--- title: "Accelerator Announcement with Jonathan Hage" slug: "jonathan-hage-accelerator-announcement-with-jonathan-hage-asu-gsv-2026" author: "Jonathan Hage" date: "2026-04-13 12:00:00" category: "Premium" topics: "ASU+GSV 2026, conference transcript" summary: "Jonathan Hage announced the launch of \"Launched,\" described as the world's first true education innovation marketplace." banner: "" thumbnail: "" --- > **ASU+GSV 2026 Summit** | Monday, April 13, 2026, 1:10 pm-2:00 pm | Apple Education Event ## Speakers - **Jonathan Hage** ## Key Takeaways - Jonathan Hage announced the launch of "Launched," described as the world's first true education innovation marketplace. - Hage argued that the traditional K-12 education system is structurally unable to adopt innovations at the pace required, creating a perverse anti-market reality where ed-tech startups fail not because their ideas are bad but because the pathway to schools is broken. - Drawing on his 30 years of experience operating nearly 150 charter schools serving 100,000+ students, Hage positioned the school choice ecosystem as the ideal proving ground for education innovation, where parent choice creates real accountability. - "Launched" will allow founders to build solutions inside real schools from day one, with every solution held to three non-negotiables: measurable student outcomes, positive financial impact, and ensuring technology expands human agency rather than replacing it. ## Notable Quotes > "Innovations are forced to slow down. They spend years and millions proving their value. Many never reach classrooms at all, and most ed tech startups fail. Not because the ideas are bad, but because the pathway is broken." > > — **Jonathan Hage** > "School choice is the only innovation platform where you can measure customer focus, measure results, financial sustainability every single day, because those parents make a choice." > > — **Jonathan Hage** > "Scale without standards isn't innovation, it's dilution." > > — **Jonathan Hage** > "Moore's Law isn't even the right metaphor anymore. The constraints here are institutional, not technological." > > — **Jonathan Hage** ## Full Transcript I want to get right to a very big idea. Now is the time to launch a new pathway for transformational pre-K to 12 solutions. For roughly the last 150 years in this country and internationally, the primary market for education innovation has been traditional public and private school systems like Michael talked about. Innovations were built for them, purchased by them, and scaled through them. But those systems were designed around old political models, old operating models, and old people models. Not old people, but old people models. They cannot and will not adapt to the pace of change. The complexity of today's challenges or the opportunity that Michael just outlined won't happen, not even close. Moore's Law isn't even the right metaphor anymore. The constraints here are institutional, not technological. The result is perverse anti-market reality. Innovations are forced to slow down. They spend years and millions proving their value. Many never reach classrooms at all, and most ed tech startups fail. Not because the ideas are bad, but because the pathway is broken. See, at the same time, many solutions aimed at higher achievement, individualized learning, financial efficiency, or even ethical AI are born outside the lived reality of schools. See, brilliant founders have good intentions, but little exposure to what teachers, principals, and operators actually face every day. It's called the innovation implementation gap. See, that gap keeps widening. Students don't see the gains. Teachers feel burdened instead of empowered. And now, with AI accelerating everything, educators worry that the system is being built around them again. This time to replace them, not to elevate them. This isn't about blame. It's not the schools. It's not the innovators. It's about the absence of a real education marketplace, a place where ideas can be built with schools, tested at scale, and improved quickly, and held accountable to outcomes. See, that missing marketplace is exactly why the school choice world emerged. It reconnected parents and communities to schools. It created a demand-driven environment. It introduced speed, accountability, and consequence. And the growth has been undeniable, as you saw earlier. Over the last two decades, charter schools have grown from under 1 million students to nearly 4 million. Education savings accounts, vouchers, virtual schools, micro schools, on and on, hybrid, are rapidly expanding, while many traditional school systems are losing enrollment. I lost my way, because I think it just fell, because I just lost the market there. Here we go. All right. Where are we at? I can say it from my cuff. All right. At the same time, many solutions aimed at higher achievement, all right? And these things happen outside of reality in the schools. This isn't about blame or any of the other things. The globally-based models are emerging as engines of innovations and outcomes. But even school choice, despite its power, has lacked something. A little bit further up, and better AI. A shared, scaled platform for innovation to be built, tested, and proven. So what are we here to announce tonight? For the past 30 years, I've worked alongside parents, educators, and leaders, committed by mission, not by inertia. Today, we are building and scaling nearly 150 schools across 10,000 team members and 100,000 students. Every day, we operate in the real marketplace, where parents make choices, we must attract families and deliver results, and do more for less. We must live within financial realities, and we must improve continuously or fail. We didn't build this system to get lower results. We did it to build at 100,000 plus and grow education throughout this country and worldwide. But this isn't just enough anymore. See, school choice is the only innovation platform where you can measure customer focus, measure results, financial sustainability every single day, because those parents make a choice. Those who don't adopt will fail, and they'll be faster failing than ever expected before. So today, we're announcing Launched. Launched is the world's first true education innovation marketplace, where solutions are built with teachers, for students, and proven at scale. It's not a product, it's not a pilot program, it's a platform. Founders build inside real schools from day one. Teachers, leaders, and operators give continuous feedback. Everything is measured, what works scales, and Launch holds every solution to three non-negotiables, measurable student outcomes, positive financial impact, and a strong mind, good hearts, ensuring technology expands human agency, not replacing it. Scaling with fidelity means that Launched can begin with a design for us in a sandbox, where we can guarantee fidelity, transparency, and accountability. But it doesn't end there. Over time, Launch will expand throughout trusted partners throughout the world, high performing charters, innovative public schools, private schools, at market speed. Expansion will be selective and invitation only, and earned, because scale without standards isn't innovation, it's dilution. Here's the invitation, Launch is not for everyone. It's for true builders who want proof, investors who value evidence, and operators who care about outcomes. We are here to play the next revolutionary role, to be the spearhead of the entire pre-K-12 marketplace, and to leverage the battlefield for the benefit of all students and families. It's for students, it's for the future, so please join us, take this QR code tonight, and be a part of Launched, and see how the future can be changed. Thank you very much. You're welcome. --- *This transcript was put together by our friend [Philippos Savvides](https://scaleu.org) from Arizona State University. The original transcript and additional summit resources are available on [GitHub](https://github.com/savvides/asu-gsv-2026-summit-intelligence). Licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).*