Cracking the Code: How to Sell Education Products in High-Stakes Markets

Recorded live at IFE in Monterrey, Mexico, this episode features Beatriz Guillen, Executive Director at The Resource Foundation—a leader focused on strengthening education outcomes across Latin America.

While her work centers on Latin America, the insights she shares here resonate globally—especially for education companies and founders navigating the U.S. market.

This conversation is packed with real-world takeaways for education companies and founders navigating B2G, credibility-building, and early-stage lead generation—especially those working to unlock high-value partnerships and grow in complex markets.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What makes selling into K–12 education markets so difficult—and how to overcome it
• How to build trust and traction with buyers, donors, and decision-makers
• Why clear messaging and credible evidence are essential for lead generation
• How philanthropy and private-sector partnerships can accelerate sales for early-stage education companies
• A strategy for standing out in crowded education markets—even without massive funding

Whether you’re scaling in Latin America, the U.S., or globally—this episode gives you a roadmap for breaking through in education sales.

#EdSales #LeadGeneration #EdTech #BreakingTheGrade #EducationBusiness

Transcript

Josh Chernikoff (00:01.676)
Our students are the future. How we advance innovation and impact and approach equity in their classrooms will determine how we thrive as a world community. The status quo just won't cut it. That's why we're here to break the grade. Hello, breakers and difference makers. I'm Josh Chernikoff, host of How I Broke That. I'm a two-time entrepreneur in the education space, and I've successfully exited

both of those companies. I've experienced my fair share of breaks in my life and I'm here to bring my signature approach to my new show, Breaking the Grade. I'm embarking on this special journey alongside my good friend and mentor, John Gamba, Director of Innovative Programs and Entrepreneurial Residence at Penn GSE. In our podcast, you'll hear from emerging business owners in the education space who are working to transform education

as we know it. Tune in as we hear about industry trends, unique principles and practices and the attempts that have and haven't worked for our grade breaking guests. So fellow entrepreneurs and educators, what do you think? Are you ready to take a hammer to the education space and break the grade? Hola to my breaking the grade audience. The energy was absolutely electric.

at IFE in Monterrey, Mexico, and we took breaking the grade right to the heart of it. I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Beatrice Guillen, the executive director of the Resource Foundation. She was all the way from New York. So we are about to unpack some eye-opening realities about the education landscape in Latin America that also have a lot of parallels to the United States from the urgent need

for quality learning to the untapped potential of innovative ed tech solutions. Beatrice shares some incredible insights on how philanthropy, government and the private sector can converge to create meaningful impact. So get ready for a deep dive into a region brimming with opportunity. Let's get started. Welcome to Breaking the Grade.

Josh Chernikoff (02:29.506)
Welcome to another live edition of Breaking the Grade, or IME. In Monterrey, Mexico, and I'm here with Beatriz Guillen, who's going to say that in a much more beautiful way with her accent from Spain. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you so much for your

Tell us about you and your journey in education. We get a chance to meet lots of different people who have had different opportunities all over the world in education to make an impact. So tell us your story. Give us the short version, one or two minutes.

My name is Beatriz Guillen and I'm the executive director of the Resource Foundation based in New York. So I've developed most of my career in Latin America working for CAF, which is the Development Bank of Latin America. And for different reasons, I had to move to New York and I found an opportunity to keep working for Latin America with the Resource Foundation.

I'm the executive director of the Resource Foundation. And what we do is that we connect donors in the US with local organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. And one of the big problems that the region has is that the learning outcomes are not very, good. And so we decided to focus among the granting that we do, how can we focus more and how can we add more value in the education space?

Josh Chernikoff (04:04.206)
I don't believe in coincidences, but how amazing is that you landed in New York at that position? I mean, it sounds like it's the perfect place. How long have you been there and talk about your room?

Sure, so the Research Foundation has almost 40 years of being the bridge between donors, mainly corporates in the US and organizations in Latin America. And I've been in my position for a year and a half. And it was looking at the portfolio that I realized 50 % of our portfolio was in education projects. And we felt there was a need of how can we add

more value to the organizations that we are working with because the projects that we had been supporting felt a bit not coordinated or discoordinated that with the money that we are investing, we could have much more impact. it all started with that, this idea of how can we have more impact, especially because we saw how venture capital funding for ed techs dropped like 90%.

We need to make philanthropic capital more effective. So how can we do that? That was the question that we asked ourselves like a year ago.

So, you take the job here and have a year ago you asked yourselves this question and what are some of the results? We're sitting here at a table looking at a PowerPoint presentation or a Canva or slides or whatever it is. So talk us through what you found and then we're going to take a look.

Beatriz Guillen (05:44.238)
Sure, I mean it's the first time that we're sharing with the world the results. Breaking news. Breaking news. the report is going to be open to the public and published in, I guess it's going to be March. Editing process takes a bit, but what we can show, mean what we can share of course is that we found and that's not something that's new for anyone, but.

