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Education. Given that parents can more freely choose the curriculum, all sorts of novel ways to educate can find a niche.

by mkyc 18y ago

patio11 18y ago
Yep. I have sold more than a few licenses to homeschoolers over the years. Beyond just curricular aids there are all sorts of, e.g., compliance needs, planning needs, record management needs, etc etc. Take note: Homeschoolers are a very diverse bunch with disparate needs. Obviously, an English workbook for a homeschooled 1st grader and an online study planner for a homeschooled 8th grader needing help in math are going to look pretty different. On the plus side: single decisionmaker (mom, typically). Purchase cycle resembles B2C far more than it does enterprise IT B2B, which is quite common at school districts. Guaranteed to be strongly motivated about education and family time. Less allergic to new technology than public schools (because if you make someone's job redundant, well... great! That means mom is free to do something other than whatever busywork she was just doing.) These are all nice things to have in a market when you're selling to them.
reuven 18y ago
I don't homeschool my three kids, but I've spent a lot of time learning about, working with, and tracking the homeschooling community. (And if we didn't live in a community with a school that largely meets our needs, I would homeschool them in a heartbeat.) I'm working on a PhD in technology and education, and have a lot of good things to say about the educational methods that homeschoolers are using. And yes, it's a huge and untapped market, which very few people realize is large, growing, and quite viable. I actually spent some time trying to raise seed funding for an e-learning startup that would have addressed many of the needs of the homeschooling market. Unfortunately, many investors have been burned badly by e-learning companies, and weren't interested. But even those who were interested were somewhere between amused and horrified by the idea of addressing homeschoolers, who are (incorrectly) seen as a bunch of crazies. In the end, financial realities forced me to return to consulting and my PhD work, rather than my startup. But I remain convinced that homeschoolers are the educational equivalent of high tech's early adopters, and that it's far wiser to address their market than to compete for the shrinking, bureaucratic, and inflexible market for schools.

Education. Given that parents can more freely choose the curriculum, all sorts of novel ways to educate can find a niche.

by mkyc 18y ago

Education. Given that parents can more freely choose the curriculum, all sorts of novel ways to educate can find a niche.

patio11 18y ago

Yep. I have sold more than a few licenses to homeschoolers over the years. Beyond just curricular aids there are all sorts of, e.g., compliance needs, planning needs, record management needs, etc etc. Take note: Homeschoolers are a very diverse bunch with disparate needs. Obviously, an English workbook for a homeschooled 1st grader and an online study planner for a homeschooled 8th grader needing help in math are going to look pretty different. On the plus side: single decisionmaker (mom, typically). Purchase cycle resembles B2C far more than it does enterprise IT B2B, which is quite common at school districts. Guaranteed to be strongly motivated about education and family time. Less allergic to new technology than public schools (because if you make someone's job redundant, well... great! That means mom is free to do something other than whatever busywork she was just doing.) These are all nice things to have in a market when you're selling to them.

reuven 18y ago

I don't homeschool my three kids, but I've spent a lot of time learning about, working with, and tracking the homeschooling community. (And if we didn't live in a community with a school that largely meets our needs, I would homeschool them in a heartbeat.) I'm working on a PhD in technology and education, and have a lot of good things to say about the educational methods that homeschoolers are using. And yes, it's a huge and untapped market, which very few people realize is large, growing, and quite viable. I actually spent some time trying to raise seed funding for an e-learning startup that would have addressed many of the needs of the homeschooling market. Unfortunately, many investors have been burned badly by e-learning companies, and weren't interested. But even those who were interested were somewhere between amused and horrified by the idea of addressing homeschoolers, who are (incorrectly) seen as a bunch of crazies. In the end, financial realities forced me to return to consulting and my PhD work, rather than my startup. But I remain convinced that homeschoolers are the educational equivalent of high tech's early adopters, and that it's far wiser to address their market than to compete for the shrinking, bureaucratic, and inflexible market for schools.