Custom Software Development for Startups

Real Business Cases of SaaS Web Development for Startups Business Case 1: Custom SaaS Training Software for eLearning Startup The US startup came to Belitsoft with a mission to train employees effectively by replacing costly and ineffective traditional eLearning methods with a personalized interactive web platform. The startup founder decided to develop an LMS from scratch due to previous unexciting and limited learning experience with a standard platform. Belitsoft’s dedicated developers offered сustom web application development services to create a unique interactive platform for the startup from scratch.  The development process included a discovery phase (to get a clear vision and scope of the project), content creation (by digitizing a hard copy), UX/UI design (to create an engaging conversational user interface), choosing a suitable tech stack, development, and software testing. All in all, the project's remote dedicated development team involved 8 dedicated programmers, designers, and testers in various stages, and allowed launching the MVP in 8 months.  Inspired by the capabilities of a new training platform, the startup founder is considering further software evolution with the help of Belitsoft (mobile version, Artificial Intelligence, etc). CASE STUDY: Custom SaaS Training Software for eLearning Startup Business Case 2: Custom SaaS EHR Development for a HealthTech Startup Our Client, a US-based company, decided to create a software product to automate manual tasks and boost the effectiveness of healthcare professionals. Due to the lack of in-house developers, the Client opted for software development outsourcing to get the necessary skills quickly and much cheaper than in the USA.  Belitsoft got the task to develop the MVP for a future EHR system from scratch. The Client didn’t choose off-the-shelf platforms because their customization would be expensive and difficult to maintain in the long run. To translate business needs into detailed technical requirements correctly, Belisoft started by assigning an experienced Business Analyst with proven expertise and deep domain-specific knowledge in the healthcare industry.  The development team chose the modern microservices architecture approach to develop a highly scalable healthcare software product with powerful functionality. Considering the specifics of the Healthcare domain, we applied the HIPAA-compliant server architecture proposed by Belitsoft to the Client to ensure the app compliance with HIPAA requirements. As a result of cooperation, a SaaS EHR platform with a simple-to-use UI was developed. It allows busy healthcare professionals to enable the accurate and efficient collection, systematization, and multi-faceted use of relevant clinical data. CASE STUDY: Custom SaaS EHR Development for a HealthTech Startup Business Case 3: Custom SaaS Marketplace Development for an Agritech Startup Our Client, the US-based startup, decided to enter the AgriTech market with a unique and helpful idea of connecting farmers and laborers through a marketplace app. The startup founder came to Belitsoft by reference from another business owner who used to work with our company and who recommended us as a team that takes responsibility and ownership over their work and does the job right, meeting the set-out deadlines and budget. The initial Client’s request focused on the idea and the functionality they expected. However, the startup team didn’t specify any technical requirements. For this reason, Belitsoft suggested full-cycle development services, including UX/UI design, business and technical consulting, and software testing. After agreeing on the details, our specialists started by mapping the idea to estimate the project cost. The next crucial step was to attract investors - and our designers created mock-ups for the project for this purpose. As a result, the startup managed to fundraise enough to proceed. Developing an MVP was the first milestone that would allow the business to release the app and start monetizing it in a short term. Then, we planned the second phase - further development after the app launch to enhance functionality. The MVP development and a series of extra features took 6 months. Thanks to a well-thought choice of tech stack (Laravel and React) with the availability of ready-to-use code, our software development team saved approximately 80-120 hours for the startup and lowered its development expenses. As a result, the Client received both web and mobile versions of the app for iOS and Android. After launching the marketplace app, the startup experienced 113% user growth. Now, it has got nearly 2,000 active users and the number is growing. CASE STUDY: Custom SaaS Marketplace Development for an AgriTech Startup  Business Case 4: Custom Chatbot and SAAS Web Platform for Marketing Automation Startup Our Client is the EU founder and CEO of a startup promoting a new approach to lead generation for businesses.  The business owner needed engineering resources with the skillset that would let him develop a human-like chatbot to convert website visitors to leads and a database app for storing these leads. He found Belitsoft via Google and chose us out of several companies due to “the most professional impression”, according to the founder’s words. The Client needed full-cycle development services. So at first, our business analyst gathered requirements to outline the technical details, cost, and scope of the project.  After that, the development started. For creating an intelligent chatbot that would naturally imitate a human consultant and provide personalized assistance, our developers “taught” the chatbot to determine the semantics of the page and discussion to answer with personalized and context-aware messages.  Belitsoft’s development team also used NLP (Natural language processing) techniques to make the chatbot act naturally. For that, they created predefined semantic categories with 3000 most used keywords, applied a word tokenization algorithm to parse a text into keywords, included a syntactic analyzer to remove stop-words and bring words to base forms, and many more. To effectively gather and manage all the incoming leads, the chatbot was accompanied by a SaaS web platform that serves as a database for businesses. Consequently, the startup founder got a chatbot that is simple to use and highly efficient in lead generation. Together with a chatbot came a database that prevented businesses from losing potential customers.  Both solutions made a powerful combination for lead generation for businesses. CASE STUDY: Custom Chatbot and SaaS Web Platform for Marketing Automation Startup Business Case 5: PoC of Cloud-Based Virtual Fuel Cards for a Logistics Startup The Client, a European startup in the logistics and transportation industry, partnered with Belitsoft to develop a cloud-based Virtual Fuel Cards (VFC) system for European truck carriers. As the startup didn’t have in-house resources to fulfill an idea, they searched for a reliable partner with the domain expertise to outsource not only the development process, but also business analysis, UX/UI design, and QA. The business founders lacked technical understanding of how it would work, so our team started with a discovery phase to check the idea against reality (the analysis of the target audience, creation of mockups, and outlining of the app functionality).  When at the discovery stage some serious technical issue was detected, we suggested making a PoC (Proof of Concept) to verify how the software product would function in a real-world environment. Proof of Concept revealed that the business idea wasn’t viable due to fuel cards' technical specifics. Even though the Client didn’t proceed with the product development, thanks to our analytical efforts it cost the startup only $2400 and 3 weeks to test their idea and avoid the risk of losing up to $200k of the planned project budget. CASE STUDY: PoC of Cloud-Based Virtual Fuel Cards for a Logistics Startup Deliver functional and awesome-looking SaaS app that users will pay for. Use the expertise of Belitsoft’s team in the full software development cycle: from PoC and prototyping to custom development and testing. Just tell our business development manager what help you need, and a pool of 400+ technical specialists will be at your disposal.

