Our Mission

Help us deliver on the promise of EdTech.

At Project FoundED, we are dedicated to bringing about equitable learning outcomes for all learners by removing barriers to EdTech innovation and adoption.

We serve educators and education systems by providing resources and training to better discover, evaluate, and adopt Education Technologies in their classrooms. We aim to empower them with the ability to connect with high-quality EdTech products that will enhance educational outcomes for their students, especially those historically left behind.

We provide support and expertise to entrepreneurs of EdTech companies. This support of EdTech innovators ensures a diverse and high quality set of options for educators. Our EdTech community has grown to include over 1000 different EdTech solutions.

We create and publish industry information and convene ecosystem players around collaborating on systemic change.

Our Story

We’ve been working in Education Technology for a decade

When school closures were looming on the horizon in March 2020, we knew it would have massive effects on the EdTech industry but had no way to quantify how significant these changes would be or whether they would be good or bad.

Our own experiences as entrepreneurs, EdTech founders, and project leaders drove us to ask questions and start collecting data. We distributed a questionnaire to as many EdTech founders as we could reach to begin tracking the effects of school closures on EdTech. We heard wildly disparate stories about shortened runways, massive adoptions, canceled contracts, shifting investments, and more.

We talked to entrepreneurs, funders, educators, and parents from diverse backgrounds. We learned a lot and started publishing our findings. It led to some press, good action, and lots of great conversation, but we were left with nagging questions.

 
 

Whats Next?

There’s still so much work to be done.

 

Why did we have to do this?

Why did the data not already exist?

Who advocates for all of the stakeholders in the EdTech ecosystem and their needs?

Project FoundEd has been building answers to these questions so that we can all follow the same industry map and work in concert to create better learning outcomes for all kids.

The truth is that today’s EdTech ecosystem is not operating with equitable outcomes as a primary goal. It’s no one’s fault, it’s just that no one is coordinating our efforts. It doesn’t have to be that way. Project FoundED is dedicated to improving equitable learning outcomes for all learners by removing barriers to EdTech innovation and adoption, and increasing collaboration broadly across the EdTech ecosystem.

Ultimately, we hope that this organization will become an indispensable resource for everyone in the EdTech industry and a transformative community for entrepreneurs and educators alike.

Who we are

  • Habib Bangura

    Co-Founder and CEO

    Habib has a deep passion for identifying and scaling education solutions that work. He most recently led the launch and scale of an education non-profit across 7 states. His work in this capacity resulted In system-wide adoption of evidence-based high school persistence models in 50+ school districts. Habib’s path towards ed-tech was inspired by experiences brokering mission-aligned  partnerships between school districts and ed-tech companies; and his experience leading the development of data solutions now being used in 150+ schools. 

    Away from work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids, and perfecting their favorite African and Caribbean dishes. Habib is energized by the timeliness of Project FoundED's mission, and is excited to partner with all ecosystem players to actualize ed-tech equity.

  • Sandro Olivieri

    Sandro Olivieri

    Co-Founder and Board Chair

    Though his first job was in EdTech 20 years ago, most of his passion and knowledge of the industry was developed in his role as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the AT&T Aspire Accelerator. In previous lives, Sandro was a Computer Scientist, MBA, restaurant manager, and comic strip artist. He loves building new things, and especially loves when these things have positive social impact.

    Sandro is the founder and president of Productive — an impact investment innovation firm, CEO of Project FoundEd, and serves as the Board Chair of 826 National

    He lives with his wife and three daughters in Berkeley, CA

  • Amy Mandrier Headshot

    Amy Mandrier

    Co-Founder & Treasurer

    A project manager by trade, Amy Mandrier has extensive experience leading large teams to produce results. She has experience providing leadership to drive strategic direction, including enterprise-wide process standardization and enhanced service delivery. She has built countless project timelines, managed complex multi-million dollar budgets, led teams to achieve common goals and advised on a number of startup projects in the EdTech and nonprofit industries.

    Amy resides in Charleston, SC with her daughter and husband. In her spare time, you will find her in the kitchen with her daughter and wine-loving husband or traveling anywhere and everywhere.