2. 2
I. Table of Contents…………………………………………………………2
II. Executive Summary...………………………………………...….……… 3
III. Mission .………………………………………………………..…………. 4
IV. Mantra...…………………………………………………………...……… 4
V. Vision ………………………………………………………….………….. 4
VI. Company Summary ………………………………………………….…..5
A. Location …………………………………………………………….5
B. Management Team ………………………………………….…....6
C. Start-up Costs …………………………………………...………...7
D. Product/Service Description………………………………...…... 8
E. S.W.O.T.………………………………………………….……….. 9
1. Strength …………………………………………...………... 9
2. Weakness ……………………………………………….....
11
3. Opportunity ………………………………….……………..12
4. Threat ……………………………………………………… 14
VII. Marketing ……………………………………………….………………. 15
A. Target Market …………………………………….……………… 15
B. Competition………………………………………….……………16
C. Marketing Strategy ………………………………..……...…..….16
D. Promotional Strategy ……………………………………….……17
E. Price and Sales Strategy ………………………………………..17
F. Sales Forecast………………………………………………...… 17
G. Milestones ………………………………………………………...18
VIII. Finance …………………………………………………………………..19
A. Cost Structure …………………………………………………… 19
B. Financial Statement …………………………………………….. 20
C. Balance Sheet ……………………………………………………21
D. 3 Year Pro Forma ………………………………………………..22
E. Summary of Findings …………………………………………… 23
3. 3
2. ExecutiveSummary
About 50% of American college students will not graduate. This means that colleges are
losing at least $15 billion annually to college dropouts. All of the 1 million students
dropping out each year will have debt with no degree. Ohio State’s Office of Retention
notes that meaningful peer relationships are the leading controllable factor in student
retention.
Fletch is a college retention solution in the form of native iPhone and Android
applications with web support. Fletch provides for social inclusion and academic support
by empowering you to invite any classmate to a study group with just 3 taps on your
phone, or get a quick answer at 2am when you are cramming for a midterm. On the
backend, we have an algorithm that identifies which students are academically
unengaged or at risk of dropping out and we target on campus resources to those
students through push notifications.
In the spring of 2015, we had a highly successful pilot in which we had 10,000 students
using our platform, a partnership with DeVry University and a paid deal with Pasadena
City College. We are re-launching in late October 2015 with an improved design and a
more robust application that we will be targeting at universities and community colleges
with 20,000 or more students and graduation rates lower than 60%. We will be selling
licenses to colleges at 5 times total enrollment (i.e. $100k per annum for an enrollment
of 20,000 students).
We have a team uniquely skilled and passionate about solving the crisis in college
retention. Marquett Burton, CEO and design lead, has over 6 years of experience
working in educational technology. He has a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Master of
Arts in Instructional Technology from Johns Hopkins. He’s done operations for Teach
For America, lead business development for EverFi in Washington, Oregon and CA.
Aditya Halan, CTO, has over 10 years as a full stack developer with domain expertise
in building learning management systems and educational technologies, such as
ClickForCoah and TeachDotMe. Diondre Lewis, Lead iOS Developer, holds a BA in
computer science from Duke University and has 13 years of experience as a developer.
He has founded IBG Institute, a world-class I.T. educational outlet.
4. 4
3. Mission
The mission at Fletch is college retention through technology by user created
content while enabling college students to connect.
4. Mantra
Social Studies has new meaning.
5. Vision
Help students graduate.
5. 5
6. CompanySummary
a. Location
Fletch is an online app that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere through IOS
and Android. Fletch headquarters is in the 1871 Workspace located at The
Merchandise Mart out of Chicago, IL.
b. Management Team
Marquett Burton is the CEO and Designer of Fletch, he has a background in
educational technology business development. Marquett has a BA from the
University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Arts in Teaching from The
Johns Hopkins School of Education.
Previous employment includes
● Teach For America as a corporate member and an operations
manager.
● EverFi Inc., a k-12/higher educational technology company. As the
Pacific Northwest manager he engaged in executive level business
development in WA, OR and CA. He developed a portfolio of over
$1,000,000.
