My Chat Lesson
Learning through 'Chat Stories'.
Who is My Chat Lesson's audience?
- My Chat Lesson caters to high school students (8th to 10th graders). Classes and syllabus covered: 8th, 9th and 10th; CBSE, ICSE and KSEEB (as of now - more being worked on).
What is the problem 'My Chat Lesson (MCL)' is solving?
- My Chat Lesson is attempting to solve the problems of
(i) Low engagement rates of traditional learning material (E.g. My son starts to yawn as soon as he opens his textbook to study).
(ii) Low knowledge retention rates (E.g. My daughter hardly remembers anything though she studies for several hours in a day).
(iii) Easy access to learning material (E.g. My daughter has a surprise test tomorrow, but we are traveling and don't have her books with us).
How does 'My Chat Lesson (MCL)' work?
- In MCL, relevant learning content is delivered in bite sizes on mobiles for easy, quick, 24/7 access and consumption through an engaging, fun chat story format designed for maximum engagement and knowledge retention. Classes and syllabus covered: 8th, 9th and 10th; CBSE, ICSE and KSEEB (as of now - more being worked on).
Android App
The 'My Chat Lesson' Android App is currently being updated - we'll be back soon.
What is the need MCL is fulfilling?
A lot of 8th to 10th graders have their own smartphones or access to one these days. Also, if you notice groups of teenagers, they aren't speaking with each other a lot of the time - they are on their phones chatting with someone else.
The idea is to provide high-school kids (8th to 10th graders) with -
(i) engaging, bite sized learning content in a chat story format designed for maximum knowledge retention and engagement.
(ii) an alternative to mindless social media scrolling.
(iii) learning content to be available at a learners fingertips for 24/7, anywhere access and consumption.
What is the science behind MCL and what is the value it offers to a learner?
Research has shown that micro-learning leads to about 50% better knowledge retention than traditional learning methods. Delivery of learning content in this chat format also leads to 4 times higher engagement rates.
MCL leverages the scientifically proven techniques and advantages of Micro-learning and Conversational Design focusing on curriculum for high school students and guarantees -
- A retention of 40% more knowledge than traditional learning methods.
- A 2.5x higher engagement rate.
Concept + Demo Video
How do learners use My Chat Lesson?
- 'My Chat Lesson (MCL)' is a free Android app (Download link).
- The app is verified by Google Play Protect and is safe to download from the Android Play Store.
- After downloading the app, the learner enters his phone number/ email ID. The learner then receives an OTP after which the learner has access to all the chat lessons on MCL.
How did we come up with the concept of MCL?
- Junaid (Co-founder and Director of My Chat Lesson) has worked in the L&D space while at Adobe (India) building Adobe Captivate Prime (LMS).
- Junaid has worked on Conversation Design projects during his stint at Oracle (India). Articles based on the groundwork he has done and the understanding he has obtained for building conversational User Interfaces- Humanizing Chatbots by Designing Conversational UIs ; A Technique to Obtain Feedback for Designing Conversational UIs and The Unicorn Skill in User Experience Design: Three Perspectives
- Junaid is the author of two ‘Epistolary’ novels - ‘And We Remained’ (self-published) and ‘Closure’ (yet unpublished). ‘Closure’ is narrated entirely through email conversations while half of 'And We Remained' is narrated through email conversations.
- Junaid's work in the L&D space, Conversation Design area and the unique narrative style of his books inspired MCL.
What is the value proposition of MCL?
- Delivery of learning content through chats/ conversations is a completely new category and MCL has created this category.
- MCL leverages the scientifically proven techniques and advantages of Micro-learning and Conversational Design empowering 8th to 10th graders with simple, fun learning techniques designed for maximum engagement and knowledge retention.
- Learning content is available at a learners fingertips for 24/7, anywhere access and consumption
Videos illustrating the concept and value proposition of MCL are below.
Use Case 1 Video
Use Case 2 Video
Use Case 3 Video
Use Case 4 Video
What is the scope of 'Conversational Learning' - the format used in 'My Chat Lesson'?
- Smart phone users love chatting via messenger apps, 55 billion messages sent every day via WhatsApp alone.
- People are already used to communicating through chats and messengers (FB Messenger, Whatsapp, Jabber, etc.)
- People are getting used to communicating through chatbots and with Virtual Assistants (Alexa, Siri, Cortana, etc.)
- In the context of continuous learning, MCL creates an experience similar to one-on-one teaching, making social and interactive learning possible.
How will AI enhance the learning experience of 'My Chat Lesson'?
- AI will be used to personalize the chat lesson experiences by tailoring the content and interactions to the individual learner's needs and interests. This can help learners to stay engaged and motivated, and to make better progress.
- AI will be used to adapt chat lesson experiences to the learner's progress. This means that the content and interactions can be adjusted as the learner learns, ensuring that they are always challenged but not overwhelmed.
- AI will be used to provide learners with feedback on their progress. This feedback can be used to help learners identify areas where they need to improve, and to track their overall progress.
- AI will be used to assess learners' understanding of the chat lesson content. This can be done by giving learners quizzes or tests at appropriate intervals during a chat lesson, or even by analyzing how quickly the learners progress on their chat lessons. Based on this assessment, the chat lessons can be personalised to enable the learners stay engaged and learn better.
- AI will be used to integrate various media types like audio, images, and video to create richer and more immersive learning experiences. This will enable learners to engage with content in different ways, catering to their preferred modes of learning.
What is 'My Chat Lesson's' competition and it's opportunity landscape?
- There are no ‘Chat Learning’ apps on iOS App Store/ Google Play store. There are plenty of ’Chat Stories’ apps that show up. There are plenty of other chat-based apps that show up as well (chat with girls, chat with strangers, chat books), but no other app delivers learning content like how MCL does.
- One can get chat help during a learning session on other apps, but there are no apps specifically targeting teens for learning through chat/ micro-learning.
- Technically, it might not be a big challenge to build a non-AI based ’Chat learning’ app. But choosing the right topic, curating the content, and delivering it in a way that these teens can get interested and grasp easily would be the biggest challenge.
Total Addressable Market (TAM) and Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) Calculations.
Target Audience:
• Geography: Primarily focused on India, potentially expanding to other regions later.
• Age: Targeting high school students (Grades 8-10), approximately 13-16 years old.
Market Size:
• India's high school student population: Approximately 58 million students (based on 2022 estimates).
• Penetration rate: This depends on several factors like adoption among schools, individual families, and the pricing model. A reasonable initial estimate could be 5-10%, considering the nascent stage of My Chat Lesson and potential competition.
Market Value:
• Average revenue per user (ARPU): This depends on the subscription model and pricing. Assuming a monthly subscription of $5-$10, annual ARPU could be $60-$120.
Calculating TAM:
• TAM = (Number of users) * (ARPU)
• Assuming a 5% penetration rate and $60 ARPU, the TAM in India would be:
TAM = 58 million students * 5% * $60/year = $17.4 million
Calculating SAM:
- SAM = (Targeted students) * (Segment penetration rate) * (ARPU)
- If we decide to target 10% of the total high school population and aim for a 10% penetration rate within this segment, it leads to:
SAM = 58 million students * 10% * 10% * $60/year = $3.48 million
Backgrounds of the Co-Founders
- Junaid S.A.A has over fifteen years of Industry experience working as a Design Professional in organizations like Adobe, Oracle, ABB, IBM, (among others).
- He has a couple of MS Degrees (one in Psychology and another in Electrical Engineering) .
- Junaid is working full time on MCL since early December 2023.
- MCL is Junaid's second startup. His first startup was Style My Fit - an augmented reality based application to enable people design their clothes online which he co-founded with six friends. Style My Fit was shut down in 2017.
- Junaid is also a Stanford Life Design Educator for Universities and a Designing Your Life Certified Coach.
Junaid@mychatlesson.com/ (91) 9686401727
Guru Nayak is a seasoned technology expert having experience leading technology startup and Concept to product rollout. He has travelled across globe and spent over 9 years in USA , UK & Norway working for some of the global customers. With over 17 years of experience, Guru has expertise in identifying opportunities, converting it to reality, delivering quality digital products to exceed customer expectations.
Guru has experience delivering Multi - million insurance migration and modernization project, e-Governance, Public Sector & Market place and mobile products and delivering project across US ,UK and India . Guru holds B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from BVB , Hubli, India and is currently based out of Harrisburg, Pensilvania.
Shekar is a Creative Professional based in Bangalore with over twenty years of Industry experience.
