Dear Researcher,
This is my second question, my first one was this:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=442868
for me it is ok if both are answered by different researchers.
I will repeat my introduction of the first question here again, as it
is also relevant here:
I am a young entrepreneur from Germany / Switzerland. I am planing to
set up a business in the USA and for that I need to write a
businessplan. The bplan is aimed to investors as well as for internal
use. The business is about licensing and distributing an patented
educational software which is already successfully distributed in
europe and which I have invented.
I do NOT need a model as I have acquired a very good software wizard
for creating a bplan with lots of samples.
My question is divided to an Introduction about my product and 2
chapters. I need the answer until Monday February 13. I need a very
detailed answer as the bplan will be read by critical investors.
In other answers I have seen often that the answer consits largely of
links, but I would apreciate it very much if you could actually write
down / copy the relevant things from the sources to your answer
directly.
Please name the sources of all numbers / facts you have included.
I?m looking forward to this cooperation and I?m curious as this is my
first time! :-)
INTRODUCTION TO ?MY PROGRAMM?
===========================
I will not name my programm for reasons of safety and annonymity. If
there is a way how I could send a link for download to your private
Email-Address I would do so so that you?d be able to take a look at
it.
My programm is an low-cost educational tool that helps the user to
commit ANY CONTENT to long-term memory and which is very very easy to
use. The usability follows the principle ?KISS? (Keep it simple
stupid) and the method on which it is based is that of the scientist
?Hermann Ebbinghaus? who more than 100 years ago layed the foundation
of long-term memorization with his experiments and the resulting
?Vergessenskurve? (german for ?forgetting curve?). See the picture in
these links:
http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/hendrik.langner/scient_background.gif
http://www.recallplus.com/images/BasicForgettingCurve.gif
If you google for ?forgetting curve? you should find some more
reference on the scientific theory I?m talking about.
The material the user wants to learn has to be typed in by himselve or
imported by him from any source. The programm itself is delivered
?empty?. The material to be learned has to be divided into items (you
could also say ?virtual index cards?) that consist of one Question and
one Answer. In case the user learns voabulary, for example, the
question would be the native-language word (the known) and the answer
would be the foreign word (the unknown).
The basic idea is that each item is inquired by the computer ( =
studied) repetetly in a certain pattern of repetition: The time
intervals between the repetition grow exponentially with every phase
until the last interval is sufficiently long to ensure that this item
has reached the users long-term memory. However, in case the user has
forgotten the answer, it goes back to the first phase where the
time-intervals are small and the ?journey to the long-term memory? for
this item begins anew.
The computer handels all the organization of the learning-process, eg.
It tells the user automatically which item is due for study on what
date. The user is ONLY concerned with regularly feeding the programm
with new input (typing in new items) and regularly starting the
study-session. EVERYTHING ELSE is automatic. In fact, I believe that?s
the single most important success-factor of my programm: That the user
has no hassle at all and still everything he learns reaches his
long-term memory eventually ? so that he will never forget it again.
The new version 2 of my programm will be browser based and platform
independent. As such it can be marketed not only to schools and
students but also to companies whose employees need to learn any
facts, definitions, terminology, vocabulary etc etc by heart. Version
2 will also support pictures, audio and video in place of text as the
Questionn or Answer.
The price for one license will lie in the range between 15 and 29 $
(it?a a multi-user-system so for private use one license means
everybody in the family can log on and use the programm, in BtoB one
license means permisson to use the programm for one employee).
If you have any other questions about the programm please let me know.
1. POSSIBLE MULTIPLICATORS / RESELLERS
==================================
Make a list of possible multiplicators for my programm (top-down and
bottom-up / push-and pull strategies) and describe the general
strategy you would assume to work. See examples below ? Note: there
are questions for you inside those examples:
a) high / middle schools
-----------------------------------------------
Strategy:
Convince as many individual teachers as possible (bottom-up)
Questions:
Where do teachers come together? What events? What assosciations?
e.g.- German-Teacher-Association
- all teachers: Professional development workshops
- etc. please list more!! Also list all associations etc.
