NOTSKOOL

ORIGINAL IDEA:

PANDORA FOR ONLINE LEARNING GAMES FOR KIDS AGES 5-14

FINAL IDEA:

EDUCATIONAL APP DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR PARENTS OF KIDS 3 -9

$250M DISTRIBUTION MARKET TODAY, $950M IN 2015

116 INTERVIEWS COMPLETED

3 FULL PIVOTS

BRAD WOLFE (MBA13) JERRY LEE (MBA13)

ROBBIE ALLAN (MBA13) TOM PRYOR (MBA14)

KIRILL IGUMENSHCHEV (COMP CHEM POSTDOC)

EMILY HAHN (MBA14)

Pandora for kids online games

YouTube

for kids

Reassessed three pivot Options

Educational app delivery platform

OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY

NOTSKOOL v0

Pandora for kids online games

YouTube

for kids

Reassessed three pivot Options

Educational app delivery platform

OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY

NOTSKOOL v0

Pandora for kids online games

YouTube

for kids

Reassessed three pivot Options

Educational app delivery platform

OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY

NOTSKOOL v0

OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY

Pandora for kids online games

YouTube

for kids

Reassessed three pivot options

Educational app delivery platform

NOTSKOOL v0

TEAM NOTSKOOL

ROBBIE ALLAN – MBA 2013, STRATEGY (MCKINSEY), GAMING (ZYNGA)

EMILY HAHN – MBA 2014, ENTREPRENEUR (LIFE TIE PROJECT), USER EXPERIENCE

KIRILL IGUMENSHCHEV – COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY POSTDOC, AI, C++

JERRY LEE – MBA 2013, EDUCATION MGMT (KIPP), DIGITAL MARKETING, VC

TOM PRYOR – MBA 2014, EDUCATION INVESTING (PEARSON, LEAPFROG)

BRAD WOLFE – MBA 2013, ENTREPRENEUR (BACKLIGHT.ORG), DESIGN, OB

OUR INITIAL BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

Content suppliers:

- Existing online

education suppliers

e.g. PBS KIDS,

FunBrains, BrainNook

- Traditional game

developers wanting to

move into education,

e.g. EA, Zynga

Distribution partners

(???):

- Gates Foundation

- Charter schools,

e.g.

KIPP, Aspire,

Rocketship

- Traditional schools,

e.g. OUSD, SFUSD

Developing AI that can

generate content

personalized to

learning styles and

learning needs

- Data on learning

patterns, styles and

preferences,

- AI and big data

experts

- Engaging

educational content

-Relationship with

online ed game devs

For students 5-14 and

their teachers and

parents who seek online

learning content outside

of the school system, our

platform is an aggregator

of educational content

that recommends content

based on the learner's

interests and style.

Unlike the existing

fragmented ecosystem of

educational products, our

platform recommends

content from a

comprehensive database

of sources and tracks

and aggregates

achievement across all

sources while providing a

gamification layer on top

of all content..

As an online

service, our customers

expect us to make

useful

recommendations and

to safeguard their

records

Mass Market:

Web-connected

children (and their

parents) who want

engaging content

and

a record of

achievement across

platforms

Medium term:

Professional

education?

Long term:

K-12 institutions

Tutors

Pre-K

Customers reach us

through an engaging

online portal (like

Pandora or

Netflix for education)

Content providers

provide content

through an API

- Mostly fixed costs for ongoing development

- Marginal cost to serve customers is ~0

- Content either free or based on a revenue-sharing model

- Advertising

- Customers (freemium content or licensing)

- Big data opportunity?

INFORMED OUR FIRST CONCEPT PITCH

Frictionless

movement between

games on web

platform

Curated and

professionally vetted

educational games

Dashboard showing

kids’ progress

Machine-learning for

customization

WE HAD SOME EARLY CUSTOMER SEGMENT LEARNINGS

Multi-sided market!

Age range too broad!

AND FOUND CHALLENGES ON BOTH SIDES OF OUR MARKET

PARENTS & KIDS

• No dilation

• Purchasing behavior

concerns

• Parents “ideal self”

DEVELOPERS

• Free content not great

• Constrained to indie devs

• iOS black box

• HTML5 uncertainty

WE DEVELOPED THREE PIVOT IDEAS

“It’s not our job to tell you which one to choose… If

we were your board, we would FIRE you.”

