Maybrin Growth Strategies - Growth, built for K-12.

01

Market reality

K-12 doesn't behave like a normal SaaS market.

Most EdTech companies struggle because the playbooks they've been handed were built for a different buyer. Here's what's actually true.

01

Schools buy differently.

Procurement moves through teachers, principals, directors, superintendents, and boards. There is no shortcut around the institution.

02

Trust outweighs hype.

Districts care about reputation, references, and how a vendor will behave three years from now. Marketing momentum doesn't survive procurement review.

03

Cycles run on relationships.

Conference floors, peer networks, and long-standing district contacts move pipeline more reliably than paid acquisition ever will.

04

Operational risk is the product.

A school can't afford software that breaks during the bell schedule. Stability, support, and onboarding are part of the buying decision.

05

Calendar gravity is real.

Budget windows, board meetings, and the school year shape when deals close - not your fiscal quarter. Plans that ignore this stall every fall.

06

Imported playbooks fail.

PLG funnels, viral loops, and self-serve land-and-expand were built for a different buyer. Growth in K-12 is engineered, not optimized.

The actual sequence growth follows in K-12.

Instinct Product → Viral Growth

Reality Product → Trust → Adoption → Expansion → Retention

01

Product

Built for the institution

02

Trust

Earned through references

03

Adoption

Inside the daily workflow

04

Expansion

Schools, sites, departments

05

Retention

Year over year, quietly

02

Practice areas

Built specifically for K-12 growth.

Four practice areas, designed to be installed individually or in sequence depending on what's actually slowing the business down.

01

Sales strategy & pipeline development

A pipeline built for districts. Deliberate outbound, sharper demos, and a conference strategy that turns floor time into actual opportunities.

GTM planning Outbound & CRM systems Conference strategy Sales enablement Demo refinement

02

Brand positioning & messaging

Clarity that holds up in a district demo, a board meeting, and a LinkedIn feed. Positioning a buyer can defend internally - not just admire.

Product positioning Founder messaging Website & pitch copy Category differentiation Narrative storytelling

03

Customer success & retention

Schools renew when software quietly makes their lives easier. Onboarding, adoption, and account systems that earn the next contract.

Onboarding systems Renewals strategy Expansion playbooks District relationships Health scoring & QBRs

04

Growth operations

The unglamorous infrastructure that lets a small team move like a much larger one. Reporting, automation, and a calm, well-instrumented funnel.

Funnel optimization Reporting infrastructure Marketing automation Stack consolidation Fractional leadership

03

The founder

This isn't theory. It comes from doing the work.

Founder

Donnie Schemetti Richmond, VA

Donnie Schemetti - operator, founder, and longtime K-12 growth strategist.

Donnie has spent his career inside the parts of education most consultants never see - the district inbox, the conference floor at 7am, the renewal call that decides whether a company has a Q4. He's built K-12 SaaS businesses from the ground up, scaled go-to-market engines for education-focused companies, and sat across the table from superintendents, athletic directors, and operations teams.

That perspective shapes everything Maybrin does. Schools and districts aren't just a market segment - they're an environment with their own rhythms, vocabulary, and standards of trust. The work is helping founders meet that environment on its own terms.

The K-12 market rewards companies that reduce friction, build trust, and make life easier for schools.

Background Startup founder

Practice K-12 growth strategy

Approach Operator-led, not theoretical

04

Method

The work, in sequence.

Every engagement follows the same arc - built around the realities of K-12, and designed to install systems rather than deliver advice.

01

Diagnostic

Where the leverage is.

A focused review of positioning, pipeline, customer experience, and go-to-market motion. The goal isn't an audit - it's finding where small interventions move the most weight.

Stakeholder interviews
Funnel & pipeline review
Positioning assessment
Findings memo

02

Strategy

A plan grounded in K-12.

A clear sequence of what to do, what to stop, and what to defer - built around district buying cycles, the school calendar, and the realities of a founder-led team.

Growth roadmap
Positioning & messaging
GTM systems design
Quarterly milestones

03

Installation

Built alongside your team.

Sales enablement, CRM, onboarding flows, conference strategy, reporting - the work happens with your team in the room. Nothing stays theoretical.

System implementation
Sales & CS playbooks
Reporting infrastructure
Team coaching

04

Handoff

A clean exit, by design.

Ownership transfers to your team with documentation, training, and a defined transition. Optional advisory check-ins keep the work compounding without creating dependency.

Documentation & SOPs
Team training
Health metrics in place
Advisory follow-up

A different approach, because K-12 is a different market.