Awards include
● 2009 - Union Baptist Award for Community Organizing
● 2011 - Mayoral Fellow
● 2011 - Teach For America Alumni Induction Key Note
● 2013 - Startup Weekend LA Champion
● 2014 - TABE Outstanding Alumni Award
● 2014 - People Space LA Startup Champions
● 2014 -California State University Award for Leadership Excellence
● 2014 - Digital LA Startup Showcase Champion
● 2015 - International Purdue University Business Competition
Marquett graduated Berkley without ever being able to utilize the knowledge of
the 200 students surrounding him in the lecture hall. Using the knowledge he
gained from his masters at the Johns Hopkins School of Ed and his experience
opening up west coast operations for EverFi, he decided to found Fletch.
6. 6
■ Aditya Halan
Aditya has more than 10 years of experience as a software developer in which
he has worked in domains ranging from Ecommerce, IT Infrastructure,
eGovernance, DMS & Workflow, mobile and web development. Educational
background includes BA in computer science from Duke University.
Recently he led a technical team in charge of computerizing Records of Rights
(digitization of maps and updating of land records) in Orissa.
Previous Companies
Clickforcoach.com
Teachdotme.com
IBG Institute
Marquett and Aditya started in October of 2013 when they won 1st place at
Startup Weekend LA with the SmartyPants App (now known as Fletch). Since
then, Marquett has been CEO (UI/UX designer) and Aditya Halan has been CTO.
We both believe that the SmartyPants App can support student success in an
environment in which learners will be increasingly isolated (distance learning,
hybrid classes, MOOCs etc.) We've worked on other technologies like
EverFi.com, Teachdotme.com, and Clickforcoach.com
7. 7
c. Start up
■ Budgetary Projections
Fletch
Budgetary Projections
Total
CEO & CTO Salaries 50,000.00
Independent Contractors 30,000.00
Conferences, Marketing,
Recruiting
25,000.00
Customer Acquisition 15,000.00
Technical Purchases 10,000.00
Legal, Accounting,
Miscellaneous
20,000.00
Total Expenses 150,000.00
8. 8
d. Productor servicedescription
Fletch is a native iPhone app, native Android app and a web application that
empowers students to invite everyone in their lecture hall to a study group and
send push notification questions to get quick answers at any hours. We translate
user activity into data to provide real time answers to the following questions for
students/administrators:
1) How many hours is a given student studying?
2) What are a given student or classes’ collaboration rate?
3) Which students are retention risks?
4) Which assignments are students struggling with?
5) Which topics need remediation?
The student created content creates a data package that we deliver to instructors
and institutions in real time that enables them to drive the critical metrics that
lead to increased knowledge acquisition, higher knowledge retention and
improved course satisfaction. Collectively, the foregoing leads to higher
graduation and retention rates. Fletch’s real-time quantitative and qualitative data
can inform institutions on class rigor and how often students study, collaborate
and engage with content outside of the classroom.
At the close of each term we provide institutions with an overall (school wide) and
class specific reports on how learning/retention can be improved campus wide
and in certain courses.
9. 9
e. SWOT analysis
Strengths
● Retention Algorithms
● User CreatedContent
● First to Market
Weaknesses
● Adoption
● AmbassadorProgram
Opportunities
● No DirectCompetition
● AmbassadorProgram
● Crowdsourcing
Threats
● SchoolBased Systems
f. Strengths
■ Retention Algorithms
With the ever increasing rate of college drop-outs and recent decline in
enrollment, we are the only web and application based service that has
innovative retention algorithms that allow colleges to seamlessly receive
information on students that may be at risk of dropping out or having difficulty in
classes. A campus of 10,000 students that retains 10% of the original potential
students that would otherwise drop-out would be an increase in revenue of
approximately $18.75 million. As we continue to be the only application designed
to facilitate in-person peer collaboration, we will be able to provide college
institutions the information to retain students. We will also assist with increasing
revenue, while giving universities the ability to decipher if classes may need to be
adjusted. All of this is possible in support with our academically engaged
algorithms.
