Phil Robinson: From Military Leadership to Education Innovation

Episode Overview Phil Robinson shares the unconventional journey that led him from military service and central government IT programmes into education and eventually founding Tide Education. In this conversation, Phil talks openly about the realities of building an education business from scratch. He explains how his experience working inside schools revealed both the pressure teachers face and the operational gaps that still exist around student support and communication. The episode explores leadership, trust, systems, scaling, networking in education, and the financial realities of launching an edtech company without major backing. Phil also reflects on what founders often underestimate when entering the education sector, including time, trust, visibility, and the challenge of simply getting people to engage with a new product.   00:01:00 – Phil’s career journey from engineering to the Army00:03:35 – Moving into education and discovering the problem00:05:00 – Why Phil founded Tide Education00:08:00 – Similarities between military leadership and schools00:12:10 – What founders should do first with an idea00:16:20 – Why networking matters in education00:17:05 – The realities of funding and marketing an edtech startup00:22:05 – The hardest part of building Tide Education00:27:15 – Scaling, automation and reducing barriers for schools00:29:25 – Final reflections on building an education business All About Phil:Philip Robinson is a dad, technologist and veteran with a background spanning defence, UK Government and education. A former Major in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Philip served for 16 years, culminating in leading mission-critical IT system in Afghanistan.On retiring he worked in central government leading IT programmes and portfolios for a number of years before moving into education as Head of Business Intelligence in a medium-sized Multi-Academy Trust. Here he brought together fragmented information to create 360-degree views of students, enabling better insight, coordination, and outcomes across schools and trust.Philip is the founder of Tide Education, a real-time inclusion support platform for teachers, providing one view, one timeline, and one shared understanding of each child’s support journey.Website: www.tide.educationLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-robinson-22ba9a30/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.