Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Jim, thanks so much for joining us.
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
Hey, thanks for having me, Keith. It's a pleasure to be on today. Thank you.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Let's talk about Ready Education, which is the total student experience platform. So what does that mean?
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
Yeah, no, great question. And let me start off with our mission statement that we're rolling out to the company next week. So real simple. And on simple terms, our mission statement is Ready Education provides the app that students use every day to be successful. So if you're a student, and you're going to an institution for the first time, or maybe you're a senior at the campus, either way, the sense of belonging, how you participate, how you actively join, and participate in clubs, and receive the information from the institution is all wrapped up in the app, it's all at their fingertips for a very user friendly experience. And at the end of the day, if you're, if you're a CIO, if you're a VP of Student Affairs, for example, you want to make sure that the students have success, and are achieving success. And how do you get that information to them, it's all on one app, mobile right there in front of them. That's what students use today. 24/7, as you know, so it really is pulling all of that together in a measurable way that can essentially help generate success for the student helped generate revenue, to be honest for the institution, because they are a business. And so they want to see the students succeed, and continue to matriculate throughout the years. Yeah,
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
I have a daughter who's a sophomore in college, and like, this is so key because I want her to be successful on campus. And they're used to having everything in one app, right, instead of going to different sites, portals this app, this I mean, so Ready Education brought it all together for them.
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
Exactly right. And we're seeing that at all levels of types of institutions. I mean, we are in large and small public, private community colleges were in 28 countries around the globe. So it doesn't matter of what type of institution for profit, not for profit. They all consist of students. I mean, that's, that's the common denominator. And all students need support to a degree, right? Even the smartest, or the most astute of student still needs that sense of belonging. And this app brings them that accessibility to do that. And it also allows them to get the support they need. And students these days, in some cases are dealing with, you know, mental health issues or food insecurity, this app doesn't solve the problem. What it does is it directs the student to where they can get the necessary support, and allows the institution to monitor that to a degree without infringing on their right. But it allows them to monitor so that they can ensure that that help us support it through the information that's provided on the app.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So talk about the company in itself, like what's the state of the state of where it's at today?
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
Ready Education is really, it's the formation of five founder led companies that were created between 2018 and May of 2022. So over that four year period, but the roots go back about 18 years, when a few of these founder led companies were really just startups right, basically built out of the garage into what's ready today with just under 200 employees. Today, those collective five founder led companies have formed Ready Education. And essentially, that mobile app is delivered very uniquely and all different countries. So we have an app that's built, for example, for three different European countries. And we have one that's really primarily that exists in the United States. So there's some functionality that I think we're starting to innovate with it can bring a lot of this together. But a lot of this was initially founder led that is formed Ready Education, but make no mistake, we already education, that is the name. Some people might know as by some of those legacy company names like campus group, or in some cases do compromise day. But But make no mistake, we're Ready Education. And that's a lot of the branding that we've been working on over the past six months.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
What's the culture like it Ready Education, like what's the day to day working environment like?
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
So this is one of the big reasons why I joined ready. I love the culture here. The culture is that of curiosity. We embrace diversity, it's part of our values. And if you can humor me for a minute, we have our new values that are actually rolling out in the next week and it forms the acronym ready, our EAD? Why right? So ready stands for or at least our values on the ready moniker stand for relentless innovation. Of it stands for embracing diversity, accountability, delighting our customers, and yearning for excellence. And a lot of that has to do with the cultural norms, the values we've created. We we definitely support a work life balance and we have a lot of people that are working in some cases, part time or certain hours of the day to accommodate life concerns or issues that they're dealing with. But what I would say is, we have the sense of belonging here because it starts at the very top. We have six members that do directly report to me executive team members, for them are women or minorities, which is very unusual that percentage in edtech, even today, so it starts at the top, it's a lot of it is the way we listen and communicate internally think we value input. You know, none of us on the executive team want to be the smartest person in the room, we want to make sure that the smartest people in the room are the ones that are actually working directly with the clients and have the best input. Our job is to take the best ideas and ensure that they permeate throughout the company. So lots changing in the organization. But a lot has to do with the way that all employees at all levels, from the top to the bottom, are embracing that. That ability to all be heard. Because if you think about it, the executives really work in support of the employees and employee employees work in support of the clients. And I think people are seeing that culture really starting to percolate. And it's really driving a lot of good behavior and a lot of good innovation, which which would, which would probably just necessitate the results that we had last year with 97, new logos or 97, new institutions, joining Ready Education.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Through regardless of market conditions, top talent always has options in terms of their their job search. So why is now the ideal time to join ready education.
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
We're on the cusp of some significant innovation, there's a new solution that we're rolling out to our client base in February, which we're very excited about. That's a big part of it. And I think if you want to be part of something special when it comes to innovating, the ability to see the measurements because we have cross departmental goals that align across the company. So a lot of companies roll out goals OKRs KPIs, they're not necessarily aligned ours are, it's making a big difference and how we can turn dials to improve the business. But I think at the end of the day, it's the ability to, to be heard, and to be able to listen. And again, this is a cultural norm for us. And I think it's something that really was embedded with the founders initially. And it's just been refined over the years, it's gotten better and better. But it's a year that our investors as well were equity backed. As you as you probably know, level equity and university ventures are two big investors. And they've put a lot of money into us of recent because they want us to see they want to see us innovate at a faster clip, which we're doing. And so really, at the end of the day, if you're a self starter, this is probably the place you want to look.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Well, if you are incident exploring opportunities at Ready Education, you need to go to their company page on VentureFizz, which is venturefizz.com/ready-education, and you'll see all their job listings there. Jim, thanks so much for taking the time to walk us through all the details on the company.
Jim Brigadier, Ready Education
Well, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Keith, and hope to see you again soon. Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
