Edtech Insiders
Edtech Insiders
Tuck Advisors on When to Sell, Scale, or Stay the Course in EdTech with Dr. Mike McKenna
Dr. Mike McKenna is the Senior Advisor at Tuck Advisors and also serves as the Chief Academic Officer for one of the largest school districts in Pennsylvania. With deep expertise in curriculum development, special education, and teaching and learning, Mike brings a proven track record of building inclusive, high-impact academic programs. In addition to his work in K-12 education, Mike has extensive experience in higher education and has also served as an advisory board member for multiple edtech startups and non-profits. At Tuck Advisors, Mike applies his diverse expertise to support education-focused M&A.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why 2025 may be a defining year for EdTech mergers and acquisitions
- Key trends driving K-12 district purchasing decisions in today’s uncertain funding climate
- How small AI companies can strategically position themselves for acquisition
- What districts really need from AI tools—and why usability is everything
- How Tuck Advisors supports EdTech founders in mapping their growth and exit strategies
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:11] Mike McKenna shares his background in education and M&A
[00:03:37] K-12 districts face funding uncertainty and demand for innovation
[00:06:12] Tuck Advisors focuses on long-term client relationships and timing
[00:10:41] EdTech founders weigh bootstrapping vs. M&A for market access
[00:12:33] AI usage in classrooms is rising but remains mostly surface-level
[00:15:24] Integration and workflow impact are key for AI adoption in schools
[00:17:17] Many AI startups are better suited for acquisition than solo growth
[00:20:28] Access to student data is crucial for impactful AI solutions
[00:22:41] School districts seek data convergence and AI-enhanced insights
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🎉 Presenting Sponsor/s:
This season of Edtech Insiders is brought to you by Starbridge. Every year, K-12 districts and higher ed institutions spend over half a trillion dollars—but most sales teams miss the signals. Starbridge tracks early signs like board minutes, budget drafts, and strategic plans, then helps you turn them into personalized outreach—fast. Win the deal before it hits the RFP stage. That’s how top edtech teams stay ahead.
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for EdTech companies. Run by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work as hard as you do.
[00:00:00] Mike McKenna: Do I have an amazing product that I believe in that I wanna get in the hands of school districts, and my best option right now is to look at an m and a process because it's very hard to get break in against those larger players. Those are a lot of the recent conversations we've been having, whether the timings right now.
We're maybe the timing's right in 2026 or 2027, but continue to work with those, those clients and those, those relationships to get them to that place.
[00:00:31] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry from funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood K 12 higher ed and work. You'll find
[00:00:44] Ben Kornell: it all here at Ed Tech. Insiders. Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event calendar, and to go deeper, check out EdTech Insiders Plus where you can get premium content access to our WhatsApp channel.
Early access to events. And back channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoyed today's pod.
[00:01:11] Alex Sarlin: So for our deep dive today, we're excited to have Dr. Mike McKenna, who is a senior advisor at Tuck Advisors, and also serves as the Chief Academic Officer for one of the largest school districts in Pennsylvania. He has a expertise in curriculum development, in special in teaching and learning, and a track record of building I.
He's also done a lot of work outside of traditional K 12 education. He's worked in higher education and been an advisory board member for multiple EdTech companies and nonprofits, uh, EdTech advisors. He's applying his diverse expertise to to support education focused m and a. Welcome to EdTech Insiders, Dr.
Mike McKenna.
[00:01:52] Mike McKenna: Thank you very much, Alex. Happy to be here, and I'm an avid listener to the podcast.
[00:01:56] Alex Sarlin: Oh, that's wonderful. I, I'm happy to have you here. You have a really interesting and unusual background. We, you know, mentioned you K 12, also higher ed, also advising, and of course now you're thinking a lot about mergers and acquisitions.
Tell us a little bit about your background, how you see the education and education technology space playing together, and what your role is, what your sort of ideal role is in that space.
[00:02:18] Mike McKenna: Sure. Well, I'm over 20 years in public education from a, starting as a teacher reading specialist principal for a number of years, and currently chief Academic Officer for one of the largest school districts in Pennsylvania, as you mentioned.
Interesting enough, James Marciano, our founder, and CEO of Tuck advisors. I was actually his both of his children's principal for a number.
We a se encounter end.