10. 10
■ User created content
In-person peer collaboration allows students to collectively study material and
share information that students may find beneficial for the course and increase
their knowledge for the desired study material. This application is not only a way
to retain students in the education process, but to increase their involvement with
course material as a whole. Classmates will be able to share notes, course
material, and other information that the students may deem important, all through
a simple push notification process that will constantly keep students updated.
■ First to market
Fletch is the first social application designated specifically to increase the
involvement of students to benefit their overall college experience while also
allowing for relationship building through networking with students. Being the first
in the market is essential to Fletch assuring and retaining a large portion of the
market. When it comes to student retention and helping schools attain an
increase in their revenue due to the decreased drop-out rates, it is especially
important to be the first in this market. Gaining the trust of universities and having
them partner with Fletch to receive vital student information is a partnership that
will not be quickly broken or switched to a different provider as long as all criteria
and expectations are being met. Fletch is the first known provider of this service
to students and universities and can directly have a lasting relationship with
major educational institutions. Acquiring more students and securing more
partnerships with colleges in the shortest amount of time will deter future
competition and assist in the largest acquisition in the market.
11. 11
g. Weakness
■ Adoption
The adoption faze is going to be one of the most challenging stages for Fletch.
When it comes to user acquisition, gathering an ambassador base and finding
colleges to adopt the services of Fletch will bring about its own challenges and
difficulties. Each of these adoption stages require the other to gain traction. For
the colleges to adopt the services there needs to be a large student user base.
The user base is adequately supported by the framework laid out by the leaders
of Fletch and the ambassadors within the universities. Without each of these
supporting the other it will be difficult to build the groundwork of the company. It
is necessary that the user-base continuously grows 2,000 per month and that
ambassadors are placed at colleges as the universities look to adopt the student
retention services and applications. To sustain adequate adoption, market
growth, and to be able to showcase to investors monthly increases, it is essential
that student-users are increasing along with a growing ambassador program that
evangelizes for Fletch.
■ Ambassador incentive program (getting students to become
ambassadors)
Fletch must be able to provide immediate and long-term incentives for
ambassadors to help increase the rate of attaining ambassadors to assist in
Fletch evangelism. Current ways of doing this are through letters of
recommendation and other supporting documents that can help those involved
further themselves in their careers. As a start-up, it may be difficult for Fletch to
acquire the amount of ambassadors necessary to help kick-start the idea at
universities. Offering other incentives like paying for a certain amount of
curriculum for students after each successful semester of being an ambassador
for Fletch can be enough incentive for those who want to be part of Fletch but
feel they may not have enough time. Another way Fletch could offer a
competitive incentive is to provide small sum scholarships for ambassadors who
had the most student acquisition in a given year. This will not only create healthy
competition, but will increase the amount of Fletch users while providing an outlet
for students to get through their college experience easier with a Fletch Fund
(scholarship).
12. 12
h. Opportunities
■ No direct competition
As Fletch continues to be the first and only application designed to facilitate in-
person peer collaboration, we can forecast to see us obtain an increase of
market share per year. Growing at a rate of 2,000 users per month and gaining
university acquisition is a goal that will be much more attainable without having
current direct competition. We do not have to go against other platforms that
have already been adopted within universities, instead we can provide the first
application that has been and will continue to be adopted by colleges. Having a
successful test version run with over 10,000 students, that framework will be able
to be applied to 3-5 colleges per year starting mid-2016. As the number of users
and universities increases, we believe the adoption of colleges and users will
increase annually.
■ Ambassador program
The main driving force to advertise and help assist the growth of student
acquisition is the use of ambassador programs at colleges where Fletch users
are at and going to be. To help grow awareness of the app and all of its services
we will strategically find ambassadors at each college, at a minimum of five per
college. We find a variety of aspiring individuals who are looking to be part of a
community of other students and the leaders behind Fletch for our ambassadors.
