All About Better Schoolhouse
After a decade of running successful online marketing businesses, we were looking for something that would give back to our communities. Education has always been close to our hearts, given the freakishly high number of teachers in our families, so we set our sights on a way to help schools – but even better, to give people the power to help their own local schools. That’s when we hit on Better Schoolhouse, a twist on our traditional affiliate and lead generation marketing business.
You can read our FAQ for the nitty-gritty, but in a nutshell, every time you fill out a survey or take a company up on an offer, your designated school earns cash. No strings, no gimmicks. It’s a great way to help your local school, without any money out of your pocket!
Totally self-funded and a division of Lucky Pacific Networks, we proudly launched Better Schoolhouse in August of 2010. So who’s behind this “we”? Let’s meet the team!
The People Behind Better Schoolhouse
Jeff Unze, Co-Founder
Jeff has parlayed his penchant for talking too much in class into a career in sales/marketing. After graduating with an International MBA from Thunderbird, Jeff worked at the Chinese powerhouse Sina.com (NASDAQ: SINA) and co-founded the leading international lead generation house, Lucky Pacific. At Better Schoolhouse, Jeff primarily tries to find great products and services that pique the interests of our community so that our schools can benefit.
Jeff speaks enough Mandarin and Spanish to embarrass himself in most social situations. Raised in both Minnesota and New Mexico, Jeff makes a mean green chile lutefisk. His enjoyment of the ocean and high home prices brought him to the SF Bay Area in 1999 where he lives with his wonderful wife Athena and their two boys who share Dad’s love of loud talking. Athena is a teacher of 12 years and is currently practicing iron-fisted classroom management with her 3rdgraders at a school in San Jose.
School he’s earning for: Willow Glen Elementary
Favorite Teachers: Ms. Klein, 5th Grade at Mitchell Elementary who saw potential behind the disruption; Mr. Entwisle, 8thgrade English teacher at Albuquerque Academy who taught him to write (and potentially sit like that in his picture); Mr. Pennington, Senior Humanities teacher at Albuquerque Academy who taught him to reason.
Reid Behrendt, Co-Founder
There's nothing wrong with trying too hard to be a teacher's pet. After working hard in elementary school, attending high school, and then working hard again in college and in his international MBA program at Thunderbird, Reid took and held positions in international finance, sales, and marketing for Goodyear Tire & Rubber company's Asia/Pacific Rim business unit.
After Goodyear, he returned to the Silicon Valley to run MedicalHost.com, a startup specializing in building information systems for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Reid followed two successful technology startups with Lucky Pacific, where he and Jeff established the reputations and relationships necessary to build the Better Schoolhouse platform. His Mandarin is passable, but not good enough to get him out of the embarrassing social situations Jeff gets him into.
Reid lives in Northern California with his wife, Jammie, and two young sons. Jammie has taught second, third, fifth, and seventh grades during a 12 year career as an elementary and middle school teacher before taking on a role as a middle school administrator in San Carlos, California. She's currently serving as the principal of a local elementary school where her passion for improving the quality of elementary education can be put to good use.
School he’s earning for: Lookout Mountain Elementary School
Favorite Teachers: Mr. Amidon (Go Amidon's Athletes!) – 5th Grade Elementary; Ruth Knowles, 10th Grade English ("You're taking the SATs, Behrendt, if I have to pay for it myself!")
Jeff Kakes, Marketing, Communications, and Community
Besides being part of the two-headed Jeff monster in the office, Jeff K runs the “people-oriented stuff” for BSH. Despite failing at a reality television career after graduating from UC Davis – striking out twice with The Amazing Race and once with Survivor – Jeff recovered to spend almost 7 years with eBay (which fed his obsession with Star Wars collectibles) and another 2 at Gaia Online, one of the leading sites for teenagers. His experience leading Community Development and Communications teams was a great fit for BSH, and he jumped at the chance to help create a company trying to make a positive impact for our schools.
A full-blown sports nerd, Jeff moonlighted as a fantasy basketball columnist on ESPN.com in the early 2000’s, covering the Golden State Warriors for 5 years before they realized that no one read his articles. When not at home with his family after work, you’ll usually find him playing softball or basketball, training for a triathlon, waiting for The Amazing Race to call him back, or vociferously defending his Dodgers against the Giants fans he calls friends.
Ties to education run deep in Jeff’s family. His mom was a teacher and principal in San Jose for her entire career, and his wife is currently a high school teacher. In fact, Jeff hopes to eventually become a high school teacher himself, knowing what a positive impact his own teachers had on his life.
School he’s earning for: Leigh High School
Favorite Teachers: Coach Roger Smith at Leigh High (except when we had to run lines); Mr. DuBois at Leigh High (although Chemistry was one of his worst subjects); Mrs. Hooper at Dartmouth Middle (who put up with his middle school shenanigans with almost divine patience)
Doug Karlson, Affiliate Manager
Doug was born and raised in the heart of the Silicon Valley - Palo Alto, California – emerging from the womb with an Ethernet cable for an umbilical cord. The sunny streets and technologically vibrant atmosphere helped shape him into the web-savvy demi-god of Minesweeper and Solitare that he is today. After rounding off his education as a business major at San Diego State University, Doug returned to the bay area to work for a variety of start-ups, e-commerce websites and the finest coffee shops in the area.
Coming from a family abundant with teachers, Doug is overjoyed to be part of the team at Better Schoolhouse. He hopes to make a positive impact on the institutions across the country that open up the world of knowledge to children – our schools. In his free time he enjoys riding bicycles and knitting cat sweaters.
School he's earning for: Hoover Elementary School in Palo Alto, CA
Favorite Teachers: Mr. Cooper, 10th Grade Art; Ms. Sevier, 3rd grade (he had a huge crush on her)
Josh Johnson, Affiliate Manager
After growing up in Perham, Minnesota, Josh was able to hitch a ride to the West Coast and attend a school that few back home had heard of before, one started by some guy named Stanford. While there, he was able to flex his golden pipes in the a cappella group Fleet Street (check for their stuff on iTunes!) and managed the Men’s Basketball team, including 4 NBA players. Somehow, that earned him a degree in International Relations, which he proudly keeps in his wallet as the most expensive receipt he will ever have.
Since graduating, Josh had been spotted working at various successful startups in Silicon Valley, cheering at Stanford sporting events, and wandering aimlessly around San Francisco. He brought his vast music collection and equally vast hair to Better Schoolhouse not long ago to bring balance to the Force, and also to help schools big and small become the institutions they want to be, not just the schools that they need to be. Like Kevin Garnett said, “Anything is Possible!!”
