Any additional questions on your mind can be found here.
General Questions
We typically work best with founders, presidents, CEOs, or Principals of mission-based EdTech companies typically with 5-50 employees, $5M - $25M+ annual revenue or ARR, with a focus on STEM, language learning, higher education, career readiness, education management, adaptive learning, MOOCs.
You’re typically facing a significant hurdle or transition that keeps you up at night. Or feeling like you’re just feeding the machine rather than the business meeting your needs or the needs of your customers.
You’re open to an outside perspective to accurately diagnose issues and open-mindedly consider solutions that drive real change while minimizing disruption. You have no hesitation about the fee against the background of the possible impact on your firm.
Expect an honest, unfiltered outside perspective on how you’re really doing (without pulling any punches). We don’t do cookie-cutter solutions. We’ve seen many of the typical hurdles and growing pains EdTech companies face. What’s unique is not the hurdles themselves, but how clients have turned these challenges into opportunities and combined them into their own distinct mix.
While we want to point you in the right direction, you understand that meaningful change ultimately depends on you. Our goal is to equip you with the insights and strategies you need to lead effectively, make informed decisions, and drive sustainable growth long after our engagement ends.
Chris Davis, our Practice Lead, will work directly with you throughout the engagement.
Five things:
- Our real-world experience informs every aspect of our proprietary diagnostic methodologies and strategic frameworks, tailored for organizations like yours.
- We strive to be objective and offer a helpful point of view.
- We balance genuine empathy with honest, straightforward advice.
- We embody our own advice by practicing what we preach and continue learning and growing.
- We invest significant time upfront to immerse ourselves in your situation, basing our recommendations grounded in research rather than assumptions.
While we’re confident in our value, there are excellent competitors in this field, and nearly all of them are making a solid contribution worth absorbing. If we believe another firm would better serve your specific needs, we’ll be the first to say so and likely suggest someone else that would be a great fit.
Full payment is required upfront for all engagements. The reason isn’t cash flow; rather, it gives us the freedom to be completely objective and transparent with you, focusing entirely on delivering value without billing concerns. Our upfront payment approach ensures that Juniper and our clients are fully committed to the engagement from day one.
For firms where cash flow is a consideration, we accept credit card payments (with a 3% processing fee).
This might be a tough one to answer, so we’d like to be as candid as we can. No, and that’s really for your future benefit. Here’s why:
- We appreciate you wanting to vet our credibility, but for confidentiality reasons, we don’t provide personal client references. But, we have several case studies that illustrate our approach. You’ll get a clear sense of how we operate and the results clients have achieved by working with us.
- Our clients have not signed up to give you advice, and that’s usually what happens. They’ll be on the phone giving you an outline of the great solution that worked for them, in effect consulting you, and there’s no mechanism for payment. Or even any assurance that what worked for them applies to you.
- Ultimately, our reputation is defined by our work. We know we’re not the right fit for most, and that’s okay. What matters is aligning with clients who deeply resonate with our consulting philosophy and mindset.
The most valuable deliverable is the strategic insight and direction that propels your EdTech company forward. So our focus is on providing actionable insights rather than lengthy reports or even reports at all.
- The main deliverable is a diagnostic assessment pinpointing your core challenges and opportunities.
- Recommendations are short, concise, and only in outline form.
- Before and after each advisory module, you’ll have a few things to review, and then some thoughts to start putting into action.
The Business Deep Dive is followed by an “implementation period.” That includes a set number of significant phone calls or emails (which we don’t count). These are usually initiated by you when there’s something you want help with, but sometimes from us if we feel like you’re avoiding us or may have lost some momentum. During the advisory phase, these calls are issues-based where we try to agree on the challenge and the solution, and the implementation phase lets us dig deeper or address something that’s changed. You would initiate that call, providing some context (i.e., an agenda), and then we try to help. To make this efficient, these implementation calls are limited in number and across so many months, whichever occurs first. They are scheduled one at a time, and must always include the decision-makers.
If you decide you’d like our firm to implement branding on your behalf, we can move from an advisor relationship to a branding implementation relationship. If we are still a good fit, we will run and execute the solutions we’ve uncovered in the advisory process (aka. We put our design caps on).
We’d have gone out of business years ago if we didn’t take client confidentiality seriously. All information and data shared with us is protected by strict non-disclosure policies. We also follow comprehensive cybersecurity protocols to ensure your proprietary materials always remain secure.
The best way is to sign up for our free, regular emails packed with actionable insights. We believe in consistently providing value, whether you’re a client or not. Our goal is to contribute to the growth of the entire EdTech ecosystem, so we welcome you to engage with our content in whatever way suits you best.
Clarity Session Questions
I'm not trying to solve every challenge you face. Instead, this session is intentionally designed to identify your ONE highest-leverage decision. When you're drowning in everyone's opinions (including your own), 50 minutes of focused clarity can break months of decision paralysis.
That depends.
At its best, your highest-leverage decision becomes crystal clear, often for the first time. When you can finally see the path forward, decisive action tends to follow naturally. The ROI of confident decision-making is exponential. When you stop second-guessing every move and act with conviction, your entire organization moves faster.
At a minimum, you’ll gain an outside perspective on your business challenges and a clearer sense of direction. But even if you don’t commit to the work, you’ll have gained an educational aspect and a sense of control over your business.
