Startup Hustle How AI Is Disrupting Education with Katie Boody Adorno of LeanLab Education
Apr 2, 2026
Katie Boody Adorno, founder and CEO of Lean Lab Education and former classroom teacher, tackles AI in schools. She discusses COVID‑driven learning gaps, scaling high‑dosage tutoring with AI, human‑in‑the‑loop tutoring models, and rethinking education and higher ed costs for an AI future.
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Teacher Turned Founder Built Human-Centered EdTech Lab
- Katie started Lean Lab after Teach For America and five years teaching exposed gaps between hard work and lifelong student outcomes.
- She shifted into the local startup ecosystem in Kansas City to pair educators and entrepreneurs through a human-centered incubator model.
Listening Tours Turn Priorities Into Startup Projects
- Lean Lab used lean startup and human-centered design listening tours to surface real school pain points by interviewing hundreds of parents, teachers, and students.
- They coded qualitative data to prioritize problems, then ran an open call to entrepreneurs to co-design solutions with practitioners.
Early Ventures Succeeded Commercially But Lacked Impact Data
- Phase one launched ventures like InquireEd, accessibility tech for visually impaired students, and career-readiness products but lacked rigorous impact measurement.
- That realization pushed Lean Lab toward building research capacity to measure student outcomes, not just commercial success.
