Dallan Dirkmaat is an established business consultant who helps clients achieve entrepreneurial success and achieve sustained turnarounds. Active in his professional community, Dallan Dirkmaat is also a member of Startup Grind, a worldwide community for entrepreneurs.
A recent Startup Grind blog article drew attention to the challenges faced when building a growth firm in the EdTech sphere. With a relatively small number of companies in the area, compared with AdTech and FinTech, educational technology startups face a dearth of hard data on market size and opportunities. A long-term endeavor, learning and education can be difficult to quantify in ways that demonstrate the actual value and impact of what the product provides. This makes monetizing the product challenging, as the complex brain processes involved in attaining academic milestones must be analyzed and then presented in the most impactful, demand-driving way to investors and learners alike. With venture funding hard to attain, those EdTech firms that successfully bridge this gap such as Duolingo may have significant greenfield opportunities that transform their innovations into a major market presence. This potential to develop and capitalize on unexploited niches makes EdTech a dynamic and growing startup area, despite the high obstacles to surmount.
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For nearly six years, Dallan Dirkmaat has served as managing partner of Summit Consulting in Denver, Colorado, where he provides financial consulting services to a diverse range of clients. Alongside his daily consulting work, Dallan Dirkmaat maintains membership in a number of professional groups, including the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO). In late 2018, EO entered into a new partnership agreement with the Opportunity Network (ON) that will give EO members the chance to network with nearly 18,000 CEOs through the MyEO DealExchange, which consists of executives from 118 countries. In his comments, MyEO DealExchange advocate Alan Peterson says that the partnership gives EO members a great opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs who share their vision to create disruptive, emergent businesses. The DealExchange network has been in place for more than three decades. The partnership with ON will now also give network members the ability to directly connect with end buyers and financing partners who can provide needed venture capital and debt management services. To learn more about the partnership and MyEO DealExchange, visit myeodx.com. An established presence in business consulting, Dallan Dirkmaat engages with clients in executing results-driven turnaround strategies. Experienced in the art of networking, Dallan Dirkmaat emphasizes approaches that rely on personal interaction rather than social media. Traditional networking begins with legwork that includes joining local professional organizations and attending meetings that bring together others within a field. Attracting a variety of attendees, such venues provide an ideal opportunity to hone people skills that will come into play in pressure situations down the road, including those where reading the other party correctly makes or breaks a deal. Bring business cards to any gathering and attend with a sense of confidence and purpose that allows you to break through the social barriers that many initially feel at such a gathering. Coming off as a leader translates into opportunities as others within your network decide whether you are knowledgeable and can be trusted. Remember to stand back when appropriate and listen and ask questions, gaining insight into others’ interests and concerns. Not a zero-sum game, networking exists as a two-way street in which various capacities are merged in ways that are mutually beneficial. |
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