And talked about his work and we started talking, had a couple meetings, and in the end he asked me to kind of come on part-time to help with a lot of client development through the m and a work at Tuck Advisors, and really supporting clients and really engaging with clients and understanding their products and their market presence, and also looking at both inorganic or organic growth opportunities for various clients.
[00:03:14] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, makes sense. So, so let me ask you about both sides of this sort of equation. Let's start with the K 12 side, right? We are in a very weird and wacky moment in the K 12 world, no matter sort of how you slice it. What do you see as the most pressing issues for K 12 educators and principals and administrators, and the sort of trends that you're seeing as you talk to others in the space that may be relevant for the EdTech ecosystem?
[00:03:37] Mike McKenna: Well, 2025 has definitely started off on a very interesting plan here. Very, a lot of uncertainty, especially with funding and the, let's say, imminent termination of the Department of Education at some point. There's also a lot of new initiatives like School Choice over 30 states now across the country at school choice programming.
So. All of that could come into play and impact funding for public education. So I think that idea of uncertainty is there, but it's this weird juxtaposition of funding, uncertainty and concerns, but a growing need of new technology and innovation in schools. So it's creating this interesting dynamic, and I think right now the trends we're seeing are districts due to decreasing revenues and concerns with funding, really making sure that their decisions are strategic data driven.
They're really ensuring that the retirement of investment is there for the products that they're looking into or purchasing. But a lot of hesitation. I mean, moving forward with new student information systems or learning management systems or curriculum is tough right now. A lot of investment time, energy, possible money and training, and a lot of districts aren't just ready to take that on.
So what I'm seeing trending wise is a lot of traction in curriculum add-ons. Like for example, Pennsylvania is adopting new steel standards for science. So a lot of curriculum add-ons programming to support that, supporting multilingual learners and supporting programming and resources in the special education student services space.
Also, data analytics. A lot of districts are looking for some operational efficiencies in transportation security. So those are. Just, there's a lot of uncertainty I think, in education right now, but of course we're continue to look for enhancements in supporting student outcomes.
[00:05:18] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, I like the way you're putting it.
It's sort of cutting both ways, and we also saw some of the, the SR extension funding being a little bit in doubt now. It's just a lot of, I, I can imagine lots of confusion around the funding. At the same time, the needs are acute, there's chronic absenteeism, there's all sorts of things, and there's special populations, as you mentioned, the multi learners.
So I bet it's, you know, it's, it's a swirl, but I think people are looking for, to streamline in a way that makes sense for their particular district's needs. It's an interesting moment for the EdTech market. I, I think people are, are trying to make sense of all the needs. And then let's talk about the other side of your, of your work.
So you're working with tech advisors. Tech advisors specializes in education, mergers and acquisitions. What do you see as some of the trends or sort of the things that, that are happening in that space and how should education entrepreneurs. Who listens
[00:06:12] Mike McKenna: has.
It's interesting 'cause we do evaluate our companies, but first and foremost we engage with them, right? Client development and relationships as in any work we do is is so important. So a lot of my work is that those initial conversations and developing relationships with clients, really getting to know the people, the company, their product and services.
And that's where my background really comes in. Really. I can really understand with my unique perspective, their product or the service that they deliver to. We also really understand their backgrounds and their mission, and I think that's really important for tech advisors is understanding just them as a company and why they develop this company and what they want to do in the future.
And of course, we have conversations about financials and market, market presence and ebitda and revenue and, and profitability. Those of course, are conversations. I think for me it's also having conversations to help move companies. What, what's the best path forward? Because it's very different timing for different companies and what they're looking to do.
Right. Some are looking for that organic growth. Right. And we, and those are long-term clients we work with. They're gonna continue to work on sales or develop new, new products or looking new, engage in new markets, but for some, based on their product and the way EdTech is right now. That m and a opportunity might be the right time and place for them to look forward to an m and a process.
And that's where our conversations really come into play to, to determine where they're at. So they wanna kind of increase revenue and, and continue that inorganic growth, or really, is the market primed for their product right now to possibly look at an MA.
[00:07:51] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. One thing that is so interesting about the ad tech ecosystem, and I've heard this from a few different people who think about mergers and acquisitions in ed tech, is that it's an ecosystem where there's a lot of potential for different types of relationships and partnerships between organizations like you mentioned.
