You crushed the demo. The buyer smiled. They nodded. They even said, “This is exactly what we need.” And then… nothing. That silence isn’t harmless. Every “We’ll be in touch” costs you weeks of follow-up, lost momentum, and deals that should already be on your books. In Part 1, “Your Demo Is the Problem” with John Gamba, Entrepreneur in Residence and Director of Innovative Programs at Penn GSE, Josh and John exposed a hard truth: most EdTech demos fail before they even start. Founders pitch p...
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You crushed the demo. The buyer smiled. They nodded. They even said, “This is exactly what we need.” And then… nothing. That silence isn’t harmless. Every “We’ll be in touch” costs you weeks of follow-up, lost momentum, and deals that should already be on your books. In Part 1, “Your Demo Is the Problem” with John Gamba, Entrepreneur in Residence and Director of Innovative Programs at Penn GSE, Josh and John exposed a hard truth: most EdTech demos fail before they even start. Founders pitch p...
From $10M in Sales to Losing Her Company: What Education Founders Learn the Hard Way About Selling, Scaling, and Staying Aligned
Breaking the Grade
26 minutes
3 months ago
From $10M in Sales to Losing Her Company: What Education Founders Learn the Hard Way About Selling, Scaling, and Staying Aligned
Most founders think their growth problem is sales. But Jolene Levin, entrepreneur, innovator and founder of NorvaNivel proved it’s the other way around: your sales reveal your growth problem. Jolene founded a classroom furniture company in Australia, scaled it across schools, and then brought it to the U.S. Three months after launching in the U.S., she closed $10M in deals. No sales team. No systems. No safety net. Just conviction, urgency—and operational chaos catching up fast. And two years...
Breaking the Grade
You crushed the demo. The buyer smiled. They nodded. They even said, “This is exactly what we need.” And then… nothing. That silence isn’t harmless. Every “We’ll be in touch” costs you weeks of follow-up, lost momentum, and deals that should already be on your books. In Part 1, “Your Demo Is the Problem” with John Gamba, Entrepreneur in Residence and Director of Innovative Programs at Penn GSE, Josh and John exposed a hard truth: most EdTech demos fail before they even start. Founders pitch p...