Fletch also offers incentives for ambassadors like recommendation letters and
other supportive material to help students during their college experience and
post-college ventures. Some experiences ambassadors can expect are emailing
professors about Fletch, talking in-front of their current classes for five minutes
while showcasing a video that demonstrates what Fletch has to offer, and
explaining in what ways it can benefit the end-user (the students). The
ambassadors will act as Fletch evangelists informing other students why they are
ambassadors and why Fletch is meaningful to them. This will provide the basis
for the collaboration and trust of other students within the campus. By focusing
on freshmen and sophomore students to be the ambassadors we are able to
reach large sums of students to help brand what Fletch is able to do for the up-
and-coming students. Ambassadors will also be able to educate, inform, and set
up group meetings with other students and ambassadors within their college
community. This not only begins to create the framework for Fletch within the
universities but creates a culture that supports learning.
13. 13
Ambassadors will also be able to see their ideas potentially implemented into
Fletch and be able to utilize those ideas with other students that they are in the
field with. The ambassadors will also be provided the resources and information
to educate and properly inform other students that may be interested or are
currently utilizing Fletch at their university. This will be done by hosting tables in
the school commons, speaking during and/or after class time sessions, showing
how-to and educational videos, and other material provided by Fletch.
Overall, the ambassadors will be creating a culture and community that other
students will want to identify with. It is not just a way to get last minute
information for exams and course material, but a chance to form relationships
with other students that will last for years to come. Ambassadors are the
groundwork to Fletch and the backbone to increasing awareness.
■ Crowdsourcing
With today’s ability to reach thousands of people, talk over different outlets, and
collaborate in ways never before possible, Fletch is going to be utilizing all
different avenues for crowdsourcing. To help keep costs down, accomplish
certain tasks, and increase awareness of Fletch, we will be partnering with
students all across the world to be part of our ambassador program. This is just
one way we plan to collaborate and reach our goals with Fletch. By
communicating with hundreds of students who have an unbiased view of Fletch
we are able to take innovative idea generation by conversing with these students
and apply those ideas into the application and framework of Fletch. This alone
will bring our product development, marketing approach, and user acquisition
many advantages. We will also be able to go through strenuous testing and
feedback stages before implementing new ideas into the company. With the
collaboration of students we will be able to put out quality material that will want
to be shared and will begin to generate structured quality web content. It will
sufficiently raise awareness of the product and inform others who are in a similar
market to start utilizing Fletch. Another important aspect of crowdsourcing allows
us to gain adequate market research. We will be dealing with students and
others who will be the main users of the application. By gaining their immediate
feedback we can adjust any material that we deem necessary for the health of
the company.
14. 14
i. Threats
■ School based system (Blackboard)
School based systems, like Blackboard, can become a viable threat to the
continued success of Fletch because of a few key reasons. One is the fact that
the BB system is already integrated into the school system where-as Fletch has
to work with universities to want to purchase their information that is attained by
their algorithmic technologies. “ With Blackboard courseware used in over 31,000
institutions world–wide, students and instructors from kindergarten through
doctoral programs — and those in the workforce as well — interact in
Blackboard–structured classrooms (Burn, 2006) (Firstmonday, 2009).” If the
developers of Blackboard work to have the same technologies implemented into
their software then universities would already have a system accessible to all
students. Another thing is the fact the schools already promote the use of
Blackboard and are usually required for classes, especially as the classroom
changes to an online format. If all of the user-friendly and class-room specific
integrated information were to be integrated into Blackboard then it would be
difficult for a third party, like Fletch, to get into the market of retaining students
and increasing graduation percentages. This can be applied towards other
systems that are used for universities outside of specifically Blackboard.
15. 15
7. Marketing
a. TargetMarket
In the fall of 2015 roughly 20.2 million students will be attending college. Of these
students, 7 million will be attending a 2 year institution and 13.2 million will attend
4 year universities. Since 2000, there has been an increase by 4.9 million
students enrolled in college. But as more students enroll, the graduation rate of
these colleges have fallen. Roughly 59% of students who seek 4 year degrees
will attain it within 6 years, while the other 41% do not. These students are the
target users for Fletch because while there is an increase in the amount of
students the retention rate is lower. Universities are losing out on over $15 billion
annually.
