EdTech
It started the way many good things do.
Almost by accident.
I don’t even remember the exact introduction. The CEO reached out looking for help with his EdTech startup. He was in New Jersey. I was in NYC. He and his co-founders were teachers with an idea.
A simple one.
'What if students actually paid attention in class?'
They weren’t trying to reinvent education. They wanted to enable teachers to see who was following along, who was confused, and who needed support, without putting students on the spot.
The idea made sense immediately.
I actually wish something like this existed when I was a student. How many times did I sit quietly, not understanding something, and choose not to raise my hand?
In college, sometimes it was the subject matter. Sometimes it was being hung over. Either way, a quiet way to signal confusion would have helped.
But they weren’t focused on college students, yet. They were focused on serving elementary students, right as Chromebooks and classroom technology were rolling into school districts across the country.
As for the software, the design was simple. Thoughtful. Practical.
It worked inside Google. Eventually Microsoft too.
Every student on a Chromebook.
Questions asked quietly.
Understanding measured without judgment.
Help delivered without embarrassment.
Nothing flashy. Just well considered.
And then they built a sales team. Rolling it out district by district. Some teachers hesitated at ‘new tech’ but many adopted it.
Growth followed.
Investment came in.
Later, it merged into a larger company.
Our role at TTO sat underneath all of that. The work was simple, but not easy. We built the accounting infrastructure that allowed the business to scale without friction. Salesforce, Breadwinner, Xero, and Stripe. All connected into a system that could grow with them.
When in-house leadership made more sense, we transitioned everything to their internal CFO. That was the transition. And why they are now an ex-client.
The foundation we built supported more than the software. It supported the team.
They were spread out. New Jersey. Iowa. Kansas. Different places. Different schedules. And somehow, it worked. Momentum built, supported by systems that didn’t need constant fixing.
And like all good things, it changed.
Leadership. Mergers. Acquisitions. Markets.
Such is business. Such is life.
We are cheerleaders, for sure. But mainly, we remove friction. We build systems that quietly support growth, so leaders can stay focused on their real work.
The lesson: when the foundation is built early and built well, growth doesn’t need to be dramatic. It just works.
If you’re leading a business with big ideas and want your accounting and operations to support your growth, let’s talk. We build systems that let you focus on what matters, while the numbers and infrastructure keep pace.
