Startup Grind Boston: Building Fearless Learners With Priyanka Raha

Join Startup Grind Boston for a fireside conversation with Priyanka Raha, Founder & CEO of PopSmart Academy, exploring the entrepreneurial journey behind an education company built around a deceptively powerful idea: young people become stronger learners when we give them the confidence to question, create, communicate, and think for themselves. Priyanka will take us behind the scenes of her startup journey and into the decisions that actually shaped PopSmart: the early convictions, inevitable pivots, moments of uncertainty, lessons earned through execution, and the challenge of building a team and organization capable of carrying a deeply held mission forward. We'll explore what it means to build deliberately when conventional measures of startup success tell only part of the story — and how a founder balances growth, operations, culture, and values without allowing the mission to become merely something written on a website. In this conversation, we'll explore: Priyanka's evolution from founder to educational leader The pivots and lessons that shaped PopSmart Academy Building a mission-driven company through uncertainty Creating a culture that rewards curiosity rather than conformity Finding and developing people who genuinely share the mission Balancing human impact with the realities of building a sustainable company What Priyanka wishes she had known earlier in the entrepreneurial journey We'll close with an audience Q&A and open conversation. Whether you're building a startup, leading a team, working in education, or thinking about how values survive contact with the realities of entrepreneurship, this fireside offers a candid conversation about building something designed to grow people as well as a business. About Priyanka Raha Priyanka Raha is the Founder and CEO of PopSmart Academy, an Issaquah-based education company built around curiosity, confidence, communication, and independent thinking. Her path into education grew out of a long technology career: PopSmart’s own materials describe her as a former tech executive with experience as a software developer and technical program manager, while her current work spans writing, STEM, public speaking, entrepreneurship, and broader learning design. She holds an MBA from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management and has also worked as a volunteer teacher in public schools, experiences that helped shape her emphasis on personalized instruction and confidence-building. What distinguishes Priyanka is the way she connects entrepreneurship, education, and technology without treating any of them as ends in themselves. She has spoken publicly on digital citizenship, mindful technology use, leadership, product management, gender and work, and the future of learning, with a recurring argument that technology should help young people create, communicate, and think rather than simply consume. Her work has been featured through podcasts, founder profiles, and Seattle-area media, and she has contributed to outlets including ParentMap and Thrive Global. At PopSmart Academy, that philosophy has evolved into a broader educational mission: helping young people become stronger writers, speakers, problem-solvers, and self-directed learners while building an organization capable of sustaining that mission over time. Question deeply. Think independently. Speak boldly.