With 2012 well underway, predictions for what the year will bring – whether politically, economically or culturally – are already being put to the test. Before too many more weeks pass us by, we wanted to find out what predictions our colleagues and friends in the education business are making for 2012. Comment below with […]
Author Archives: Kevin Custer
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article (“So, What’s Your Algorithm?”) focusing on the growing use of data in business and even personal decisions – “playing ‘Moneyball’ at life,” as the author summarized it. While the article looked at using data on a scale that requires sophisticated analytic software, there are also ways to […]
As this year comes to an end, next year’s sales numbers and January board presentations are looming large for many company leaders. In the midst of all the holiday festivities, now is an important time to consider what and how to communicate to your board, investors and key stakeholders, particularly when the economic picture may […]
In this session we showed how to maximize your valuation to secure outside investment at each stage of the company life-cycle, from development/pre-revenue and early revenue, to cash flow positive and rapid growth. For each stage, people learned which investors to target, the key benchmarks they want to see and the valuation criteria they will use. Click here to download […]
At its most fundamental level, a board of directors provides stewardship for shareholder interests, including governance, oversight and approval of major corporate decisions. In our experience in serving on the boards of many companies, we have found that board members should provide at least one of three things: connections, wisdom or capital. But to get […]
Something many companies struggle with, particularly as they transition between growth stages, is how to structure compensation in a way that attracts top talent at all levels. Though figuring out salary and bonuses can be difficult, it’s usually the long-term incentives that take the longest to figure out. Long-term incentives, which align personal outcomes with […]
As I noted in an earlier post, the autism services industry is looking at unprecedented growth in the coming years. A recent CDC finding that 1 in every 100 American children has autism only underscores the growing need for autism services. Within the next 5 years, there could be as many as 1 million children […]
As we have talked about in the past, it is critically important to stay as close as possible to your customers, through frequent, meaningful conversations that give you a pulse on their coming initiatives, needs and wants, and give you an advantage in meeting those needs and wants. However, in today’s economy, just as important […]
One of the biggest areas of growth in the education industry right now is for companies offering services to the autism community. In 2000, there were 100,000 cases of autism in the United States – today, that number is estimated to be 500,000. Of course, in a pure business sense, 100,000 cases spread across the […]
Last year, Rita and I attended SIIA’s Ed Tech business forum in New York at the end of November, where I moderated an extremely interesting panel on “Post-Stimulus Funding Sources for Schools.” Though the economy has fluctuated somewhat in the months since, I think a lot of the take-home points from the panel are still […]