At Belitsoft, we leverage our extensive experience in eLearning software development, AI chatbot development, LXP consulting and development, skills management software development, talent management software development, custom LMS development, and custom software development for startups. Aleks EdTech AI for math and chemistry by McGraw Hill Funding: disclosed Country: USA AI application: knowledge check, personalized path ALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces) is a web-based AI assessment and learning program for online math and chemistry (from K-12 to Higher Education). ALEKS starts with an AI-enabled initial knowledge check to determine a student's understanding of a subject and then suggests individually tailored learning paths. ALEKS is trained to identify the exact topics each student is ready to learn and does not suggest anything that is too easy and boring or too hard and frustrating for them. Santa EdTech AI for TOEIC preparation by Riid Funding: $248M Country: South Korea AI application: AI tutor The app helps prepare for TOEIC English test (TOEIC RC/LC practice questions, TOEIC video lectures, TOEIC vocabulary, and TOEIC sample vocabularies) and quickly achieve the desired score. It has 4 million downloads on the App Store and Google Play Store. Santa's level test predicts a student’s TOEIC score in three minutes, analyzes weaknesses in each part (listening, vocabulary, grammar, etc.), and recommends a personalized study course with only the necessary lectures and questions. Amira Learning SaaS Edtech Funding: $40.7M Country: USA Technology: Natural Language Processing Amira Learning represents an intelligent reading assistant that accelerates reading mastery by listening, assessing, and tutoring. It can also screen a student for the risk of dyslexia. Knowre Funding: $15.1M Country: South Korea AI application: tutoring, scaffolded support Knowres revolutionary technology identifies individual student learning gaps and fills those gaps through algorithmically generated curricula and interactive, scaffolded support. Teachers get actionable and comprehensive data to support struggling students. Founded in South Korea, it's expanded over the world. Knowre now partners with schools, private education companies, and other corporations. Back in 2021, Knowre was awarded the grand prize at Global K-Startup, a competition sponsored by Google, the Korean Internet and Security Agency, and the Korea Communications Commission. Also, it won first place in the GapApp Challenge sponsored by the New York City Department of Education. CenturyTech Funding: $12.6M Country: UK AI application: AI-based learning CENTURY is an AI-powered platform for schools, colleges, and universities. It uses learning science, AI, and neuroscience for developing customized teaching and learning plans. CENTURY helps teachers save time on marking and data analysis and make timely interventions to assist students. Century is an AI Award 2020 Winner by Reimagine Education, TechCrunch Award winner in 2016, and Connected Society Award finalist in 2019. Elsa Funding: $10.3M Country: China AI application: speech recognition ELSA (English Language Speech Assistant) is a mobile application that uses speech recognition to train pronunciation and reduce accent in short fun dialogues. The program provides instant and precise feedback on every sound. ELSA is available both for your businesses and schools. The learners' progress can be tracked in real-time from the teacher's or organization's dashboard. With over 7mln of users, ELSA keeps on expanding to new markets. The company has a Fast Company's 2020 World-Changing Ideas Award and is included in a prestigious CB Insights AI 100 list. Querium Funding: $6.2m Country: USA AI application: AI content recommendation and analytics Querium has created customized STEM courses aimed at high-school and college students to master their skills and enable them to achieve their career goals. The AI software analyzes students' answers and the duration of time required to complete a lesson. These data then give profound analytics to teachers and insight into students' performance. Querium has helped 24 million students and was recognized as the Most Promising IT and Web Company by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship in Houston. Thinkster Math Funding: $4.3m Country: USA AI application: AI tutor Thinkster Math is a math tutoring application. AI math tutor integrates one-on-one teaching and math curriculum and guides students in developing and mastering their math skills. The program developers guarantee a 90% improvement in math within 3 months. It includes the initial knowledge check, custom-curated math worksheets, detailed and immediate feedback, and profound reports to teachers. Thinkster Math Wins EdTech Award Recognizing Innovation and Impact on Learning, The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval, and continues its successful pace. Kadho Funding: $3.5M Country: USA AI application: automatic speech recognition (ASR) The renowned product of the Kadho company is Kidsense.ai. This software uses revolutionary technology in children's embedded automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech assessment. With over five years of data, KidSense is the only voice AI tailored towards children in English, Mandarin, Korean, and more. Lately, the project was acquired by the leader in speech recognition Roybi. Cognii Funding: $118k Country: USA AI application: AI-powered virtual assistant Cognii focuses on developing AI tools for higher education institutions and corporate training for organizations. The program is powered by a virtual assistant that uses conversational and interactive methods to teach learners. The AI virtual assistant guides a student in open-format responses that improves students' critical thinking skills. Besides, Cognii provides instant feedback, deep analytics, and automatic grading feature. The company has got The National Science Foundation Grant, Best Learning Assessment Innovation Award by Reimagine Education, and EdTech Innovation of the Year in 2016. Early start in AI means a lot because the more input data you'll gather for AI till the launch, the better your product will harness its possibilities. So if you want to hit the market before AI becomes mainstream, it's smart to act now. Get a FREE consultation from our eLearning expert who works with EdTech startups to know where to start. How is AI used in EdTech? Top 6 Ideas to Consider Artificial Intelligence is a key to delivering online education with superior learning outcomes and cost-efficiency. Here is what AI-powered tools successful EdTech companies apply to achieve these goals. 