I come from a family of educators and have worked with a handful of education startups (one tutoring, one textbook creation) so this kind of stuff is really cool to me.

That said, a very smart guy once told me that the two things rich people are mostly likely to dump money in to once they get "shameful rich" are education and the environment. What that means is that there is a ton of money out there chasing new education techniques and products, but also a lot of people who are doing it to feel better about themselves and probably aren't going to be as serious about it as the entrepreneur is.

Now, getting to your questions:

1) Can you think of other/better ways for me to scale my work?

I would focus on creating your material and getting as much feedback as possible from teachers. Most public school teachers' emails are available on the school websites or, if not, you can pretty easily figure out the naming convention and guess them.

2) How do I find lead users? Is there a standard process for doing this? Or a standard way of doing it in the education industry?

Do you live where you grew up and remember any great teachers from your high school days? Are any of your friends teachers? Do you have friends with kids/siblings/anything in high schools close by?

Are you near a college that has an education major? Talk to some of those kids, they're still enamored with the idea of teaching for the rest of their lives and actually caring about the outcomes

3) How should I find partners/employees/advisers/etc? (I already to know to only work with "A players" but that means tomorrow at 9am I [insert first step].)

That's a damn good question. And unfortunately not one I've found a failsafe answer to. A lot of it is just going to mean getting out in the community and meeting people.

I know that's an "obvious" answer, but figure out where the startup crowd in your area hangs out and start going to their events. I've been to these things in a bunch of cities and it's super rare that anyone is an *******.

But don't go and just start asking everyone for help. Really care about the community, hang out and talk to people the first few times. They'll ask what you're working on, you'll have plenty of chances to explain what you're doing and what you need. But one of the few things I've seen turn a lot of people off is when a new guy shows up and tries to either a) sell a bunch people whatever he's doing (especially if it's a service provider) or b) begs for help from everyone without making a connection.

4)Aside from finding first customers and seeing what/when/if they buy, what else should I do?
What exactly are you selling and who are you selling it to?

Are you selling materials to teachers? If so, do teachers get to set their own curriculums or is it set by the school/county/state?

Are you selling to parents? They're going to be more difficult to find and target if you only want parents who are interested in helping their students' math abilities. Plus their price point is probably lower.

Are you selling to other tutors? This may not be a bad move, and would allow you to basically license your materials to tutors without having the annoying piece of actually growing your own business and employing other tutors.

But most important, none of those choices would inhibit you from selling through another channel later.


By the way, if you're full and turning people away, charge more. I know it's uncomfortable to think about, but it's almost certainly the right move.

My stepmom is a highly desired dance/tumbling/cheerleading coach in the North ATL suburbs and I'm constantly trying to get her to raise her rates. She upped hourly rate for private lessons 30% and didn't lose a single client because she was able to explain what she was doing and why.

Sodium man. Sodium.

Although I think any alkali metal works, right chemistry people?

I once asked my hair stylist how she remembers my preferences so well, seeing that I only came in once every 8 to 10 weeks. She replied with, "I wrote down the details in your file."

Don't think your idea is new...but, I have no idea what the current model looks like. Her method could have been pen and paper for all I know, or a crudely-created Word document.

When my regular barber is not available, I head down the street to a new "supercuts" kind of place.

They keep your cut preferences in some type of database under your phone number/name, as she asked me if I wanted the same cut as last time and saying verbatim what style, guard number etc. which was used.

Similar to what all the pizza shops do now as well. "Same order as last time?"

i dont believe alot of people would want to invest in this, even if they believe its a good idea...coz its arguably a bit unethical. i thought id share the idea anyway.

another reason im posting this is because i believe alot of people might be searching for a cheating calculator with text storage facility. that would bring alot of young kids to 2p2 coz i bet this post will show up! gotta do my part to promote poker!

ANYWAY:

in the UK atleast, most examinations dont allow graphics calculators. graphics calculators are the ones with the big screens that draw graphs etc. one of the reasons they are not allowed is because they can store text. this would allow students to upload their notes etc and gain an unfair advantage.