--Steve Blank & Jerry Engel, 2/13/13 (paraphrased)

AND INITIALLY CONSIDERED MOVING WHERE CONTENT WAS FREE

WE PREMATURELY JUMPED INTO BUILDING A PRODUCT…

http://notskool.me/

…INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO MORE CUSTOMERS

7/16

first place

votes

5/16

first place

votes

4/16

first place

votes

real pain,

proven model

fierce

competition

demand & logistics

concerns

WHO POINTED US TO OUR BEST BET

7/16

first place

votes

5/16

first place

votes

4/16

first place

votes

real pain,

proven model

fierce

competition

demand & logistics

concerns

DEEP DIVE: DEVELOPER’S DISTRIBUTION PAIN

“What I really need is an

easy way to distribute my

apps.”

--20+ developers we interviewed

WHAT WE DID: BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS UPDATE

WHAT WE DID: PRODUCT MOCKUP AND WIREFRAME

WHAT WE FOUND: STRONG POSITIVE PARENT RESPONSE

Structured

interviews

showing

mock-up

Kids use

smart-

phone

Avg. apps

downloaded

Likely to

refer us?

25 ~18 8.4

Paid

~4

“Installing your app is a no

brainer for me.”

-Father of 3 and 5 years olds

“I don’t have time to do the

research, it would be great

to outsource it to you.”

-Father of 2 and 4 yo girls

21

“I want to be on your newsletter now.”- Marius, Father of 4 and 8 year old girls

MORE LEARNING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE MARKET

PARENTS

• Sweet spot: Busy techies

• Trusted reviews critical

• Customization for age and

interests

• Integrated activities a

miss

DEVELOPERS

• All about Burst

• Traditional advertising fails

for indie devs

• Revenue model needs flex

• Customer feedback as

lifeblood

• Incentivize DL through

gamification

OUR STAGED REVENUE MODEL

FreeRevenue

shareCPI CPI + minimum

• Users: 0

• Our goal: grow

users

• Most attractive

to developers,

essentially free

UA

• Users: 5-50K

• Our goal: grow

revenue

• A low-risk

proposition for

developers

because they

won’t be left out

of pocket

• Users: 50K-2M

• Our goal: grow

profit

• More expensive

to developers

due to a proven

model and

organic value of

top 20 placing

• Users: 2M+

• Our goal:

maximize profit

• Most risky for

developers,

creates a

disincentive for

marginal apps to

use the service

Time

LAUNCHROCK > NEWSLETTER > APP BETA > FULL APP

153 sent

35% opened

13% CLICK RATE = NOT BAD!

WHERE WE ENDED UP: FINAL BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

LAUNCHROCK > NEWSLETTER > APP BETA > FULL APP

On your mobile device:

http://tinyurl.com/EdApped

FOUR BIG LESSONS

1. Kids love iPads

…but parents are

worried

2. Making education fun is hard

3. Mobile discovery and distribution a huge pain

4. Nothing beats

customer

feedback

IS THIS A VIABLE BUSINESS?

WE’VE IDENTIFIED A

REAL PROBLEM

1. Mobile/tablet use by kids

spiking

2. Parents struggles

3. Open and clicks provide

early validation

4. Devs really value burst

into top 25

…AND A MODEL FOR A

LIFESTYLE BUSINESS

1. Appgratis as our highly

lucrative analog

2. Magic #’s: 50K 1M users

(3% of our TAM)

3. Roughly an $8M a year

business

4. Churn rate a big question

mark

THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?

APPENDIX

WEEK 1 CANVAS

Content suppliers:

- Existing online

education suppliers

e.g. PBS KIDS,

FunBrains, BrainNook

- Traditional game

developers wanting to

move into education,

e.g. EA, Zynga

Distribution partners

(???):

- Gates Foundation

- Charter schools,

e.g.

KIPP, Aspire,

Rocketship

- Traditional schools,

e.g. OUSD, SFUSD

Developing AI that can

generate content

personalized to

learning styles and

learning needs

- Data on learning

patterns, styles and

preferences,

- AI and big data

experts

- Engaging

educational content

-Relationship with

online ed game devs

For students 5-14 and

their teachers and

parents who seek online

learning content outside

of the school system, our

platform is an aggregator

of educational content

that recommends content

based on the learner's

interests and style.

Unlike the existing

fragmented ecosystem of

educational products, our

platform recommends

content from a

comprehensive database

of sources and tracks

and aggregates

achievement across all

sources while providing a

gamification layer on top

of all content..

As an online

service, our customers

expect us to make

useful

recommendations and

to safeguard their

records

Mass Market:

Web-connected

children (and their

parents) who want

engaging content

and

a record of

achievement across

platforms

Medium term:

Professional

education?

