🎧 Breaking Borders: How Global EdTech Founders Build Trust, Scale Smart, and Keep Local Impact

Introduction

Here’s the brutal truth:

You can’t scale education globally if you don’t understand the culture you’re selling into.

I see it all the time with edtech founders.

You’ve got the product.

You’ve done the research.

You’ve got a clean deck, maybe even a few pilots under your belt.

So you hit the road—start pitching to school districts, government buyers, education leaders...

And nothing sticks.

The calls don’t convert. The interest fizzles. The traction you thought you had? Gone.

Not because your product’s bad—but because you skipped the one thing that actually moves deals in education: trust.

This is the moment I call the Founder’s Fog—where your belief is still burning, but the path ahead looks like guesswork. And if you stay there too long?

You burn out.

Denise Abulafia went from neuroscience PhD to scaling an edtech company, Educatina, that reached 6M+ students across Latin America. She didn’t set out to be a tech founder. She was knee-deep in neuroscience, chasing the mysteries of the brain.

But somewhere between the lab rats and the academic journals, she asked a simple question:

Is this really where I make the most impact?

That question kicked off a journey that took her from biochemistry labs in Buenos Aires to building an edtech company that reached over 6 million students—and eventually got acquired. 

The turning point? Realizing that science alone doesn’t solve problems. Systems do. And systems are built on trust.

She didn’t just build a product—she earned her way in to complex education systems by doing something most founders skip:

She listened before she sold.

Here’s what Denise learned—and what every founder should know about scaling in education.

You Don’t Need to Know Everything—You Need to Ask Early

Denise didn't make the mistake founders make—Fake confidence. 

She flipped that script. She built an advisory board before she had a product. No equity, no title—just a clear mission and the guts to ask for help. 

 “They believed in me,” she said. “Not just the idea.”

So many founders are afraid to ask for help early. They think they need proof first. But Denise flipped it: she led with purpose, not performance.

Ask yourself: Who believes in the problem you’re solving? Not the solution. The problem.

Start there. And bring them in early.

The result? Real mentors, real momentum, and a better business from day one.

 “I had zero experience in finance. I didn’t even know what a P&L was,” she said. “But I asked. I learned. I moved fast.”

If you're building something from scratch, skip the bravado. Build the boardroom first.

Product-Market Fit Means Nothing Without Cultural Fit

We love to talk about product-market fit like it’s the endgame. It’s not.

Denise hit the wall most founders eventually face: even with a good product, adoption doesn’t follow if you don’t understand the culture you’re selling into.

You don’t sell into Latin America the way you sell into Texas. That’s not just language—it’s behavior, expectations, trust systems. Denise didn’t just translate her platform into Spanish. She localized it to each country’s education system, norms, and even the pace of how schools operate.

> “In Mexico, every state has its own culture. You can’t assume one Spanish fits all. You have to meet people where they are.”

Founders, hear me: translation ≠ localization.

You’re not just pushing features. You’re building context. That means understanding the classroom norms, the school day rhythms, the unspoken priorities of educators in that region.

Think of it like showing up to a classroom with the wrong textbook. You might have good content—but if it doesn’t connect, you lose the room.

Trust Beats Tech—Every Time

I’ve said it before: education is a credibility-first industry.

Denise got that early. She didn’t launch with tech. She launched relationships.

Edtech founders love to lead with features. But features don’t build relationships.

Denise learned this the hard way: Trust is the foundation. From investors to school leaders to students, people buy into you before they ever buy your product.

> “Education is all about trust,” she said. “You build that by being in the field. Visiting schools. Listening to what they need—not just pitching what you built.”

Most of us think we can earn that trust through a well-polished demo or a slick email sequence. But the truth is, the best founders don’t sell. They embed.

Think: less sales calls, more site visits. Less LinkedIn cold pitch, more showing up to observe a classroom.

You have to know the language they speak—and I’m not just talking dialect.

Founders: Put down the demo deck. Pick up the phone. Go shake hands.