1. Knowledge check to customize learning based on the current knowledge level When a student enters the Learning Mode for the first time, the system suggests taking a knowledge check that consists of a series of questions. The application of AI consists in the fact that the consequence of these questions is not predetermined as in traditional eLearning software but depends on every student's answer. Once a student gives consistently correct answers, they move on with more challenging questions. In the case of a wrong answer, the AI algorithm will shift them back. The goal of a knowledge check is to assess the current level of students' knowledge and adjust their curriculum to fill in their knowledge gaps. AI EdTech Startups Using It: ALEKS, Elsa aleks.com 2. Personalized learning path to effectively close knowledge gaps Based on the results of the knowledge check, the AI-based learning software suggests students their most ready-to-learn topic to master. The process of learning resembles the initial check. If a student answers correctly, the system moves them further to fully master the topic. In case a student answers wrong, the AI-enabled software gives a hint (allows revising the learning material or watching a short instructional video). After studying the entire topic, the AI-based knowledge check will automatically reassess a student to see if the topic is mastered or still needs to work on. AI EdTech Startups Using It: Century Tech, ALEKS, Carnegie Learning, Memrise. aleks.com 3. Virtual assistants and chatbots to perform as personal tutors The chatbot-style learning is built as a conversation where an AI-enabled chatbot or virtual assistant imitates a human teacher in all key activities: prompting students to answer a series of questions within the topic, tutoring them with personalized hints and tips, providing on-demand support in the moments of struggling, giving instant formative assessment, guiding students towards the topic mastery. AI EdTech Startups Using It: Knowre Math, Cognii, Riid, Amira Learning, Querium. Knowre 4. Predictive analytics to forecast and timely address possible gaps The AI algorithms analyze students' data along the learning process and detect underlying patterns in their performance. Then the data are compared with a benchmark, which is based on a predefined curriculum. Using the results of this analysis, the system makes a forecast of students' future performance. AI predictive analytics helps teachers timely detect which students require their intervention or support. And address the increasing problem earlier in the learning cycle. AI EdTech Startups Using It: Kidaptive, Dreambox dreambox.com 5. Grading and assessment to automate repeated and admin tasks To automatically grade assignments, at first, the AI software needs to learn from the available data. For that, the software gathers the metrics for grading assignments from papers graded by human teachers. Having these data, the AI engine learns to replicate the human grading process. The process iterates and improves thanks to the possibility of AI to learn constantly. For this purpose, the software stores the manual grading information for updating its own grading metrics. The advanced level of the automatic assessment process is hand-written paper grading as shown in the example below. AI EdTech Startups Using It: Gradescope, CenturyTech. gradescope.com 6. Speech recognition to engage students and improve the learning experience Speech recognition, as a subfield of AI, can be used for language learning, teaching kids to read fluently and debate, delivering lectures from teachers to students, tutoring, and other learning activities. Let's dig into the speech recognition technique in language learning. The engine "listens" to a speaker. Then compares the input data with the benchmark. The benchmark, in this case, is the voices of native speakers. Based on the comparison of the input speech and the benchmark, the AI assesses the speaker. AI EdTech Startups Using It: Elsa, Nuance, Kadho Elsa Any of the mentioned tools can be embedded into the existing LMS, LXP, or learning application. Or serve as a basis for a new eLearning project. For that, you only need a skilled team that will fulfill your ideas fast, at a high-quality level, and at a moderate cost.Let's discuss your idea! How to apply AI in Software for Education in 7 Steps There is a quick overview of 7 major steps in developing comprehensive AI software for education. Why only a quick overview? In reality, the entire process for an EdTech startup boils down to choosing the experienced and skilled software development team that will assist and support you from the first step till the launch of your product. So while your team codes, designs, and tests, the role of a startup founder majorly comes down to ideation, hiring the right talents in your team, supervising, and providing timely feedback throughout all the following stages. Step 1. Making the concept of your idea Start with creating a clear concept of how your software will improve the learning process, what it should do, how it will interact with students, and where the data will be stored. Step 2. Hiring AI developers After shaping your ideas into a well-thought concept, start searching for a development team. Before you hire dedicated developers, it's recommended to examine reviews about the software vendor and check their experience in custom eLearning software development. Step 3. Deciding on technological details Again, having hired a good team, you get high-skilled specialists who will advise you on the right solution. So you don't need to be an AI expert to launch your EdTech AI startup. Based on your project's concept with features and requirements, the team will select a suitable technological solution. Step 4. Gathering input data Most AI features, such as a personalized learning path, use existing algorithms and train them using your input data. The more input data you provide, the better the AI algorithm will perform its task. The input data can be in the format of text documents, excel files, FAQ, teaching programs, etc. Step 5. Development of your startup Your development team will perform several processes in parallel with your gathering input data. Their tasks will include the development of the front-end and back components of your software. The team of UX/UI designers will streamline the design to make it responsive, easy-to-use, and engaging. Step 6. Testing of your AI software Software testing is the next necessary stage before you receive your AI software for education. To ensure that the algorithm works in the way it should, your team will test the model using a ready-made dataset. Step 7. Integration into the education process The development