Feb 2, 2019 · 31m · a16z
What's Next for Education Startups in 2019 (Part II)
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this Andreessen Horowitz discussion, a16z General Partner Connie Chan and Frank Chen explore emerging trends in global EdTech and adult education, focusing on Chinese market innovations, mobile-first design, AI-driven learning, and novel monetization models for creators.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The host as informed peer 4.2 Guest teaching 5.5 Guest disagreement 1.2 The host pushing back 2.0
speaking balance: gold is the host, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 23:40 Contrarian stance on mobile-first app development
Connie directly pushes back against mainstream investor consensus, insisting that startups should build mobile-first to unlock native device hardware capabilities.
Hardest push from the host ▶ 23:38 Host presses conventional investor adviceFrank challenges Connie's mobile-first thesis by stating that most venture capitalists explicitly recommend establishing a desktop brand before building a mobile app.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:42 Correction on primary edtech demographics in ChinaConnie reframes Frank's assumption that tutoring spend in China is dominated by K-12 parents, revealing that post-college adults aged 26-35 form the market's largest demographic.
The host holds their own ▶ 17:46 Tesla top-down strategy analogy applied to edtechFrank displays strong strategic knowledge by drawing a direct comparison between Masterclass launching with elite celebrities and Tesla's Roadster-to-Model 3 product sequence.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The host as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The host pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Disclaimer and Investment Disclosures | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | Frank frames the discussion around user growth in China edtech, expecting K-12 tutoring to dominate spending. Connie educates him by citing iResearch data showing that 26-to-35-year-old post-graduates form the largest user demographic in a $40B market. | |
| Shifting Beyond Traditional College and Practical Skills | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Frank references Andreessen Horowitz's investment thesis behind Udacity and cites Taobao University as an example. Connie explains how LingoChamp leverages AI voice analysis to eliminate teacher costs, yielding 70%+ gross margins. | |
| AI Innovation in Music Education: VIP Peilian | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Connie breaks down VIP Peilian's AI music software that scores tempo and pitch, allowing one instructor to supervise multiple students simultaneously. Frank asks what is missing in current Western platforms like Udemy and Udacity. | |
| Rethinking Business Models and Creator Monetization | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Connie explains why ad-supported YouTube models force creators toward clickbait over deep educational content. Frank shares a personal anecdote about fixing a doorknob via YouTube to contrast simple visual DIY with comprehensive courseware. | |
| Cultural Support, Platform Curation, and Modular Tools | 6 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Frank demonstrates high domain expertise by drawing an analogy between Masterclass's premium strategy and Tesla's top-down rollout strategy. Connie highlights how platform curation and unbundled modular tools can empower non-media experts to monetize knowledge. | |
| Entrepreneurial Advice: Mobile-First and Monetization | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | Connie presents a self-described contrarian position advocating for mobile-first app development over traditional web development. Frank provides host pushback by noting that standard Silicon Valley VC consensus usually advises building a PC presence first. |
Statements from this episode (16)
Chan: China's online education market to hit 300M users by 2020
“IResearch says that right now online education in China is a hundred fifty million users and expected to grow to nearly three hundred million by year 2020. It's a forty billion dollar industry expected to grow to seventy billion dollars.”
Chan: Adults aged 26-35 are the largest online education demographic in China
“The largest group is not K through 12. It's not even college students. The largest groups of students who want to do self-improvement in online education, they are 26 to 35.”
Chen: Lifelong learning imperative drives a16z's Udacity investment thesis
“They'll send you to classes and so on, and we know that's going to change. We know that the world is so dynamic Now that you can't learn everything that you need to be a productive worker or citizen by age 22, and you're going to have to learn ongoing, right? …”
Chan: Language app LingoChamp achieves gross margins over 70 percent
“This company, LingoChamp, their gross margins are over 70%.”
Chan: ML audio scoring lets music teachers instruct multiple students simultaneously
“And then not only is that the case, they use the machine learning aspect to help the teachers with scoring the kids and scoring the performance, because with music, just like with language, there is a actual pitch, there is an actual tempo, an actual rhythm th…”
Connie Chan: ML in language and music education remains untapped in the West
“There's just a lot more we can do with machine learning, especially when it comes to language and music that is still, I think, very untapped here in the West.”
Chan: Long-tail educational content doesn't always suit video
“A lot of long-tail expertise doesn't always naturally suit video.”
Chan: Ad revenue incentives limit the depth of YouTube educational content
“Because it's ad based, a lot of the content on YouTube can't go to the depth of absurdities that you need to really make a big impact on your life or your career. Because the creators, they have these incentives to have to create content that gets lots of clic…”
Chan: No Shopify-like platform currently exists for knowledge creators
“There aren't great platforms right now that make it as easy as creating like a Shopify website for these creators to monetize their knowledge.”
Chan: Direct monetization incentives lead creators to produce higher quality content
“Because I think a lot of creators, when they have an ability to make a significant amount of income from sharing their expertise, they will create better content.”
Chan: MasterClass will need multiple instructors per category as it expands
“I think once they expand, they're gonna have to include more teachers from the same categories.”
Chan: EdTech startups should build mobile apps before websites
“This is probably a contrarian view, even in Silicon Valley, but I would build for mobile first, and I would build your app before you build your website, because it will drastically unlock different ways of thinking.”
Chan: Relying solely on ad monetization is a risky consumer strategy
“Focusing on just building up page views and hoping they'll monetize with ads to me is a scary strategy in general for any consumer app.”
Chen: Lifetime education spending drops to near zero after college
“The way I think about education spending over a lifetime today is kind of like there's an elephant inside a python, right, which is you spend a lot of money and then you get to College, right, where you have the five 29 plan, right, to help subsidize, right, t…”
Chen: Broad EdTech marketplaces suffer from abysmal repeat usage rates
“Another age-old problem with these education market places that try to get broad, right, I want to have all this content, is that the repeat usage is never as good as the entrepreneur hopes. Right? So you kind of hope that I sell you the piano playing class, a…”
Chan: Upfront subscriptions are a flawed business model for EdTech
“For this category, I don't think subscription is necessarily the best model. Because for me to sign up for a subscription, I have to think I'm going to take more than one class, right? I mean, why not instead let me pay per course, and for other courses, if yo…”