One more post here addressing Shark Tank. Any viewers might recall Kevin O'Leary declaring that Kasey and I will look like him (not as a compliment) by the time we are done fully establishing Packback as a staple of the higher education industry. Well, Mr. Wonderful, you were wrong.
However, it wasn't exclusively Mr. Wonderful's concern. We were asked again at 1871, in front of a packed crowd of 250+ who generously came out to join our viewing party: "How will Packback be able to work with publishers?"
The key is in aligning strategy around the "big vision" the industry is working towards, and constructing our service as a direct complement to it. Educational content providers are peering beyond the textbook market, into some pretty advanced and exciting learning technologies. On the surface, Packback promotes a cost-savings service to students, but on the B-B side, we're able to carve a niche by providing an equally beneficial service to our partnering content providers. I'd love to here any input on the below from startups who navigate parrallel situations.
Here's our message: we don't work with traditional publishing companies, we work with revolutionary learning companies.
Packback was built as an engine for learning companies to recoup revenue lost to the secondary “used book market”, while converting paper-preferring students to digital learners. The following are the three main points to note about Packback, and the role we play in the industry’s evolution.
1.) Strong immediate ability to maximize revenue on underperforming backlist titles.
a. 58% increase in learning company revenue was demonstrated in Packback’s pilot launch.
b. Allowing publishers to re-coup revenue from the $5.6 billion secondary market.
2.) Proactive feedback loop to learning companies, harnessing the external activity occurring around the student’s usage of the textbook.
a. Packback’s Q&A communities are rich learning environments that enable and harness the exploratory learning phenomena among students.
b. From these communities, Packback has the ability to report back to our partnering content providers; sharing invaluable insight into the actual user behavior in and around the content they've invested so heavily into preparing.
EX: pinpoint a specific “TED Talk” video that students are reporting to be directly complementary to the concepts taught in Chapter 3.
3.) Portal for introducing next-wave adaptive learning technology.
a. Activity-tracking indicators within the Packback eReader show precisely where a student is having difficulty before an exam. In these moments, the student’s propensity to try a next-gen learning tech product is astronomically higher than at the beginning of a semester.
b. Packback will have the ability to say, "Take a deep breath. We know you're stressed. Why don't you try one of these products, which have been specially built by the content-providing learning company to help you master this concept?” Packback then presents the student with a value-adding product, at the precise moment of need.
c. This results in organic student adoption, adequately complementing the current industry-standard administrative efforts.
In summary, Packback is an engine for learning companies to grow their digital marketplace with students that are otherwise difficult to reach. We’re excited to be building upon a range of partnerships across the industry, working together towards a better digital learning environment and bridging the gap towards the next great learning tech products.
...Our goal is essentially to "disrupt the previous disruption" in the higher education market, by combating the used book market and breaking down the barriers to digital adoption on behalf of our partners. By aligning our interests with that of the major learning companies, we've been able to gain entry into the marketplace. At the time of our conversation with Mr. Wonderful, our cataologue was at 21 digital textbooks. We're now at roughly 2,500 and growing monthly. Still plenty of hair on our heads...
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