Cool New Pearson Charging Station at 1871

Many Thanks to Jai and Our Friends at Pearson

Pearson Campaign

“Jai is just as kind and self-effacing today as he was then,” Howard confides.

So how has Jai changed? Far from sitting in the back row today, he has successfully founded and
sold a business for $1 billion, and is considered one of Chicago’s most successful entrepreneurs.
In 2012, Jai was named Ernst & Young’s 2012 Midwest “Entrepreneur of the Year”, and has
been recognized as an innovator in the Vendor Management Software (VMS) space.

In 1999, Jai took what he had learned from Howard and others and channeled it into a project
that addressed a problem he was deeply familiar with. He started Fieldglass, a company that
offers the world’s most widely used Cloud platform for the procurement of contract labor and services.

Over the past two decades, Jai and Howard have kept in touch and maintained a student/mentor
relationship that has blossomed into a friendship. Howard credits Chicago’s unique business culture
in part for helping to make Jai a success.

I know of few people with more enthusiasm, and being in his class gave me the confidence to eventually find my own path as an entrepreneur.

Jai Shekhawat

“Chicago is different,” says Howard. “People here are loyal in a way that perhaps you don’t see
on the coasts — we’re in it for the long haul. Loyalty is a competitive midwestern advantage,
and we also have an economy that is good for entrepreneurs who have diverse interests.”

Chicago can’t take all the credit, though. Howard taught Jai early on that it takes five things to
be successful as an entrepreneur: passion, preparation, perspiration, perseverance, and principles.
These “5 Ps” are instilled in many of the young, hopeful entrepreneurs that come to
Howard’s prestigious startup incubation program, 1871 Chicago. And Jai gives credit where it’s due.

“Back then and right up to today, I thought of Howard as half teacher and half preacher.
He’s always spreading the gospel and excitement of innovation and entrepreneurship.
I know of few people with more enthusiasm, and being in his class gave me the confidence
to eventually find my own path as an entrepreneur.”

Always the teacher, Howard deflects with more praise of Jai’s work ethic.

“Of course everybody wants to be the next Jobs, but with Jai, we sensed that he had the
determination to be really successful. Perhaps more important than talent or anything else
is the ability to keep your head down and stay focused. Half the battle is keeping your butt
in the chair. Jai’s got that.”

What does one do after selling a company for $1 billion? In Jai’s case, he’s staying active
in the city’s entrepreneurial scene with Howard at 1871, but he’s also focused on making
Chicago the best city it can be by way of social activism and community service. He is
heavily involved with an inner city academic program called MetroSquash, which helps to
teach underprivileged urban youth how to play the unlikely game of squash while devoting
an equal amount of time to academics. In doing so, MetroSquash mentors teach them dedication
and discipline,two traits that Jai discovered are crucial to making it in his much-loved city.

Biographies

Howard Tullman is the CEO of 1871 and the General Managing Partner for the Chicago
High Tech Investment Partners, LLC and for G2T3V, LLC – both Chicago-based early-stage
venture capital funds which has invested in more than 25 Chicago-based startups in the last two years.
He is also the Chairman of the Endowment Committee of Anshe Emet Synagogue, a member of the
National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE); a member of Mayor Emanuel’s
ChicagoNEXT and Cultural Affairs Councils; a member of the boards of the Innovate Illinois and Illinois
Arts Councils; a member of President Preckwinkle’s New Media Council, an Advisory Board
member of HighTower Associates, Built in Chicago, and Imerman Angels, and an Adjunct Professor
at Northwestern’s Kellogg School, as well as a regular guest lecturer at the Northwestern University
School of Law. Mr. Tullman is a graduate with Honors of Northwestern University (B.A., 1967) and
of its School of Law (J.D., 1970), where he also graduated with Honors. Read Howard’s full bio here 

