Builders,

"It's going through the pain of banging your head against a wall," Noah Fichter says. "Eventually you realize the walls are malleable. What you thought was a wall wasn't, you could push on it."

That's the persistence Noah Fichter looks for when hiring at Scout. It's also what kept him and his co-founder, Max Bertfield, working nights and weekends before they had any traction. K-12 is a hard market to crack, but every few weeks they'd get an encouraging signal: a conversation that pushed them forward, a school administrator saying "this is a little closer to what we need." Those kept them going, sleep-deprived and all.

By the end of 2024, they finally had something a few schools would pay for. They quit their jobs, applied and got into Y Combinator in January 2025, and built Scout: an AI-native student information system that handles attendance, enrollment, reporting, and compliance for schools.

Today, less than a year after going full-time, Scout works with 12 charter networks and school districts, serving about 25 schools and over 10,000 students. They've grown the team to eight people. And they're just getting started.

The best signal isn't your resume. It's what you do when no one's watching. Noah spent a year building when no one was paying attention. Now that he's building a team, he's looking for people who've done the same.

In today’s issue:

Read time: 7 minutes

Reach: What first drew you into the education space?

Noah: I always wanted to be in education. For a while I thought I was going to be a teacher. I started learning to code in high school, and in college I picked up a second degree in education policy to keep that door open. I loved coding too much to give it up, but after a few years building software, I realized I could build something myself in a field that really mattered to me.

What was the pivotal moment when you decided to become a full-time founder?

After I graduated, I spent three years at Slash, a fintech startup, joining right after they did Y Combinator. I watched it grow to about 30 people and a Series B. I was involved in a lot of decision-making; at an early-stage startup everyone is a little bit of a founder.

Before Slash I didn't even know what Y Combinator was or how VC-backed startups worked. Seeing a company start from nothing and solve a big problem for a lot of people shattered the illusion that big companies are some magical, unobtainable thing. I realized anyone could build a company.

How did you and your cofounder Max decide to start Scout?

On New Year's Eve 2023 we were both reflecting on the year and realized we didn't want to keep doing what we were doing. We wanted to start a company together. I'd always wanted to build in education, and Max's dad has spent his whole career in edtech, so the space made sense for both of us.

Why build a Student Information System (SIS)?

Early on, we decided to build a full student information system, a massive piece of software. A lot of people told us, "Start small. Build a tiny product, get customers, then expand." We did the opposite. From the beginning we were selling the full SIS vision.

That decision has served us really well. We still had early pilot customers with a small product, but they chose Scout because of the big vision: "You have a massive, end-to-end problem and we're going to solve all of it."

What kept you going during those "banging your head against the wall" months?

A mix of "this is what I want to do with my life" and irrational belief. I couldn't see myself doing anything else. Every month or so we'd have a small moment where something clicked: a conversation that pushed us forward, a user saying "this is a little closer to what I wanted." Those tiny signals are what you follow. If you keep going down that path, you keep finding little problems to solve, and eventually someone says, "We're desperate for a solution. Please build this."

Reach: What's a non-negotiable when you’re hiring?

Noah: Speed. You can teach quality: how to think about product and build better software. But speed reflects this innate sense of urgency some people have. You kind of know it when you see it. They're the people who walk faster on the sidewalk even when they have nowhere to go. 

(Noah lives in NY)

How do you assess that speed in practice?

Every candidate does a two-day work trial. We give them a task we expect will take two days. Some finish it in two hours; others don't finish at all. We're rarely focused on whether the code or UX is perfect. We care about how fast they can get something live to customers. The faster you ship, the faster you get feedback, the faster you iterate to quality.

What does your overall interview process look like?

A 30-minute interview, then the two-day work trial, then a decision right after. Usually by the end of day one we already know; I don't think our decision has ever changed after day two.

It matters that people can find a way to do the work trial quickly. If someone says, "Can we do this in three months when I have PTO?" that's usually not a fit. We need people willing to make it work because they care and feel an urgent need to change their situation. The people we're excited about say, "I'll take two days of PTO next week to do this."

You've been known to ask candidates: "How did you first make money online?" Why that question?

A few years ago we looked heavily at side projects and public GitHub as a signal that someone loves coding enough to do it for fun. Today, with AI, anyone can throw together a one-prompt demo that looks impressive. The stronger signal is: have you built something, shown it to people, taken rejection, iterated, and gotten even $10 from a user?

Making a profit from a project is the hard 98% of the work. Putting it in front of people, listening to their feedback, and continuing to improve it. It shows you're willing to bang your head against the wall because you care, not just ship an hour-long project for your resume.

Reach: What should students be doing now if they want to work with founders like you?

Noah: Build things and get people to use them. Learn to listen to people talk about their problems—ideally in the context of software you've built—and iterate based on that.

Work on something for at least six months, even if it's going badly. Spend nights and weekends banging your head against the wall. Eventually you realize some "walls" are malleable; what felt like a dead end wasn't. Being able to talk through a six-month journey—your decisions, obstacles, and how you tried to get around them—is incredibly valuable.

Hard skills like coding or data analysis are easier to develop now with AI. What stands out is persistence, problem-solving, and a track record of pushing through those six months.

Two hackathons to pressure test your speed:

Virtual | Submit by Feb 13

San Francisco | April 17-19 | Apply by Feb 9

Noah chose to rebuild the student information system, powered by AI. Here are four other breakthrough ideas in learning from the Reach investment team:

1. AI That Puts the "Ed" Back in Edtech: Tools that help teachers design unique, engaging learning experiences that get students thinking more and interacting with peers more, not less.

2. The Return of Oral Assessments: Authentic demonstrations of learning (oral exams, real-world projects, work-integrated programs) that can't be shortcut by AI.

4. Funding That Follows People, Not Institutions: Systems that make flexible funding work at scale, letting public dollars reach learners when they need it.

5. AI-Native Learning: Platforms that help educators rethink learning itself; making it authentic, prioritizing enduring skills, and moving the needle on outcomes.

Building in one of these? Reply to this email - we can intro you to investors in this space.

Big Ideas 2026 Series: https://www.reachcapital.com/resources/thought-leadership/2026-big-ideas-learning-ai/

Add your profile in the Student Repo Directory if you haven’t already. Founders looking through this curated list on a rolling basis.

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See you in March,

Valentina on behalf of Reach Capital

Reach Capital invests in early-stage founders redefining how we learn, live, and work. Our portfolio of 130+ startups includes tools you might’ve used in school (ClassDojo, Desmos, Brilliant) and next-gen, AI-native disruptors shaping how future generations build, work, and thrive (like Replit and GPTZero). 

These teams are constantly on the lookout for talented builders. Share what you’re studying, building, or exploring, and we’ll intro you to projects, people, and paid opportunities for you to build upon.