We have, Latin America faces a lot of lack of quality of education. And one of the numbers that stroke me was that by 2030, 50 % of the population is not going to be ready for the workforce is not going to be ready for the job opportunities. So we have a problem there. And 80 % of sixth graders don't understand.

text cannot interpret or understand a text. And on the other side we saw that there's investment, access has been growing but quality has not been growing so what's happening, right? So we saw that the main problem is that there's a lack of coordination among the different actors, we know that, but also that the investment doesn't go to core learning.

especially in K to 12. So the rest of the world investment in education, around 55 % is spent or it goes to core learning in K to 12. In Latin America, that's only at 19%. So the reason is because a business in K to 12 space is B2G. And B2G is risky, procurement processes are very long.

It's not very reliable, so private sector does not want to work there, even if it's the sector that needs most support. So we've been looking at examples. Fortunately, there are examples of organizations that have been able to sort of crack the net or crack the code.

Josh Chernikoff (08:02.392)
You can crack a nut too.

Crack the code, exactly that's the name of the organization that has done that in Colombia, in Peru, Crack the Code, that has been able to do that. In a very interesting model where government, private sector and philanthropy have worked together to provide digital skills to organizations, to students in middle and high school.

that example in Colombia and Peru, have Letrus in Brazil, a very, very good example. Letrus more focused on literacy, basic literacy and math. Crack the Code is more focused on digital skills. it's working, like it's workforce development from school, if you think about this, because a very small percentage of students go to university. So how can we prepare, you know, these students to exit school and be ready for the job market? So

That was one of the recommendations. But we also saw that there's very little evidence of what works and what does not work. So the government is not buying, in many cases, is not buying ed tech solutions because they don't know what works and what doesn't work. And we've heard, we've talked to government officials who complain about, have all this pressure from ed techs, but we don't know which one to choose. So buyer, I don't know if,

education or a buyer building capacities for buyers, government, but also teachers would be also very important to help develop this K to 12 segment and create more business for ethics. it's not only it's philanthropy can help with building these partnerships with the public sector.

Beatriz Guillen (10:00.386)
But philanthropy can also help in other ways. So there's different ways and we have different recommendations on the study. I'm not going to say all of them so that people read it.

That's a nice teaser. Yeah. So this is the way my brain works. And sometimes this isn't the best way, but I hear opportunity. Yes. And so for our audience to say, OK, I hear the challenge. Obviously, numbers that you're saying back that up. Mm hmm. See it as an opportunity. How would you?

Yeah, and I think the opportunity, as you said, is very clear. I would think, and there are many good ideas out there. I think it's more like the what is the how, no? Like how do you work? How do you start your business? How do you approach government? Who are your partners that you're going to work with? I would definitely...

And that's sometimes not their responsibility, but more of like organizations like mine that mobilize philanthropic capital. How can we, you know, support all these ethics, especially in early stage? How can we support them to succeed? Because sometimes they have a very good product, but they don't find the funding. There's no funding for innovation. There's no funding, no patient capital.

to work with governments because as we were saying, these are long, you know, buying processes. So it's more of like, you might have a very, very good idea, but you need to find the right partners.

Josh Chernikoff (11:43.822)
The right partners, I would imagine, are out there. And those are the donors that can work well. How do you find these donors? How do you vet these donors? I'm sure they're very big donors, they don't need much vetting, but do a little bit of a matching service.

It's yes, it's some some donors come already with their their ideas, but we see more and more, especially tech companies who that are willing to expand to Latin America that ask us for some advice. Who should I work with? How should I? And sometimes they ask who should I work with? And part of the reason of this study or this diagnostic that we've done is to show them that it's again, it's how do you work?

That also applies for donors. It's not like partner with one organization, but think of like more of an ecosystem or a systemic way. So maybe partner with an accelerator and give them funding so that they pick the right winners or the right ethics so that they can scale. So that could be something that we would advise them. So it's more part of this.

We did this study with McKinsey so that we have more credibility. We can go to these donors and say, look, this is how you should be working, and this is how your money could have much more impact if you work in a different way than what you've been doing until now. And some donors are very sophisticated and are doing things right, but it's not the majority.

Are you able to tell us some of the donors that you work with?

Beatriz Guillen (13:26.926)
Yes, mean, we work, we have worked for a very long time with American Express, with Estee Lauder, with the Standard & Poor's, Deutsche Bank, so many financial institutions. And we are now switching towards more like tech companies so that, you know, to be able to help them.

towards this support to ed-techs in Latin America.

