KaiPod Catalyst is an accelerator for entrepreneurial educators to launch their own microschools in their communities.

We are looking for out of the box thinkers who are not only passionate about education but also committed to doing the hard work needed to build new learning pathways in their community.

There is no one clear profile of the ideal candidate for KaiPod Catalyst. You could be a teacher who is looking to serve kids in a new way or take your career in a new direction. You could be a community leader with the connections and commitment to help children recover from the trauma of COVID. You could be a parent who wants to form a pathway for your own kids and believe that your vision will attract others.

A team of Founders may also apply to KaiPod Catalyst if you’re working on the same microschool vision.

We want to drastically expand the number and types of schools that exist in different communities. That is why KaiPod Learning has been working to move the microschool movement forward. Microschools are small and highly-personalized learning environments, founded by an entrepreneur who believes they can do a better job serving students than existing options they see in their community.

What the microschool looks like is up to you. Whether you’re looking to bring a KaiPod-like space to your community or pursue an entirely different vision, we encourage you to apply because the most innovative ideas come from people closest to the students.

Here’s what we believe:

• Children should have the freedom and support to learn at their own pace and work towards mastery of the content. Typically, technology has some role to play in helping make this possible.

• Parents want to exercise choice and voice in what, how, where, and when their children learn. As educators, our obligation is to enable and support parents to exercise that choice and voice.

• Educators deserve access to career pathways that make a real difference in the lives of their students while allowing the educator to live a sustainable lifestyle.

And finally, the best learning environments are effective, efficient, and engaging. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

There is no cost to Founders to join the KaiPod Catalyst accelerator program.

When you join, you enter into an agreement with KaiPod Catalyst. This agreement states that joining Catalyst is free of charge and that throughout the program we work with you to convert your ideas and vision into a solid plan and execution. After the program, you decide if you launch a microschool or similar learning model. If you launch, you agree to partner with KaiPod Learning for three years and will continue to receive our support in exchange for a per-student fee.

We believe this model minimizes upfront financial risk for you and aligns our incentives with yours for the long run. The fee allows KaiPod Learning to continue investing in best in class mentorship and resources for founders into the future.

Yes. We are so excited about supporting Founders who have an idea and want the support and accountability to bring their vision to life.

Yes. We love working with Founders who are already serving families and wish to further scale or streamline what they’re doing. How our team supports you will evolve to be more targeted.

Some of you will be participating in KaiPod Catalyst while teaching or working elsewhere. We recognize this and have designed the program to fit right alongside.

On average, you should expect to spend 10-15 hours a week working on your idea. When you get closer to launching (Summer 2025), your time commitment will increase as you get your site setup, meet with families, and take care of other operational details.

Once Catalyst ends, we do expect most Founders will dedicate themselves full time to the operations of their program. If that is not the case for you, we ask you to make that clear in the application so we can better understand how you plan to have your program launch and grow without you.

Twice a year we are recruiting the highest caliber of microschool founders to join a Catalyst cohort.
The winter cohorts start in November and last 28 weeks. These cohorts are designed to give founders a lot of time to work towards opening their microschool in summer of the following year.
The spring cohorts start in Q1 of each year and last 18 weeks. This cohort works towards launching their microschool in summer of that same year. The spring cohort covers the same program as the winter cohort with fewer weeks in between to work towards their launch. You can think of this cohort as one with an accelerated timeline.
We intentionally developed these two programs to be able to accept founders into the program twice a year.

The content of the program is organized into themes that reflect the key areas of understanding needed to launch and operate a microschool from curriculum to financial models, and everything in between.

Each week, you'll engage in live and asynchronous activities designed to level up your knowledge and facilitate the work you'll do to setup up your microschool. We balance rigor with relevance through:

• Master sessions with experts in education and microschooling to offer best practices and inspiration

• Roundtable discussions with your peers to examine and advance your efforts

• Q&A sessions with veteran microschool operators to target deeper real-world understanding

Throughout the program and beyond, you’ll have access to one-on-one consultations with a network of KaiPod experts and a community of peers to help tackle the issues you face along the road.

