i got wifi in the trunk
Hello.
“Homeschooling” has been getting a lot of buzz in the media as of recently because millions of kids were sent home when schools closed last week. The schools themselves didn’t really have a plan going forward.
This has led to parents taking it upon themselves to start printing out workbooks and doing educational projects w/ their kids. This seems to be the trend for parents of younger kids K-3.
What about everyone else? Well. These headlines should tell you enough.
The reality of it is that schools are adjusting really fast. Online sessions and online assignments are already coming together. I’ve been speaking to tons of public school teachers across the US who tell me how they’re moving their sessions online (Zoom, Skype, YouTube), chatting with students through existing apps (Discord, WhatsApp, GroupMe), and sending students assignments via email or some classroom software (if the school has a subscription).
So where does all this COVID-19 stuff leave ZipHomeschool? Does anything change?
Well, I put some thought to pivoting into this “after-school” market that’s popping off. Kids are at home. Parents want to do things that keep their children learning + productive while schools figure their stuff out. A product can be built that specifically caters to this need. This would be a complete pivot away from “homeschooling”, which is where parents have full control over their child’s education. Homeschooling != after-school education, but, they are linked.
Below are some companies that are fighting over ad space with me on “curriculum” related keywords right now on Google.
The main winner in the after-school space is Age of Learning, creator of ABCMouse and AdventureAcademy. ABCMouse on its own did $100M in revenue in 2016. They’ve been around for around 13 years. They are a billion dollar company.
I think the after-school space is super interesting + lucrative, but, I don’t want to pivot into it right now. Summer is in 2.5 months. To even get a product into the market at any sort of real scale, it’ll take me 3-4 weeks. Now, perhaps schools are still closed in Fall 2020 (which is something California is hinting at). Well, that’s something I don’t really want to bet on right now. But, I’ll reevaluate at the end of April.
Right now, fully focusing on Zip is going to be way more beneficial. I have customers. I’m learning from them at a good pace. And, I can see the path to scaling this thing to 1000s. To be honest, Zip literally can’t “pop off” right now. If I get 20 new customers today I’m underwater. I can’t run my ad campaigns as wide as I’d like or really focus on “growing” right now. Sucks. I know I can. I have 10 different ideas to acquire customers but none of them matter if I can’t actually handle the growth.
“Doing things that don’t scale” is pretty magical because once you do wanna scale a bit its pretty clear how.
For the next 5 weeks I’ll be:
Building curriculum into the product (for which I’m currently putting together a team of teachers). Curriculum is the #1 bottleneck right now.
Creating content + growing Zip’s online following.
Keeping up the pace when it comes to learning from customers.
pce out gamerz.