Special education provider, they are already playing in an ecosystem. They have, you know, they have competitors, they have, they may have distribution partners, they have relationships with districts and customers who may have other relationships with other companies in their space. It's a relatively small world, actually.
So I think there's something very interesting about building relationships with not only other companies in the space and potential acquirers. People like tech advisors and other m and a specialists who can sort of help organize a company around a potential merger and acquisition, even if it's years away, starting to think about how do you position your company?
Where are you going? In a way where you will, where if you want to do a merger acquisition, if the time comes, you're not suddenly jumping into it and trying to sort of back map and figure out what you should have done a year ago. How do everything in.
Are a lot of them I imagine, are not looking for a merger today, but they're sort of prepping for how that might work in the next year or two.
[00:09:10] Mike McKenna: That's exactly right, Alex. A lot of our work is just those relationships with clients and also some of our advice and guidance and to get them maybe to where they wanna be, to that pocket of profitability or revenue, where they actually are on that trajectory to to be a better acquisition for a company as well.
Or I think a lot of what we, the conversations we have are about, I think my unique background gives me an idea of what could be some adjacent or complimentary companies that really are a good synergistic fit for their company or product. And I kind of being on the inside that allows me to really understand what their product or service can bring to a school district.
And that helps have conversations.
As you know, there's big players in EdTech, big players, and for a smaller company, a lot of the conversations we have are is am I gonna bootstrap, am I gonna raise revenue or, and try to get into sales and try to break into these school districts where larger players really have the market share? Or do I have an amazing product that I believe in that I wanna get in hands of school districts at?
It's very hard to get break in against those larger players. Those are a lot of the recent conversations we've been having, whether the timings right now, or maybe the timing's right in 2026 or 2027, but continue to work with those, those clients and those, those relationships that get them to that place.
[00:10:41] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense and we, we've seen acquisitions over the last few years, some from private equity, some from places like Imagine Learning or Renaissance Learning, or Ton Mifflin. People who, as you say, have existing networks, have existing sales teams, have existing relationships with large districts and, and large networks of districts.
There's a really interesting dynamic for a new entrance in the space where they either have to sort of build their own traction or build and continue to build it in a very organic way or through ads. Can sort of get to a certain state and then try to position themselves as synergistic strategic acquisitions for some of these bigger players that already, that are always looking for more pieces of their ecosystem to, to sell into that.
That's LMS is sis, is That's also all these curriculum players and publishers. So, I mean, I'm, I'm not putting words in your mouth, I'm just naming how some of the things that I see when I look at the space and some of the things I've heard from other conversations on this show. But one of the things that is also really interesting about this moment, and this is no surprise to anybody but is.
You mentioned sort of data as one of the things that people are really interested in in the K 12 state. They're still really interested in data plays, how to make sense of the data they have, how to get more data that can be actionable and usable, data-driven decision making. And part of the data story is AI with more data becomes more potential for capabilities with different kinds of ai.
Providers, I'd love to hear you talk first, sort of a high level about how you think that the K 12 world is seeing AI right now. I'm sure this, it's different based on who you're talking to, but overall, how do you see that? And then let's dig in a little bit more about how companies who are. Thinking about AI a lot, how they might wanna think about mergers and acquisitions of whether to, you know, go it alone and, and compete and try to outcompete others or whether they might want to increasingly look to, to be acquired.
But let's start with the high level. Where do you see the positioning with AI in K 12 districts right now?
[00:12:33] Mike McKenna: Can't have a conversation without talking about AI at this point. I actually talked to teachers about their use of ai. I lead principal meetings where we talk about how we're best using AI right now.
But I know a lot of surveys are saying there is consistent use of AI by teachers, and I believe that's true. I think the actual impactful, improving student outcomes and the way they're using AI is really not where. We want it to be yet, I think the word yet. I think many teachers are exploring AI using products to help with even just small levels like communication with each other or families, right?
I mean, a little bit surface level, but I think it, I don't think if we're at the point where we're truly impacting teaching, learning, and student outcomes yet, and I think that time will come with a little more professional development and training with our teachers. I am seeing teachers using it for areas like developing meaningful assessments, giving timely feedback that is happening right now.
But I, I think the biggest thing where I think we're gonna see traction in companies that are looking to get into the AI market and, and really get a, a market share, a presence in K 12 schools. It's gotta be easy to integrate. It's gotta be a Chrome extension or integrated to SIS or or LMS platforms easy for teacher.