- MOST IMPORTANT: Where can I get a 100% reliable COMPLETE database of
ALL addresses of all middle- and high-schools in the USA? If there are
no free offers, where can I buy such database and how much does it
cost? I need specific links / offers.
b) School-districts (Super-Intendent / Technology director)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strategy:
Make use of existing relations to get refered to people on top of the
Hierarchy and convince them ? have a license or specific
distribution/price model ready for whole school-districts.
Questions:
How many are there?
What is the average number of students per district?
What is their specific areas of influence / decision?
c) PTAs (Parents Teachers Association)
------------------------------------------------------
Strategy:
achieve ?pull effect? by convincing assembly
Questions:
- How to get an appointment? Which pretense / occasion / argumentation
to use to get an appointment?
- How many are there?
- What are their specific areas of influence / decision?
d) ?student teachers? associations or organizations or assemblies or whatever.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please list.
The young teachers are motivated and open towards technology, they are
the decision makers of the future. It would be interesting to get hold
of them in larger numbers and expose them to our brand / presentation.
e) After-school tutoring / private learning-centeres / similar
institutions / franchises
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
eg. ?Sylvan Learning Center? (daugher of Educate-Inc.com)
Please make list with all the big ones INCLUDING THE NUMBER OF
STUDENTS EACH YEAR!!! Also note whether they are organized privatly
/ as a franchise or whatever it is. That?s important for the decision
of how to approach them.
f) State- and Nationwide Umbrella organizations eg. Of private schools
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eg. http://www.catholicschoolmgmt.com/
- please make extensive list.
g) Institutions that deal with adult education / language-schools
----------------------------------------------------------------------
e.g. I believe ?community colleges? or similar are big in adult-ed
(not sure though).
please make a list of others as well. For each one describe in one-two
sentences the proposed strategy and some key statistics that are
interesting for market potential, eg. Number of institutions /
students etc.
Berlitz is a good example for a language school. Here I have a specific request:
- How many total customers does the Language School "Berlitz" have every
year worldwide?
- If possible, please also tell me, what percentage of the total
customers worldwide are taking german, spanish and french courses (the
sum of all three).
h) Institutions, public and private, that deal with / have / prepare
for standardized tests or education
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ETS (Educational testing services) doing stuff like the SAT / GRE /
GMAT / TOEFEL etc.
- Drivers-license test
- CPAs
- Standard education / tests for Brokers
Please make an list as extensive as possible and describe very shortly
the form of organization/institution and the possible strategy for
selling to them our kind of product / getting an appointment.
i) Publishers of school-material / text-books
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is very important. Please make a list as complete as possible,
with links or addresses and a short note what kind of school-material
they are issueing and in what region (if not nationwide) they are
active in the US.
j) Resellers and Wholesellers for educational software / big
book-stores that sell software / school supplies warehouses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------e.g.
?Teachers Discovery? http://www.teachersdiscovery.com/
- barnes & nobles
- borders
- eg. Beckly cardy
- http://www.leapfrog.com
k) Medical fields / associations
--------------------------------------------------
FYI: in our home country of Germany, many therapists have started
recommending my programm to their young pateints, especially for
children with spelling/writing diseas (I don?t know the english term).
But also doctors dealing with alzheimers have made some inquries.
please make a list of potential medical fields where my programm would
be of interest and name the according associations / contacts. This
will be very helpful for me as I don?t know all the special names and
terminology.
One association I can think of straight out of my pocket is the APA
(Psychology) ? not sure though how they are structured and whether
they would be an interesting target for me.
l) OTHERS
----------------------------------------
Please thoroughly think of more potential kinds of (and specific!!)
institutions or individuals that might act as a multiplicator for the
sale of our software ? and why.
2. POTENTIAL STRATEGIC PARTNERS FOR COOPERATION
==================================================
a) Providers of dictionaries (especially digital (online and offline))
Eg. ?Babylon?
please make list!
b) Providers of content / preperational material for standardized tests
Eg. ?Kaplan? www.kaplan.com
Please make list!
THAT?S IT. Thaks a lot in advance!!!!!
Your dgor. |
