You Don’t Just Sell to Schools—You Earn Their Trust: How Edtech Founder Paul Moch Built an Education Business That Got Acquired

You think your sales process is tough?

Try launching a brand new EdTech company during a global pandemic—while building trust with schools that aren’t exactly raising their hands.

In this episode of Breaking the Grade, I sat down with Paul Moch, Founder of Camino 21 and now Vice Provost at Talisis, to break down what it really takes to build a scalable education business that gets acquired.

Paul didn’t just build a product.
He built trust.
He didn’t guess what schools wanted.
He asked.
Listened.
Built backwards from the pain.
And then showed up with the clearest offer on the table.

This isn’t your typical founder journey.
This is the blueprint for education entrepreneurs who are serious about scale.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why education is one of the hardest markets to sell into—and how Paul navigated it anyway
• The “3 steps behind” principle that helped him pre-sell before he even launched
• How urgency, credibility, and real institutional relationships led to acquisition
• What EdTech founders must build first if they want to win schools (and not just survive pitch calls)
• The mindset shift required to go from founder to executive leader—and scale your impact inside a holding company

If you’re tired of selling in circles and ready to build something schools actually want, this is the episode for you.

#EdSales #LeadGeneration #EdTech #BreakingTheGrade