Business Type
Education, Ed-Tech, Productized Services
Backstory
If it wasn't already abundantly clear, the COVID pandemic really emphasized the need for an overhaul of American education. Holistic Learning was an attempt to do just that — to give students a safe online space in which they could grow academically, personally, and
professionally.
My Role
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Co-founded Holistic Learning
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Raised two rounds of F&F capital
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Built brand strategy from the ground up, including mission/vision, messaging strategy, and visual identity
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Designed a holistic education curriculum and a robust online platform to deliver it to students
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Led customer discovery and product testing
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Managed a team of a dozen contractors
Approach
Building a product and bringing it to market required me to wear many hats. In order to effectively juggle my responsibilities as a manager, designer, educator, and executive, I established a central goal of making the product that I wished I'd had as a student. This guided all of my decision making, from customer discovery and UX design decisions to relatable copywriting and efficient hiring processes. My G2M strategy included:
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Highly targeted Facebook ad campaigns
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Large scale outreach to key stakeholders at high schools in key geographies
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Cash-incentive referral programs
Results
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Accepted into Berkeley SkyDeck startup incubator (~5% acceptance)
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Successful alpha launch with a select group of high school students
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Advanced negotiations with a prominent charter school for a school-wide subscription
Holistic Learning intro video, which I storyboarded, scripted, and narrated. This video effectively captured the essence of our target customers' primary pain point, as well as the novel solution we were offering, in under 60 seconds.
Conducting customer discovery interviews at a high school in El Cerrito, CA. Equipped with feedback from dozens of students, I was able to make thoughtful changes to both the structure of our curriculum and the messaging strategy for our brand.
The pressure of good grades has taken a toll on America's youth. Students know it, parents know it, and teachers know it. This copy gets to the core of that issue in just 6 words, and empathizes with the experience of multiple key stakeholders.
A compact overview of the unique suite of services offered by Holistic Learning. Communicating the benefits of a complex productized service required the use of deliberate, clear copywriting and consistent branding throughout the visual design of the website.