Jai Shekhawat is the founder of Fieldglass, now part of SAP. Fieldglass provides the world’s most
widely used cloud platform for the procurement of contract labor and services. Under his leadership,
the Fieldglass platform grew globally with users in 100+ countries. He is a former strategy consultant
with McKinsey & Company where he served clients in areas of corporate strategy, technology
and cross-border alliances, as well as a former senior executive at Syntel, a software services firm in
Michigan. He is also a co-founder of Quinnox, an application outsourcing firm in Naperville, Illinois.
 Jai has held various civic and board positions including serving on the Mayor’s Council of Technology
Advisors (MCTA) for the City of Chicago, the Membership Committee of the Economic Club of Chicago,
the Board of TiE Midwest and the Board of Metrosquash. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of
the Field Museum of Chicago and is a founding member of the Firestarter Fund, which mentors and
invests in Chicago start-ups. Jai holds an MBA with specializations in finance and strategy from the
J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, and a bachelor’s degree
 in management science from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India. Read Jai’s full bio here 

Marketplace Models Hit Education: 5 Lessons from #OnDemandEDU

Image Credit: CloudSpotter

By Amanda Nyren Mar 29, 2016

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From Uber to TaskRabbit, on-demand labor marketplace start-ups have taken off in recent years, and education is proving no exception. Edtech-specific applications of the “sharing economy” were the focus of an “Education On-Demand” panel last Thursday at 1871, a tech incubator and coworking space in downtown Chicago. Organized by Educelerate, Inc. (a not-for-profit, grassroots network of education innovation-oriented meetups of 3,000 members in Chicago, Twin Cities, Colorado and LA), and sponsored by Pearson, the panel brought together four cofounders and one head of product, all working in edtech startups that have adopted the marketplace model.

The panel included representatives from WyzAnt (marketplace for tutors and the oldest of the featured startups) as well as upstarts like Admissionado (marketplace for admissions consultants), Mntors.com (marketplace for career and college mentors), The Graide Network (marketplace for K-12 grading support) and Adjunct Professor Link or “APL” (self-evident). With such a breadth of experience, panelists nonetheless found a lot to agree on, including five key takeaways below.

The Marketplace Advantage

It’s no surprise that the panelists all agreed that on-demand labor scales well. However, many have found that the marketplace model also means better economics and service. Peter Le, founder of Mntors.com, noted his motivation in building a marketplace model for its ability to cut out a lot of margin to lower the cost of educational services to end users.

But it’s more than cost, said Admissionado COO Lauren Herskovic. The company has a service advantage in that its model attracts enthusiastic experts: individuals with full-time jobs who want to help students out of passion. And the marketplace model uniquely allows them to spread out demand more smoothly and across more consultants during peak college application season. Likewise, Liz Nell, co-founder and chief revenue officer of The Graide Network, noted that its TAs aren’t just “hired hands.” They’re developing educators eager to get some hands-on experience.

Don’t Call Us Uber

As director of product at WyzAnt, Erika Warren was quick to qualify what marketplace really means for education startups like hers. “We’re not the Uber of tutoring,” she said. “We have to challenge the assumption that marketplace automatically means the commoditization of a product.” In fact, she added, WyZant creates flexibility and options for its users, turning the traditional education model on its head. With the ability to choose the tutor that’s right for her particular needs, the student is in control.

In addition to bad Uber associations, APL Founder and CEO Kathleen Gibson noted her company must deal with the fact that “adjunct” itself has become a pejorative term. She argued that this is a trusted model going back to guilds and the origins of universities, which uniquely affords cutting-edge talent to fill faculty skills shortages.

Growing Supply to Attract Demand

When launching a two-sided marketplace, one key challenge is that in order to attract service providers, you need to prove there’s demand—but you can’t create much demand without service providers. Gibson referred to loopholes around this chicken-or-the-egg conundrum as “faking the chicken.” After building out its supply of adjuncts, APL now avoids selling this labor pool to higher-ed administrators or HR departments, but instead directly to the academic wings of its university clients. Similarly, Nell’s team at The Graide Network has found greatest success with grassroots outreach to educators versus going through administrators. “When we’ve gone directly to teachers, they seem to get it,” she said. “But when the message is being delivered by a principal, it comes across as just more work being handed on down.”