So....if only there was a way to create a calculator that LOOKS LIKE A SCIENTIFIC calculator, but infact has a usb port inside of it (once you unscrew the back case). all you would have to do is connect it to a computer and upload some notes...and bam. you can walk into exams with a scientific calculator which some text storage features

I know what you are thinking...

1) if you sell this on websites like ebay etc...all the teachers will look out for it since it will become very well known to the public. that effectively makes it useless.

possible solutions:
a) sell the product on the underground..i know for a fact that i could sell about 500 of these per year, at about 400$ each EASILY...to the kinda guys that wouldn't be snitching on people. when you promote something like this by word of mouth, its alot less likely to be found out by the teachers.

b) typically the model number of the calculator is on the top left of the scientific calculator. if you could leave that part blank, and sell custom "stamps", you could make it look like the calculator is of a different brand. or maybe sell different cases for the calculator which have different color schemes etc. just like how you have mobile phone cases, you could have calculator cases. this would make sure that teachers etc who know about the calculator being in existence would not be able to identify it.

method b to evade detection is farrrr better if it can be carried out...coz it allows the calculator to be potentially sold in public, without rendering them useless once teachers find out about it.

2) at college/university level (18+), some places say "your scientific calculator must be model FX-BLA1 FXBLA2 etc".

possible solutions:
a) if you have enough cases with different "skins", the student could change the case to one that suits the college/university

b) this is more realisitic - i used to go to a college where NONE OF THE TEACHERS CARED ABOUT WHAT CALCULATOR YOU WERE USING. aslong as its not a graphical calculator, its fine...even if its not one of the models which they say is allowed.

obviously making different cases is going to drive up factory costs though :/

anyway...theres huge money in this i know that for a fact. up until age 18 in the UK atleast, any scientific calculator is allowed in the major GCSE/ALevel examinations. There are many people that would pay 800$ for this. Maths/Biology/Chemistry/Physics is a big market when we are talking wordwide.

i have a hard time believing these would cost more than 5$ each to produce. designing and coding the prototype is going to need a bigger investment of course.

ive got a bunch of other "alternative" ideas like this which could make a bunch of money. feel free to pm me.


CLIFFNOTES: most examinations only allow scientific calculators which dont typically have text storage abilities. create a scientific calculator that can store text, and has a SECRET mode which allows you access to uploaded text. if you open the backcover of the calculator, there would be a microusb port which allows you to upload to the calculator memory.

i could sell 500 of these without breaking a sweat per year, for 400$ each MINIMUM (200k in revenue!!!) to people in my social crowd...the kind of people that aren't going to go snitching to the teachers about these existing. pm me if you wanna work on this! i know you dont need me now that you have the idea, but i know the people who want thesse things, loads of them. giving me a share in the buisness that i have many ways to contribute to, and cheap stock to sell atleast would be nice ! thanks

oh yea. this product seems legal to me. the people who are using it will be committing "crimes" i guess. that is their problem though. we wont be breaking the law here.

also..i think schools/colleges should be testing UNDERSTANDING. memorising a bunch of formulas for science exams doesn't test UNDERSTANDING at all. having access to your notes in an exam isn't going to help when they ask questions which TEST understanding.

The subscription model is pretty hot right now. You have Shoedazzle, Birchbox, Foodize, etc.

There are several companies in the baby category, but they all seem to supply samples and luxuries. I want to create a service that takes care of the more routine products like diapers, formula, etc. These are products that parents WILL be buying every week.

I guess I might have the business model a bit wrong though. With the sample boxes, suppliers are hoping that customers will buy the full version of their product later on. Maybe my product is more similar to that one company that sends guys white tshirts and boxers monthly.

Any thoughts on this? I know Amazon has reoccurring shipments and a lot of people will probably use that in the future. However, just because Amazon sells something, does not mean someone else cant sell it too.

to the calculator guy: there might be cheaper solutions out there

we had a TI83+ in highschool and we were forced to erase the memory with the teacher watching to erase text. one downloadable program easily fixed that/shielded some files from removal. worth of mouth spread between those savvy enough to dl something and get a cable and willing to cheat (i'd guess about 50% of students), teachers didn't catch on for at least 3 years. this is obv cheaper than buying another calculator with a TI83 case

well this is the problem kaby. the TI83 is clearrrrrly a graphical calculator. it has a huge screen etc. no major examinations as far as I know in the UK, and probably US too will allow graphical calculators. if it looks like a normal scientific calculator with a small screen, they wont even THINK that text can be stored on it.

