1. 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
BRAD WOLFE (MBA13) JERRY LEE (MBA13)
ROBBIE ALLAN (MBA13) TOM PRYOR (MBA14)
KIRILL IGUMENSHCHEV (COMP CHEM POSTDOC)
EMILY HAHN (MBA14)
116 INTERVIEWS COMPLETED
3 FULL PIVOTS

2. OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY
Educational
app delivery
Reassessed platform
three pivot
Options
YouTube
NOTSKOOL v0
for kids
Pandora for
kids online
games

3. OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY
Educational
app delivery
Reassessed platform
three pivot
Options
YouTube
NOTSKOOL v0
for kids
Pandora for
kids online
games

4. OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY
Educational
app delivery
Reassessed platform
three pivot
Options
YouTube
NOTSKOOL v0
for kids
Pandora for
kids online
games

5. OUR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY
Educational
app delivery
Reassessed platform
three pivot
options
YouTube
NOTSKOOL v0
for kids
Pandora for
kids online
games

6. TEAM NOTSKOOL
BRAD W O LFE – MB A 2 0 1 3 , E NT RE P RE NE UR (B A CK L I G HT.O RG ), DE S I G N, O B
J E RRY LE E – MB A 2 0 1 3 , E DUCAT I O N MG MT (K I P P ), DI G I TA L MA RK E T I NG , V C
RO BBI E ALL AN – MB A 2 0 1 3 , S T RAT E G Y (MCK I NS E Y), G A MI NG (ZYNG A )
TO M P RYO R – MB A 2 0 1 4 , E DUCAT I O N I NV E S T I NG (P E A RS O N, L E A P FRO G )
E MI LY HAHN – MB A 2 0 1 4 , E NT RE P RE NE UR (L I FE T I E P RO JE CT ), US E R E XP E RI E NCE
KI RI LL I G UME NS HCHE V – CO MP UTAT I O NA L CHE MI S T RY P O S T DO C, A I , C++

7. OUR INITIAL BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
Content suppliers: Developing AI that can For students 5-14 and As an online Mass Market:
- Existing online generate content their teachers and service, our customers Web-connected
education suppliers personalized to parents who seek online expect us to make children (and their
e.g. PBS KIDS, learning styles and learning content outside useful parents) who want
FunBrains, BrainNook learning needs of the school system, our recommendations and engaging content
- Traditional game platform is an aggregator to safeguard their and
developers wanting to of educational content records a record of
move into education, that recommends content achievement across
e.g. EA, Zynga based on the learner's platforms
interests and style.
Medium term:
Distribution partners Unlike the existing Professional
(???): fragmented ecosystem of education?
- Gates Foundation educational products, our
- Charter schools, platform recommends Long term:
e.g. - Data on learning content from a Customers reach us K-12 institutions
KIPP, Aspire, patterns, styles and comprehensive database through an engaging Tutors
Rocketship preferences, of sources and tracks online portal (like Pre-K
- Traditional schools, and aggregates Pandora or
e.g. OUSD, SFUSD - AI and big data achievement across all Netflix for education)
experts sources while providing a
gamification layer on top Content providers
- Engaging of all content.. provide content
educational content through an API
-Relationship with
online ed game devs
- Mostly fixed costs for ongoing development - Advertising
- Marginal cost to serve customers is ~0 - Customers (freemium content or licensing)
- Content either free or based on a revenue-sharing model - Big data opportunity?

8. INFORMED OUR FIRST CONCEPT PITCH
Frictionless
Curated and
movement between
professionally vetted
games on web
educational games
platform
Dashboard showing Machine-learning for
kids’ progress customization

9. WE HAD SOME EARLY CUSTOMER SEGMENT LEARNINGS
Multi-sided market!
Age range too broad!

10. AND FOUND CHALLENGES ON BOTH SIDES OF OUR MARKET
PARENTS & KIDS DEVELOPERS
• No dilation • Free content not great
• Purchasing behavior • Constrained to indie devs
concerns
• iOS black box
• Parents “ideal self”
• HTML5 uncertainty

11. 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)

12. AND INITIALLY CONSIDERED MOVING WHERE CONTENT WAS FREE

13. WE PREMATURELY JUMPED INTO BUILDING A PRODUCT…
http://notskool.me/

14. …INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO MORE CUSTOMERS
7/16 5/16 4/16
first place first place first place
votes votes votes
real pain, fierce demand & logistics
proven model competition concerns

