"Why you should start an education startup" by Ariel Diaz Founder of Boundless
•
2 j'aime•2,012 vues
This document discusses why one should start an education technology startup and outlines Ariel Diaz's experience founding Boundless. It notes that the education market has unique challenges like long sales and product cycles due to its adoption windows. Boundless aimed to replace expensive textbooks with free online textbooks sold directly to students. After initial challenges, it shifted to replacing textbooks for educators. The document outlines Boundless' progress launching subjects, products, and positioning over several years as it works to overcome the difficulties of the education sector.
Recommandé
Recommandé
Contenu connexe
En vedette
En vedette (14)
Similaire à "Why you should start an education startup" by Ariel Diaz Founder of Boundless
Similaire à "Why you should start an education startup" by Ariel Diaz Founder of Boundless (20)
Plus de TheFamily
Plus de TheFamily (20)
Dernier
Dernier (16)
"Why you should start an education startup" by Ariel Diaz Founder of Boundless
- 1. WHY YOU SHOULD START AN EDUCATION STARTUP BY ARIEL DIAZ FOUNDER AT BOUNDLESS #TFSPECIAL
- 4. #TFSPECIAL WHY YOU SHOULD START AN EDUCATION STARTUP ARIEL DIAZ FOUNDER OF BOUNDLESS @ARIELDIAZ
- 5. Ariel Diaz - @arieldiaz Serial Entrepreneur Education: A paradoxical market
- 7. World Bank Photo - CC-BY-NC-ND Education
- 8. World Bank Photo - CC-BY-NC-ND Why Education? MassiveImportant Fulfilling Education
- 9. Why Education?! Aaron Gilson - CC-BY-ND
- 11. Long sales cycle Decision makers are conservative because stakes are so high Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec School Year Adoption if key window is missed 6 month sales cycle with 1 window per year = 6-17 month effective cycle! One adoption window/year (maybe 2) Summertime sadness Key sales window
- 12. Complex and long product feedback cycle Traditional rapid product development iteration is measured in weeks (or months) Week 1 cohort Week 2 cohort Week 3 cohort Track metrics (e.g. engagement), create hypothesis to improve, build, roll out (assuming 2 week sprint) Week 4 cohort Review key metrics from Week 1 cohort learnings, compare cohorts Education product development iteration is measured in semesters (or years) Semester 1 Semester 2 Semester 3 Create your best guess on core features, set up many hypothesis in parallel, pray… Semester 4 Significantly harder to operate in a truly “lean” way
- 13. Region/Community - Tax Payers District - Government Officials School - Administrators Classroom - Teacher Student Classroom - Teacher Student Classroom - Teacher Student Classroom - Teacher Complex decision making and financial flows Student Parent(s) Decisions are made and influenced at every level, and likely different for each region, school, classroom, etc.
- 14. Education has uniquely Complex + Long Sales + Product Cycles Why Education?!
- 15. BOUNDLESS
- 16. Consumers: Students 19 million students, spending ~$1,000 per year Dictate Choices Decision Makers: Faculty + Profs No price sensitivity; aren’t primary purchaser Sales Efforts Content Creators: Publishers Spend ~$1 million to create a textbook Forced to spend $9.5B annually Source: Simba Research, Publishing executives, US Department of Education (U.S.) Textbook market is broken
- 17. Result: Textbooks prices (in U.S.) growing at 3X inflation [with 65% gross margins!] 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Educational Books and Consumer Price Index (1982-1984 = 100) 3x Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
- 18. Let’s fix it! PublishersProfessor Student The “consumerization” of education
- 19. Vision: Replace textbooks with free online textbooks, sold directly to students Content Product Go to Market
- 20. 1 - Content: Replace textbooks Accounting Business Communications Finance Management Marketing Art History Economics Political Science Psychology Algebra Calculus Statistics World History Sociology U.S. History Anatomy & Physiology Biology Chemistry Microbiology Physics Writing Business STEM Liberal Arts Success! We created high quality modular content, in over 20 subjects for 10-100x cheaper and faster than traditional publishers
- 21. 2 - Product: Online textbooks Success! We created award-winning online textbook, study, and publishing platform
- 22. ‣ Product positioning hard for students to believe - ‘what’s the catch’ ‣ Student segments didn’t fit product: ‣ Product efficacy: Could help with learning, but not with “grade” ‣ Price difference shrunk with rental market expansion 3 - Go to Market: Direct to studentNot quite Resulted in a key strategic decision point: Create a better supplement (for students), or replace the textbooks (for educators)
- 23. Updated solution: replace textbooks for educators
- 24. Current status: positioned well, for the long game 1 2 3 4 5 6 Semester Spring ‘11 Fall ‘11 Spring ‘12 Fall ‘12 Spring ‘13 Fall ‘13 Spring ‘14 Fall ‘14 Spring ‘15 Fall ‘15 16 Company Milestone Founded, $1.7M seed $8M A-Round First Revenue # Subjects 3 8 21 25 Product Beta 1,0 2,0 Teaching Tools Beta Full Platform Educator Focus •Basic online reader •Full featured e- reader •iOS apps •Learning Tech •Premium •Customization •Teaching resources •Assignments •Publishing •Community •API integration •Expanded teacher tools •LMS integration •Deeper learning analytics •More robust Monthly Unique Visitors (millions) Boundless Usage
- 26. Find or create a direct model (if you can)
- 27. Find and ride macro trends
- 28. Reduce impact of seasonality
- 29. Ensure alignment between investors and team
- 30. Education is hard…but important. Thank you!
- 34. Accounting Business Communications Finance Management Marketing Art History Economics Political Science Psychology Algebra Calculus Statistics World History Sociology U.S. History Anatomy & Physiology Biology Chemistry Microbiology Physics Writing Business STEM Liberal Arts Solution: Replace textbooks with free online textbooks, sold directly to students Publisher s Professor Stude nt Student