2. Bonnie Eisenman: BSE, Computer Bereket Abraham: BSE, Mechanical
Science, 2014. The Hacker. and Aerospace Engineering, 2013. The
Dude.
Anne Lee: AB, Economics, 2013.
The Hustler.
James Chu: AB, Music
Composition, 2013. The Artist.
3. OffBeat Lessons
Music Off Beat Music
Educators Lessons Students
Idea:
An online platform that matches music teachers and
students
+
Provides applications such as scheduling and learning
applications that makes music learning easier.
4. OffBeat Lessons
Educators and students need to be matched based on mutually
compatible goals for a successful relationships to follow.
Conservatory Professional
Students Aspirations
Professional Activities for college
musicians admissions
M u s i c M u s i c
Educators Students
Full Time Recreational Playing
teachers
Part time Parents force
teachers lessons
5. OffBeat Lessons Potential
Market Size
• Starting point:
§ Music Teachers National Association lists 22,000 members
• http://www.mtna.org/about-mtna/
§ Conservatory students: ~40,000 students-->if 20% teach, 8000
potential teachers
§ Total: 30,000 teachers
o If Narrathon has 10% market share: 3,000 teachers
§ Assumptions:
• On average each teacher finds 2 students from Narrathon,
avg. lesson cost: $60 and students take lessons 50 weeks /
year
o Narrathon generates $18,000,000 total extra income for
these teachers per year
o Assume Narrathon charges 5% commission, total
revenue = $900,000 / year
• Half of them subscribe to bill pay feature and half to
scheduler
o Assume each feature costs $60 / month
6. OffBeat Lessons
What We Did:
We interviewed teachers, potential teachers, students, and parents
What We Learned:
• Repeatedly -- teachers saying they would try to "cheat" such a
system, avoid paying for student referrals
• Beginning students didn't know what they needed in a teacher,
didn't think premium matching was worth paying for
• Experienced students have solid word-of-mouth and personal
networks
Insights: Small market, difficult to convince people to pay, most people
think word of mouth is "good enough"
7. PIVOT 1
Decided to offer a platform for virtual lessons in addition
to our in-person lesson "matching service"
Reasoning:
• Access to teachers outside of local area
• Convenience
• Access to and availability of teachers for obscure / non-
canonical instruments, styles
• Gives students/teachers a reason to stick with our
platform! (so they'll pay us!)
8. Off Beat Lessons
Virtual music lessons
More interviews (both potential teachers and students),
insights...
• Tested online lessons -- ambivalence re: sufficient quality,
latency
• Camera angle problems
• Perception issues
o Beginner students especially skeptical
• Physical presence/interaction
Insights: reluctance from both students and teachers; tough sell
in current environment.
9. PIVOT 2
Evolution of Web Platform: Applications:
Matching
Online Lessons
Distance
learning
Virtual Classroom / Virtual Conferences
Masterclasses and Talks
News
industry
Music:
Virtual "Master-talks" of any orchestras, pop
subject with live audience musicians
participation
Sports
Industry
Healthcare
10. Narrathon: The Vision
Q&A Aggregation System: Real-
time Q&A with voting system
Viewers
12. 3 Directions: Where To
Go?
1) Destination website: we archive all talks, host them on
Narrathon.tv
• Narrathon finds speakers and audiences
2) Rent out the technology as a platform for content
partners
• Solves chicken-and-egg speaker/audience problem
• No need for marketing to find audience or secure
speakers
3) Hybrid: rent out tech, and archive talks on our site
• Syndicated embeddable Narrathons like Scribble Live --
let other sites embed our partner's content for a fee
14. Customer Segments
• News Corps
o Local / NJ news outlets-no responses from 10+ different organizations
• Health and Medicine
o Health professionals in private practices, large medical groups
• Conferences and Organizations
o Business Today, Keller Center panel, Corporate Finance Club, Smart
Woman Securities, Model UN
• Classical Music
o Small orchestras and large major orchestras and performing arts
ensembles. I.e. Santa Fe Opera, LA Chamber Opera, NY PHIL
• Sports Organizations
o Newark Bears
o College athletics departments (Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia...)
