MIT Solve

Solution overview

Our Solution

ClassNotes

Tagline

Quality education for all

Pitch us on your solution

More than 30M students give standardised tests every year and they spend more than $700 USD just on preparation. Standardised tests are mandatory and ultimately decide what university/college a student will get admission in. Students are in need of a product which can help them prepare their standardised tests more effectively and at an affordable price, ClassNotes happens to do just that.

We help students ace their standardised tests and academic examinations using our mobile application and website by:

-Reducing the cost by more than 90X

-Increasing the efficiency of exam preparation by giving analytics and personalised feedback

-Giving detailed study plan to student to maximise marks

-Predicting score in standardised tests beforehand so students know how prepared they are for the tests

-Providing free notes and exam prep. resources

Our solution is already being used by thousands of students in Bangladesh who belong to low-income communities.

Film your elevator pitch

What is the problem you are solving?

According to recent reports by Washington Post, The NewYork Times, and Vox; students from low-income communities and developing countries like Bangladesh are at a disadvantage because of the standardised tests education system. If you were a student and wanted to pursue your education in Stanford or UT Austin (my favourite universities), the only thing standing between you and your dreams would be the standardised tests of GRE, GMAT, SAT and even TOEFL (for international students). Because so much is depending on these tests, students are willing to pay more than $2000 USD in USA and more than $700 USD globally to prepare these tests. And after going through the process of preparation, they ultimately realise that it didn't even help them. And this problem is faced by more than 30M students globally, every year.

Students from financially strong backgrounds can afford private tutors and expensive online test preparation programs. However, students from low-income communities cannot afford to spend such high amounts of money on test preparation and this eventually results in them losing the opportunity to pursue their dream education in good universities.

Who are you serving?

ClassNotes is helping more than half a million students from low-income communities in Asia Pacific region. Our work was recently featured in a research paper by Cambridge Education on how we are helping students in developing countries. Link: https://bit.ly/2MGiA0V

Watch this video testimonials of our students from Asia Pacific Regions telling us how we helped them. We selected clips of students from rural areas to show that the product is even being used where we though no internet connection is present. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSWCtP1GNMU

We have helped students get into their dream universities who would have otherwise lost this opportunity to students from high-income communities that can afford private tutors and expensive online test preparation programs.

What is your solution?

We help students ace their standardised tests and academic examinations using our mobile application and website. We have improved the experience of standardised test preparation by:
-Reducing the cost by more than 100X compared to traditional alternatives
-Increasing the efficiency of exam preparation by giving analytics and personalised feedback to students
-Giving detailed study plan to student to maximise marks
-Predicting score in standardised tests beforehand so our users know where they stand compared to their peers and how prepared they are for the tests
-Providing free notes and exam prep. resources (this has served as a great customer acquisition strategy too)

Our website was launched on Jan 2018 and serves more than 14000 Daily Active Users, has a bounce rate of 0.75%, ranks at number 1 spot on Google Search for multiple exams keywords, week over week growth rate is more than 5% and we will reach more than 1 Million monthly active users by Mid2020.

Our mobile app was launched on April 2019. It has been downloaded more than 10,000 times, has a rating of 4.3 stars on Google Play with more than 170 reviews, 1200 daily active users, daily user engagement time is at 13 minutes 42 seconds and will improve further after we release the premium features. Latest version will have two new premium features that will help us enter the Bangladesh market and increase our growth rate further and bring in subscription revenues.

Our user experience, quality notes, and mobile app is loved by all students. However, the most innovative feature that we have built and will release within a month is our 'Merit Prediction Service'. Using this feature, students can know how much they are prepared for their upcoming exams and how much they will score, months before giving the actual exams. This helps them prepare accordingly and maximise their marks and merit number and eventually get admission in their dream universities.

Select only the most relevant.

Provide equitable and cost-effective access to services such as healthcare, education, and skills training to enable Bangladeshi society to adapt and thrive in an environment of changing technology and demands
Reduce economic vulnerability and lower barriers to global participation and inclusion, including expanding access to information, internet, and digital literacy

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Lahore, Pakistan

In which sector would you categorize your solution?

Education
Other

Our solution's stage of development:

Growth

More about your solution

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

Our user experience, quality notes, and mobile app is loved by all students. However, the most innovative feature that we have built and will release within a month is our 'Merit Prediction Service'. Using this feature, students can know how much they are prepared for their upcoming exams and how much they will score, months before giving the actual exams. This helps them prepare accordingly and maximise their marks and merit number and eventually get admission in their dream universities.

Why do you expect your solution to address the problem?

Our approach works and we have got the testimonials, reviews, growth rate, and a bounce rate less than 1% to prove that.

I have faced the problem of preparation of standardised tests and academic exams during high school. All my friends went to tuition centres to prepare their annual exams. I could not do so because my parents could not afford it. However, I ended up getting the second highest marks in my college and realised tuition academies and exam prep. centres are useless. So, when my brother was preparing for his college exams, I created ClassNotes for him and his friends so they could prepare their exams for free online. My brother went on to secure the highest marks in his college and this when we knew our solution can be scaled to help more students like us.

Need more evidence? Watch this video of testimonials of our students from Asia Pacific Regions telling us how we helped them. We selected clips of students from rural areas to show that the product is even being used where we though no internet connection is present. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSWCtP1GNMU

Select the key characteristics of the population in Bangladesh your solution serves.

Women & Girls
Children & Adolescents
Rural Residents
Urban Residents
Very Poor
Low-Income
Middle-Income

In which countries do you currently operate?

Bangladesh
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Canada
United Kingdom
United States

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

Bangladesh
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Canada
United Kingdom
United States

How many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?

Website launched on Jan 2018. Serves more than 14000 Daily Active Users, week-over-week growth rate is more than 5%, will reach more than 1 Million monthly active users by Mid2020. In five years, we will be serving more than 16 Million students through our website.

Mobile app launched on April 2019. Downloaded more than 5100 times, has a rating of 4.3 stars on Google Play with more than 170 reviews, 1200 daily active users, daily user engagement time is at 13 minutes 42 seconds and will improve further after we release the premium features. We expect to serve more than 100,000 students daily in one year and 1 Million students daily in five years through our mobile app.

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

Currently, we serve more than 500K active users per month with +5 Million page views on our website.

In 1 year from now, we are on track to have an active monthly user base of 1 Million users from 30+ countries with an MRR of $11,250 USD.

In 5 years, our projected number of active monthly users will reach 16 Million users with an approximate MRR of $7.5 Million USD.

What are the barriers that currently exist for you to accomplish your goals for the next year and for the next five years?

Since we are helping students from low-income communities, our biggest barrier is our financial constraint and low revenues. We use the frugal innovation model to keep our expenses as low as possible but are working on a sustainable financial model to make our operation viable and to scale our solution across the globe.

How are you planning to overcome these barriers?

Currently, we compete for grants and participate in prize competitions to manage expenses and keeping the startup alive.

Select one.

My solution is already being implemented in Bangladesh

If you selected “My solution is already being implemented in Bangladesh,” please provide an overview of your current activities in the region.

Already explained in the question related to our solution.

If your solution has a website, provide a link here:

https://classnotes.xyz

If your solution proposes an app or product that is available, provide a link to your app or product online here:

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/xyz.classnotes.classnotes

If you have additional video, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link to your video here:

About your team

Partnership potential