team will integrate your software into the actual educational ecosystems, such as a website or a mobile app. Once the AI program is up and running, you can start measuring its KPIs to improve and succeed. Do you know that our eLearning team has already helped several EdTech startups to develop and launch their projects? We have rich expertise and a corresponding team of talents. We'll help you bring your idea to life. Get a FREE Consultation! Benefits of AI software for Education Decrease in routine tasks for teachers Automated assessment, grading, grouping students, reports, and analytics of students' performance are all performed by AI algorithms. It frees up teachers' time for mentoring struggling students and improve in-person relationships. Individual pace of learning AI software adapts the learning process to each student's level of knowledge, speed of learning, and desired goals. Also, AI can identify student's weaknesses and offer courses that suit best for filling the gaps. So the learning experience becomes highly personalized, and students get the most out of their education. High engagement rates Personalization powered by AI tailors the course for each student addressing individual goals and weaknesses. The AI-based learning process flows at a pace that is natural for a certain student. As a result, education becomes relevant, to-the-point and leads to higher students' engagement. Mentorship and tutoring for every student AI virtual assistants and chatbots help students improve their skills and close knowledge gaps without the help of a teacher. AI tutors provide a one-on-one learning experience swift and anytime. In fact, an AI-powered chatbot can answer students' questions within 2.7 seconds. Elimination of trial-and-error intimidation Trial and error is an integral part of learning. But the idea of failing intimidates many students. AI software for education is a far better way to deal with the issue. It allows teaching students in a relatively judgment-free environment, especially when AI tutors can offer solutions for improvement. All the mentioned benefits lead to a single and primary goal of applying AI in education: to increase the speed of knowledge acquisition and improve its retention. With this goal in mind, the attention turns from traditional eLearning solutions to AI LMS, AI-powered language learning apps, and LXP that harness the power of data to bring better educational outcomes. EdTech AI Market Trends The fact that cannot be denied is a steady growth of investments in AI in education The primary reasons for the focus on AI in EdTech: growing need for automating administrative tasks; rising demand for personalized education. AI in Education Market size exceeded USD 1 billion in 2020. From 2021 to 2027, it's expected to grow at a CAGR of over 40%. Among the drivers for the increasing demand for AI software for education: the increasing demand for integration of Intelligent Tutoring Systems in the learning process; rising research and development activities in deep learning; the growing focus on improving the quality of higher education; increasing demand for virtual classrooms across organizations; By application of AI in education, the market is shared the following way: Learning Platforms and Virtual Facilitators Intelligent Tutoring System Smart Content Fraud and Risk Management This is a perfect hint of what AI education startups should focus on to compete in the market. Key Players Propelling AI in Education There are 4 major players that share the overwhelming $250+ million of the AI-based learning market. Large providers of educational content Pearson, McGraw Hill, Cengage, and Knewton are the most familiar names in developing AI in higher education and K-12. For example, Knewton's Alta is a digitized platform focused on the AI-powered personalized learning experience. Pearson has created an AI department that is working on building the right algorithms using Artificial Intelligence to become more efficient and attractive to their customers. Weakness: Compared with the technological companies, the educational providers aren't specialized in technology. Strength: However, they use their in-depth industry knowledge and robust user base to expand traditional education to new territories. Higher Ed institutes Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Kennedy School, Alan Turing Institute, the Oxford University are among the leaders. They understand that in AI the early start is essential for success. Harvard Kennedy School was among the first ones in 2015 to nurture the AI Initiative. They started to assemble researchers, students, and experts to explore and develop Artificial Intelligence. In 2018 MIT announced an investment of $1 billion in a new AI college to prepare AI talents for the future. Strength: Compared with tech giants and content providers, the universities have top talents in AI and impressive research fundings. Weakness: The institutes don't create AI-powered software to sell. They are focused on training talents and upskilling society. EdTech startups Riid, Cognii, Elsa, Memrise, and Alef are only a few EdTech AI startups that have gained worldwide recognition. The AI software for education is often focused but not limited to adaptive learning systems, tutoring AI, smart grading, chatbots for education, etc. For example, Alef represents the application of Artificial Intelligence in K-12. With this AI-powered educational solution, students get personalized multimedia content, learn at their own pace. To support and assist students, teachers provide adaptive instructions along with AI-recommended interventions. Weakness: Compared with other market players, startups are usually newer and smaller. It means they are likely to have unsubstantial or irregular fundings, small talents pool, and the absence of well-established positions in the industry. Strength: EdTech startups are comparatively more market-oriented. They are more eager to experiment with new technologies and ideas. And they are more flexible in delivering their solutions. Considering the pandemic influence and the fact that the global EdTech market is expected to reach USD 341 billion by 2025, it looks like a perfect time to get a share in this market pie. To avoid common mistakes and grow your business, there are time-proven best practices describing how to successfully start an EdTech startup. Or get a direct FREE consultation from the skilled eLearning experts who have helped other EdTech startups to ground their ideas off the ground. To be successful with AI in EdTech, what you need is a robust engaging idea and a skilled well-coordinated team. We are ready to take responsibility for the latter. Just come to us with your idea!

