ExperimentFirst
Co.Creator is working with 10+ global organisations, delivered over 3000 hours of learning, on average resulting in 90% having customers, and generated total of $2m+ in funding or revenue.
Hanyun Cai
Founder/CEO: Art in Cloud
Problem: There is a severe shortage of teacher capacity, effective training and opportunities for students to experience art education in China.
Solution: Art in Cloud - Delivering effective and low-cost art training, to 1,000,000 teachers and students by 2019
Impact rating of Co.Creator, by LRTT:
Leadership Development
significantly
Knowledge:
moderately
Recommendation (out of 10) :
9
Mindsets:
significantly
Challenges
1. Lack of money and experience. I always thought to develop a start-up, you have to have a lot of money and plenty of experience in the field. I always planned to work for a solid company (small or big) first for several years before I have my own start-up. I no longer believe in this.
2. Lack of time. My schedule is fully filled by classes and banzhuren responsibilities at Dachaoshan Middle School in Yunnan. In the past one year and a half, I didn't think I could have spare time to develop my idea into a start-up. However, it turned out that if I improve (which I am still learning to do more) my time and energy management, I can absolutely achieve more.
3. I am alone. I was afraid that my idea was silly and personal and no one would support me and I had to work on my own. During the past 8 weeks, when I communicated with other fellows, business owners, teachers, principals, etc. about my ideas, a lot of them showed interest and support. Some even wanted to participate.
Journey
Summary:
"I came with "Future Bus," a mobile classroom that brings high quality art, music and science classes to areas deprived of educational resources. After the co-creator experience, it (my idea) has changed into "Art in Cloud," an art teaching training program delivered mainly through Android phones/tablets to schools that lack resources and professional art teachers. Even the idea has changed, the core has not. It is using new technological ways to deliver high quality education to students where professional teachers are lacking. I will absolutely follow up with this idea after the co-creator program because I see a lot of potentials of making this come true in the next few years in China. However, I will try my best to find a real co-founder and probably change the customers to city after-school program first, because I see a lot of challenges of working it out with the schools in rural China--no money, lots of politics...."
Mindset: The growth I value the most are confidence and "get out of the building." I have formed a more active way of approaching people through co-creator. I am also very confident now about my experience and what I want to do and create in the future.
(with) skills: Many first time trials in Co-creator. I made my first business model canvas. I wrote my first customer development script and interviewed people with it. I wrote my first value propositions. I made my first pitch demo slides. I started to use evernote/worktile/weixin to organize my thoughts and to collaborate with people.
Time management: "I learned about your experience with time management. Compartmentalization of time is a new theory to me that might be very useful as I am in this virtual incubator program and have to squeeze it into my already-existent teaching job.... at the beginning of the call I was a bit low. However, from the first minute to the last minute, Zevae was able to keep me focused on the project and to push/encourage me to think about the more urgent problems. He did it so skillfully that I was able to feel recharged despite the constraint of time. Zevae talked about the importance of "momentum" in learning and helped me realize that I should develop my own ability to "face failures" at all times in this incubator experience.....My schedule was much influenced by my teaching responsibilities and Zevae was flexible enough to reschedule a lot of calls with me...."
Next 8 weeks: "1. Drawings - I am going to sketch the prototype of the product. 2. Build the team - (Technology - Art teacher) 3. Update the TFC Fellows - build a sales pipeline so I can get 30 schools signed up. 4. Look for potential investors - Harpers Bazaar/Other investors.