Experienced User Experience designer with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Shekar’s core expertise is graphic design, brand building and designing experiences.
Shekar’s expertise also includes UX & UI Designs | Visual Designs | Product UX design | Game Concept Designing | Mobile & tablet UX/UI design | Responsive design | Rapid prototyping | User centred designs | Story boarding.
Shekar has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) focused in Design and Applied Arts from Bangalore University.
Work done so far.
- My Chat Lesson was Incorporated in July 2022. Subsequently PAN, TAN & Certificate of Incorporation were obtained. A bank account was opened (HDFC Bank) as well.
- A beta version of the My Chat Lesson app (Android) was launched in the Play Store in November 2022 with 9th CBSE, primarily to gather feedback on the concept.
- After receiving encouraging feedback, additional grades and syllabus were added (8th, 9th, 10th; CBSE, ICSE and KSEEB)
- An updated version of the My Chat Lesson app was launched in Dec 2023.
- Junaid started to work on MCL full time as well in Dec 2023 as he and the team felt that MCL needed that dedicated push to take it forward. .
- More content is being created and added on a daily basis on MCL.
- My Chat Lesson is currently free and has about 1600 downloads (and counting) as of July 2024.
Feedback
We have been collecting feedback from end users and individuals who have downloaded and used 'My Chat Lesson'. This is the feedback we have got so far.
Revenue Model
1. Subscription/ Freemium
- We will keep basic services free; Once we reach a significant number of downloads (E.g. 25K), users must pay for additional premium features, extensions, functions E.g. How LinkedIn works.
2. Advertising
- Once we reach 25K+ downloads, Ads will be integrated into the chat lesson conversations – without interrupting the flow. E.g. Like product placement/ reference in a movie.
3. White Labelling
- Tie up with schools with their branding and customise the content according to their needs
- Other locations and languages. E.g. In a country like Germany – we can provide the platform and a local company can provide content.
Customer Acquisition and Brand Building
1. Media
- Social Media Posts
- Inbound marketing through articles/ blogs
- Social Media paid Ads.
- Newspaper, Radio, TV Ads.
2. Partnerships
- Schools (CBSE, ICSE, State Boards)
- Tutors/ Tuition centers
- Teachers Association
3. Events
- Student events/ Competitions
- Apartment events
- Parents Gathering
- Tuition Centers
Branding for My Chat Lesson
A document detailing what we need to do in terms of branding and what we have been doing so far.
Funding needs
We need capital for-
1. Scaling and Sustaining Tech, Improving UX
- Team for scaling and sustaining tech (need to build the iOS version of MCL - among others)
- Technical Support and Maintenance
- Cloud Infrastructure Support
- Team to define and continuously improve the overall user experience of the application
2. Awareness, Branding & Customer Acquisition & Retention
- Team to build the MyChatLesson brand
- Spread awareness about MyChatLesson
- Team to generate traction through SEO, Marketing & Advertising
- Customer Engagement team – to continuously plan for and conduct outreach activities to spread the message about MyChatLesson
3. Indian and International Chat Lesson Content, Images, Illustrations.
- Team to create engaging and plagiarism-free chat lesson content for different grades and syllabi (within India and internationally as well).
- Team to research and source high-quality images; create illustrations & diagrams and obtain the necessary permissions and provide compensation for using copyrighted images.
- Team to validate content (for plagiarism, completeness, etc.)
4. Operations, legal, accounts, admin.
- Operations
- Legal and Administrative
- Accounts & Payroll
Contact
- Junaid S.A.A (Junaid (at) mychatlesson (dot) com/ (91) 9686401727)
Note
A frequent question we are asked is - aren't we increasing the screen time of kids with this app? The answer to that is, kids that age are already on the phone and will rebel any restrictions. What we are proposing is to leverage the time they are spending on their phone to enable them to learn something useful.
Marketing Efforts and Collateral
Some marketing initiatives and collateral we have been using to spread the word and build the MCL brand.
Testimonials
A selected set of testimonials...
Countries offering CBSE & ICSE Syllabus
List of countries offering offering CBSE & ICSE syllabus. On the My Chat Lesson Android app, we have most of CBSE, ICSE and Karnataka State syllabus for 8th, 9th and 10th graders. My Chat Lesson can add value to students across these countries.
