CarPool Onboard & Learning Platform

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The decision to enter (take the leap) into crypto can be a different experience for everyone. Although more and more people are taking the leap, and for a variety of reasons, during a recent congressional hearing it was stated that 80% of the U.S. adult population remain hesitant and on the sidelines. Perhaps the biggest factors contributing to the hesitancy is a lack of understanding about one or more facets of the crypto landscape. A few examples of this appear to be:

1. What are cryptocurrencies and the differences between them?
2. Why are cryptocurrencies valuable?
3. How do I buy them?
4. What do I do with them when I have some?

Ralph Waldo Emmerson was once quoted as saying, “Fear defeats more people than any other thing in the world”. Emmerson also said, “knowledge is the antidote to fear”.

The CarPool Onboarding & Learning Platform aims to provide the antidote to fear & hesitancy that many experience as they contemplate entry into the world of crypto. To do this, CarPool will provide a completely de-risked onboarding experience, effectively eliminating one of the primary barriers for new people coming into the market.

CarPool achieves this with a learning platform that delivers LIVE interactive courses that guide learners through fundamental topics like building a wallet & asset security, understanding blockchain technology & cryptocurrency, using exchanges, the significance of governance, NFT’s, decentralized finance, and much more. 

The DNA of every CarPool course is built with the principles & values of the Cardano ecosystem; slow is fast; do it right the first time; scalability; interoperability; and decentralization secures sovereignty of our financial power. The learners interact with these concepts and come away with a foundational understanding & appreciation for why this technological movement matters, what it is, and what it can become.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

A robust onboarding & learning platform is a critical piece of infrastructure for ecosystem growth. To significantly impact growth and support for this financial sovereignty movement and achieve large-scale adoption the entire crypto space needs a user-friendly, highly-reliable, consistent, and welcoming onboarding experience for new and trepid users.

The CarPool platform provides principle-based education that emphasizes fundamentals over fanfare and hype. New users need information that equips them to be discerning and well prepared to continue their learning journey into this new technological frontier.

CarPool addresses this challenge as it provides a custom web-based learning platform that delivers LIVE interactive learning for new and/or minimally experienced users. Live learning is fundamentally human; there is a well-understood reassurance that comes with having questions addressed and answered in real-time by real people as the questions arise. Learners are provided an appreciation for interoperability while being given a frictionless launch into crypto from the Cardano ecosystem. 

The learning platform awards engagement with crypto, this includes attendance, checks on learning, home study, and questionnaires. Questionnaires are designed to help curate the learners library of resources with introductions to projects and communities on the Cardano Network that align with their interests, hobbies, skills, and/or pursuits. For example, if a learner expresses an interest in and a talent for art they would begin to see resources populate in their learner library linking them to NFTMaker, CNFTHubs, MINT City, and others. Additionally, links to pre-recorded content from our community creators will also be provided to encourage the ongoing educational journey of each learner, thus growing the followings of other creators and projects in the greater ecosystem. 

Additionally, everyone is eligible for the CarPool Affiliate & Rewards program. This is done to improve word-of-mouth marketing and generate a shared sense of community ownership of the learning and onboarding resource. The affiliate program will seek to return the most amount of value possible to all members while remaining viably sustainable.

Special attention has been given to how the platform can support stake pool operators as well. Using affiliate links, banners, landing pages or manual entry of referring pools or people, new learners will be guided through a delegation of their ADA awards to the respective stake pool that made the referral to the learning platform, or the stake pool associated with the person who made the referral. 

Extensive thought is going into building a Cardano Network economy that will begin to incorporate increasing numbers of real-world products and services; the learning platform can be a cornerstone. 

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

We have identified three challenge areas:

Capturing and Leveraging Data: One of the most important things for any learning/education/seminar company is understanding their audience/ students. 

• Who is our typical student?
• Will they attend more classes offered in the future?
• Will they refer their friends, family, and colleagues?
• What specifically will prompt them to return and refer?

Our marketing campaigns have been built by industry veterans and developed in order to eliminate this. We have created targeted marketing campaigns that have the ability to identify the needs of each prospective student as well as where they are at in their process. Once we have that information we can speak to their needs, creating courses built around their needs rather than what or how we want to teach.

Differentiating Carpool From The Competition: Most education companies who specialize in trading and investing in the stock market have diversified; and are now offering classes in cryptocurrency literacy. Therefore, it is crucial for Carpool to stand out as the leading cryptocurrency education provider. 

Our online presence is being designed and developed cohesively with a compelling message to entice potential students to address this probable obstacle. 

We are working closely within the Cardano Ecosystem to build a sustainable community with education as its foundation by first appealing to the needs of the average retail crypto trader/ investor and then guiding our students to the best possible understanding and discernment to guide their investing, and giving them a head start in Cardano.

Student Engagement & Retention: Based on retention statistics “Practice and Doing” leads to the highest amount of retention.

