A Boston edtech SaaS · $90K → $540K ARR.

The archetype represents a pattern we ship into reliably in Boston: an edtech or online-courses SaaS operating from Cambridge, Back Bay, or Seaport, $90K ARR mostly through individual instructor + small-cohort sales, founder-led with one or two engineers, ambition to sell into university IT and K-12 districts but blocked by procurement requirements. Pre-engagement state: $90K ARR, single-tenant Postgres backend, basic email-password auth, Stripe Checkout for self-serve, no FERPA documentation, no SSO, no LMS integration, no institutional-procurement playbook.

Three structural problems compounded the revenue ceiling. One, no FERPA — every university IT review (institutional ACVs of $20K-$100K) ended in "we cannot evaluate without FERPA documentation." Two, no LTI 1.3 integration with Canvas or Blackboard meant institutional buyers needed a second sign-on for every learner. Three, the cohort-pacing model was broken: 62 percent of enrolled learners never finished, killing word-of-mouth growth.

Workstream 1 · FERPA + SOC 2 Type II readiness. Audit-log architecture for student data, role-separation between instructor + learner + admin, data-retention policy, parent-consent flow for under-13 learners. Vanta for evidence collection. SOC 2 Type II shipped week 32; FERPA documentation pack delivered to the first 6 university prospects.

Workstream 2 · LTI 1.3 integration with Canvas + Blackboard. Built native LTI 1.3 launch + roster sync + grade passback for both Canvas + Blackboard. IMS Global LTI Advantage certification. Single-sign-on from each LMS into the SaaS removed the second-login barrier.

Workstream 3 · Cohort-pacing rebuild. Replaced self-paced model with weekly-cohort default: instructors set a 6-week schedule, learners receive weekly nudges + cohort-channel discussion, drop-off triggers re-engagement flow. Course-completion rate moved from 38 percent to 71 percent over 4 months.

Workstream 4 · Instructor + admin dashboard. Custom dashboard for instructors (cohort progress, drop-off alerts, individual learner view) and institutional admins (org-level rollup, license usage, billing). Logo churn dropped from 4.2 percent to 1.6 percent monthly.

Workstream 5 · Institutional sales motion. Built the institutional sales playbook: FERPA documentation pack, security-questionnaire pre-fill, procurement-template SOW, multi-year licensing model with usage-tier discounts. Institutional pipeline 5x'd over 6 months.

The pattern this archetype represents (Boston edtech SaaS in courses, instructor-tooling, or assessment, $80K-$200K ARR, founder-led, post-PMF for individual instructors but pre-institutional, with 3-5 university prospects asking for FERPA + LMS integration) is one of our most-shipped engagement shapes in Boston. The 28-week timeline holds steady; the workstreams compress or expand in the same proportions; the metrics typically land within plus or minus 25 percent of the archetype numbers.

Five capabilities transfer directly: FERPA + SOC 2 Type II readiness, LTI 1.3 integration with Canvas + Blackboard + Moodle, cohort-pacing rebuild with re-engagement triggers, instructor + admin dashboard, and institutional sales motion (procurement playbook + multi-year licensing). Every Boston engagement starts with a 30-minute discovery call. Eastern Time, same-day response Monday to Friday 9 to 6.