A Productive Newsletter: New Beginnings

Onward!

Last week was bittersweet. Through our work with the AT&T Aspire Acceleratorprogram, we held a graduation event for the eight incredible social impact organizations we've been working with over the past 6 months. Celebrating these organizations was the sweet part. Our team has helped these impact-focused entrepreneurs accelerate their visions of reaching more kids in more places. It has been an amazing experience, and we're a little bitter that it's coming to an end.

The truth is, there's nothing to be bitter about. These eight organizations now join a group of alumni that gets more impressive after every class. These 27 organizations, and their impact on our education system, represent the body of impact work that we've helped create with our client:

• To date, AT&T Aspire Accelerator companies have extended their impact to 22.6 million students.

• Others are noticing the impact our entrepreneurs are having too! To date, Aspire companies have raised an additional $35 million in investment dollars after the initial AT&T investment.

• And perhaps my favorite part: these organizations are creating opportunity for more people to get involved in this work. They’ve created 149 new jobs in their social impact organizations collectively. 

Though I will miss working with these eight organizations on a day to day basis, that feeling is quickly surpassed by a feeling of tremendous gratefulness for the opportunity to work with them.

What do you think?

I've struggled with what the voice of this newsletter should be. I think I've decided that I'm going to stick to telling the stories of impact from our clients, and the entrepreneurs we work with through them. We are privileged to be a part such extraordinary work, and sharing with as many people as possible makes the most sense to me. As always, please reach out to me directly if you'd like to learn more about our work or would like to talk to us about yours - we'd love to hear about it and help if we can!

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What Are We Reading?

• The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship
  A perennially important piece on the mental hurdles entrepreneurs will need to clear on their journeys

• EdTech Incubators are Fading. Here’s What Will Replace Them.
  This is some Productive clickbait! I am delighted to see that Kurshan ultimately comes to the same conclusion as we do - more customized support for entrepreneurs leads to better "acceleration"

Where Will We See You Next?

• Entrepreneurship in Education: A Primer for Educators, Entrepreneurs, Researchers & Investors
  Related to the EdTech Incubator article above, I just signed up for Kurshan's Workshop on November 28th. Always looking for more opportunities to learn - let me know if you're going.

• CareerVillage.org's Action Night
  A December 5th gathering of CareerVillage.org supporters and community members in SF. We're joining for a night of service and celebration - come meet us there!