Long term:

K-12 institutions

Tutors

Pre-K

Customers reach us

through an engaging

online portal (like

Pandora or

Netflix for education)

Content providers

provide content

through an API

- Mostly fixed costs for ongoing development

- Marginal cost to serve customers is ~0

- Content either free or based on a revenue-sharing model

- Advertising

- Customers (freemium content or licensing)

- Big data opportunity?

WEEK 2 CANVAS

WEEK 3 CANVAS

Trusted names in childhood education: KIPP, Common Sense Media, LeapFrog, Kumon, Little Einstein, UC Berkeley School of Education / Cognitive Science

Mentors and advisors with subject matter expertise

GET: AdWords, WOM, PR, (Gamasutra, TechCrunch), SPs

Rapid wireframing and protoyping of UI

Direct via Web Portal

Fixed costs for ongoing developmentMarginal cost to serve each additional customer should approach 0

Advertising (targeted to Parents via dashboards, kids only in-game ads)

Purchaser: Childcare (Care.com, SitterCity)

Purchaser: Afterschool Programs (Kumon, SCORE, BAGC)

Content Provider: Independent Game Developers

Content Provider: Established Publishers

End User: Children 3-7

KEEP: Good recs, trust and safety (i.e. Common Sense Media), reports

KEEP: Analytics, feedback, heat-mapping

GROW: Referrals, Cross-Promotes

Indirect via Mobile App stores (iOS, Android)

Quality online educational game content

Google and Amazon grants for free AdWords and server space

Contact developers for content / Contests?

Curation of content and development of AI

Purchaser: Tech-savvy parents; Caring parents

Content developer “guilds”

Content either free or based on a revenue-sharing model

Guilt-free way to entertain my child

Insight & reassurance that my kid is progressing

Control over what my children see and access

Confidence in content appropriateness

Simple help for my kids to meet developmental goals / give them an edge

Recommendations & confidence in the right apps/games

End User: Children 3-7

Subscriptions (monthly access, a la Netflix)

Commissions from developers for distribution to parents (?)

Revenue or user-sharing

Analytics, feedback

Ease of development

New

WEEK 4 CANVAS

WEEK 5 CANVAS

WEEK 6 CANVAS

WEEK 7 CANVAS

WEEK 8 CANVAS

WEEK 9 CANVAS

EDAPPED CUSTOMER ARCHETYPES

Type Parents of kids ages 2-7 Friends and Family Educational App

Developers

Demographics Digital 28-45yo Moms and

Dads

Multiple: Highly-connected

grandparents, “uncles and

aunts”, babysitters

Independent developers

or small studios

Product

Version

Free Mobile App Premium 1x or Subscription

Digital Giftbox

Both

Motivators “Cut through noise”; safe,

appropriate, positive content

for kids to spend time on

Provide content to enrich

and entertain my

grandkids/nephew/niece/

student

Distribution: exposure,

downloads, shared

revenue; the challenge of

making games that help

kids learn

Example(s) Han and Sammy Ralph Guggenheim and his

grandkids

I-Itch Inc., Loeschware,

Mak Gutierrez

INITIAL APP DEVELOPER CUSTOMER ARCHETYPES

“Early Indie” “Cocky Indie” “Shitty Opportunists”

Experience Less than 12 months More than 1 year of

experience

2-5 years of experience

Metrics Less than 10K

downloads/installs

10K+ downloads/installs 10K+ downloads/installs

(but not necessarily in ed

space)

Mentality “This is the next greatest

thing”

“If I build it, they will come” “How can I profit from this

edtech thing?”

Needs /

Motivation

Up and comer that wants to

put his/her work out there

Traction Scale Pure calculation of

revenues from additional

installs vs. costs of

BrightBox

LANDSCAPE OF POTENTIAL PARTNERS

Type Strategic Alliance Strategic Alliance Virtual Channel

We Need Validation, Brand Name Certification, Expert

Opinion

Parent Reach & Sign-ups

They Need Traffic, Revenue Recognition, Real-world

application of knowledge

The newest, best content

for their readership

The Cost Cross promotion/referral,

Sharing our review system

Time, potential $$$ per

review (at scale)

Time, long “sale cycle”,

revenue share?

Risks Impedence mismatch,

Potential competition

Highly dependent on

specific relationships

Impedence mismatch,

brand dilution?

Status Preliminary convo with COO

of CSM, Director of

Education at Kindertown

Working with Joseph on

structuring partnership with

Cog Sci PhD’s and

Postdocs at Berkeley

Ralph connecting us with

GGMG, emails out to a

few other mid-sized blogs