One of the only reasons I can actually help you is that I am not in your world. You’re too close to things. And as much as you might try, it’s nearly impossible to read the label on the jar you’re sitting in. You need an outside perspective willing to listen—clearly and efficiently—and then go far deeper and ask questions that may surprise you…and maybe even annoy you.
I don’t presume to know your business better than you do. This outside perspective allows me to recognize the decision-making patterns that keep successful executives stuck, regardless of their specific market vertical.
I completely understand the hesitation. Executive isolation is real—you're expected to have all the answers. Rest assured that all information you share is kept in the strictest confidence. I’d have gone out of business years ago if I had abused that trust.
For a focused 50 min. session like this, we typically don’t use formal NDAs. The nature of this discussion is mainly focused on giving you the momentum and direction needed to tackle a challenge. For an engagement this small, getting lawyers involved makes little financial sense. But you can be assured that all our discussions are held in strict confidence.
After working with principals of EdTech organizations for several years now, here’s what I’ve found to be true: while the details differ, the decision-making patterns are remarkably consistent. The executive who's paralyzed by investor pressure faces the same core challenge as one overwhelmed by team input—too many voices, not enough clarity on which direction actually works for you.
Put simply, the real problem is rarely what is seen on the surface. It’s the inability to see the forest for the trees when you’re too close to the issues. That inside view can make every challenge seem like an unprecedented obstacle. And that’s precisely where our outside perspective is most valuable to you.
I’m not just going to toss a grenade of hand-wavy ideas and then say ‘Good luck!’ as I run out the door. That doesn’t serve you, and frankly, it’s not how I operate.
So here’s exactly what you can expect from our intensive 50 min. call:
- You won't leave with a to-do list—you'll leave with decision clarity.
- If I've asked the right questions, you'll see your path forward clearly and feel confident taking action. The breakthrough isn't me telling you what to do; it's you finally seeing which decision has the highest leverage for impact.
Think of it like getting a concentrated dose of our brain trust’s expertise and pattern recognition from working with EdTech organizations. But real, sustained results will come from you and your team putting those insights into action.
Overthinking is a symptom of having too many voices in your head without a clear framework for evaluation. This session helps you distinguish between productive analysis and decision paralysis. You'll leave knowing the difference between gathering more information and simply delaying action.
Come prepared to discuss the strategic decision that's keeping you up at night. Which direction are you stuck choosing between? What conflicting advice are you receiving? The most important thing is to show up fully engaged, challenge assumptions, and tackle what’s keeping you up at night.
Perfomance Diagnostic Questions
You’re likely tracking some useful metrics already, but there are also some you should be prioritizing more over others. A Performance Diagnostic goes beyond standard financial analysis by focusing on the metrics that matter most for your specific goals and industry. We then benchmark your performance against your metrics and that of your competitors.
You’ll get a clear roadmap with prioritized actions to improve performance as well as leading indicators that predict future success, along with a realistic timeline to see improvement.
Will it challenge some assumptions? Probably. Will it shine a light on areas that need work? Definitely. But that’s precisely why it’s so powerful.
Everything about our Performance Diagnostic is designed to be laser-focused on your unique reality in the EdTech space. We draw on our deep industry knowledge and pattern recognition to suggest strategies and tactics that have proven effective for firms like yours. But we always adapt these to your specific circumstances, resources, and goals.
We know that for our insights to be actionable, they need to be relevant. And for them to be relevant, they need to be grounded in a deep understanding of your specific context.
Typically, firms seek out this type of assessment in two scenarios:
- You suspect something is off track but lack clarity on exactly what or how to course-correct.
- You need an objective, data-driven perspective on your performance relative to industry benchmarks and competitors.
The true value of a Performance Diagnostic depends on your organization’s readiness to act on the findings. If you’re unsure about your readiness, consider the potential costs of inaction versus the benefits of a clear, data-informed optimization roadmap. Even small, incremental changes based on our insights can lead to significant improvements over time. The goal isn’t to overwhelm you with changes but to provide a clear path for sustainable growth in your space.
Business Deep Dive Questions
In short, we’ve built our entire Business Deep Dive process around delivering meaningful breakthroughs for EdTech firms like yours.
This isn’t generic advice. It’s not a questionnaire. It’s not a race to fill out. It’s not a list of services to offer you. It’s not a report we drop on your lap.
It’s a conversation. It’s a discussion. With exercises specifically designed to help you read the label of the jar you’re in. Once we have clarity on the real problem, we can name it and then, prescribe a solution by translating those insights into action.
Anybody who’s been in business long enough realizes that there are no guaranteed outcomes, but, if you’re ready to make the kind of impact that transforms your business and your life, we’re here to provide an insightful point-of-view.
If you’ve never worked with an advisor before, you may not be familiar with how long results can actually take to surface. And if money is too precious, expectations will be so high that it’s nearly impossible to meet them. Transformative change rarely happens overnight.
In our experience, it’s realistic to expect some initial positive indicators within the first 3-6 months of implementing your new strategic direction. However, to see the full impact of your positioning may take 12-24 months to fully play out. Ultimately, the pace of change will depend on your specific situation and the strategies you choose to implement.
Typically, when your firm is at a pivotal moment. You’ve achieved a level of success, but you know you could be doing better. You know where you want to go, but the path to get there is unclear. You’re facing a significant challenge or transition. You have plenty of work, but the profits aren’t matching your efforts. You’re feeling burnt out and recognize the need to reinvent your approach. You’re ready to invest in your own leadership development and strategic expertise.