Jeff's Path to Transforming School Technology

Discover how an encounter on LinkedIn set Jeff Stolzenberger on a path he never anticipated—revolutionizing education technology. From his humble beginnings as a communication studies major to becoming one of the pioneering sales development reps at Vivi, Jeff's story is one of unexpected twists and relentless passion. Learn how Vivi's innovative solutions, like wireless screen mirroring and emergency visual alerts, are streamlining classroom dynamics and fostering a more collaborative educational environment. Jeff shares insights from his unique experience of working remotely while maintaining crucial face-to-face interactions at key events like the Georgia Educational Technology Conference.

Transcript

Devin Pintozzi 0:04

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We are here at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference speaking with Jeff Stolzenberger of Vivi. How are you today?

Jeff Stolzenberger 0:18

Excellent. Thank you for having me Devin.

Devin Pintozzi 0:19

Wonderful Jeff, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Jeff Stolzenberger 0:23

Yeah, I was born and raised in New Jersey. I went to University of North Carolina, wilmington. I studied communication studies. I always had sales in the back of my mind but I didn't really know where I wanted to go with it. And yeah, I was fortunate enough to land Vivi on LinkedIn and it's been over three years now and it's been tremendous.

Devin Pintozzi 0:44

That is fantastic. And what brought you to Vivian? How was that process?

Jeff Stolzenberger 0:54

It was a little uncertain because of the pandemic. I didn't have an internship after college, so I was applying to several SDR sales development rep roles all over. Stumbled upon Vivian on LinkedIn, thought it was intriguing and as soon as I met with who my now manager is John Kruthofer we just hit it off immediately and yeah, I never saw myself in EdTech, but it's been absolutely tremendous.

Devin Pintozzi 1:16

That is great and I understand there was like a first involved with the company, with you?

Jeff Stolzenberger 1:23

Yeah, so when I initially met with them they actually said well, initially on LinkedIn they said their office was in Miami. And when I met with them they're like, yeah, well, you're actually the first of six sales development reps and we don't have an office here. We're totally remote. We started in Australia based off of a teacher request. Actually is how Vivi was founded, and we're made by educators for educators, and I've learned a lot here.

Devin Pintozzi 1:47

Wow, that is awesome. And what kind of things are you doing now and what are you hoping to get out of the Georgia Educational Technology Conference?

Jeff Stolzenberger 1:54

Yeah, this conference has been incredible, just building relationships, building rapport with some of our current customers. But you know, vivi itself, we really create an environment in a school where all screens are connected. So that includes wireless screen mirroring, digital signage, emergency visual alerts and live video announcements. And you know we work with some of the folks at Howard. You know we integrate with Promethean. So, yeah, definitely met some good people here.

Devin Pintozzi 2:25

Oh, that's great. You know it's an educational technology conference, and even among the exhibitors as well, there's a lot of camaraderie and a lot of collaboration. It's fantastic to see that.

Jeff Stolzenberger 2:36

No doubt, for sure yeah.

Devin Pintozzi 2:38

And so are there any special takeaways or special moments you've had working with the education community, doing what you do?

Jeff Stolzenberger 2:46

Honestly? Putting a face to the name and you know, because working in a remote world you miss that aspect, of course and just hearing stories from whether it's teachers or tech directors, of people that we've worked with or people that are just testing Vivi, their feedback is tremendous and we really do make teachers' lives easier, as well as IT departments' lives easier and this conference has been a great way to sort of engage with partners as well, for sure, obviously.

Devin Pintozzi 3:18

Wonderful and tell us a little bit how did you get involved with the education industry in doing this?

Jeff Stolzenberger 3:28

I was lucky enough just to once I scored that interview. Um really had no path. To be honest, um and I was. Once I started with Vivi, I actually fell in love with it, and my mom herself is actually a high school english teacher and I've learned a lot from her on it as well. But um, she's passionate about education and we tried to tap into their district. Um, funding wasn't there, but she's like this literally would just make teachers lives so much easier, and we're really designed to save teachers time as well as IT directors as well so,

Devin Pintozzi 3:56

Jeff, that's wonderful the work you're doing.

Devin Pintozzi 3:58

Yeah, can you let everybody know at the georgia tech where they can find you at vivi,

Jeff Stolzenberger 4:04

So we're vivi. io. Uh, that's our website and or just on linkedin, vivi. But yeah, that's actually pretty much it all right.

Devin Pintozzi 4:16

Well, thank you so much. Appreciate uh speaking with you. I hope you have a great rest of the conference absolutely.

Jeff Stolzenberger 4:20

Thank you,

Devin Pintozzi 4:21

thank you.