Mission Still Matters

May 16, 2026

"Nothing makes a man broad-minded like adversity." ~ Will Rogers

Over the past few weeks, I have spent a lot of time thinking about the current state of the EdTech market and honestly the broader education ecosystem as a whole. Between conversations in districts, discussions with operators, LinkedIn discourse, investor pressure, AI conversations, screen time debates, cybersecurity concerns, and some of the recent breaches impacting education, it feels like the market is carrying a level of tension right now that has been building for some time.

That is probably natural. Every market has cycles. There are periods where optimism is high, capital is flowing, growth is everywhere, and almost every strategy looks smart because the market itself is moving upward. Then there are periods like the one we are in now where pressure starts to build. Budgets tighten. Investors get nervous. Companies start looking for growth in harder places. Public scrutiny increases. The conversations become sharper, and in a lot of ways, people and companies start operating from a scarcity mindset.

What I have found interesting is how much that pressure changes behavior.

Over the last several weeks alone, data breaches and cybersecurity incidents in education have been all over the news cycle. Accountability matters in those moments. It should. Schools, families, and students deserve transparency, responsibility, and leadership when things go wrong. But I also think empathy matters, and that part of the conversation feels like it has been disappearing lately.

What sometimes gets lost in these discussions is that there are real students, teachers, families, and district leaders sitting on the other side of these incidents. There are kids getting interrupted during finals. Teachers are losing access to systems they rely on every day. Technology leaders working around the clock trying to stabilize environments under enormous pressure while trying to communicate clearly with their communities. And yes, there are also humans inside those companies carrying the weight of mistakes, failures, and decisions that impact millions of people.

I have sat in those rooms before.

I still remember late nights sitting around whiteboards with my team eating pizza at two or three in the morning trying to diagnose malware issues, recover systems, and figure out the next move. Those moments turn into early mornings, weekends, and long stretches where people are simply trying to keep schools operational for students and teachers. Years ago, when Hurricane Ike hit the Texas Gulf Coast, my district sustained significant damage. We had schools underwater, systems impacted, communications challenges, and an entire community trying to recover in real time. During moments like that, you learn very quickly who your real partners are. The people who showed up after the storm trying to sell something were rarely the ones who understood our district or our needs. The partners who mattered were the ones who had already invested in the relationship long before the crisis arrived.

That lesson stayed with me throughout my career.

I wrote several issues ago about trust velocity versus sales velocity, and I believe that principle matters now more than ever. Trust is built before the hard moments arrive. It is built through consistency, transparency, listening, and staying aligned to mission even when markets become noisy.

One of the things that concerns me most right now is that parts of the EdTech conversation have started to feel more like sensationalized media cycles than a community trying to solve difficult problems together. There is a difference between accountability and opportunism. There is a difference between thoughtful criticism and using fear, outrage, or controversy to grow a following or position a company.

That does not help schools.

And honestly, it does not help the long term health of the market either.

What many people outside the industry misunderstand is that EdTech has historically worked best when companies balanced competition with a shared understanding of the mission. Years ago, I started using the phrase “coopertition.” Maybe I made it up or maybe I stole it from someone else along the way, but the idea was simple. You can compete aggressively in the market while still recognizing there are moments where the ecosystem itself matters more than any one company winning.

I saw that firsthand during my time working with hyperscalers in the cloud space. Companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft competed intensely, but there were also moments where alignment around interoperability, infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, or broader access to technology mattered for the overall success of schools. Nobody was ever going to own one hundred percent of the market, and the leaders who understood that tended to approach the work differently.

That same mentality shaped the way I have always viewed family engagement technology. Yes, of course I want the company I work for to win. I am competitive by nature, and I believe deeply in building products that help schools and students. But the bigger mission matters too. If a school has no meaningful way to connect families to the educational process, students lose. The mission has to remain larger than the logo.

I think that perspective is especially important during downturns.

When markets tighten, there is often a temptation to chase shortcuts. Companies start swinging for home runs on every pitch. Strategies become reactive. Messaging gets louder. Fear creeps into decision making. But some of the best leaders I have ever worked around, especially great superintendents, had an incredible ability to bring people back to center during difficult moments.

They would remind everyone why we were there in the first place.

You cannot control every market condition. You cannot control every political conversation, every social media narrative, or every economic headwind. What you can control is whether you stay aligned to your mission, whether you continue listening to customers, whether you communicate transparently, and whether you continue building thoughtfully even when the pressure rises.

The best companies I have seen over the last thirty years rarely panic during downturns. They stay remarkably consistent. They keep listening. They keep improving products. They stay grounded in the mission that brought them into education in the first place. In a lot of ways, it is no different than investing during a down market. Historically, the people who stay disciplined, keep investing, and avoid emotional decisions during difficult periods are usually the ones who win over the long run. I think the same is true in EdTech. The companies that stay steady, continue listening to customers, and keep building thoughtfully during difficult cycles are usually the ones that emerge strongest when the market turns again because they never lost themselves trying to chase the noise around them.

One of the phrases we used during my time helping build AWS K-12 was “missionaries, not mercenaries.” I always loved that idea because it acknowledged something important about this industry. You can absolutely be mission oriented inside a for profit company. In fact, some of the most mission driven people I have ever worked with have spent their careers inside education technology companies trying to solve meaningful problems for schools.

That mission also does not disappear when you leave the classroom or move into the private sector.

I see that now even outside of EdTech. I have a young couple leasing part of my ranch property for cattle. They are smart, hardworking, and trying to build something of their own. In some ways, they are teaching me about ranching while I help them think through business decisions and long term planning. That exchange has nothing to do with educational software, but it has everything to do with the same mission that pulled many of us into education in the first place: helping people grow.

At its best, this industry still does that incredibly well.

There are amazing educators, operators, founders, technologists, and leaders doing work every day that genuinely improves outcomes for students and families. There are companies handling difficult situations with integrity. There are districts navigating impossible pressures while still showing up for kids every morning.

Those stories deserve attention too.

I still believe deeply in the mission of education technology. I also believe accountability matters. But I think empathy, perspective, and long term thinking matter too. The best leaders and the best companies usually understand that balance.

Because when markets get loud, the organizations that endure are rarely the ones chasing every headline or reacting emotionally to every downturn.

More often, they are the ones that stay centered long enough to remember why they started building in the first place.