Teachers are overwhelmed. They need easy integration with AI tools, so I think that's really important. I also think it's gotta help with their workflow. Anything that helps with teacher or principal or any educator workflow and ability to do their job a little bit easier is definitely gonna gain traction.
That is another piece that's really important. I see a lot of opportunity in a couple areas. One is we just talked about special education, special education software systems. I think there's a lot of potential in AI use there, support, compliance, and a lot of the work in special education, which isn't there yet.
I think there's a lot of continued use of AI in our, in our student information systems to, we have so much data in our student information system, so being able to take that and be able to better analyze that or use AI to make better data-driven decisions at the district level, from the system level, I think is really important as well.
Even L lms. Areas where, again, easy integration of AI with our larger platforms that our teachers and principals are using on a regular basis. I also like the idea of leadership development and professional development with, through the use of ai, whether it's giving teacher feedback and other areas, but also just being a better leader.
There's not a lot in the, in the field of developing leadership. Met some founders who have some tools in that leadership AI capacity as well. So definitely some of those emerging markets. And the last thing I'll say is supporting even modifications in the areas of like universal design for learning and other areas of modification.
Differentiation for lesson, lesson plan development. Those are, I think, areas where we need to continue to explore and enhance as we move forward with ai.
[00:15:24] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. Fantastic points. I love the way you are saying that the statistics and the surveys we're seeing are, are that AI is sort of entering the classroom.
There is usage, but the usage may not be at the sort of depth of level. I mean, I liked your phrase of, you know, surface level implementations. I I, I remember seeing one of the surveys talked about how a lot of teachers were using it for, as you said, for writing parent update letters or report card notes, or, you know, things that are administrative.
They're not. They're not unimportant. They are important, but they're not really core to the teaching and learning experience. More about sort of streamlining everyday tasks, the pieces that are, that are less about the teaching and learning, and it sounds like there's a lot. I, I definitely feel there's lots of opportunity to make it more central to the actual I.
To the actual delivery and actual, uh, teaching and learning in the classroom. And some AI companies are much more on the forefront of that. But as you say, it doesn't mean they're used or they're usable. It can, if it doesn't integrate or if it isn't really quick to pick up, you're gonna see some friction there.
And we've seen in just this week, we saw both risk teaching and school AI announced large funding rounds. And I think those are two companies that have both invested a lot of time into making their. Tools as usable as possible and trying to weave them into teachers' everyday workflows that I, I know they have.
So it resonates really well with what you're saying. And so let's talk about AI from an m and a perspective. There are a lot of small, nimble companies right now in the EdTech space, many of which have just started in the last two years, that are trying to use AI to address various aspects of the.
Assessment, name it. And there's an AI company, or at least five trying to do it. Given that there's almost inevitably gonna be some consolidation, that there's budget issues, what would you do right now? What advice would you give or do you give to early stage AI founders as they're starting to think about what are their possible scenarios to plan for and how, where does MA fit into that?
[00:17:17] Mike McKenna: That's exactly some of those conversations we've been having with those smaller AI companies that either are pre-revenue possibly or just have a small market share right now. And I mean, I personally think like teachers are using and school districts are using so many different platforms that I think.
The market. It really is prime for m and a for a lot of these smaller AI companies too, because again, they have amazing products that can definitely support teaching and learning, teacher efficacy, professional development, leadership development. But unfortunately, them to break into the market is very difficult.
And understanding the sales cycle, I know the bureaucracy of the sales. How education works with funding and it's a whole nother level to figure that out, right? So instead of that, many do turn to m and a because a lot of these companies, these have, these are products that are already developed and ready to go and they could be easily integrated with a larger company that's already has a lot of market share in our K12 districts.
And so that's why right now.
Really, like I mentioned, have amazing products that can really support various areas of education and if they can find a good synergistic partner that can utilize their product and already develop product to integrate into their already existing platforms, and they already have a, a strong user base and market presence in schools.
That's why those conversations are happening in regards to, because there's a lot of products, a lot of great products. Why not partner with a company that already is, is in a many of these school districts and has great products and it just adds another offering that they can then offer school districts and bundle that together with what they can offer school districts moving forward.
