A note from the founder

My name is Andy Lawhorn, and I’ve been a service provider in the E-Rate program since the 2005-06 funding year. Across the businesses I’ve run since then, my teams and I have completed 502 applications — mostly Internal Connections and Managed Internal Broadband Services contracts.

That’s a lot of 470s read, a lot of 471s filed, and a lot of PIA inquiries answered. Along the way, I’ve used most of the tools out there for getting at USAC’s data — and almost all of them have the same two problems. They’re expensive the moment you want to look at more than a single state at a time, and the value pretty much stops at the data. You get the spreadsheet, but you’re still on your own when it comes to actually doing anything with it.

I wanted to build a tool that brings every party in the E-Rate process to the table — and gives each one the specific things they need to be successful.

Through an E-Rate cycle, a service provider talks to a K-12 school, an E-Rate coordinator advising that school, and a manufacturer whose equipment ends up in the bid. Four different roles, four different sets of priorities, four different jobs to be done. Most existing tools were built for one of those roles at the exclusion of the others — usually the data analyst.

EduTek is the tool I wished I’d had on day one. It gives all four parties what they actually need to do their work, scoped to their role, and tries to simplify a process that has only ever gotten more complex.

Thanks for being here. If something about the tool doesn’t match the way you work, tell me — I’m still very much building this from inside the trenches I started in 20 years ago.

— Andy LawhornFounder, EduTek Solution