My friend Samyr Qureshi is the co-founder of this tutoring app called Knack. Samyr actually correctly predicted what his 20% customer base would be. His 20% are students in the upper level courses of STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math). This was the customer base he expected when starting his business, since he noticed the cultural and academic trend of more students flocking towards those areas of study in their academic careers. Additionally, him and his team did extensive background research on the demands of a tutoring service itself, as well as what majority of students are being tutored for. This information largely contributes to why he guessed his 20% accurately.
1.The customers' demographics for this company are college students and their unmet needs are finding tutors for various subjects. The customers of this business are young, so they are very much into the media world as far as, apps and social media.
2. All three customers said that they thought Knack targeted college students as well, since they have witnesses this app marketing around campus for users. They said they would find this app helpful but they aren't entirely sure how often they would need to use it.
3. I think that the entrepreneur I interviewed accurately targeted the right population and identified their possible needs. The only thing I think the entrepreneur may have considered but there's nothing him and his partner can do about it, is the frequency in which someone would want or need to be tutored.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteYour friend definitely has a very good idea and I think you both identified the correct 20%. In college, people are always trying to find ways to make their studying most effective especially in those upper level STEM classes. Both of our customers were college students but yours was more specific as mine didn't target academics at all. Because the age of the customers for both the people we interviewed are the same, I think my business (Pizza by the Slice) could attract more customers if they were more technological. But, both of ours still are trying to find the customers unmet needs and fix them to make their business more successful. The one difference is your company tried to actively research their 20% customers where as mine was more obvious to Pizza by the Slice.
Here's a link to my post:
http://jamesdonigan.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-twenty-percent.html
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI was very impressed to see that your friend identified the 20% of his customer base correctly. I think this app is an incredible idea and would be used not only in upper level STEM classes, but could be expanded to other upper level classes offered here. I could definitely see the benefit from this app, and I think extensive research is key to really figure out who your top 20% are. Tell your friend good job and I would love to see this app implemented in other areas of academics here at UF. I missed the deadline for this assignment, but am commenting on other blogs to learn about this epidemic. Good luck with the rest of the semester!
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me like Samyr has a great concept and a good idea of who is 20% are. He is marketing on campus and using social media so he is right on track. Maybe he could use a monthy tutoring payment scale so that wether or not the students use the service they are still paying for the possibility of using the service. If the price is reasonable I would think students would do it almost like a safety net. Maybe make the prices lower at the beginning of the school year for monthly payments as an incentive for students to buy. Check out my blog at: http://melbufent3003.blogspot.com/2016/02/i-spoke-to-owner-of-bug-busters-robert.html
Hey Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI think Knack has found their 20 percent. I also am not sure how much business they would receive. There are already a ton of study aids such as Study Edge, Smoking Notes, and Tutoring Zone. Knack will have to advertise a ton it seems like to get their name out. I think it's a really good idea. Here's a link to my blog take a look if you'd like.
http://sirwilson1776.blogspot.com/
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteIts awesome that your friend was able to start his own business in college! Its certainly not an easy task, its also amazing that he was able to predict his twenty percent. It shows that he truly knew what he was getting into. Personally, I think he still has a lot of work to do. Its definitely a crowded market, especially in a college town. But, if they can delivery a better product than their competition, then they should be successful! Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!