In the world of online education, engagement has always been the Achilles’ heel. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) boast huge sign-up numbers, yet retention rates hover in the single digits. Even corporate learning systems — packed with compliance modules and skill-building courses — often go untouched.
Ann Marie Sastry, founder and CEO of Amesite, saw the problem up close as a professor, researcher, and ed-tech leader: the internet was full of rich, immersive experiences — except when it came to learning.
Her solution wasn’t just to make another learning management system. It was to rethink the product from the buyer’s perspective — whether that buyer was a university dean fighting for alumni engagement or a corporate L&D leader under pressure to upskill thousands of employees.
Lesson 1: Build for Attention, Not Just Access
Sastry’s insight was simple but powerful: access alone doesn’t drive learning outcomes. People spend hours a day on social platforms, games, and streaming services because those products compete — and win — for attention. Education platforms, meanwhile, often feel like digital filing cabinets.
Instead of benchmarking Amesite against other ed-tech tools, Sastry’s team banned competitor research in the early days.
“We’re not competing with other education platforms,” she told her team. “We’re competing with everything else people could be doing online.”
That framing shifted product design toward engagement loops, intuitive UX, and AI-driven personalization — elements proven to keep users coming back in other industries.
Lesson 2: Let the Buyer Define “Value”
Like many founders, Sastry started with a strong product vision. But she quickly learned that what Amesite thought was important often differed from what the buyer valued.
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Universities cared about growing enrollments, deepening alumni relationships, and showing legislators their public impact.
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Enterprises cared about ROI from training, upskilling speed, and measurable employee retention.
By listening — through surveys, standing meetings, and post-launch user feedback — Amesite’s messaging evolved from “Here’s what our tech does” to “Here’s how you’ll hit your business objectives faster.”
Lesson 3: Make It Frictionless to Say “Yes”
Buyer intelligence shaped not just Amesite’s product, but its delivery model:
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Fully branded ecosystems that look and feel like the client’s own platform.
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Turnkey setup with no extra hires required.
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Flexible content delivery — Amesite can load client-created content or develop it for them.
This “last-mile partner” positioning removed the biggest barriers to adoption in both higher ed and enterprise training.
Lesson 4: Treat Culture as a Growth Lever
Amesite’s product may be about learning, but its internal culture is about alignment. Sastry developed eight core “beats” that define decision-making, including:
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Judgment beats rules (empowerment over bureaucracy)
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Measurement beats conjecture (data over guesswork)
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Growth beats comfort (stretch goals over easy wins)
Hiring and retention start with cultural fit, which ensures every customer interaction — from sales to support — is consistent with the brand promise.
Lesson 5: Buyer Intelligence Isn’t Passive
Collecting feedback is table stakes. Acting on it quickly is the differentiator.
When Amesite noticed early users struggling with a core feature, the team rebuilt the onboarding flow over a single weekend — and shipped it before the next Monday. That rapid response turned what could have been a churn risk into a trust-building moment.
Key Takeaways for SaaS & Tech Founders
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Benchmark against attention leaders, not just category peers. Your real competition is what else the user could be doing.
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Position your product in buyer outcomes, not feature lists.
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Eliminate adoption friction. The easier it is to implement, the faster you’ll close deals.
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Hire for cultural alignment first. It keeps your buyer experience consistent at scale.
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Close the loop fast on feedback. Rapid fixes build confidence and loyalty.
Why this matters for your SaaS or tech company: In competitive markets, the companies that win aren’t always the ones with the most advanced tech — they’re the ones that understand their buyers so deeply that every feature, message, and interaction feels tailor-made. Amesite’s journey proves that buyer intelligence is more than research — it’s an operating system for growth.