15. WHO POINTED US TO OUR BEST BET
7/16 5/16 4/16
first place first place first place
votes votes votes
real pain, fierce demand & logistics
proven model competition concerns

16. DEEP DIVE: DEVELOPER’S DISTRIBUTION PAIN
“What I really need is an
easy way to distribute my
apps.”
--20+ developers we interviewed

17. WHAT WE DID: BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS UPDATE

18. WHAT WE DID: PRODUCT MOCKUP AND WIREFRAME

19. WHAT WE FOUND: STRONG POSITIVE PARENT RESPONSE
Structured
interviews Kids use
showing smart- Avg. apps Likely to
mock-up phone downloaded Paid refer us?
25 21 ~18 ~4 8.4
“I don’t have time to do the
“Installing your app is a no research, it would be great
brainer for me.” to outsource it to you.”
-Father of 3 and 5 years olds
-Father of 2 and 4 yo girls
“I want to be on your newsletter now.”
- Marius, Father of 4 and 8 year old girls

20. MORE LEARNING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE MARKET
PARENTS DEVELOPERS
• Sweet spot: Busy techies • All about Burst
• Trusted reviews critical • Traditional advertising fails
for indie devs
• Customization for age and
interests • Revenue model needs flex
• Integrated activities a • Customer feedback as
miss lifeblood
• Incentivize DL through
gamification

21. OUR STAGED REVENUE MODEL
Time
Revenue
Free CPI CPI + minimum
share
• Users: 0 • Users: 5-50K • Users: 50K-2M • Users: 2M+
• Our goal: grow • Our goal: grow • Our goal: grow • Our goal:
users revenue profit maximize profit
• Most attractive • A low-risk • More expensive • Most risky for
to developers, proposition for to developers developers,
essentially free developers due to a proven creates a
UA because they model and disincentive for
won’t be left out organic value of marginal apps to
of pocket top 20 placing use the service

22. LAUNCHROCK > NEWSLETTER > APP BETA > FULL APP
153 sent
35% opened

23. 13% CLICK RATE = NOT BAD!

24. WHERE WE ENDED UP: FINAL BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

25. LAUNCHROCK > NEWSLETTER > APP BETA > FULL APP
On your mobile device:
http://tinyurl.com/EdApped

26. FOUR BIG LESSONS

27. 1. Kids love iPads
…but parents are
worried

28. 2. Making education fun is hard

29. 3. Mobile discovery and distribution a huge pain

30. 4. Nothing beats
customer
feedback

31. IS THIS A VIABLE BUSINESS?
WE’VE IDENTIFIED A …AND A MODEL FOR A
REAL PROBLEM LIFESTYLE BUSINESS
1. Mobile/tablet use by kids 1. Appgratis as our highly
spiking lucrative analog
2. Parents struggles 2. Magic #’s: 50K  1M users
(3% of our TAM)
3. Open and clicks provide
early validation 3. Roughly an $8M a year
business
4. Devs really value burst
into top 25 4. Churn rate a big question
mark

32. THANK YOU! QUESTIONS?

33. APPENDIX

34. WEEK 1 CANVAS
Content suppliers: Developing AI that can For students 5-14 and As an online Mass Market:
- Existing online generate content their teachers and service, our customers Web-connected
education suppliers personalized to parents who seek online expect us to make children (and their
e.g. PBS KIDS, learning styles and learning content outside useful parents) who want
FunBrains, BrainNook learning needs of the school system, our recommendations and engaging content
- Traditional game platform is an aggregator to safeguard their and
developers wanting to of educational content records a record of
move into education, that recommends content achievement across
e.g. EA, Zynga based on the learner's platforms
interests and style.
Medium term:
Distribution partners Unlike the existing Professional
(???): fragmented ecosystem of education?
- Gates Foundation educational products, our
- Charter schools, platform recommends Long term:
e.g. - Data on learning content from a Customers reach us K-12 institutions
KIPP, Aspire, patterns, styles and comprehensive database through an engaging Tutors
Rocketship preferences, of sources and tracks online portal (like Pre-K
- Traditional schools, and aggregates Pandora or
e.g. OUSD, SFUSD - AI and big data achievement across all Netflix for education)
experts sources while providing a
gamification layer on top Content providers
- Engaging of all content.. provide content
educational content through an API
-Relationship with
online ed game devs
- Mostly fixed costs for ongoing development - Advertising
- Marginal cost to serve customers is ~0 - Customers (freemium content or licensing)
- Content either free or based on a revenue-sharing model - Big data opportunity?

