Hey there!
I have sat in on some more meetings at Paragon, but besides that it has been more of the same thing. Trying to start a business is grueling stuff. I love it though! Not everything has a right answer, so sometimes it is difficult to have to keep trying and trying to find one that is almost perfect. The two main things I have been doing are a financial model spreadsheet and a business plan. These are both necessary to starting ESTIM8 because we have to convince investors to... well, invest. Things are taking longer than I anticipated, so I doubt we will be 100% ready to go to investors by the end, but I think we will be really close. Sitting at a desk each day and working on this startup has been both really boring but somehow really exciting. This is our idea and it will only become real if we want it too. I will share some more details about our idea because I think the readers will find it pretty interesting.
Our first hire will be a Chief Operating Officer. They will be the key to our companies initial success, so they must be the perfect fit for the job, over qualified, and extremely driven to succeed as well. This person will manage day to day operations of the company, including:
Selling our product to customers
Managing funds
Overseeing operations
Keep company vision on track
Our second hire will be a salesperson to support our COO in year 3. This person must be experienced and motivated because we expect them to grow our companies customer base and meet revenue and customer quotas. Their tasks will include:
Contacting prospective customers
Presenting and demonstrating the products
Inducing the prospects to buy
Taking orders and implementing sales
We will continue to hire salespeople as our product gains market traction. This is demonstrated in our financial plan.
Our third hire will be a customer relations manager in year 4. This person must be experienced and motivated because we expect them to help maintain and take care of our customers that our salespeople have gained. Their tasks will include:
Ensuring on-boarding goes smoothly
Managing support services
Setting up customers for renewal
Developing customer relationships
Determining needs, usage, satisfaction, etc.
Meeting customer retention quotas
Reduce churn rate
Our fourth hire will be a software developing team around year 5. This will bring our research and development in house, which will increase efficiency, motivation and project direction. Having people who are solely responsible for our companies growth will likely cut down on costs and increase production. There tasks will include
Perform bug-fixes, updates, etc.
Use customer feedback to develop necessary changes
Completing tasks aligned with product vision
As our business grows, we will make decisions to hire positions that are not currently clear to us. We will oversee the business and identify areas where more support is needed.
ESTIM8 enjoys several advantages over its competitors. These advantages include:
Teacher’s Time Estimation Input: By allowing students to see how long their teachers think an assignment should take, they will be able to gauge how much time they should set aside for it, as well as being able to see if they are on track with the pace and understanding of course material.
Student Time Estimation Input: By allowing students to input how long each assignment took them to complete, future students will be able to accurately estimate duration rather than keep guessing. Teachers will also be able to tell if their students are not understanding a concept or if they are assigning too much.
Magic Scheduling Function: Taking the responsibility out of students' hands eliminates the possibility of procrastination or forgetting about an assignment. It ensures that students are not missing out on events and real college experiences because they messed up their schedules.
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