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From the academy to the arena
Technē is grounded in the conviction that higher education's future will be determined as much by institutional practice as by the educational technologies institutions deploy.
Brian Jacobs came to educational technology through an unusual path. After earning a PhD in political philosophy and social theory at Cornell University, he taught and published in the history of ideas before turning to a different question: how can higher education become more accessible, adaptable, and responsive to the needs of today’s learners?
That question led him from academia into entrepreneurship. Over the past twenty-five years, he has worked across nearly every part of the higher education domain: as an academic, founder, operator, strategist, board member, and trusted partner to colleges and universities, publishers, nonprofits, and education technology companies.
Brian Jacobs came to educational technology through an unusual path. After earning a PhD in political philosophy and social theory at Cornell University, he taught and published in the history of ideas before turning to a different question: how can higher education become more accessible, adaptable, and responsive to the needs of today’s learners?
That question led him from academia into entrepreneurship. Over the past twenty-five years, he has worked across nearly every part of the higher education domain: as an academic, founder, operator, strategist, board member, and trusted partner to colleges and universities, publishers, nonprofits, and education technology companies.
Building at the intersection
Brian founded Akademos, one of the earliest online college bookstore platforms, helping grow the company to more than $10 million in annual revenue before serving on its board. The company was later acquired by VitalSource Technologies.
He later founded panOpen Education, an award-winning digital learning platform that helped institutions adopt open educational resources and AI-enabled courseware. Its technology continues through commercial sales and open-source initiatives, including deployments by Kendall Hunt Publishing and LibreTexts.org.
Along the way, Brian has raised capital, built products, developed publisher partnerships, mentored founders through Techstars and StartEd, and spoken internationally on the future of higher education at conferences including ASU+GSV, Open Education, and LEAP.
Those experiences share a common thread: helping organizations navigate the institutional realities that determine whether good ideas become lasting change.
He later founded panOpen Education, an award-winning digital learning platform that helped institutions adopt open educational resources and AI-enabled courseware. Its technology continues through commercial sales and open-source initiatives, including deployments by Kendall Hunt Publishing and LibreTexts.org.
Along the way, Brian has raised capital, built products, developed publisher partnerships, mentored founders through Techstars and StartEd, and spoken internationally on the future of higher education at conferences including ASU+GSV, Open Education, and LEAP.
Those experiences share a common thread: helping organizations navigate the institutional realities that determine whether good ideas become lasting change.
Brian Jacobs
Founder & Principal
Why Technē?
We are living through the most profound structural changes in higher ed since the birth of the modern research university at the start of the 19th century. The pressures driving them are well-known: artificial intelligence, demographic change, financial imperatives, and shifting ideas about the purpose of learning. They are forcing institutions and the organizations that serve them to rethink core assumptions about what it is they do.
Success will require more than new technology. It requires understanding how colleges and universities actually make decisions. Governance, faculty, procurement, pedagogy, partnerships, and institutional culture can all play a role in determining which technologies achieve adoption and can thrive. They are as important as the quality of the tech itself.
Technē exists to help organizations derisk market plans and improve their success rates. We work as an independent strategic and operating partner, bringing together institutional insight, operating experience, a collaborative emphasis, and practical execution to help leaders make better decisions and move important initiatives forward.
Success will require more than new technology. It requires understanding how colleges and universities actually make decisions. Governance, faculty, procurement, pedagogy, partnerships, and institutional culture can all play a role in determining which technologies achieve adoption and can thrive. They are as important as the quality of the tech itself.
Technē exists to help organizations derisk market plans and improve their success rates. We work as an independent strategic and operating partner, bringing together institutional insight, operating experience, a collaborative emphasis, and practical execution to help leaders make better decisions and move important initiatives forward.
What's in a name?
Technē is an ancient Greek word that combines craft, practical knowledge, and purposeful action. It is the root of the modern word technology, but its meaning is broader: knowledge gained through making, building, and doing. This is the organizing idea of Technē. We believe the strongest strategic guidance comes from practitioners who have had to secure consensuses across disparate groups, make difficult decisions, own the results, and navigate the realities of implementation.
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