Entrepreneurs are people who take an idea and translate it into a successful business. Over 550,000 people in the USA step into this river each month. There are those that drown, some that swim and the lucky few who reach success from the first time. Great ideas can come from anywhere. You can discover opportunities by examining your own needs and problems, bringing your personal experience. You can also borrow and reuse an old thought. So for example, our Client has approached with a complete idea to develop a platform for healthcare professionals from scratch. Because he has wide experience in software development, he finds it easy to generate new ideas. The constant flow of new ideas, discussions and phased implementation of relevant solutions contribute to reducing refactoring hours, thus cutting costs for our Client. However, what if you are out of ideas? Source:reddit.com/r/funny/comments/8hgz7u/how_tech_company_names_are_created ‘The world around you is filled with ideas that can be useful.’ Andy Boynton, co-author of the Idea Hunter By learning to think and act in ways that shed light on new opportunities, you can find a steady stream of business ideas in everyday life. Here are some tips to help you generate new ones using the world around you. Look for what’s missing As you consider new ideas for your project or business, give greater credence to the thoughts you believe to be true, even if the others are skeptical. Scott Belsky, CPO of Adobe, is sure the most exciting products are created by people with convictions for something that seems odd for the others. Before Airbnb became a giant online marketplace for sharing homes and spaces, it was several airbeds on a floor in San Francisco. The company started in 2007 when Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky were struggling to pay their rent and decided to make extra bucks. There was a design conference coming to the city and the local hotels were fully booked. Gebbia and Chesky came up with the idea of renting three airbeds on their living-room floor and making their guests breakfast. ‘The moment when we thought this idea wasn't going to work was the moment we came up with it. We thought, "This'll work for one weekend to pay the bills while we come up with The Big Idea." People still said it was absurd’ The next day they created a simple website, airbedandbreakfast.com. Six days later they sheltered their first guests who pay $80 each per night. The idea of creating a website based on renting something that was already in exist was great. Thus, they decided to target conferences and festivals across the U.S., getting local people to offer their room and travelers to book them. ‘Tonight, just on our service, 785,000 people in 191 countries will either stay in a stranger's home or welcome one into theirs. Clearly, it's not as crazy as we were taught. [...] Now, we know design won't solve all the world's problems. But if it can help out with this one, if it can make a dent in this, it makes me wonder, what else can we design for next?’ Source:blog.adioma.com/how-airbnb-started-infographic However, what if you find the idea absurd? Then think about how crazy the “mobile phones” must have sounded in the early 1990s, when phones were attached to objects. But they have spread so quickly that less than 25 years later there were more mobile phones in the world than people. Or how ridiculous the notion of a car that goes faster than 10 mph must have seemed to Carl Benz when he made his first vehicle. But after 133 years, stock cars are able to go over 200 miles an hour. In the age of constant change, standing still is not an option. To make profits, entrepreneurs have to shape the future. What technology or advancement is coming soon? How will that change the business landscape as you know it? And finally, can you get ahead of the curve? Crazy ideas can facilitate invaluable insights and keep you in front of what will come next. Get feedback from real customers If your business can fix a problem for your customers, they thank you for it (and produce profit). So how to figure out what exactly your customers need? Let people interact with your product and see what their vision is for it. A fresh perspective can help point out a problem you might have missed. One of the most common ways to receive feedback is to get a focus group. Thus, deliberately selected people who participate in the discussion elicit consumer perception about a product or its particular features. Source:playbacksociety.com/blog/recap-silicon-valley-s3ep9-tables-focus-groups-and-the-elephant The purpose of a focus group is not to arrive at a consensus. They are created to identify the feelings, impression, and thoughts of consumers about a particular solution. Thus, for example, our Client from healthcare industry hired a focus group consisting of 2 hospital workers. During the development cycle, we were able to show them a software prototype, figure out why they liked or didn’t like something and how could we make it better. However, they were only 2 orthopedists from one hospital among millions of people and practices. And after a while, they were out of ideas about how to improve the Client’s software. As such, we provide the following options to improve business ideation process: Conducting several focus groups. In the case of our Client, he could expand the group by hiring healthcare professionals of different practice areas and from different hospitals. Referring to healthcare consulting services. Usually, there are advisers with a solid clinical background and in-depth knowledge of healthcare practices in a hospital or other institutions. Based on the experience, they provide more information about further product development and more quickly. Get your team brainstorming great ideas No matter how creative you may be, you can always turn to your employees for some extra brain power. One major issue for many business leaders comes down to this: How to boost consistent, critical and creative thinking throughout your enterprise? ‘I come up with ideas. We could sit here with an idea, and I could fill this whiteboard in an hour with 100 ideas.If I have a week with no brainstorming meetings, I complain to my office, like "Come on, guys, help me here."’ Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon It is essential to add some structure and refer to the objective. While brainstorming you won’t get significant results if everyone just starts shouting out their thoughts. This gives too much weight to the team’s louder members and suppresses the input of quieter shy participants. Source:hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hbos-silicon-valley-tech-advisor-695513 Shayla Callis, design and innovation leader at Farmers Insurance, found that brainstorming while embarking upon the design thinking process can facilitate business ideation. Callis suggests opening with a clear, exact “challenge statement” or statement of purpose. What specific problem are you trying to solve? Then describe the end user by putting yourself in their shoes. Who will the solution impact? What are their experiences? After understanding who you are designing for, you are ready to begin brainstorming. IBM has also adhered to the corporate trend in design thinking since 2012. However, traditional design thinking theories came in the late 1980s and seemed more suitable to smaller, creativity-focused companies. As a corporate titan, IBM had to adopt the canonical approach for implementation across a sprawling, complex business. ‘We wanted to shift that culture [engineering-centric] towards a focus on users' outcomes’ Charlie Hill, chief technology officer of IBM Design In total, the company has developed about a hundred products using design thinking. The most popular is Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform for developing apps. Upgrade your corporate hierarchy Jeff Bezos is currently the richest person on the planet. As of September 2018, Amazon was valued at $1 trillion. Obviously, Bezos would never have come this far without having skills for determining and cultivating game-changing ideas. In his interview with Forbes, Bezos assessed the thought process he goes through when deciding where to move forward with a new initiative. Thus, for example, he upgraded a corporate hierarchy at Amazon. According to Bezos, a traditional corporate hierarchy is as follows: ‘Let's say a junior executive comes up with a new idea that they want to try. They have to convince their boss, their boss's boss, their boss's boss's boss and so on - any 'no' in that chain can kill the whole idea’ However, flexible startups showed Bezos the opposite: even if 19 venture capitalists say no, it just takes a 20th to say yes to get a disruptive idea into a business. Source:me.me/i/hey-whats-the-big-idea-biggest-one-youve-got-how-13308255 Consequently, Bezos structured Amazon around the “multiple paths to yes” pattern, especially regarding “two-way doors”: decisions that are often based on incremental improvements and can be reversed if they prove unwise. Hundreds of executives can green-light an idea, which employees can determine internally. As for the larger ideas and “one-way doors” that affect the direction of Amazon, Bezos plays the role of “chief slowdown officer”. He pays particular attention to three things. First, originality. ‘We have to have a differentiated idea. It can't be a 'me too' offering.’ Second, scale. ‘We're gifted with some very large businesses we've built over time, and we can't afford to put our energies into something that if it works, it's still going to be small.’ And third, a Silicon Valley-worthy ROI. ‘Even at substantial scale, it has to have good returns on capital.’ Finally, verified ideas emanate from one of the two models. They look backward at customer needs. If the team has noticed people commit a specific act, so they try to serve them with a product. Or peering forward - they know how to do something valuable, so they find customers. Bezos is sure: once you have a success, don’t rest on your laurels. ‘Friends congratulate me after a quarterly-earnings announcement and say, 'Good job, great quarter,' and I'll say, 'Thank you, but that quarter was baked three years ago.' I'm working on a quarter that'll happen in 2021 right now.’ Books on coming up with innovative ideas There are thousands of books on creativity and innovation at large. These are just a few to get entrepreneurs jump-starting their creative thinking: The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry A read on how to generate brilliant ideas at a moment’s notice. See on Amazon. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers A manual on practical innovation techniques used by leading business thinkers and companies worldwide. See on Amazon. Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelley The principles and strategies to tap into the creative potential in everyday life and innovate in terms of how businesses approach and solve problems. See on Amazon. The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen A set of five skills that leaders use to develop entrepreneurial ideas (questioning, observing, networking, experimenting, and associating) and how to cultivate them. See on Amazon. Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky A systematic approach to merging creativity with productivity. See on Amazon. Conclusion Don’t expect ideation to be a one-and-done process. Creative solutions don’t usually arrive in a single blinding flash of insight. Meet people and ask them for feedback, seek advice from your colleagues, retrieve ideas online or use whatever method makes the most sense to you. A combination of such techniques brings the most efficient results during business ideation.

