Better learner

You never know where your next opportunity might be sitting.

For Adam Hall, the founder of Naples-based education technology firm Nervanix, it was a chance meeting on an airplane. On a flight from Fort Myers to New York City late in 2015, Hall by chance sat next to Bill Stone, the CEO of SS&C Technologies.

At the time, Hall didn't know who Stone was, but as they chatted he explained Nervanix had developed groundbreaking technology using neuroscience to measure how the brain is responding to curriculum. The three-hour flight led to a deal in which Hall sold one-third of his company to SS&C for an undisclosed sum in cash.