[00:18:59] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, that, that's really well put. Last quick question. There's a big topic, but I'll ask it in a quick way 'cause I think we up on time here, but I'd love to hear how you think about it. Sales cycles. Sales teams, marketing. Existing distribution networks. There's lots of advantages that that incumbent players have in the ed tech space that it's hard to break into compliance, vendor approvals, all sorts of things.
But one of the things that is particularly interesting in the AI era is the access to student data. One thing that we've heard all sorts of mixed ideas about in the last year or two is the differentiation, personalization, special ed use cases, some of the things you've talked about here, basically to do it really in an impactful way does rely at least.
Somewhat on understanding certain things about any individual student to be able to tailor instruction or to be able to, people have different models, but in some of them you need to know at least something to tailor what you're doing. But getting student data is sometimes a total non-starter for K 12.
They say, no, no, especially for a new company. They say, yes, I get that. You could do something amazing, but we just aren't gonna be able to give you access to the data. Places like LMSs, SISs or established players have overcome that often. You know, over many years they've gotten all the compliance and privacy in place to do that.
How do you see this playing out? Do you think that there's gonna be an opportunity for the power schools, the instructors, the desire to learn the academic benchmarks? I don't know, just all, all sorts of people who are doing interesting things who have already sort of tapped into the data streams to then start working with AI companies.
That can make you do a lot more with that data.
[00:20:28] Mike McKenna: I a hundred percent think that that is an opportunity moving forward, and I can use an example of just student information system in my district. We're trying to incorporate as much data as we possibly can into our student information system to add an AI tool to better analyze that data or be able to have more of a systems process to look at that data.
Adding an AI component to that to support school districts is definitely a clear opportunity moving forward because that's where we already have a lot of, all of our data that's, it's a data warehouse, so we're actually trying to incorporate a lot of our data warehousing and, and all the information as we can into one player, into one information system.
'cause again, many districts use multiple platforms for data. So I think the more we can incorporate data into one source. The better we then, if we can add an AI tool to better, uh, provide those analytics and that data analysis, I think that's the direction many school districts are trying to move to.
[00:21:31] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, I agree. It feels like an, and if we can get there as a ecosystem, as an ed tech world, I think we, we unlock so much potential to do the kind of deep transformative teaching and learning and personalization and differentiation and individualization, however you wanna call it, that AI potentially promises that we all want to get to.
So I love the idea of. And this is part of why we do the podcast, right? I love the idea of bringing together different players in the system to have complimentary strengths and come together to do something that's even more than the sum of its parts. And I think this data AI piece and potential mergers, there is a big piece of that.
Thank you so much. Uh, yeah. Do you have any final thoughts? I know we're almost at time, but I'd love to hear how you think about it.
[00:22:09] Mike McKenna: No, I, I just think that one of the concerns I have in public education is there's so many platforms that teachers are using. So we have so much data and, and unfortunately it's in a lot of systems, a lot of platforms.
So the more we can merge platforms together and incorporate data and then add AI tools to better analyze that. I think there's a lot of opportunity in that space and that's why I think MA is a market right now for a,
definitely think that is what, 2025.
[00:22:41] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, I agree. I think, and maybe even some of the messaging around like we're an AI solution may start to move to our, where our company that can make sense of large amounts of data, synthesize them, make them actionable, tailor instruction, even though that is what AI is, it's a different framing that that might resonate a lot with, uh, customers who are.
As you say, trying to find single sources of data, put it all together and then make sense of it in the K12 space. Dr. Mike McKenna, thank you so much for being here with us on EdTech Insiders. Dr. Mike McKenna is a senior advisor at Tech Advisors, also a Chief Academic Officer for a large school district in Pennsylvania.
Thanks so much for being here and sharing your insights with us. And if people wanna learn more about your work or tech advisors, where should they go online?
[00:23:22] Mike McKenna: They could definitely go to Tech Advisors website. There's a ton of information there about our sell side and buy side process and how we engage with our clients.
So that's, I think, the best place to go to obtain some more information.
[00:23:33] Alex Sarlin: Great. Yeah, and some of the ed tech founders listening to this, I'm sure would love to have conversations with you about, about this world and where it's all going. Thanks so much for being here with us on Insiders. Thanks, Alex. Take care.
Have a great day. Thanks for listening to this episode of EdTech Insiders. If you like the podcast, remember to rate it and share it with others in the EdTech community. For those who want even more, EdTech Insider, subscribe to the free EdTech Insiders Newsletter on Substack.
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