Within this market we occupy a niche in which we are the only application
designed to facilitate in-person peer collaboration. Collaborative learning requires
working together toward a common goal. What they have in common is they all
incorporate group work, a form of voluntary association of members benefitting
from cooperative learning, which enhances the total output of the activity than
when done individually. Fletch is the right vehicle to foster such peer-
collaboration.
Higher education has seen enrollment decline by 1.5 million in the last 3 years
while seeing over 1 million students drop out each year. Additionally, we have
massive open online courses (MOOCs) creating alternatives to traditional
colleges--although their fail rates, at 50 percent, are comparable to accredited
universities.
Retention is the new revenue model for colleges; a classroom of a mere 40
students yields $1.5 million in revenue for a college. We can increase retention in
all types of educational institutions by making it easy for their students to build
the relationships that provide for adjustment in the college environment. Also, we
provide the data that empowers colleges to address students at risk of retention
proactively.
16. 16
b. Competition
1) Starfish Solutions is a web based, staff driven student retention
solution.http://www.starfishsolutions.com/
2) Blackboard is a school based system that is centered around the
admin/teacher. It is poorly suited for peer to peer use.
3) Student driven web/mobile platforms for online only collaboration
(GetStudyRoom.com, ClusterFlunk.com). It does not let you
organize and work with students from the same class.
4) Facebook.com – a poor workaround for collaborating/organizing
study groups that limits the user only to those whom they are
already connected with.
We are the only app optimized for organizing study groups or getting quick
answers during those late night cram sessions. Colleges prefer us because we
are able to identify which students are retention risks in real-time without any
effort from college staff.
c. MarketingStrategy
Our advantage is that we are a student-run and managed brand. We utilize our
student ambassador program to have students get their classmates setup on
Fletch. This ensures that students are promoting and maintaining our brand while
reducing our overhead of having employees.
To ensure that nearly all students in a lecture hall use Fletch, we not only use
word of mouth but we also have a college ambassador take 5 minutes of class
time to make an announcement and quickly take students through the setup
process.
We also engage the office of retention or academic affairs at universities in which
we already have student and college ambassadors on the ground. This ensures
that the conversation is about how we can collaborate with colleges on how we
can target particular on-campus resources to the appropriate students.
Step 1: Student downloads/uses Fletch at College X
Step 2: We recruit college ambassadors at College X
Step 3: We engage a College X’s Office of Retention on how we can
collaborate to improve student success.
17. 17
d. Promotionalstrategy
■ Merchandise - T-shirts to Ambassadors.
■ Targeted Advertising - Through the internet such as social media,
targeted to college students.
■ Word of mouth - Users will be encouraged to tell their classmates
about the program so they can fully utilize the software.
■ Ambassador program - The Ambassador program is the focal point
of advertising for Fletch, it has little cost but can increase the user
base substantially.
e. Price and sales strategy
We license the Fletch platform to colleges at $5 per student per annum. The
target schools have 20,000 or more students with a college retention of 60% or
less. This means for every school that we sign that has 20,000 students, each
year the college pays $5 per student for the data pertaining to retention. This
comes out to $5 per student x 20,000 students = $100,000.
f. Sales Forecast
Fletch has had 10,000 users just 3 months after launch. We have a paid deal
with Pasadena City College and a partnership of DeVry University, the second
largest college in the USA.
As Fletch continues to be the first and only application designed to facilitate in-
person peer collaboration, we can forecast to see us obtain an increase of
market share per year of:
1st Year - 3 Colleges on-board
2nd Year - 5 Colleges on-board
3rd Year - 8 Colleges on-board
With a total of 16 Colleges on board within the first three years.
18. 18
g. Milestones
● The Winner of the Big Sell.
● Hyde Park Venture Partners awarded Marquett $50,000 to a tech
accelerator shared-space usage at 1871, in the Chicago Merchandise
Mart.
