Our next #FinnemoreFireside of this term is with Jim Nicholls — entrepreneur, executive search specialist, and founder with a background spanning recruitment, edtech, health-tech, cyber security, and digital transformation.

Jim’s career sits at the intersection of technology, commercial execution, and leadership. He’s built and scaled multiple companies, advised fast-growth tech firms. As director of Brave Technology Group, Jim now works internationally placing C-suite and senior leaders across high-growth software and PE-backed businesses.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Jim shares his journey from tech recruitment into edtech, reflecting on the decisions that led him to focus on a sector where trust, values, and impact matter.

• We talk about the importance of purpose and why education continues to draw in people who could easily work elsewhere, but choose not to.

• There’s a frank discussion about the state of the MIS market, what’s changed, and what big players got wrong.

• Jim opens up about the gaps he sees between what schools actually need and what edtech companies often build.

• We touch on investor expectations, founder pressures, and the challenge of building sustainable business models in a sector that doesn’t always scale neatly.

• There’s a deep dive into AI: what’s exciting, what’s hype, and what edtech teams should be doing differently when it comes to recruitment and capability.

• Jim gives his take on the rise of niche, high-trust products – and why the “middle” of the market is where companies risk being squeezed out.

• And as always, we wrap with a few reflections on what edtech needs next — and why collaboration, not consolidation, might be the smarter play.