35. WEEK 2 CANVAS

36. WEEK 3 CANVAS
New
Trusted names in Rapid wireframing and Guilt-free way to GET: AdWords, WOM,
childhood education: Purchaser: Tech-savvy
protoyping of UI entertain my child PR, (Gamasutra,
KIPP, Common Sense parents; Caring parents
TechCrunch), SPs
Media, LeapFrog, Kumo Insight & reassurance that
n, Little Einstein, UC Contact developers for KEEP: Good recs, trust
my kid is progressing Purchaser: Childcare
Berkeley School of content / Contests? and safety (i.e. Common
(Care.com, SitterCity)
Education / Cognitive Sense Media), reports
Science Control over what my
Curation of content
children see and access KEEP: Analytics, Purchaser: Afterschool
and development of AI
feedback, heat-mapping Programs (Kumon,
Content developer SCORE, BAGC)
Confidence in content GROW: Referrals, Cross-
“guilds”
appropriateness Promotes
Content Provider:
Simple help for my kids Independent Game
to meet developmental Developers
Quality online goals / give them an edge Direct via Web Portal
educational game Content Provider:
content Recommendations & Established Publishers
confidence in the right Indirect via Mobile App
Mentors and advisors
apps/games stores (iOS, Android)
with subject matter
End User: Children 3-7
expertise
Revenue or user-sharing
Google and Amazon End User: Children 3-7
grants for free AdWords Analytics, feedback
and server space
Ease of development
Fixed costs for ongoing development Advertising (targeted to Parents via dashboards, kids only in-game ads)
Marginal cost to serve each additional customer should approach 0
Subscriptions (monthly access, a la Netflix)
Content either free or based on a revenue-sharing model
Commissions from developers for distribution to parents (?)

37. WEEK 4 CANVAS

38. WEEK 5 CANVAS

39. WEEK 6 CANVAS

40. WEEK 7 CANVAS

41. WEEK 8 CANVAS

42. WEEK 9 CANVAS

43. EDAPPED CUSTOMER ARCHETYPES
Type Parents of kids ages 2-7 Friends and Family Educational App
Developers
Demographics Digital 28-45yo Moms and Multiple: Highly-connected Independent developers
Dads grandparents, “uncles and or small studios
aunts”, babysitters
Product Free Mobile App Premium 1x or Subscription Both
Version Digital Giftbox
Motivators “Cut through noise”; safe, Provide content to enrich Distribution: exposure,
appropriate, positive content and entertain my downloads, shared
for kids to spend time on grandkids/nephew/niece/ revenue; the challenge of
student making games that help
kids learn
Example(s) Han and Sammy Ralph Guggenheim and his I-Itch Inc., Loeschware,
grandkids Mak Gutierrez

44. INITIAL APP DEVELOPER CUSTOMER ARCHETYPES
“Early Indie” “Cocky Indie” “Shitty Opportunists”
Experience Less than 12 months More than 1 year of 2-5 years of experience
experience
Metrics Less than 10K 10K+ downloads/installs 10K+ downloads/installs
downloads/installs (but not necessarily in ed
space)
Mentality “This is the next greatest “If I build it, they will come” “How can I profit from this
thing” edtech thing?”
Needs / Up and comer that wants to Traction  Scale Pure calculation of
Motivation put his/her work out there revenues from additional
installs vs. costs of
BrightBox

45. LANDSCAPE OF POTENTIAL PARTNERS
Type Strategic Alliance Strategic Alliance Virtual Channel
We Need Validation, Brand Name Certification, Expert Parent Reach & Sign-ups
Opinion
They Need Traffic, Revenue Recognition, Real-world The newest, best content
application of knowledge for their readership
The Cost Cross promotion/referral, Time, potential $$$ per Time, long “sale cycle”,
Sharing our review system review (at scale) revenue share?
Risks Impedence mismatch, Highly dependent on Impedence mismatch,
Potential competition specific relationships brand dilution?
Status Preliminary convo with COO Working with Joseph on Ralph connecting us with
of CSM, Director of structuring partnership with GGMG, emails out to a
Education at Kindertown Cog Sci PhD’s and few other mid-sized blogs
Postdocs at Berkeley