saturation (colleges have fairly static enrollment supply while student demand keeps increasing)
So How Are We Doing Today?
There are many interesting start-ups going after K-12, post-secondary, and adult learning categories. Below are some of the main segments:
Parting Thoughts
I could argue that some of the recent start-up successes have gotten to where they are by focusing on adult learning, that is, totally ignoring K-12 and post-secondary where the go-to-markets are quite challenging. Companies like Pluralsight, Lynda, Udemy and General Assembly come to mind. Still, there are promising young start-ups attacking the existing education industry such as ClassDojo, Remind101, Instructure, AltSchool, Clever and Brighbytes (and 2U). Some of these companies have done a particularly brilliant job of solving specific problems for end users by leveraging Silicon Valley consumer tech lessons to juice their go-to-market strategies (i.e. thinking product-first, freemium distribution, viral hooks, etc). In any case, it is still early days and I expect to see iconic companies built in educational content, software, infrastructure and services.
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