The ultimate goal is for your center to be self-sustaining so you can pay yourself and your staff from the revenues you’re earning. However, we know that some initial capital is required so we will help you with introductions to funders, support in the application process, and provide you recommendations, where appropriate. As an example, 100% of our last cohort that applied to a prestigious microschool grant program was accepted.

Yes. While all entrepreneurial activity has some level of risk, we have seen countless examples of teachers and others taking the leap to start their own microschool.

Recently, Forbes ran an article profiling just two of these inspiring entrepreneurs. They are both earning a competitive income while building something they believe deeply in.

We are excited by the power of this movement and clear-eyed about the challenges local operators face. We have designed Catalyst to directly tackle these challenges and give you the best chance of success. During the program, all Founders will receive support across five key areas.

MARKETING
One of the hardest challenges in launching a learning center is finding enough families to commit. We launched almost 20 sites in two years, have supported 16 founders in the first cohort of KaiPod Catalyst in launching their microschools, and learned a lot by doing. Our marketing playbook spans brand building, digital asset management (e.g., website, social channels), paid acquisition channels (e.g., paid search, paid social), and organic channels (e.g., community management, activating word of mouth). In addition, KaiPod has partnerships with more than 25 online schools (representing 40%+ of all online school students) and many grassroots homeschooling organizations.

PROGRAM DESIGN
We will support you in creating a coherent, inspiring philosophy that parents and students will be excited by. In addition to helping you identify desired outcomes, setting goals aligned with your vision, and creating actionable steps, you will also have access to a bank of resources to power your microschool. Examples include academic planning templates; enrichment lesson plans; family communication protocols; behavior management processes; staff, student, and family handbooks; and more.

FINANCE AND REGULATIONS
Understanding your local regulations and making the right choices as you plan and develop your microschool idea is critical. We will support you in understanding the local and state regulations and what implications your decisions might have on other elements of your school vision.
To make sure you are set up for long-term success, we will support you in developing and fine tuning your financial model as one part of our program.

OPERATIONS
There are hundreds of decisions to make when you’re thinking about the desired student and family experience. Our operational planning playbook will help you ensure the trains run on time. Examples include student enrollment forms, site management, daily scheduling, events and field trip management, etc.

SOFTWARE
You would get access to our proprietary software as part of our entire “operating system” that allows you to manage family communication, billing and payments, budgeting, forecasting, attendance management, and academic tracking. As our software improves, you will always have access to the latest and greatest.

OTHER
There are so many other things to think about when it comes to launching your microschool. How can you find local and national grants to apply for? What type of furniture will you need? What if you get denied a business license? KaiPod will be your support system as you navigate these waters and help you benefit from everything we have learned.

Finally, once you join the KaiPod Catalyst program, you and all your families and students automatically become a part of the KaiPod national network. They get access to our national programming, including family events and support groups, student activities, and clubs. When they join your program, families, and students will feel connected to a larger movement.

In Fall 2024, once your program starts to serve families, the services outlined above still continue, but now with a greater focus on helping you operate your center more efficiently, improve academic outcomes, and grow.

Once you are accepted into the Catalyst program, we will share a partnership agreement that outlines our scope of services and financial arrangement with you.

The KaiPod Learning team has decades of experience in traditional public schools, private schools, charters, online schools, microschools, and homeschoolers. Over the past 2 years, we’ve built this brand new model of learning and grown the company 30x!

We are so excited to be launching this new program to help more people open their microschools. Our profiles and bios are here. We can’t wait to get to know you!

The name KaiPod is based on the Greek word ‘kairos’ meaning ‘the right time to act.’ It applies to parents who stand up and take charge of their children’s learning. It also applies to aspiring entrepreneurs like you who stand up and take charge of improving learning in your community.

The word Catalyst refers to a substance that increases the rate of a reaction. That’s how we see ourselves. We want to increase the rate of innovation happening in local communities and offer more alternative learning pathways for students.