(Retention statistics reveal: Lecture 5%, Reading 10%, Demonstration 30%, Group 50%, Practice and Doing 75%)

We have designed Carpool classes/courses to be fully interactive with built-in incentives to reward students for their participation.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

[Please see attached PDF for roadmap graphic]

CARPOOL ROADMAP 2022

FEBRUARY

• Education system layout
• Outline of courses, content, supplemental content/materials

MARCH

• Website wireframing & setup
• Website design and development begins

APRIL

• Social Media account setup registrations and begin integrations with main site
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Vimeo, Telegram, Discord

JULY

• Preliminary schedule 2022 events begin
• Calendar(s)

AUGUST

• Course content finalization
• Supplemental materials finalization; publication

SEPTEMBER

• Email marketing - white copy for all emails to individual drip campaign
• Possibly begin beta test

OCTOBER

• Beta test all sites and marketing campaigns
• Try to break, find and repair bugs

NOVEMBER

• Launch platform, landing pages, marketing campaigns, sales pages, website, member's area

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

[Please see attached PDF for budget details]

STARTUP EXPENSES

Monthly Breakdown

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT LIST - $1,500

LOCATION AND ADMIN EXPENSES - $17,500

(includes rent, utility deposits, legal/accounting fees, insurance, pre-opening salaries)

• We work out of our homes; rent represents an IRS standard percentage of home office space, equipment and utilities for the team.
• Utility deposits represents the costs of everything required to have a web-based business including webhosting, software, etc.

MARKETING EXPENSES - $7,464

• Typical marketing budget is 12% of projected annual gross income.
• Projected annual gross income for CarPool's first year is $250k.
• This would put a standard marketing budget at $30,000.
• By using strategic marketing strategies and the extensive experience of CarPool team members we have been able to reduce this initial area of the budget significantly.

OTHER EXPENSES - $115

Monthly Total Budget - $26,579

Total Catalyst Request is for three (3) months - $75,000

**When seeking support from an investor and presenting a Performa, a standard request would include a minimum of 3x monthly hard costs, we are starting with 1x.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Fletcher (BIO):

Fletcher brings more than 8 years of experience in healthcare systems project management. Specialized experience in adult learning and simulated learning, building education modules, courses, and accompanying materials for leaders, staff, and patient populations. Skilled with bringing information from complex systems and making it relatable, interactive, and digestible for a wide audience. An example of a relevant project was the entire design/rebuild of a new employee onboarding and orientation program that received national recognition and helped to establish best practices. 

Fletcher launched the CarPool Stake Pool, ticker VROOM in spring of 2021. He began offering crypto onboarding and learning sessions in his community both in person and online in autumn of 2021. Fletcher's online meetup grew to over 140 members within 12 weeks of launch.

Personal Life: He has two small dogs named Dobby and Nacho, loves conversation about almost anything esoteric or Cardano, and is eager to find a way to merge his other passions in health and well-being with Cardano. 

Mylinda Montroy (BIO): 

Career: For the past two decades Mylinda has shared her expertise in marketing and public relations within major corporations globally. Her proven track record of increasing business, reducing costs, and streamlining operations in a wide range of situations has given her the distinct opportunities of working with some of the most renowned business leaders around the world. She has achieved great notoriety by introducing and implementing a variety of her methods and systems to well-known companies. She is a globally sought after expert business strategist and educational speaker. Her strategic alignments have benefited companies in a wide variety of industries, which have formed long lasting business partnerships.

Philanthropy: In 2021, Mylinda co-founded all of the things, a collective of some of the world’s greatest minds coming together to share their knowledge base and skill sets in personal life as well as business, to help us all grow and more importantly to learn all of the things we never learned. 

Personal Life:

She is single, enjoys options trading, as well as trading crypto, and has been exploring the Country for the last 2 years, experiencing places she has always wanted to visit.

Vince P. (BIO):

For the last 23 years Vince has worked in the field of research, marketing, and sales where he was able to focus his astute understanding of the ever-changing landscape and trends in the retail sector to become a successful independent entrepreneur. Over the past 3 years Vince has invested his time as an executive assistant for a rapidly growing company that operates a capital investment group, retail estate acquisition company, and also owns and operates six retail store outlets across the state. Over the course of his years of experience, Vince has honed his skill for presentation development and preparation.  

Personal Life: Vince is a critical thinker and seeker of truth regardless of where it may lead or how it may challenge his prior beliefs. This, of course, is balanced out with an occasional episode of South Park or Family Guy. 

Gema Diaz (BIO):

Gema is a Human Resources (HR) professional with over 4 years’ experience working in government and healthcare sectors. She is fluent in multiple languages and holds a degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution. She has an acumen for reviewing and understanding policies and regulations and brings this experience to the team. She has sharpened her skill of taking complex processes and guiding others through those processes in a comprehensible and compassionate way. Gema has been granted a talking stick from Franklin and Covey and she “ain’t afraid to use it.” Prior to Human Resources Gema worked 10+ years in the non-profit sector and has experience in community engagement and outreach.

