Exploring Life & Business with Michael Houston of ElevateU

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Houston. 

Hi Michael, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I originally grew up in Ohio and came out to Arizona initially to attend ASU, and then absolutely fell in love with the state… haven’t left since! 

Education has always held a special place in my life, but as an EdTech (Education Technology) founder & CEO, my story is a bit atypical… I earned my first college degree before my high school diploma, not because I’m super smart or anything, but because I wanted to solely focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, and value creation. 

Among my first entrepreneurial endeavors, I was an eSports coach, training competitive players internationally, I developed video game servers and really leaned into digital media before becoming obsessed with education. I saw how it is a massive snowball effect for everything in our world. 

I was always a curious, self-learner, growing up on TedTalks and Y Combinator Startup School videos, so after being a student and then an Academic Associate at ASU (helping to teach entrepreneurship) I knew there just “had to be a better way” when it came to how a standardized education looked. 

Quickly thereafter, I envisioned a more affordable, easier to use, and all-in-one adaptive learning community for educators and learners that optimized content using data… and ElevateU was born! 

We’ve grown to a team of 8 full-time talented employees composed of ASU computer science majors, human-computer interactions specialists, led by a prodigy engineer who actually dropped out of college to change the education ecosystem, former venture-backed startup founders in edtech, and a sales veteran with 30 years’ experience leading teams at the billion-dollar textbook behemoths, Pearson & McGraw Hill. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Startups always have ups and downs. There is an incredible book by Scott Belsky, founder of Behance, called “The Messy Middle” that de-glamorizes the startup life, and rather than just talking about the big exit and finales, talks about the many trials and tribulations as you work through the growing pains. 

The initial founding of ElevateU of course had many similar ups and downs. Although I’m a founder in the education and learning field, I still learn something new every day and am consistently humbled by my incredible team and how empathetic they are towards our end-users (professors, universities, students, and even companies trying to solve the skills gap). 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
ElevateU is rethinking how people teach and learn. We’re hyper-focused on making a community of educators that are empowered to create engaging learning experiences. Think of us now as replacing all static textbooks and courses in college, with a single adaptive learning platform, that seamlessly integrates with the existing college ecosystem. 

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
The Lean Startup – Eric Ries 

Forward Thinking Founders Podcast hosted by Mat Sherman 

All-In Podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks (the Rain Man) & David Friedberg 

https://medium.com/jamblog 

Contact Info:

• Email: info@elevateu.ai
• Website: https://ElevateU.ai
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/xMichaelHouston
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ElevateUai