The “Happy Mom” and Other Viral Marketing Strategies

In a discussion of the best growth-hacking tactics, all panelists emphasized the importance of word of mouth. Herskovic dubbed this “the happy mom” effect. “Moms trust moms and dads trust dads,” she said, adding that her team conducts exit interviews with all parents and creates video testimonials that get posted online. Mntors.com’s Le may have had the most clever tactic: His team creates free career advice webinars that attendees must share on social in order to attend.

Quality Control in a Higher-Stakes Game

When the service you’re selling is education, quality control is paramount. As Herskovic noted, education involves far higher stakes than delivering hot dogs. Early on at Admissionado, she was cc’ed on every single email so she could simply watch. Today, the company rigorously screens its advisors and partners them with other advisors to create a system of checks and balances.

Likewise, all 80,000 WyZant tutors have been manually vetted by a team member, not leaving such an important piece of their value chain to automation. These measures are fairly expensive, but all panelists felt they were well worth the cost.

Amanda Nyren (@itsaaamanda) is a Chicago-based content marketer who’s worked at Curiosity.com and Groupon.

Pearson Partners With Great on the Job to Offer Customers Effective Organizational Communication Tools in Today’s Digital World

Collaboration provides increased access to Great on the Job learning experiences in an online learning environment

NEW YORK, NY (PRWEB) MARCH 03, 2016

Pearson today announced a partnership with Jodi Glickman, CEO, Great on the Job LLC, to help organizations and their employees communicate strategically, effectively and persuasively. Great on the Job is a leadership development and communication training firm, which works to close the skills gap in America. Together Pearson and Great on the Job will provide organizations in industries such as financial services, high-tech, health care, professional services, and higher education, with a tailored learning experience via the Intrepid Learning Hub™ online learning environment. Effective instruction is delivered through short-form content, applied practice, and highly interactive social features. This online learning experience leverages Glickman’s work with leading MBA programs, as well as Fortune 100 companies and leading global investment banks.

Glickman said, “In today’s competitive workplace, the ability to get your point across clearly and concisely, the ability to ask for help and sound smart, or ask for meaningful feedback, is what often separates otherwise equally qualified employees or job candidates. By partnering with Pearson, we can expand our reach and ensure that more students and employees have the opportunity to build these fundamental and critical skills to succeed in higher education and the world of work.”

Glickman is an expert in coaching professionals at all levels on how to be great on the job. She is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, consultant and regular blogger for Harvard Business Review. She is a former faculty member of the Johnson School’s Leadership Program at Cornell University. Her book, “Great on the Job, What to Say, How to Say It, The Secrets of Getting Ahead” is described as a “master class in workplace success....” by New York Times bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi.

“Through our strategic partnership with Great on the Job, we are empowering organizations to increase employee productivity by delivering an online learning experience that works at scale to help more individuals improve their communications and leadership skills. We are delivering on our mission to provide learners with the individual skill sets that translate to sustained employment opportunities and progressive career advancement,” said Kenna Ose, senior vice president of business development, Pearson.

Glickman and Pearson representatives will share the highlights of the Great on the Job online learning experience in a webinar on Thursday, March 31 at 1 p.m. EST.Register to attend.

Glickman will also discuss this topic at Pearson’s Employability Summit at the 2016 SXSWedu Conference on March 9 at 3:15 p.m. CST in Austin.

Pearson’s Professional training and development group partners with corporations, associations, non-profits, and government agencies such as the American Health Information Management Association, the Gender Intelligence Group, The Ariel Group, and the U.S. Green Building Council, to create effective services and solutions that align with their online and blended learning and professional development goals to improve business and organizational results. To learn more, visithttp://www.pearsoned.com/professional/.

