University Startups

University Startups is an education technology company offering a platform for special education teams in K-12 school districts, centered on transition planning for students with disabilities. The product combines student-facing, educator-facing and administrator-facing modules: a Transition Plan Creator that builds career-aligned plans from student interest and transition readiness assessments, internship-style workplace simulation activities, an adaptive college/career readiness, self-advocacy and independent living curriculum, and shareable family progress reports.

For educators, the platform provides an interactive goal bank for drafting IEP goals and progress tools, a Transition Plan Reviewer that flags weak areas and suggests best practices, a unified workspace for portfolios, progress tracking and reporting, and embedded coaching intended to support newly onboarded case managers. For district administrators, it provides district-, school- and teacher-level dashboards, automated tracking with proactive alerts for compliance gaps, audit-ready documentation, and consistent data for federal Indicator 13 reporting. The stated mission is to reduce administrative burden on teachers, keep districts compliant, and improve post-secondary outcomes for students with disabilities.

Founding story

The company describes itself as built by educators and entrepreneurs aiming to make transition planning easier for teachers, safer for districts and more empowering for students with disabilities. Co-founder and CEO Marc Steren has founded multiple companies, sold a prior company in 2012 to a publicly traded company, and subsequently taught entrepreneurship, including as founding director of Entrepreneurship at the Universities of Shady Grove and as a professor at the University of Maryland College Park.

Business model

The company sells a SaaS platform to school districts and special education teams, marketed through demo requests and personalized walkthroughs, and backs purchases with a "60-Day Teacher Promise" refund guarantee if the product does not save teachers time within two months.

Traction

Testimonials from educators at Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia, Las Cruces Public Schools, Jeff Davis School District, NYC Public Schools and Pulaski County Public Schools reference active classroom use and partnerships.

Latest developments

The leadership team spans product management, programs, sales, customer success and AI development, with backgrounds in special education teaching and global learning program design.