How Belitsoft Can Help We have been on the eLearning market for more than 15 years and have helped launch a dozen successful startups. Here’s what we can do for you: Product development. If you have an idea and a business plan, we can provide the technical skill to make it an actual product and an actual business. You can either hire a dedicated team and manage it yourself, order a full-cycle product development, or anything in-between. Consulting. Our consulting services can help you plan your gamification strategy, software architecture, monetization, and other facets of the new product. Customization. Sometimes the most cost-effective option would be to take an existing open-source product and modify it to suit your needs. We can both recommend a suitable basis for customization and conduct the necessary changes. Content development. Should you need eLearning content for your product, we can help. This includes anything from text-based lessons to interactive videos and learning games. GET A FREE QUOTE What is EdTech This term describes all the software that is used to teach people, whether as a part of a blended learning environment or as a standalone experience. The first examples of it appeared before even the Internet was created. Now it is a thriving industry with the global EdTech market expecting to reach USD 341 billion in 2025. Modern EdTech includes LMS’, learning platforms, educational mobile apps, webinar services, authoring tools and more. Reasons to Launch an EdTech Startup The expanding market still has place for more ambitious companies willing to make the world a better place and make money in the process. Here’s why you should start one. 1. EdTech is Important for Learners. According to recent research, 72% of schools already use cloud collaboration tools, 57% assign their students mobile devices to use in class, and 48% provide online classes. The trend continues in adult education as well, with top companies promoting the culture of life-long learning. Deloitte, Wal-Mart, PwC, and many others use eLearning tools to train their employees from their first day at work and throughout their whole career. As there is a need for edtech solutions for both governmental and private organizations, your company can fill it. 2.The Market is Not Yet Saturated The world is expected to spend a whopping USD 8 trillion on education by 2025. The USA is still among the top dogs in financing learning, but the leading positions are now occupied by Asian countries like China and India.  And yet digital education in the world remains severely underfunded with only 3% of funding going its way. Which means that the market is far from being saturated. If a company is determined enough, it can win its rightful place there. Angel.co, a startup platform, shows over 21,000 educational companies, an increase from 16,000 two years ago. 3. A Modern Startup Can Be Cheap When the computers were large and their screens – small, programmers were rare and expensive. With the advent of open source and an increase in the number of reliable outsourcing companies, you can now have a piece of software built for a fraction of what it used to cost. In addition, open-source solutions further decrease the expenses of building a new edtech product. Using them, the costs can go down by 20-50%. 4. There Are Many Unexplored Opportunities. Gamification, while a hot topic in the eLearning circles, has been relatively underused in recent years. AR/VR is growing in popularity but remains mostly a gaming technology, despite the fact that education needs it more. Interactive videos help bridge the gap between the classic and the new learning formats. Overall, there are many niches your nascent company can fill and many trending technologies that you can use to get ahead. 5. eLearning Is Attractive to the Investors The venture capitalists consider EdTech an attractive place to invest their money. Source While the amount of investment grows, the number of deals is declining, which means the VCs are pickier about the startups they fund. Seeking assistance from an incubator or accelerator might be a good idea in these conditions. How to Fund an EdTech Startup How to start education startup? There are a number of ways to get money for the nascent eLearning company. None of them is easy, but each has something to offer. 1. Bootstrapping Paying for the startup with your own money is risky, but gives you the ultimate control over all the decisions, as no one else has a stake in the business. However, getting the necessary amount can be problematic. 2. Loans Almost every bank can lend you money to start your own business. But there are also state and governmental initiatives that can make getting funds a bit easier. You have to pay the loans back with interest even if the business fails, might have to provide collateral, and carry a personal litigation risk (if you default). But managing loans payment is straightforward (fixed monthly payments), the lender doesn’t have any control over your business, and the interest payments can be deducted as expenses. 3. Investment Investors can give you money in exchange for a stake in your company - if they find your idea viable, that is. If you get investor funding, you might also get mentoring, networking, and other help (especially in case of accelerators), repayment is more flexible, and if the startup has to close, you don’t have to give the investment money back. 4. Grants As education is something that is considered to make the world a better place, there are organizations that support educational initiatives. There are also general-purpose grants that are available to the businesses regardless of the industry. You don’t have to pay the grants back, however, your business needs to fit the specific grant’s requirements. 5. Crowdfunding Since 2016, crowdfunding equity has surpassed the investment one. Under this model a large number of people contribute relatively small sums in exchange for a gift or a non-monetary bonus once the product or service is live. Crowdfunding allows you to remain in control of your business, great for pitching niche ideas, and can bring you money in a matter of a month. However, you need to invest in marketing to attract donors, must have a clear proposition, and if the crowd doesn’t pledge enough funds, you get nothing. EdTech Startup Best Practices Experts suggest following these recommendations to increase your chances of success. Top reasons for startup failure according to CBS Insights 1. Clear Business Model/Monetization Strategy An initiative to make the world a better place is laudable, but a startup is a business first and foremost. So before you even write the first line of code think about what problem will your product actually solve and how will it bring you money. This includes knowing your target audience and its preferences, planning the monetization strategy, measuring the impact your product is expected to make and taking steps to address the risks. These measures will help you present a solid case before the investors (should you need them) and will guide you as your product goes live. Note that in EdTech the “customer” (person/organization who pays for the product) and “consumer” (person who uses the product) are often two different entities. Your marketing strategy should clearly define who is who to properly target them. 2. Start With an MVP This is true for pretty much any startup and doubly so for a new eLearning company. MVP stands for “Minimum Viable Product” and allows you to go to market quicker while risking less money in the process. The goal of an MVP is to choose the most valuable features, the ones that will solve the problem you are addressing and differentiate you from the competitors, and launch them first. On the one hand, this gives you a chance to test your ideas in an actual market. On the other - if they prove to be less stellar than you expected, you won’t lose as much as you would have with all the bells and whistles included.  