● Fletch has had 10,000 users just 3 months after launch. We have a paid
deal with Pasadena City College.
● A partnership of DeVry University, the second largest college in the USA.
● Android platform.
● Fletch has received recently iOS approval, per the CTO, Aditya.
19. 19
8. Finance
a. Cost Structure
Monthly Burn rate is about $6,000 per month. Our average deal should be about
$40,000 per annum. We’ve currently have a deal for $5,000 with a single
department at Pasadena City College. Two of these small deals per month
would make us profitable.
Cost Structure
Item Monthly Fixed Item Monthly Variable
Hosting $100 College
Ambassador
Stipend
$100
Google Apps $20 In-Person Meeting $450
CEO Salary $2,000
CTO Salary $2,000
E&O Insurance $100
Miscellaneous
Tech (iOS/Android
developer licenses}
$800
Co-Working Space
Membership
$140
Marketing $500
TOTAL $5,660 $550
20. 20
b. Financial statement
Total Income $ 1,307.48
Gross Profit $ 1,307.48
Expenses
Bank Charges 180.00
Dues & Subscriptions 414.90
Job Materials 806.44
Legal & Professional Fees 2,344.25
Meals and Entertainment 262.85
Payroll Expenses - Salary - CEO 22,000.00
Promotional 131.95
Stationery & Printing 5.60
Subcontractors 22,664.24
Taxes & Licenses 372.51
Travel 493.51
Travel Meals 15.00
Uncategorized Expense 500.00
Total Expenses $ 50,191.25
Net Operating Income -$ 48,883.77
Other Expenses
Miscellaneous 143.05
Other Miscellaneous Expense 500.00
Total Other Expenses $ 643.05
Net Other Income -$ 643.05
Net Income -$ 49,526.82
21. 21
c. Balance sheet
Fletch
Balance Sheet
As of November 13, 2015
Total
ASSETS
Current Assets
Bank Accounts
Checking 25,498.18
Total Bank Accounts $ 25,498.18
Total Current Assets $ 25,498.18
TOTAL ASSETS $ 25,498.18
LIABILITIES AND EQUITY
Liabilities
Total Liabilities
Equity
Opening Balance Equity -24,975.00
Paid-In Capital or Surplus 100,000.00
Retained Earnings 0.00
Net Income -49,526.82
Total Equity $ 25,498.18
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY $ 25,498.18
22. 22
d. 3 Year Pro Forma
Fletch
3 Year Outlook
January 1, 2016 - December 31, 2018
2016 2017 2018 Totals
Staff Expenses
CEO Salary 24,000.00 24,360 24,725.40 73,085.40
CTO Salary 24,000.00 24,360 24,725.40 73,085.40
Full-Time Ambas. Manager 34,800.00 34,800.00 34,800.00 104,400.00
3 Full-Time Technical Developers 153,000.00 153,000.00 153,000.00 459,000.00
Part-Time Ambas. Coordinator 0.00 14,560.00 14,560.00 29,120.00
Part-Time Designer 0.00 18,686.00 18,686.00 37,372.00
Other Expenses
Travel Expenses 750.00 1,250.00 2,000.00 4,000.00
Advertisement Supplies/Media 7,200.00 7,500.00 8,000.00 22,700.00
College Ambassador Stipend 1,200.00 1,500.00 1,850.00 4,550.00
Miscellaneous Tech 9,600.00 9,600.00 9,600.00 28,800.00
Co-Working Space 1,680.00 1,680.00 1,680.00 5,040.00
Total Expenses 256,230.00 291,296.00 293,626.80 841,152.80
23. 23
9. Summary of findings (where did you get your info)
Aspects of the Pro Forma was retrieved from www.payscale.com
Information on amount of Institutions utilizing Blackboard retrieved from
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2434/2202
Statistics regarding student retention and annual graduates received from
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372+
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cva.asp
http://fletchapp.com/
https://www.f6s.com/fletchapp/about
http://www.marquettburton.com/
#Marquettism
Doing what is right in a challenging world.
