S2 | E2 — Victoria Ransom (Co-founder of Prisma, Wildfire) on her journey to a $450M acquisition by Google, reinventing school at Prisma & what's next for education.

Victoria Ransom is the Founder of Prisma — a cohort-based online school: “preparing 4-12th graders for a rapidly changing future, with an accredited, project-based virtual program where kids build real community.”

Raised on an asparagus farm near Bulls — Victoria’s journey over the past few decades is a truly inspiring one... she founded and led Wildfire, a social media marketing platform which rose to prominence helping brands build their presence on Facebook, before being acquired by Google for $450M in 2012; was honoured by President Obama as a “Champion of Change” for her accomplishments as an immigrant entrepreneur and innovator, picked up an MBA from Harvard; was named #19 on Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40 list, and so much more.

In today's episode, we discuss:

• The early days building Wildfire - building a culture and company that customers love as much as the product

• How the Google acquisition went down, integration and operating inside the belly of the beast afterwards

• What’s wrong with the current education system, why Victoria chose to exit the system + build a new school for her family.

• Strategies for developing resilience in children and what to expect in the future of education.

Referenced:

• Forbes 40 under 40 (2012): https://fortune.com/ranking/40-under-40/2012/victoria-ransom/

• Google's $450M acquisition of Wildfire: https://techcrunch.com/2012/07/31/google-acquires-wildfire/

• Obama White House - A Nation of Entrepreneurial Journeys: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2013/06/04/nation-entrepreneurial-journeys

• Prisma: https://www.joinprisma.com/

• Wildfire: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wildfire-interactive

Where to find Victoria online:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriaransom/

• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/victoria_ransom

Timestamps:

[00:00] Intro

[01:37] Three traits of a great founder

[03:31] Victoria’s origin story

[05:59] Pivoting from investment banking into adventure travel

[08:37] Building and scaling Wildfire

[11:46] Bootstrapping before raising money

[12:30] Wildfire's path to acquisition

[17:16] Why life after acquisition was challenging

[19:29] Prisma’s origin story

[24:41] Inside Prisma's education model

[30:19] The challenges of teaching kids resilience

[32:28] Prisma’s potential to scale

[37:34] Will college education become obsolete?

[39:24] Victoria’s biggest role model

[40:38] What it’s like founding a company with your partner

[42:04] Advice for Kiwi entrepreneurs

[43:49] What's next for Victoria and Prisma

[44:58] How to help Victoria