From Cheerios to CEO: How Jane Alexander Built a Mission-Driven EdTech Startup

When Jane Alexander stood in her kitchen wiping up Cheerios, she didn’t expect it to be the moment her startup journey would begin. But that quiet decision sparked the birth of Emma Advisor, an AI-powered college admissions platform helping overwhelmed families navigate one of life’s most stressful milestones. In this Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, Jane shares how she pivoted from corporate leadership to build a mission-driven company that empowers both students and parents. Her story is one of values, grit, and boldly rethinking who truly needs support in the admissions journey.

Hi, Jane! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

Emma Advisor is an intelligent admissions platform designed to help families navigate the complex U.S. college admissions process with less stress, more clarity, and smarter strategy.

We serve high-intent families who want to help their teens with the college admissions process, but are overwhelmed by the complexity, competition, and emotional weight of it all. We bring parents and students into one central hub that organizes the entire journey — from smart college matching and personalized milestones to AI-powered planning, reminders, and collaboration tools.

Our impact goes beyond admissions results. We reduce the mental load on families, minimize parent-teen conflict, and equip students with a clear, personalized path forward. By making admissions strategy accessible to more families, we’re helping students step into their futures with confidence, and giving parents the peace of mind that nothing’s falling through the cracks.

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

It was a cold January morning. I had just dropped the kids off at school and was standing in my kitchen, wiping up a trail of Cheerios like I had a thousand mornings before. But this time, something felt different.

As I stood there, I could see the two paths in front of me: one where I kept moving through the familiar routine, and another where I took the leap into something unknown — building Emma Advisor. That morning, I sat down, opened my laptop, and sketched out the very first pitch deck slides.

That was the moment I shifted from thinking about starting a company to actually building one. It wasn’t a big, glamorous event. It was a quiet decision, but it changed everything.

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

I was in a senior leadership role at a company when a new leadership came in and asked me to implement changes I knew would harm employees. I felt deeply conflicted because I cared about the people who would be affected, and because I realized I was trading my time, values, and energy for a paycheck.

That was my wake-up call. I remember thinking, my life is worth more than this. I’m capable of building something that reflects my own mission and vision, not someone else’s.

From that moment on, I made a commitment to myself to build a company that aligns with my values and the impact I want to make in the world. That shift in mindset changed everything.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

Honestly, the biggest game-changer hasn’t been one fancy tool, it’s the fact that I can build an AI edtech company from my laptop. That’s still astounding to me.

With the tools that exist today, one person with a clear vision and a laptop can build something world-changing. I use AI platforms, no-code design tools, and collaboration software every single day, but the real shift has been realizing that the barrier to entry has never been lower. You don’t need a big team or a huge budget to start.

You just need to start.

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

I started out building in the college career space — an AI career counselor to extend the reach of university career centers. It’s a huge gap and still a space that matters deeply to me. But over and over again, mentors and investors kept pointing to the emotional inflection point being college admissions.

I didn’t want to hear it at first. I had already invested so much time and energy in career advising. Then I had one pivotal conversation with an investor who, in about 30 minutes, basically handed me the product and go-to-market strategy I’d been circling around but hadn’t fully embraced.

That was my wake-up call. I pivoted and I haven’t looked back. It was 100% the right decision.

People often say to ignore investor advice. My approach is different: I listen to everything. I may not take it all, but I make sure I hear it. That shift in mindset completely changed the trajectory of my company.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

One of the most unconventional strategies I’ve taken is intentionally targeting parents in the college admissions process.

Every other tool out there is built student-first, completely overlooking the fact that parents are often the most invested stakeholders in the entire journey. They care deeply about their child’s future and they’ll be footing a massive tuition bill. Yet, parents are either left out entirely by high school counselors or given minimal involvement by private admissions counselors.

I looked at the landscape and thought, but who got the student to this point? Who stays up at night worrying about their future? The answer was clear: parents.

By designing Emma Advisor with parents at the center — not as an afterthought — we tapped into a powerful, overlooked driver in the admissions process.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

Everyone tells new founders to “move fast." Investors, mentors, other entrepreneurs. Speed is everything. Build fast and break things. But the truth is, building something real almost always takes longer than you expect.

Yes, you move quickly, but then you test, iterate, mess up, fix it, test again, raise money, deploy, make more mistakes, and keep going. It’s not a straight line. And it’s definitely not a get-rich-quick story.

The real secret isn’t brilliance or speed. It’s grit. It’s waking up every single day and moving toward something that still feels impossible.

There are a handful of Stanford dropouts who build billion-dollar companies overnight. But there are also the rest of us who will build valuable companies too, just on a different trajectory. And that’s okay.

Want to dive deeper into Jane's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Emma Advisor's website: emmaadvisor.ai.
• Subscribe to Emma Advisor on Youtube: @EmmaAdvisor
• Follow Emma Advisor on Tiktok: @emma.advisor
• Follow Jane on Instagram: @emmawithjane