Value vs Complexity Quadrant - one of the methods for choosing MVP features. Source For a more detailed view of an MVP approach and a guide on how to choose the necessary features, see our article.  3. Pay Attention to Retention In eLearning getting customers is relatively simple, the hard part is keeping them active. So think about how you will keep the retention metrics up. For example, you can gamify your product to increase the users’ motivation to learn. Or make it very effective at teaching a useful skill. Or even both. The key idea is to ensure that people come to you over and over. 4. Watch Out for the Differences in Priorities This risk is rather sneaky, though it becomes obvious when pointed out. Your company and your users might have different and even opposite priorities. For example, you might want a learner to stay on your app for as long as possible, but the learner themselves wants to get the needed information ASAP. Gaps like this should be identified and addressed early, otherwise, you might find yourself in a position where the mistakes can’t be fixed anymore. Why EdTech Startups Fail Education is a niche that has quite a lot of differences from the “mainstream” startup scene. These differences are often the reasons why seemingly good businesses don’t succeed. inBloom This startup was poised to create a breakthrough in education. It had everything: ambitious ideas (a centralized platform for curricula, data sharing, and learning apps), USD 100 million in funding from the Gates foundation, political support in several American states. However, it closed just a year after the launch. So what went wrong? Personal Data Use While this is mostly a case of “wrong time, wrong place”, it is worth mentioning to illustrate the existing risk. inBloom’s launch coincided with a number of scandals related to online privacy: Edward Snowden’s reveal of the NSA spying program, the breach of 40 million customer accounts in Target, and a slew of others. The trust towards the technology initiatives and Bill Gates personally went down, and it became a major obstacle preventing the acceptance of inBloom by the teachers.  SharpScholar When this startup announced its closure, it came as a shock: the company enjoyed positive media coverage, was featured on Dragon’s Den (Canadian equivalent of the Shark Tank show), and had about 5,000 university students as users. Jawwad Siddiqui, one of the founders, listed a few reasons that caused his company’s downfall. Too many layers of approval A teacher can’t just pick and choose their own tools - they have to keep in mind the needs and requirements of students, school administration, district school board - all the way up to the government.  SharpScholar depended on approval from the students and admins, which made life more complicated for the teachers, who were unwilling to use this tool as a result. “Free lunch” mentality The abundance of free services (e.g. Facebook and Snapchat) caused people to expect software to be provided to them at no charge. Giants like Microsoft and Google didn’t make things any easier by offering free or discounted educational tools, even though teaching is not the core business for them. So the target users didn’t want to pay for SharpScholar as well. Tutorspree An “AirBnB for tutors”, as the company positioned itself, graduated from the prestigious Y Combinator, received about USD 1.8 million in funding, and had over 7000 teachers on its platform, but still shut down. The tutoring market itself is complicated: after one starts working with the student, there is nothing stopping them from cutting out the middleman at all. But this wasn’t the reason for the startup’s closure, nor was money - the founders have even returned some of the investment they were given.  Founders gave up The first reason was opportunity cost.Tutorspree was earning some money, but it was way too little to be worth the efforts the owners had to make to keep the business afloat. So they decided to throw in the towel and focus on something else. Too reliant on Google traffic The company was extremely reliant on the visitors that Google search brought them. It proved a major risk, as the changes in the algorithm caused disruption in the Tutorspree’s workflow. Successful EdTech Startup Examples Learn from those who have prevailed. USA Coursera Coursera is one of the top MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms. Coursera It has partnered with over 190 major educational institutions to deliver quality educational content to anywhere in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. Besides getting knowledge and learning useful skills, through this platform a user can receive a certificate or even a valid diploma. Coursera has secured over USD 145 million in funding and is steadily growing in popularity. Skillshare Skillshare is a platform that focuses on educational videos. Skillshare The company now has over 2 million students and has received more than USD 50 million in funding. Europe Ticken Ticken is a gamified touch-typing course that started in the Dutch market but has since added English, German, and French versions. Ticken To date, more than 100.000 people have completed this course and improved their typing speed. It has won a prestigious Thuiswinkel Starters Award and admiration of both users and critics. See the relevant case study to learn more. Amboss A startup that unites healthcare and education, Amboss is a Berlin-based company that targets medical students. It started as an app that helps users study “smarter, not harder”, but is aiming to become a major knowledge platform used by both doctors in training and on the job. Amboss The app reduces the average research time needed for doctors to make a clinical decision from 30 minutes to 30 seconds. And the company has received funding from Target Global, Cherry Ventures, Wellington Partners and Holtzbrinck Digital. UK Kano Kano is a London-based startup that teaches kids computer science. Kano computer. Source This company sells both hardware kits and software classes, making it a one-stop place to learn about computers. They have received USD 44.5 million in funding. Memrise Memrise is a British language platform that uses spaced repetition to improve learning outcomes. Memrise. Source It has won a number of awards and has been profitable since 2016. To date it has over 35 million registered users.