15. News Corporations
• Decided not to focus on this segment
o Slow sale cycle
o Large firms can get their own tech crew
o Medium news corporations don't have manpower to
devote to live-streaming topics
o Lack of response from 10+ different local/NJ (small)
organizations
16. Health and Medicine
• What we thought were applications in medicine?
o telemedicine but with live video medicine
o lead generation for surgical procedures
• Narrathon on cosmetic vein procedures with Dr. Clifford
Sales
18. Dr. Sales Narrathon Stats
• 16 unique visitors / 28 "visits"
• 36% from Facebook ads, 21% from Google ads, 39%
direct traffic
• Locations: 17 New Jersey, 5 PA, 3 NY, 2 FL, 1 CA
• 1 in 4 viewers was on a mobile device (iOS)
• 28% stayed >10 minutes
• Low question activity
• No leads generated
19. Lessons Learned
• Low traffic...
o Hypotheses:
§ Need to publicize more in advance?
§ Random doctors do not have crazed fans
• 1 interview: didn't know that you could click on buttons
to vote / schedule an appointment...
o Hypotheses:
§ Better UI needed?
§ Or maybe just a more tech-savvy audience...
20. Conferences & Orgs
• Interviews: Business Today, Keller Center panel,
Corporate Finance Club, Smart Woman Securities,
Model UN Conference
• Successful Narrathon with Keller Center
o One question was asked via Narrathon's live voting
22. Keller Center Narrathon
Stats
• 76 visits / 60 unique
o 48 from facebook (!) - 46 from desktop site, 2 from
mobile app
o 11 mobile visitors / 49 desktop
• 10% stayed for at least 10 minutes
• On narrathon livestream page: 45% bounce rate;
average time on page: 3 minutes
• 47 total votes
23. Lessons Learned from
Keller Center Narrathon
• Work on pitch
o Explicitly mention ability to vote from mobile site
o The idea of a "Narrathon" needs to be better
explained
• Facebook ads are pretty effective: many votes came
from FB referrals.
o But, expensive
• Most people didn't stick around for entire talk -- but
10% having high engagement isn't too bad?
26. Payment Flow Diagram:
Sports & Music
If orchestras/ sports teams SPONSORS
don't pay Narrathon, sponsors
pay directly
ex. $1M sponsorship deal
NARRATHON
Pay Narrathon : X% of
sponsorship deal for
Narrathon element
ORCHESTRA/
SPORTS TEAMS
27. Music: Customer
Archetypes
Music:
Orchestra Managers/Directors
E.g.: Kevin Flint, Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra
• In charge of marketing, audience development
• Revenue: primarily ticket sales + patronage
• Interested if Narrathon could increase patron
support
28. Music: User Archetypes
• Patrons
o Wealthy individuals who appreciate the arts
• Regular Concertgoers
o Generally older people with disposable income
• Casual Concertgoers
o See concerts as a special event or occasional option
o Younger audience, students, etc.
o Orchestras would like to convert them to regular
concert goers
29. Music: Customer / User
Flow Diagram
Concertgoers
Buy tickets
Watch Narrathon
Patrons
Orchestras
Buy tickets, support orchestra
Watch Narrathon
Pay Narrathon -more engagement
-feel more invested?
Narrathon
30. Sports: "Locker Room
Pass"
Overview:
• Over 10+ sports organization contacted with no
response.
• Could have signed a contract with the Bears, but would
have been after the class.
Key Insights:
o College athletics -- cultivating alumni loyalty/
engagement is HUGE
o Big question: how much better is your service
compared to livestream + twitter?
31. Sports Market Sizing
Pro-Sports Market Sizing:
• Total Games / Year (football, basketball, baseball, hockey): 51461
• Assumptions:
o About 20% of games will have Narrathons: 1030 games
(Conservative estimate, Newark Bears wanted 100%)
o 2 Narrathons per game: 2060 Narrathons / year
o An average of 6 Narrathons / day in the US
§ Per Narrathon: Teams invite 1,000-10,000 viewers
§ Up to 20,600,000 (20.6M) viewers
1. NFL.com, NHL.com, NBA.com, MLB.com
32. Payment Flow Diagram:
Sports & Music
If orchestras/ sports teams SPONSORS
don't pay Narrathon, sponsors
pay directly
ex. $1M sponsorship deal
NARRATHON
Pay Narrathon : X% of
sponsorship deal for
Narrathon element
ORCHESTRA/
SPORTS TEAMS
33. Customer Archetypes
Pro sports: College sports:
Sales Managers Athletics Fundraising
E.g.: Luis Gouveia, Newark Bears E.g.: Alexandra Stein, Dartmouth
• In charge of tech purchases • Wants to increase alumni,
• Current purchases: live parent engagement
broadcasting for games • Engagement -> donations!
