ETEC 522 – May 2012

‘Wowzers’ and the Howard Family….

 Hey all,

I chose the Wowzers company for my Entrepreneur Bootcamp Bio.

• founder-leader name, title & photograph

Reed Howard, Chief Executive Office, Owner, Founder of Wowzers (and Brain Hurricane).

From left to right: TJ, Reed, Paige, Andrew

• a single paragraph description of the venture, its primary products or services, and its original value proposition.

          Wowzers provides online math resources for students in grade 3-5. The product is designed to meet U.S. State learning objectives while combining learning and basic gaming. Potential student customers do have to subscribe to use this software, so this is a for-profit venture. The cost to a user is $25USD for 33 weeks of access, which seems to correspond to a little less than a school year. I do not quite understand why the subscription falls short of a school year, though they may be assuming that students typically do not require the service until a few weeks into a school year.

• a short bio of the founder-leader focusing on a critical analysis of their background, skills and motivation relative to the prospective and prescribed attributes of successful entrepreneurs.  

          Founder of Wowzers, Reed Howard, has been a teacher for 40 years, and in 2001 was eventually supported in her business venture with the help of her three children Paige, Andrew, and TJ. Originally producing the venture Brain Hurricane which served as an online tutoring site, Reed was excited to create an online environment that could potentially replace math text books for these grade levels. Reed’s current success with her venture lies in her past 40 years of teaching experience where she saw a need for this sort of product first hand within the classroom. Past and present teachers have such an insight for what kinds of products would benefit student most because they know what current students have access to and what is further required to create best learning environment.  

• Comment on the apparent quality of their team, and their board and advisors. Remember that these are real people and your analysis will be visible online, so be professional.

          From the ‘About Us’ section on the Brain Hurricane site, it discussed that one of her children (Andrew) had graduated from college but did not state anything about the education of the other members educational background. Further searching on other various websites, it showed that her son TJ had a BA in communications, and her daughter Paige was the VP of operations, though it did not state her educational qualifications. In general, family businesses seem like it would be easier to gain funding with each person carrying a loan, but it would be difficult in some circumstances to constructively criticize other family members. Avoiding these sorts of criticisms could possibly impact the long-term success of this venture. Confronting co-workers, which happen to be family, could jeopardize future relationships between siblings and their parents.

          In regards to ‘quality’ of the members of this venture, they all seem like they have average amounts of post-secondary education. The real value in this team is the mom’s (Reed) experience. