Suffolk: Business Consulting Project

In partnership with teacher prep programs across the country, TeachersConnect is laying the groundwork to ensure a world in which teaching is never a solo activity and "teacher prep" stays with their new-teacher alumni for as long as they want. TeachersConnect is an in-person and online network that gives new K-12 teachers a safe place to ask their most urgent questions—even the embarrassing ones—and get answers from a trusted network of peers, mentors, and experts who understand the real-world classroom challenges. TeachersConnect also enables teacher prep programs to build deep, lasting relationships with their graduates and gather the data they need to meet new standards and improve their courses swiftly and purposefully. Our number one goal for the next 12 months is user growth (e.g. Get K-12 teachers onto our platform). We’ve determined that partnerships with other teacher communities (companies like TeachersPayTeachers; associations like the teachers unions or National Council of Teachers of Math; and “hacked” teacher communities on Pinterest and Twitter) is the most efficient way to acquire lots of new teachers quickly. We need to develop a funnel/pipeline for these strategic partnerships. Of all the communities and companies out there, which ones most need us and what’s the specific story we’d take to them to get them to partner with us (i.e. Why would it make sense for them to partner with us? What urgent itch would we scratch for them?). It’s a big qualitative market research project. If time allows, the students would also explore three other types of partnerships we believe we'll need: Partnerships that yield functionality for us quickly. For example, we know that teachers will want to share videos of themselves and get expert feedback. Should we build or buy that functionality, and if the answer is "buy" from whom should we consider buying? Partnerships that yield sponsors who want to give away free stuff to teachers. For example, we currently have a rewards program for teachers who provide us with feedback as we develop. If we decided to find sponsors whose stuff we use as prizes to teachers, where would we start? Whose stuff would make teachers happiest? Partnerships that yield revenue via references. There's a whole slew of teacher professional development products ($18B annual market in the US) that comprise a very fragmented and cut-throat market. We believe those companies would benefit from getting in front of teachers like ours, and we think we can charge a click through or referral fee. A database of companies to fill the top of our biz dev pipeline that includes something like: Name of company / Description of what they do / Type of partnership (from the list above) / How we'd solve a problem for them / How they'd solve a problem for us (i.e. Why it's a partnership that would benefit both orgs) / The person within the org to speak with first / Some of their main competitors / organizational goals, and/or what really motivates them right now. An annotated list of the top 10-12 "hot" candidates for us to begin approaching. This is a massive, multi-faceted project. Each of the 5 groups will be in charge of a facet of the project (answering important questions that you co-create with the professor) and do 3 months of work to help your firm find creative, tangible, and implementable solutions - a total of 1000 hours of work. Each group will provide a 15-minute presentation, as well as a report answer your questions, which together will formulate your strategy moving forward.