The typical approach

Generic SaaS consulting

Imports B2B playbooks built for software buyers
Optimizes funnels disconnected from district reality
Delivers strategy slides, leaves execution to you
Treats conferences as a marketing line item

The Maybrin approach

Operator-led, K-12 native

Built on years inside the district buyer's reality
Sequences work around the school calendar and budget cycles
Installs systems with your team - then hands them off
Treats conferences as the highest-leverage research instrument you have

05

Who we serve

Built for companies serving schools and districts.

Especially valuable for founder-led companies at the moment when ad-hoc growth needs to become a system.

01

K-12 SaaS platforms

02

EdTech startups

03

Athletics technology

04

Facilities & operations software

05

Ticketing & event platforms

06

Workflow automation tools

Maybrin works with companies post product-market fit, typically between $500K and $15M in ARR, where the founder is still close to the work but the business is starting to outgrow ad-hoc growth.

Explore a fit ↗

06

How we work

Flexible engagements built around your stage of growth.

Model 01

Strategic Advisory

Ongoing counsel for founders and leadership making consequential decisions - pricing, positioning, hiring, conference investment, board narrative. A trusted second opinion from someone who has been in the seat.

Monthly cadence ↗

Model 02

Fractional Growth Leadership

Embedded leadership across sales, marketing, and customer success - the operator function you need before the full-time hire is right. Day-to-day ownership, not advice from the sidelines.

Multi-quarter ↗

Model 03

Project-Based Consulting

Defined engagements with a clear deliverable - repositioning, GTM rebuild, conference strategy, onboarding overhaul. Scoped tightly, executed thoroughly, handed off cleanly.

4 – 12 weeks ↗

07

Credibility

Experience rooted in real K-12 growth environments.

Years of nationwide district work sit underneath every Maybrin engagement.

Across athletics, operations, facilities, and core education technology - the practice is built on a long record of working with the institutions, conferences, and buying processes that shape this market.

01 Supporting nationwide district growth initiatives
02 Scaling education-focused SaaS operations
03 Extensive K-12 conference & event experience
04 Deep understanding of district buying behavior
05 Cross-category work in athletics, operations, facilities & EdTech

Athletic departments Superintendents District technology teams Operations directors Facilities leaders Procurement offices State conferences Regional EdTech summits School boards Athletic departments Superintendents District technology teams Operations directors Facilities leaders Procurement offices State conferences Regional EdTech summits School boards

08

FAQ

Anticipated questions, answered plainly.

01 What stage of company is the best fit?

Maybrin works best with K-12 SaaS and EdTech companies past initial product-market fit and starting to scale go-to-market - typically founder-led, between roughly $500K and $15M in ARR. Earlier stages are considered case by case when the founder has clear conviction and a fundable thesis.

02 What does an engagement actually cost?

Strategic Advisory engagements begin at $6,000 per month with a quarterly minimum. Fractional Growth Leadership is priced higher and depends on scope and time commitment, typically $12,000–$20,000 per month. Project-based work is scoped flat and usually lands in the mid-five figures. A fit call clarifies the right structure before anything is quoted.

03 How long is a typical engagement?

Advisory relationships often run six to twelve months with quarterly review points. Fractional leadership engagements are usually two to four quarters by design - long enough to install systems, short enough to keep the work focused on a handoff. Project work runs four to twelve weeks against a defined deliverable.

04 Do you work with companies outside K-12?

No. The practice is built around K-12 because the market behaves differently from general B2B SaaS, and the value comes from depth in that environment. Adjacent education sectors - athletics, facilities, school operations, ticketing, workflow tools - are within scope when they sell to schools or districts.

05 Is there an exclusivity expectation?

Yes - within a tight category. Maybrin will not take on two engagements that compete directly with each other. Adjacent companies (e.g., athletics technology and facilities software) can be served simultaneously when there's no buyer overlap. Exclusivity terms are written into every engagement letter.

06 Does the work include conference travel?

Often, yes. Conference strategy is one of the most underused growth levers in K-12, and the work frequently involves planning, attending, and debriefing major events with your team. Travel is scoped engagement by engagement; out-of-pocket costs are typically billed at cost or covered by the client directly.

07 How do you handle confidentiality?

Every engagement includes a mutual NDA by default, signed before the diagnostic begins. Client identities, internal materials, and findings memos are confidential unless explicitly released. Case studies and references are only shared with client permission.

08 What does a first conversation look like?

A thirty-minute call to understand where the company is and where it's trying to go. No deck, no scoping. If there's a clear fit, a short proposal follows within a few days. If there isn't, you'll get an honest read and, where possible, a referral to someone better suited.

09

Field Notes

A monthly dispatch on K-12 growth.

Once a month, observations from the field - what's working in K-12 go-to-market, what's stalling, and what conference floors and procurement offices are quietly teaching about the market. Written for founders and operators in EdTech.

01Why most SaaS playbooks fail in K-12
02What district leaders actually buy
03The hidden cost of friction in school operations
04Field notes from the conference circuit