The best founders build by being interested, not interesting.

This might be my favorite story from the episode. 

Denise is on vacation in Aruba. No business cards. 

No pitch deck. Just curiosity. 

She visits a local school because—of course she does—and ends up having a two-hour conversation with the school director. 

A few weeks later—They became a client.

“I was just asking questions,” she told me. “And that built enough trust to lead to a sale.”

That’s not luck. That’s what happens when you're seen as someone who’s interested, not just interesting. (Shoutout to our guy John Gamba for that phrase.)

It’s like coaching: the best ones don’t start with the clipboard—they start with questions.

Acquisition ≠ Exit. It’s a Continuation.

Denise sold Educatina—but she’s clear: it wasn’t about cashing out.

It was about finding a partner who would keep the mission alive.

“We took eight months just to find the right acquirer. We didn’t want it to die under a bigger brand.”

That’s the mindset shift more founders need: Scale isn’t always about size. It’s about longevity.

Founders, if you’re building something meaningful, the acquisition isn’t the end. It’s a handoff.

If your goal is impact, don’t chase the flashiest exit. Chase the one that keeps the mission alive.

Denise built her company with integrity, and she exited the same way—mission-first, long-game focused.

That’s the model.

If You’re Not in the Field, You’re Wrong 

Denise and I agree on this one, hard stop:

You can’t scale from your desk.

You can’t assume what educators need based on a survey. 

You can’t diagnose classroom problems from a spreadsheet. 

And you definitely can’t build trust from behind a pitch deck.

Denise visited hundreds of schools—across Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and beyond—not with a product in hand, but with curiosity.

“I’d show up, ask questions, sit in classrooms, just to see how they actually learn,” she said.

She learned that the pain points weren’t always what she expected. Some regions needed more basic access. Others needed local curriculum alignment. Some needed someone to just listen for once.

That kind of insight doesn’t live in Google Docs. It lives in hallways, teacher lounges, and lunchroom conversations.

And here’s the kicker:

 “The science of learning is different from the science of teaching,” Denise told me.

“If you don’t understand both—you’re building blind.”

Get out of your head and into the field.

Show up. Ask questions. Sit in the back of the classroom.

Talk less. Listen more.

That’s how you stop guessing.

That’s how you build what actually works.

Don’t Talk About the Solution. Talk About the Problem

I see it all the time—founders obsessing over their product.

They fine-tune the UI. Polish the pitch deck. Obsess over roadmap features.

And yeah, it all looks great.

But when you ask them why they’re building it?

Crickets. Or worse—vague buzzwords.

Denise does the opposite.

She doesn’t chase features. She chases problems. And that mindset is exactly what allowed her to move—from neuroscience to pharma, from pharma to education, from classroom to scaled edtech startup.

“I support advisory boards not because of the solution—but because of the problem they’re trying to solve,” she told me.

Let that sink in.

Her loyalty isn’t to the platform.

It’s to the pain.

Because here’s the truth: your product will evolve.

The tech will change. Your team will change. Your business model might get flipped upside down.

But if you’re locked in on the real problem, you’ll always find the next right step.

And when investors, partners, or advisors see that clarity, they lean in.

Because people don’t rally behind products.

They rally behind purpose.

So here’s my challenge to you:

Are you pitching a feature? Or are you fighting for a fix?

Are you building a better UI? Or are you solving a broken experience?

If your product disappeared tomorrow… would your mission still matter?

That’s the test.

Founders, fall in love with the problem. The rest will follow.

🎧 Want the Whole Framework?

If you’re trying to break into new markets, scale beyond borders, or just build something that lasts—this conversation with Denise is your wake-up call.

Be in the field. Ask better questions. Listen more.

The growth will follow.

Denise’s journey is proof that you don’t have to come from business to build something that works. You just have to stay curious, stay grounded, and stay committed to solving the right problem.

→ Listen to the full episode now on Apple + Spotify.

This conversation will reset how you think about scale, trust, and leadership. Trust me—it’s worth the time.