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In my 30 years as a founder and CEO of several EdTech companies, I developed a micro worldview that helped me succeed. Staying focused on customers and teammates was all-consuming, so I rarely lifted my head to scan the horizon. Foresight was looking one quarter ahead, maybe two. I was an operator.

Fortunately, I had an investor and board member who developed a macro worldview. He saw years and even decades ahead. It was as if he sat above all of us EdTech CEOs, studying the giant forest, while the rest of us were nurturing our trees

His name was Michael Moe, the founder and CEO of GSV and ASU-GSV conference. He was also the first Wall Street analyst to write about a small coffee company called Starbucks in 1992, and later published the "Book of Knowledge," mapping out the knowledge economy categories before they existed.

I invited Mike to be my guest on the Let’s Get StartEd podcast, to divine new signals about the future of learning and work. When I sat down to write this piece, I thought it was going to be about the patterns and trends he sees, and it sort-of is. But the bigger idea I kept mulling over was about developing a macro worldview, seeing further and gaining foresight. It feels urgent.

A macro worldview matters because the biggest opportunities and threats to a company rarely come from today’s customer feedback. They come from the forces changing what customers will need tomorrow. When change accelerates, leaders need to spend more time above the canopy. The best leaders understand the patterns that will redefine their customers’ problems.  This is a new definition of being customer centered.

Two years ago I joined StartEd. Talking to hundreds of CEOs each year gives me a view across many companies, not just one. I observe broader patterns, themes, and systems that individual CEOs often don’t notice because they are inside their own companies. The winners of tomorrow are those who see the big picture sooner.

While the rest of us are focused on putting AI to work inside our businesses, Mike Moe is thinking at a higher level. It’s not about the current technology, it’s about how the world will be reshaped by it. It’s about human potential. It’s about structural change. It’s about how humans learn, work, and adapt in a world that is changing faster than ever.

You can see this structural change happening in higher education. I received my Penn Alumni Magazine last month and I was shocked to see a page showing what it costs per year to go there now. When I went to college, it was $10k per year. Penn is now $98k. You must invest $400k and drop out of life for four years to acquire knowledge whose value depreciates faster than ever. You’re paying luxury-good prices for an asset that depreciates at an accelerating rate.

Then what—drop out of life again to spend another $100k and another year chasing the next skill update? I don’t think so. On our podcast episode, Mike framed artificial intelligence like electricity: a foundational utility that will power thousands of new applications designed to make learning continuous, engaging, and invisible.

Traditional learning was designed around the learner adapting to the system. The future system adapts to the learner. Too much of today’s online learning is not good enough to hold attention. With current tools, people are applying Hollywood production and storytelling to create engaging programs for a fraction of the cost. “Hollywood meets Harvard” is the future: combining the engagement of great storytelling with the rigor of world-class knowledge.

With “Invisible Learning”, learning becomes a natural part of everyday life, embedded in your entertainment, games, and daily work. Learning disappears into life.

In addition to invisible learning, the four-year degree was never designed to be the only learning experience someone needs for a 50-year career. The monolithic bachelor's degree will evolve into smaller chunks of proof-of-skill that demonstrate the ability to accomplish something. Companies are changing fast, and so are the jobs inside them. The skills required for those jobs require continuous learning.

The relationship between learning and work will fundamentally change. Entrepreneurs are rebuilding this fractured bridge because skills change faster than high schools and colleges can adapt. They are deploying 24/7 conversational AI coaches, transforming internships, and reshaping career marketplaces.

I’ve spent time sitting above the forest canopy, talking to CEOs tending to their trees, and I see systems and patterns changing in ways I’ve never seen before. Leaders cannot make better decisions than their worldview allows.

As my friend and Wharton professor Paul Schoemaker wrote in See Sooner, Act Faster, winning requires spotting signals before the crowd. The future belongs to the leaders who see sooner and act faster.

These are the same themes we'll be exploring with a small group of CEOs, investors, and operators at the StartEd CEO Summit at EdTech Week 2026.

If this is relevant to what you're building, you can learn more or request an invite here.