The calculators thing looks borderline to me,

Anyway,

Why don't you create a business that modify calculators, add memory and usb cable etc...

To make any type of calculator a "cheating" model?

people would pay still a lot of money for that

yeah fair enough, but it's still indicative that you might overestimate how fast teachers react. if there's one new model every 3 years that can store text out of the box and teacher's don't catch on until 3 years later, your business is useless

there's def a market though, so go for it!

i don't think there has EVER been a scientific calculator that can store text. all calculators that can store text are graphical calculators with huge screens and are really bulky. any teacher that walks past will know its a graphical calculator and will say its not allowed.

to the guy that said modify calculators...i've looked into this option already and its unfeasible. SCIENTIFIC calculators dont have code that can be modified. there are also limitations of the hardware which means it wont support usb etc. if anybody can prove me wrong, im all ears.

Absolutely ******ed. Any amount of sodium that will make a difference is going to blow that ****ing toilet to pieces.

The solution is a strong base. I use chlorox at home, but ammonia would do the trick too. Pour a little bit in and let it eat away at the turds. If you wanted it to work faster, you'd just put more I guess.

A chain of orphanages based off the zip-car model, that rent out smaller children and adolescents for short periods of time for people who don't want/aren't ready for the headaches of full time parentage. You would even be able to adopt kids for just an hour or two (so you could get into Chuck E. Chhese or have an easier time getting a seat on the subway, for example).

LOL

Thread has definitely gone downhill...

Idea: Selling e-cigarettes in the USA

1- Go to china, meet manufacturers, establish relationship/buy e-cigs
2- Bring back hundreds in a backpack/carry-on (customs ? )
3- brand (cheap ?)
4- sell in poker rooms around california. (legal ?)
5- If it works, ship more from China (legal ?)

Serious?

Well just in case you are, let me save you a plane ticket...

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?...oduct_en&fsb=y

Next idea?

Not sure if I'm serious, yet.

Research done = <1hour.

Seems like for small scale going through a US manufacturer is a better idea.

Margins on dis **** appears enormous.

a touchscreen poker table that automatically deals cards to thin flexible oled screens that look like real cards. basically online poker played live. fold/call/raise and bet slider would be on the table just like online. also you could put rfid or something inside of chips and use real chips to play.

well I wouldnt say its impossible but the competition on this market is already quite high so you better have some more ideas.

just in case you didnt know the touchscreen poker table exists for quite a while and is working perfectly fine. Your "improvements" would just make it more complicated.

There is also a poker table that has RFID in all the chips / cards that makes 'televising' your own game super easy since the table can recognize hole cards / bet sizes / etc.

There's a YT vid of it out there somewhere of it in action.

It's weird.. have been reading 2p2 for a long time but never registered but now that I have my first 2 post have nothing to do with poker.

Anyway..

"Social Band"
A site that allows you to choose either drums, guitar, keyboard, bass, etc. After you pick it you can either choose live or software instrument.

Live: You have your instrument hooked up to your computer
Software: Electronically played (ex. drums would have 5 or 6 pads you could click or use your keyboard to play)

Say after you finish a 2-2:30 drum recording the site saves it and attaches your username to it. Now someone else logs on and chooses a different instrument and plays that instrument over your recording. They save, link their username to it, and it gets sent off again until all instruments have been recorded. Each user then gets a PM saying their song is complete which they can play. It would all be random.. so you would login and get a random song that has already been started by other people.

I really like the concept of it, but I dont know if the public is ready for that level of collaboration though. You have to think about how much work it would be to either buy some compatible piece of hardware that allows you to connect to your computer.

I think maybe to prototype it, you could use something that connects users of garageband or any other music making app that already exists.

I also dont like the random part of it. There would have to be a way to sort the tracks. Maybe some kind of voting system or based on the user's history or something.