• His ideal world? Combine • Her ideal world? Combine
Narrathon + live broadcasts Narrathon + live broadcasts
into 1 service so he only into 1 service so he only
has to buy once. has to buy once.
34. User Archetypes
Professional Segment:
• Die-hard fans and evangelists
o Season ticket holders, eager for more access
• Casual fans
College Segment:
• Parents
o Parents are "starved" for more info
• Alumni
o Sense of connection with school, want to feel involved
o Targets for fundraising
• Local fans
o Some sports at some schools have very loyal fan bases
o Try to make every game-->might be interested as a way to 'catch
up' if they miss a game Top Photo Courtesy: Sports Networker
Bottom Photo Courtesy: LW T Shirts
35. Sports - Customer Flow
(Pro)
existing partnership
ads / content Sponsors
click on
ads
Sports Teams
provide sponsors Fans
earns share of
sponsor $ watch!
Narrathon
36. Sports - Customer Flow
(College)
College Athletics
Department
(viewers) Alumni -esp. team alums
authorizes -annual giving
Narrathon +alumni, parents, fan
engagement
Narrathon
Sports team (viewers)
provides
content
(viewers) Parents
--"dying" for
Local fans more info / more
stuff about
games!
"Alumni would be THRILLED to present questions and get responses!"
--Alexandra Stein, Dartmouth Friends of Athletic Groups Director
38. Key Activities
Analytics:
• Analyzing user activities and usage-->better target ads for our partners
Sales and Marketing:
• Finding and negotiating with sponsors, partners, and customers
• Talking to customers and users and understanding how to improve our
product-->relaying this to the tech team
Tech:
• Continued web development
• Tech support for events: before and during
Product Development:
• Add features to improve interactivity of our product
• Improve user-friendliness of our product based on user feedback
39. Costs
Assume we host 10 Narrathons / week, for approximately 500 Narrathons / year
LABOR (fixed):
1-Programmer contractor, 50K annually ($200 dollars/day)
1-Salesman, 50K, annually
1-Tech support, 50K, annually
LABOR (variable):
Camera crew: an average of $200 / hour
Assume each Narrathon requires an average of 2 hours of camera crew --> ~1000 hours / year,
200K / year
TOTAL: 350K / year
SOFTWARE (variable):
Cloud web server, $30+ / month, $360+ annually-->will estimate 1K / year
Marketing costs on partner
Work from home, so no office location, utilities, etc
GRAND TOTAL: 351 K / year for 500 Narrathons, each Narrathon costs $702
Breakeven or profit: if average revenue per Narrathon > $702
40. Is this a business?
Profitable?
We need to further investigate, but:
Experiment: need to test with a larger partner, see if we
generate enough sponsor revenue + engagement
-Reliant on contracts
-Based on market sizing, there is a potential for an average of
6 pro-sports Narrathons / day, reaching up to 20.6M viewers
even if we only reach 20% of the US market-->there is a huge
market
Initially...pessimistic for near future.
Sustainable?
Unsure.
-Experiment: will fans stay engaged? Or just a 1-time
novelty?
-Depends on contracts with partners
41. Is this a business?
Scalable?
Yes, but...
-Would need good relationships with local camera crews
across the US
-Would need easy instructions + improved user-friendliness
Barriers to entry?
Yes, if we get contracts...
-Entirely dependent on exclusive contracts and customer/
partner relationships
-No significant technical barriers
42. Next Steps
--Start with smaller orgs in sports and music , gain credibility, secure larger
partnerships
Test: are larger organizations willing to work with us now that we are more
established?
--Have an archive of successful Narrathons from smaller sports and concert
venues.
Test: how many viewers do we have for archived events, is this an important part of
our product?
--Improve the tech: make the prototype website a real one, create a mobile
app., improve the Q&A and comment aggregation system.
--Consider a partnership with livestreaming services like Ustream: create a
one-package deal (live stream + interactive Q&A feature)
Test: interview and discuss partnership possibility and terms with livestream service
providers--do they want to partner with us?
--Consider other genres in music: pop, rock, folk, country music
43. Is this worth further
investigation?
Absolutely:
• A lot of tests remaining...probably worth some further
investigation.
o Didn't get to test it out with the Bears, smaller
orchestras, etc
Not for our entire team:
o Divergent career goals.
James
• Would like to see a Narrathon appear in Young
Person's Concerts with the NY PHIL.