Breaking into global markets beyond the US is where many companies lack the crucial resources and insights to succeed, draining away time, energy, and effort. Despite their passion for impact, too many entrepreneurs overlook the fundamentals: scalable user growth and monetization strategies that drive long-term sustainability.

Michael E. Spencer has built a career solving this challenge. As CEO and Founder of Global Expansion Strategies, he has devised a uniquely effective approach that helps EdTech companies secure cost-effective growth and sustainable revenue models through international market entry.

Leading teams across multiple time zones, Michael starts his days early, delegating, strategizing, and executing with precision. His approach ensures that by the end of the workday, there’s still time for a workout and valuable moments with family. True leadership isn’t just about scaling businesses; it’s about balance, efficiency, and focus.

Driving Global EdTech Expansion

Michael’s passion for international business stems from a lifetime spent as a global citizen. Born in East Africa, he attended a private French school before living across the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. After graduating from high school in Paraguay in 1982, he moved to the United States to pursue his university education and later earned an MBA.

His career began in Silicon Valley, where he assisted companies in expanding into international markets. As the EdTech sector gained momentum, his diverse cultural background provided him with a unique perspective on regional education needs. This insight fueled his passion for helping EdTech companies achieve aggressive global growth through strategic expansion.

Having founded and co-founded multiple EdTech ventures, Michael played a pivotal role in securing funding and leading those companies to successful exits. Recognizing the widespread challenges of international market entry, he established GES (Global Expansion Strategies) to help EdTech companies scale globally without the costly burden of setting up in-country operations.

His expertise lies in aligning EdTech solutions with the unique demands of international education markets. Through a proven process, he enables companies to build sustainable, scalable, and recurring revenue streams while maintaining zero cost of acquisition year-over-year. His goal is to maximize shareholder value, ensuring successful exits within 5-7 years—with potential multiples of up to 15X.

Beyond business growth, his mission is clear: to ensure EdTech companies drive transformational learning outcomes, creating lasting educational impact for students and educators across all markets they serve.

Scaling EdTech Through Global Partnerships

Michael’s experience reveals that teaming up with in-country channel partners is the most effective way for EdTech companies to scale internationally. This win-win model allows local partners to leverage their networks and deploy representatives with deep expertise in their education markets. At the same time, startups benefit from a steady sales pipeline without the burden of significant upfront investment.

At GES (Global Expansion Strategies), Michael leads efforts to ensure in-country teams are fully aligned with each portfolio company’s growth and exit strategy. His focus is on enabling local teams to effectively implement and localize EdTech solutions in their respective markets, adapting them to specific blended learning models and diverse educational landscapes.

He frequently sees companies waste time and resources trying to break into the U.S. market, which is slow, expensive, bureaucratic, and seasonal. Many founders hesitate to explore international opportunities until they reach a standstill with the U.S. approach. In the past, venture capital (VC) funding provided a cushion for trial and error. With VC investments in 2024 hitting an eight-year low, companies can no longer afford to experiment without a clear, scalable strategy.

Too often, EdTech entrepreneurs focus on impact without prioritizing cost-effective user growth and sustainable monetization strategies. As a result, they often turn to GES when they are already on the back foot. Michael and his team address these challenges by providing in-country support, hands-on training, and implementation personnel, ensuring portfolio companies have the right foundation for long-term success in global markets.

Driving Sustainable Growth in Global EdTech

Michael is a recognized global leader in EdTech expansion, frequently attending key industry events and delivering keynotes and workshops at top EdTech accelerators worldwide. His work places him at the cutting edge of international EdTech trends, as GES actively collaborates with global school operators, charter schools, and early-stage startups to pilot and implement innovative solutions. This hands-on involvement ensures that GES remains deeply connected to both emerging technologies and the real-world challenges faced by students and educators around the world.

Michael extends his expertise beyond direct implementation by collaborating with prestigious industry publications like K12 Digest, where he shapes the conversation around EdTech scalability and sustainability.

For Michael, awards take a backseat to real, measurable success: helping EdTech companies achieve sustainable, recurring revenue growth and successful exits. His focus is on delivering scalable impact, as seen in one portfolio company specializing in social-emotional learning. After initially generating $500,000 in first-year revenue through a US-focused B2B K-12 strategy, they experienced a 5x revenue increase in year two—reaching $2.5M—after adopting an international strategy with GES. They are now on track to double that revenue again this year.

At GES, Michael leads a team that works with more than 15 million students, 1.5 million educators, and 30,000 schools worldwide. His organization drives large-scale pilots and school implementations across Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the US, operating across multiple time zones to ensure seamless execution.

Despite his demanding schedule, Michael prioritizes strategic delegation, ensuring that in-country management teams are empowered to drive success. This efficiency allows him to maintain a work-life balance, ensuring there’s still time for a morning workout and quality family time—a testament to his leadership philosophy: growth and impact should be sustainable, both in business and in life.

Navigating the Future of Global EdTech

Michael believes that founder-led sales can only take EdTech companies so far—especially in international markets. To achieve scalable, recurring revenue growth and successful exits, startups must partner with experienced global organizations that understand how to expand effectively and navigate M&A strategies.

The rise of AI is transforming the EdTech landscape, but not all the hype is justified. While AI enables faster product development, it also lowers the barriers to entry, making it more critical than ever for startups to connect with students, teachers, and schools early to co-develop solutions, iterate rapidly, and gain traction. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are moving aggressively to integrate education into their AI innovations, making K -12 distribution in the US increasingly monopolized—and making it more difficult for startups to break in, especially now that ESSER funding has finished.

The future of EdTech lies beyond the US. 80% of global education demand over the next 30 years will be concentrated in Asia and Africa, where formal schooling is expanding rapidly. GES is committed to helping EdTech companies seize these opportunities, ensuring they adapt, scale, and thrive in this evolving landscape. Michael’s mission remains clear: empower innovative EdTech companies to make a global impact—before it’s too late.