After being cut by the Green Bay Packers in 1990, Brian Shulman gave up football and moved on to business. He started in sales with a straight-commission position selling advertising specialties. Knocking on every door he could find in Atlanta, Brian would start at the tallest building and work his way through every office to help companies promote their brand through specialized advertising. With each office and new client, he honed sales skills crucial to his success in business over the next 30 years.
A chance meeting with a colleague led to a director of sales position with a local emergency medical service (EMS) company. With no experience in EMS, Shulman increased revenue by 400% in his first year. Baxter Healthcare, the largest healthcare supply company in the world, recognized his sales ability and quickly hired him for their sales team in Birmingham, Alabama. From Baxter’s high-quality sales training and seasoned professionals, he learned the ins and outs of hospital sales. Soon, he outperformed most of his counterparts. Like many athletes who have been part of or lead a sports team, he attributes his success to the support of his excellent team.
Despite his success at Baxter and the strong job security it provided, he recognized that professional and financial growth there was limited. When a recruiter presented him an opportunity to sell software to hospitals, Brian was interested but concerned about the 60-percent pay cut and extensive travel. Still there was potential to earn an extremely generous commission. With two young children, it was a difficult choice to make: stay at his present job for security and steady income or leave a “sure thing” for potentially long-term high rewards?
Healthcare Technology Sales Leader
Shulman took a calculated risk and joined Enterprise Systems Inc. (ESI), a new publicly traded software company in Wheeling, Illinois. ESI sold software to hospitals to help them reduce costs. In less than 2 years, he generated more than 70% of the entire sales force’s revenue. Brian’s work ethic and skills were rewarded with a generous commission and shares in the buyout of ESI by a larger technology company. Recalling his fathers investment lesson, he invested his entire commission in numerous “dot.com” companies. This led to further stock investments that brought generous returns and valuable knowledge about high-growth sectors. The experience would enable him to discover an innovative idea for an education technology company and navigate the risks of a new industry.
Motivated by the knowledge that he was helping to improve the quality of healthcare, Brian continued his work in the healthcare IT industry. During his time at Eclipsys Corporation (now part of Allscripts), he headed the Southeast region. In short time it became the most profitable such firm in the $1.4B market cap healthcare IT industry.
Brian gained insight into innovation working under the direction of Eclipsys’ group of healthcare IT pioneers. They included Harvey Wilson, Greg Wilson, and Jack Risenhoover. All took immense pride in assisting hospitals with technological advances that saved lives with better data and the reduction of drug-to-drug interactions and complications.
In 2001, Brian Shulman founded LTS Education Systems (formerly Learning Through Sports, Inc.).
He was inspired to create the company after observing his young son’s love of video games and lack of excitement about school. “It seemed a natural fit to combine the growing popularity and access of video games with the need to improve motivation related to academics,” he said. “That was the concept for LTS, and still is to this day what we do at K12.”
Shulman’s experience in healthcare IT helped him recognize that the education market would soon be moving to the same model. Indeed, LTS was one of the first education-technology companies to deliver their programs exclusively through a cloud-based delivery vehicle. This rapidly growing educational technology company has been a leader in the emerging “Gaming to Learn” space in K-12 education for the past 16 years.
LTS’s cloud-based solution partners have included world-class providers Akamai and Limelight Solutions. The challenge to transform learning to meet the needs for at-risk and struggling learners was obvious. LTS responded by employing online technology, modern video games and personalized learning experiences to captivate students who are otherwise disengaged in traditional education mediums.
Growth of LTS Education Systems
LTS released its flagship online game-based learning program, Mascot University, in Sept. 2001. Mascot University motivated students by delivering a brief “brain-break” for playing time in their favorite sports video game after they completed a reading lesson or correctly answered a number of math questions.
In 2002, “Mascot U” was renamed Kid’s College. For 11 years, Kids College was upgraded and enhanced annually until its sunset on Dec. 31, 2013, when the HTML5-engineered Stride Academy replaced it as LTS Educations principal gaming- to-learn solution for tablets, PCs and Macs.
LTS game-based learning systems have since reached millions of students and taught millions of lessons inside the classroom and outside – in homes, afterschool programs and community centers of learning.
LTS was acquired by K12 Inc. in April of 2016. All LTS employees were retained. K12 is integrating the Stride product line into K12’s larger suite of products to support their online offerings.