So as you travel around Latin America to business education systems lacking if you said one or two or three things that you're giving people a bullseye to essentially aim their company at repressing issues that need to be addressed

So for sure, I mean, we mentioned evidence. That's one that, but that's more, I don't know how, that's another space for philanthropists like in Jacob's foundation. I'm sure you know about them, but that's where they've doing incredible work. But pressing issues, I think it's like language skills, English.

We see that it's also very important for employment opportunities, digital skills in schools, K-12. And I'm going to focus more on K-12 just because that's where we see the need. And I think we see more and more work with that AI is going to help teachers.

Josh Chernikoff (15:04.706)
you

Beatriz Guillen (15:21.294)
always you can have the best solution, a tech solution, but if the teacher does not adopt it, then it's not going to work. And it's very interesting to see how AI, for the first time I feel it's like putting the eye into the teachers, focusing on teachers and helping them. So I think there's a lot of opportunity there. It's like, do we, you know, trained teachers.

motivate them on how to work with ed tech and how AI is helping them tailor their curriculum, provide a more personalized attention. There's a very good organization called Nova Escola in Brazil and they work with 600,000 teachers, talk about scale. They are a non-profit but they are thinking of becoming a for-profit just because there's more money for innovation in the private sector than in

you if you're a nonprofit. So that's good thing about being, you know, a net tech company. It's that there's more money for innovation that's in the nonprofit sector, even if it sounds counterintuitive. But this is the case of, you know, an organization that's a nonprofit that's saying, I think I might turn into a for-profit.

It's a really fascinating job that you have. And so my last question is just like, talk to us about what a day in the life is like for you. Because I feel like you're rolling up your sleeves at noon and then you're probably, maybe I'm wrong, and you're in New York City, you know, going to these big parties, give or take with the American Express and all these big, big global companies. Yeah, and so you see both ends of it. What's a day in the life?

Yeah, yeah, you see, you see both ends. That's, that's, that's true. And part of my work is a lot of, you know, advocacy towards Latin America, because even if it's such a strategic region for the US, and I think we will be hearing about Latin America more and more in the news with this new administration, only 6 % of international granting in the US goes to Latin America. So part of my work is a lot of advocacy.

Beatriz Guillen (17:35.886)
of like, you know, why is it important to work with Latin America? Why is the business case and also the social case for the US, you know? And so it's very important for me to also stay in touch with the region and the organizations, even if my work is primarily with donors, because it gives me, you know, the urgency of the work that we do, because you see how they struggle, you know.

to find funding. Now USAID has cut funding, so it's more more important to work towards getting more grants towards a region. But it's bit of a dual reality because you have one foot in one part and one foot in the other. But yeah, I don't know, it's fascinating, it's very challenging, but I think it's important to keep

you know, to be in New York, but also with, you know, with constant contact with Latin America.

It's a very different scale, but one of the things that I taught... We need to walk into the school...

Yes.

Josh Chernikoff (18:51.534)
Second business me to 82 schools. I basically lived on I-95 so different one, but you know driving a Jeep Wrangler 95 It's not very easy, but I went to all these different schools to get to see the kids that was and I had to shake the hands of the principals or the superintendents and Then at night to parts of DC Merrill, Virginia Then I'd go to these nice things

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And so I saw both ends of it. In terms of being a business owner, I was there, was eye eye with these kids, shaking hands with the principals, and then spending time at night with superintendents. And then it always reminds me from a business ownership standpoint that you can go from the penthouse to the outhouse in a matter of minutes. Yesterday, I was leading a new cohort

10 wonderful companies in education. So proud of them. And we upgraded our systems and completely screwed getting them access to the course. It's our mistake. You know, and I'm embarrassed that that happened. But you know, as you upgrade systems, break. So I'm always fascinated by people and physicians and variants to give the perspective to our audience so that they understand.

that whether you are the founder or the CEO, whatever your title is, it's important that you are in those schools. Experience the highs and the lows. It sounds like you're doing that.

Beatriz Guillen (20:31.212)
Yeah, no, 100%. And part of, I think, the work that we want to accomplish with this study and the work that we do is how to grow the market for ethics. And for that, I mean, you need philanthropy, you need governments, and you need the private sector. So I think it's a great opportunity for all of us to work together towards

What do you say? Better education, better learning outcomes, more impact at the end.

Well, I appreciate you sharing your story and then also going a little bit deeper to indulge me on your job. I found it very fascinating. At least a show. And then for everybody listening, they'll look in the show notes and hopefully we can put terms to the study.

Yeah, thank you so much for helping us share this work. Thank you, thank you Josh.

appreciate you being here. Thank you.

Josh Chernikoff (21:34.402)
Hey Breakers, thanks for joining us on Breaking the Grade. If you want to get to know your fellow Breakers in education better, please join us in our community in Mighty Networks. You can also follow us on social media for lead generation tips. Information about the community and the social media in the show description. And if you want to help us out, please like and subscribe to the show. Keep on breaking you lead gen legends.