C2M Beta Cohort 2021

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Alli DePuy

Kathleen Dent

Missoula Montana

Overview

Alli & Kathleen joined C2M's accelerator to further refine their value proposition for Inspired Classroom. They entered the program already having a product on the market that was being used by educators, but, in order to grow, they needed to clearly articulate how their product provided value to organizations and educators. 

Business Overview

Inspired Classroom builds bridges connecting learners to real-world experiences regardless of geographic isolation or opportunity. We empower individuals and organizations who have rich educational content to mentor learners. Inspired Classroom uses proprietary mentor-based, scenario-driven software supported by masterclasses to elevate teaching and learning.

Goals

To understand and begin the path to fundraising

To grow operational expertise

Overall business optimization

Q&A with Alli & Kathleen

During the cohort, Kathleen and Alli worked to clarify how the Mentoric IC solution’s value proposition not only enables the ideal customer (organizations)  to complete jobs-to-be-done (prepare and present educational content to students) but also helps them overcome pain points (securing funding, engaging teachers and their students) and realize expected and unexpected gains (watching the eyes of learners light up when they experience “Aha!” moments) that delight customers and ensure future projects are funded.

In your time in the accelerator, you did a lot of work on defining the value proposition for Inspired Classroom. If you could give yourself advice what would you do differently?

"A great value proposition does not pop out of thin air. Going through the many iterations and focusing on the value propositions is very necessary. Have patience and keep refining and sharing. Listen to the feedback and adapt."

What methods did you use to define and clarify your value proposition? 

1. Ask other people what your value prop is, take a stab writing it or restating it in their own words. This is important for people from outside and within your industry to do. Talk to lots of people. 
2. Try writing the value prop from different perspectives--really getting into character. 
3. Grab 3x5 note cards and list out the advantages, problems, and solutions of your product for each stakeholder.  This helps to differentiate between solving a problem and having a problem.
4. Draw it out: create a visual representation of the value prop.