In 2009, Irynsoft started as a company to deliver online educational content on mobile devices--specifically iPhones. Planning to deliver this software as a service to colleges and universities, Irynsoft co-opted open education resources and gave away the software to gain credibility, support initial adoption, and learn about usage patterns and customer reaction. The goal was to obtain 10,000 customers to show how the technology sufficiently scaled. Less than two years late without any money spent on marketing their apps, Irynsoft has become a pioneer in open education on mobile devices, accumulating over 100,000 downloads of their platform and served up terabytes of free video content to support partnerships including MIT OpenCourseware and Khan Academy. The wildly successful apps have led Irynsoft to dramatically change their business strategy to focus on supporting open courseware's adoption through specialized tablet devices resold by Irynsoft themselves. This talk will share a history lesson of the past two years of a unique company, the habits of the early adopters of Irynsoft's technology, and why Irynsoft is convinced that mobile is the future of open education resources.

1. Mobile Learning To Build A Bridge Across The Digital Divide For Singularity U. – August 2011

2. About Me Sandy Khaund Engineering & Business Degrees Fostering Developer Communities Social Network For Teenagers Mobile Social Education

3. A Brief History Of Startup Time: One Techie’s Journey Through The World of Education

4. What Is Irynsoft? Mobile Distance Learning Platform Company “Learn & Share. Anytime. Anywhere”

6. More effort on marketing than innovation

7. Horrible retention as dropout rate high

8. Still not flexible enoughThe Revolution Has Begun: Free Content and Those Who Educate Themselves Our choice is clear: Radically change the way higher education is delivered, or resign ourselves to never having enough of it…Increasingly, you will decide what, when, where, and with whom you want to learn. –Anya Kamenetz, Fast Company and author of “DIY U” 5

9. What if online learning combined the convenience of your smartphone with the browsing experience of Netflix and all your Facebook friends could join you?

11. See information on each video

12. Learn more about a specific lecture and purchase for download

13. Enter “classroom” and to watch video, access notes, and interact with class community

15. Visit Facebook friends also on VIRT2GO and find out what they are taking

16. View class ratings to see best classes

17. Visit the forums to learn more and interact with other studentsInteractive Video Video player similar to iPod, except… Take notes while watching video View course materials and/or surf the web to research content while class continues To see the YouTube Demo of VIRT2GO in action, visit: http://bit.ly/c7vsUG

18. Irynsoft 1.0 Vision: Be the premier mobile platform for higher learning. Strategy: Partner with OERs. Sell to tuition-based colleges. First App Released in Fall 2009 KHAN ACADEMY VIRT U MIT OPEN COURSEWARE CORNELL RECOGNITION:

19. People Will Never Watch Classes On A Tiny Screen. They say they will, but they won’t. -SF Venture Capitalist, Spring 2009 Irynsoft By The Numbers 100,000+ Downloads Over 1 TB of video data 300+ downloads/day 1000+ launches/day 75% Male. Avg Age: 30 $0 spent on marketing I wanted to thank you for Virt U - it's great for those of us who find university fiscally unfeasible but still desperately want the experience and the knowledge This app is so smooth! This is how education should be! The development and software behind this app is great. I had an idea of an app like this, never did I think it would happen. As a college student, I believe this app interacts with you in a manner which allows you to learn faster. I think this is one of the best apps out there. A lot of good info please keep it coming I’ve learned so much from these videos the knowledge is priceless thank you so much I love this app!! It helped me pass my Trig Test!!! This is the best app ever made

20. Selling To Higher Ed~SellingTo Government Those Who Can Afford Don’t Need Those Who Need Can’t Afford The Irynsoft Higher Ed Lessons

22. Have You Heard?The iPadWill Revolutionize Education… …at $500 a pop?

23. 2010 1975

24. The “Digital Divide”

25. School Budgets Are In Peril

26. What About A Device That Is… Remotely Configurable By Teachers/Parents Built To Support No Internet AccessAt Home Dedicated To Educational Content …and sells for @ $200

27. Welcome To Irynsoft 2.0: VIRTUOSO Inexpensive tablet with Android OS + Irynsoft SW Catalog of 100,000s of free open education resources Remotely Configurable Passive Pre-Emptive Download System To see the YouTube Demo of VIRTUOSO in action, visit: http://bit.ly/qDSXT9

29. Low-Income: Parents Income <$50K

30. Parents: Desire for their kids to do better than them

31. 0-1 PCs in the house: Access to computer time is a battleFOR THESE STUDENTS, THIS ISN’T A LUXURY. IT’S A NECESSITY

33. Luxury Item

35. $$ for status

36. More Than Necessary$50K-$75K $75K-$100K >$100K $25K-$50K <$25K Household Income Everyone is after the wealthier markets, leaving the low-end market need underserved.

37. Total Addressable Market - US Family Households with Income <$50K + HS/Jr HS Kids 12.8M Households with 0-1 PCs 88% Average Revenue Per Household $200 Total Addressable Market $2.3B

38. The Design ApproachThe Best Of Two Popular Devices TiVo 1.4M Subs in 2010 $200M+ Revenue $1B Market Cap Amazon Kindle 8M in 2010 $1B+ Revenue Amazon #1 Best-Seller Mindless Immobile Social Silo One-Way Manual Search B&W Text Dedicated Automated Dynamic UI Video Extensible Educational Portable Social (sorta) Annotate Interactive App Ecosystem Affordable Payment Plans

39. Distribution Strategy 1 Sell Repackaged Tablet License SW to OEMs 2 3 Sell via Android Market

40. We’ve Been Here Before