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John Danner
John Danner

2.3K Followers

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Sep 10, 2021

Product Market Fit (PMF) and Series A+ disconnected earlier this year

Normal market behavior is that seed companies are pre-PMF and Series A companies have PMF. You can see PMF metrics in this doc. Overall about 20% of seed companies get to Series A but in my experience PMF is much more selective than that. About 5% of seed companies achieve…

Edtech

6 min read

Edtech

6 min read


Sep 2, 2021

The five most common mistakes founders make in trying to find Product Market Fit (PMF)

The five most common mistakes founders make in trying to find Product Market Fit (PMF) I spend time with the twenty or so seed founders in my portfolio every week searching for product market fit. My guiding document is this one. I believe that there is a lot of…

Edtech

5 min read

The five most common mistakes founders make in trying to find Product Market Fit (PMF)
The five most common mistakes founders make in trying to find Product Market Fit (PMF)
Edtech

5 min read


Aug 26, 2021

Are you building a library, a coffeehouse or a bar?

One of the defining moments for many education startups is deciding what they want to feel like. Often, founders start by wanting to be a library, where students will go and learn things. That feels like the purest mission. After all, that’s the reason we started the company, right? The…

Edtech

3 min read

Are you building a library, a coffeehouse or a bar?
Are you building a library, a coffeehouse or a bar?
Edtech

3 min read


Aug 12, 2021

It’s time for student-first edtech

About 75% of my portfolio is consumer edtech, and half of that is k12. I’m proud to be an investor in Outschool, Epic!, Lingokids, Juni and many more. Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that there are basically two kinds of consumer edtech companies, ones where the student adopts…

Edtech

2 min read

It’s time for student-first edtech
It’s time for student-first edtech
Edtech

2 min read


Aug 6, 2021

Tech needs to stop whining about talent

I have many companies in my portfolio focused on talent acquisition and development for the tech ecosystem — Lambda School, Major League Hacking, Fourthrev, Contra, Marketerhire, Reforge, and Maven. …

Edtech

3 min read

Tech needs to stop whining about talent
Tech needs to stop whining about talent
Edtech

3 min read


Jul 30, 2021

Burn It Down

Burn It Down After I sold my first company, NetGravity, I taught elementary and middle school for three years. Before starting my second company, Rocketship Education, I spent about a year as an entrepreneur in residence with the NewSchools Venture Fund. …

Edtech

3 min read

Burn It Down
Burn It Down
Edtech

3 min read


Jul 23, 2021

Work is Going to Look Like College

This week, my college age daughter and two friends are staying with me. My daughter is working for Breakthrough Collaborative. One of her friends has two internships. The other is taking two classes. What’s amazing in watching digital natives is how well they have tuned their lives to the post-covid…

Edtech

4 min read

Work is Going to Look Like College
Work is Going to Look Like College
Edtech

4 min read


Jul 9, 2021

When do you know if you have a company

One of the persistent myths which provide comfort to both founders and investors is that you have a company once someone invests. And then if higher profile people and funds invest, you have a better company. In an ecosystem full of ‘fake it until you make it’, this may seem…

Edtech

3 min read

When do you know if you have a company
When do you know if you have a company
Edtech

3 min read


Jun 16, 2021

10 little bugs in the way founders are wired as they transition from seed to Series A

As a three time founder, and now investor in thirty founders, some patterns are pretty clear to me about the things that make most founders tick and the way that can cause problems as the company grows. Here are ten of them: 1 — You are extremely hard on yourself…

Edtech

5 min read

Edtech

5 min read


Jun 12, 2021

Dunce Deals!

The entire back catalog of Dunce Deals is now on SubStack. Enjoy! https://dunce.substack.com/publish?utm_source=menu

Edtech

1 min read

Edtech

1 min read

John Danner

John Danner

2.3K Followers

Co-founder and CEO NetGravity, Rocketship Education, Zeal Learning, Dunce Capital. john@danners.org https://dunce.substack.com/

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