22 Aug Owning Your Education

Founder Perspectives from VELACon 2025

JOANN KILPATRICK

AUG 21, 2025

I recently attended VELA’s annual conference (VELACon) in Washington, DC, a gathering of hundreds of microschool founders, researchers, policy experts, and education innovators. VELA’s President, Meredith Olson, opened the event with a reminder of the movement’s rapid growth: more than 4,500 VELA founders are now part of the network, with new leaders joining every week.

What makes VELA unique is its role as both a launchpad and a growth accelerator. For many founders, VELA’s initial grant is the first sign that someone believes in their vision—and that seed funding often becomes the foundation for bringing their vision to reality. The conference served as a celebration of how far this movement has come and a clear-eyed conversation about the challenges ahead.

The conference theme, “Own Your Education,” captured a core truth: the microschooling movement is not defined by a single method but rather by a shared mindset. Olson reminded us that founders begin with a simple but powerful question: What is best for the learner and their family?

As a result, the schools and learning environments created by these founders are a direct reflection of the needs of the learners and families they serve. Truly community-driven.

What matters to founders

Three takeaways echoed across the opening session and individual breakout presentations:

• Seed funding matters. An early vote of confidence from VELA gives founders permission to dream—and to act.
• Community matters. The most successful microschools don’t stand alone; they grow within supportive networks of peers. I spoke with several founders who described the VELA community and others such as Kaipod Learning as integral to their ability to navigate the process of launching a microschool.
• Connection matters. Founders need access to resources, tools, and people who can help them sustain their schools long-term, including legal and state-specific regulations.
  
• Opportunities and needs in the movement
  In addition to sharing success stories about the array of microschooling options available to families, the flexibility and customization inherent to these innovative models, and the positive impact options have had on learners and families, founders also expressed needs and opportunities to support growth in the space, including:
• Leveraging adaptive learning tools that allow for more personalized education tailored to each student’s strengths, needs, and pace.
• Expanding into high school grades, as many microschool leaders want to continue serving their learners beyond the elementary and middle school years and are looking for support to do so. Founders talked about internships, apprenticeships, community partnerships, dual-enrollment, and CTE as ways to continuing engaging learners in real-world, relevant contexts.
• Developing sustainability strategies, such as diversifying income streams, to ensure microschool models remain viable over time. Founders are exploring a mix of tuition, grants, partnerships, camps, community events, tutoring, and creative revenue sources to reduce reliance on a single funding stream.
• Streamlining technology management, including solutions like single sign-on (SSO), to simplify operations and reduce administrative burdens for small teams.

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  At the same time, founders shared fears and challenges:
• Navigating legal and compliance risks, given the patchwork of state regulations that can create uncertainty for founders.
• Facing increased oversight and regulation, including potential requirements for accreditation, standardized testing, or tighter governance depending on the state.
• Ensuring long-term sustainability, especially for schools that cannot rely solely on grants or short-term funding.
• Managing expectations about the microschool journey, as experienced founders cautioned that launching and sustaining a microschool requires significant effort and resilience—far more than may appear at first glance.
  

Founder voices

What makes VELACon unique is the chance to hear directly from founders themselves, through presentations and informal conversations. Their experiences illustrate both the promise and the complexity of the microschooling movement.

Ali Kaufman, Founder of Space of Mind (Florida)

Ali began Space of Mind in her living room in 2010 with just three students. Today, it has grown into a full-service educational company with a 10,000 sq. ft. campus, more than 25 staff, virtual programs, camps, and even a program for young adults. Looking ahead, Space of Mind plans to franchise in 2026.

Reflecting on VELACon, Ali described it as “a great opportunity to connect with other founders, understand the growth of the industry, and share the hard-earned lessons from 15 years of running a microschool.”

But she also shared a note of caution, saying“it’s brutally hard to be both an educator and an entrepreneur, and wearing both hats at the same time is often impossible. If programs don’t find sustainability, students can experience real trauma when a school they love closes.”

Even with these challenges, Ali remains optimistic: “Once programs prove themselves, education can open new possibilities to focus on real-world skills in creative, inspiring ways. We have to keep innovating at the speed at which students’ brains—and the world—are changing.”

North Star

Ken Danford, Founder of North Star (Massachusetts)

For Ken, who founded North Star, a self-directed learning center for teens, more than 30 years ago, the most powerful word to describe VELACon was momentum.“The rapid growth in microschools and homeschooling has become a real movement, and the people at VELA are busy supporting this explosion every way they know how,” he shared.

Ken is the author of Learning is Natural, School is Optional: The North Star approach to offering teens a head start on life and reflected on how far the movement has come since his early days: “When I left schooling to start North Star thirty years ago, there were few role models and allies. Now, VELACon provides immediate colleagues sharing considerable experience. Collectively, we are a force.”

Luba Vangelova, Founder of The Hub (Online, National)

Luba launched The Hub in 2020 to address a gap she saw for homeschooled tweens and teens: the need for consistent peer community. Designed as a part-time online microschool, The Hub offers cohorts of up to 10 students, ages 10–16, who meet twice a week the opportunity to explore curiosity-led activities, develop life skills, and build lasting friendships.

Luba described the program as “balancing the me and the we.” Facilitators learn alongside students, modeling curiosity while creating space for projects that range from collaborative storytelling to long-term creative outputs like websites, e-zines, or videos.

At VELACon, Luba valued connecting with other founders working in adolescent education and left with new ideas for partnerships and business operations. She sees education moving toward personalization. “Parents know their children best,” she said. “With so many models and resources now available, it’s more doable than ever for a child to receive a tailored education that builds on their strengths and helps them achieve their goals.”

The path forward: what’s next?

VELACon is more than a conference. It’s a snapshot of a movement in motion. It brings together pioneers like Ken, innovators like Ali, and community-builders like Luba, all united by a conviction that families deserve more educational options.

What unites these leaders isn’t a curriculum or structure. It’s a belief that education should be owned by the learner and their family. They continue to leverage the strength of their networks to grow and overcome challenges.

As microschools continue to expand, the road ahead will require creativity, collaboration, and courage. But if VELACon 2025 is any indication, the future of education is already being built—one microschool at a time.

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