Personal Life: In a weird twist of fate, Gema has two dogs named Nacho and Dobby and enjoys gardening, and observing the changes of the seasons. Gema is often lost in wonder at how time flies but can also hold still, she sees this reflected in all the plants that grow around her. 

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

With funding CarPool will be able to accelerate its development and aims to move up its timeline. The learning platform should begin to provide self-sustainable income and continue to support novel and continued ecosystem growth.

A successful launch and sustainment of the CarPool Learning Platform would not preclude the CarPool team from returning to Catalyst in future funds for other possible ventures or collaborations.

However, we believe that the start up costs will be enough to sufficiently launch the platform and begin working for the Cardano Network.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Key Performance Indicators(KPI)/ Metrics:

We have set the following KPI’s (Sales and Marketing, Operations, Instructors) based on our vision and mission. 

Vision: Creating the Global standard in up-to-date, online, and in-person learning to onboard people into the Cardano ecosystem. 

Mission: Building a community of investors educated with a shared fundamental knowledge needed to successfully navigate the ever changing landscape of cryptocurrency. 

Sales and Marketing KPI’s:

1. Cost per lead = (total marketing costs) / (total qualified leads)

• Cost per lead is our most important metric and measured by our marketing strategy. 
• We aim to keep our cost per lead under $2.

2. Average revenue per student 

• Because we aim to create a community, the overall lifetime value of each student will shift as we continue to grow and offer new classes as well as bring in strategic partners from within the Cardano Ecosystem.
• We have set a SLV (student lifetime value) projection of $597 to start. 

3. Leads: this metric reflects the number of leads acquired monthly and will give us the overall health of the company year over year. 

4. Trial conversion: (trial = FREE initial class)

• (Number of students attending FREE class) / (number of sign ups for class 2-9 )

5. Students created:

• A regular flow of students keeps any educational environment vibrant and also establishes a sense of competition. 

Operations KPI’s:

1. Attendance:

• This metric measures the number of students attending each class.

2. Churn rate % = (Students at the beginning) - (Students at the end) / (Students at the beginning) 

• Because there are a number of competing education companies in the cryptocurrency space, this metric measures the percentage of students who stop attending in a certain period of time.

3. Student loyalty - this is a score rating system implemented in each class. 

• We will ask questions like: How likely are you to recommend us to your friends, family, and colleagues? Students will indicate their answers on a 10 point Likert scale, which increases accuracy. A score of 9-10 indicates a positive; 7-8 is neutral; 0-6 negative.

Instructors KPI’s:

1. Hours: # of hours teaching

• This metric tracks the operational side of our business and does not reflect pay scale.

2. Student loyalty: These scores are given by students

• The student loyalty score rating system surveys (also used in Operations KPI’s) will help us track this metric. 

3. Continuing Education: 

• Instructors must stay abreast of new technology developments, news, and current events; each can cause markets to shift rapidly; and the regulatory environment is still in process of discovery.  

Answer

We have identified three challenge areas:

Capturing and Leveraging Data: One of the most important things for any education company to focus on is understanding their audience/ students. 

• Who is our typical student?
• Will they attend more classes offered in the future?
• Will they refer their friends, family, and colleagues?
• What specifically will prompt them to return and refer?

Our marketing campaigns have been developed in order to eliminate this. We have created targeted marketing campaigns that have the ability to identify the needs of each prospective student as well as where they are at in their process. Once we have that information we can speak to their needs, creating courses built around their needs rather than what we want to teach.

Differentiating Carpool From The Competition: Most education companies who specialize in trading and investing in the stock market have diversified; and are now offering classes in cryptocurrency literacy. Therefore, it is crucial for Carpool to stand out as the leading cryptocurrency education provider. 

Our online presence is being designed and developed cohesively with a compelling message to entice potential students to address this probable obstacle. 

We intend to work closely within the Cardano Ecosystem to build a sustainable community with education as its foundation by first appealing to the needs of the average retail crypto trader/ investor and then guiding our students to the best possible means of investing. Investing with Cardano.

Student Engagement & Retention: Based on retention statistics “Practice and Doing” leads to the highest amount of retention.

(Retention statistics reveal: Lecture 5%, Reading 10%, Demonstration 30%, Group 50%, Practice and Doing 75%)

We have designed Carpool classes/courses to be fully interactive with built-in incentives to reward students for their participation.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Long term success is a dynamic system not a static condition; and it will be re-defined on a regular basis, based on the successes (as well as failures) as measured by data from students. We will continue to strive to provide the premier source of interactive cryptocurrency education with the most up to date content related to cryptocurrency and Cardano while growing Carpool and Cardano communities.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

The CarPool Onboarding & Learning Platform applied in Fund 8 but was unsuccessful due to the lack of remaining funds. This is our second attempt at receiving funding.