About Pearson 
Pearson is the world's learning company, with 36,000 employees in more than 70 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning. For more information about Pearson, visit http://www.pearsoned.com.

About Great on the Job LLC 
Great on the Job is a leadership development and communication training firm located in Chicago. Led by Jodi Glickman, a former investment banker for Goldman Sachs, Great on the Job’s mission is to be a catalyst to help close the skills gap in America by providing best in class training that empowers employees and students preparing to enter the workforce to be strategic, effective, and persuasive communicators in their everyday lives. For more information on Great on the Job, visithttp://www.greatonthejob.com.

1871 CEO Howard Tullman Gives Keynote at Pearson CITE Conference

1871 Hosts Pearson Gender Intelligence Event

1871 CEO Speaking at Pearson Online Learning Conference

1871 CEO Howard Tullman Speaks on Innovation and Culture at Pearson's Innovation Insights Conference

1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN DELIVERS KEYNOTE ON EDUCATION INNOVATION AT PEARSON NATIONAL SALES MEETING

1871 and PEARSON Announce Strategic Partnership

July 21, 2014

Chicago, Illinois - July 21, 2014: Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, today announced a strategic partnership with 1871, Chicago’s entrepreneurial hub for digital startups. 1871 is the largest startup hub in the U.S. with more than 250 member companies at the present time.

Pearson has long-standing relationships with many K-12 and higher education institutions in the area, such as Chicago Public Schools and Chicago City Colleges, and this partnership will enable the company to further collaborate with local education technology startups.

“At 1871, we’re bringing together Chicago’s brightest digital designers, engineers and entrepreneurs who are shaping new technologies, disrupting old business models, and resetting the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Howard A. Tullman, CEO of 1871. “We think Pearson’s deep experience in the education industry and global reach will be extremely valuable to the startups in our community. As a former college president and as an education entrepreneur in my own right, I have worked with Pearson for more than twenty years and look forward to continuing to grow and expand our relationship. ”

“We’re committed to addressing some of the biggest challenges in education and believe that partnering with the startup community is vital for stimulating greater innovation in the industry and improving learning outcomes,” said Diana Stepner, VP of Innovation Partnerships and Developer Relations. “Two of the startups selected for our edtech accelerator Pearson Catalyst for Education, announced last month, were recommended by 1871 and we look forward to working more closely with other startup talent in the area as well.”

Pearson Catalyst participant Learnmetrics, which provides real-time analytics for educators, will be one of the first digital startups to be working in the newly expanded 1871 2.0 space, which is growing by 50 percent at its Merchandise Mart location this year, thanks to a $2.5 million state grant. 

“We’re excited to be partnering with Pearson as part of the 2014 Catalyst class,” said Julian Miller, CEO of Learnmetrics. “Given that it’s a virtual program, we’re able to continue working with the tech community in Chicago at 1871, while also connecting and collaborating with our Pearson mentors and sponsors from across the globe. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Pearson works with individuals and organisations of every size to explore smart ideas and technologies that can make education more effective and improve learning outcomes. This means collaborating with developers, global startups in the Catalyst and Edupreneurs accelerator programmes, and a growing community of innovation partners, such as 1871, RocketSpace, 1776, LearnLaunch, MaRS and Makerversity.

For more information

Please contact:

Erin Farber / erin.farber@pearson.com / +1 (917) 697-2027

Laura Clark / laura@1871.com / +1 (330) 715-0687

About Pearson

Pearson is the world's leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 70 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning.

We provide learning materials, technologies, assessments and services to teachers and students in order to help people everywhere aim higher and fulfil their true potential. We put the learner at the centre of everything we do.

www.pearson.com

About 1871

1871 is an entrepreneurial hub for digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, the soon-to-be 75,000-square-foot facility provides Chicago startups with programming, access to mentors, educational resources, potential investors and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that help them on their path to building successful businesses. 1871 is the flagship project of the CEC.

www.1871.com

1871 CEO Howard Tullman Speaks at Pearson Innovation Leadership Summit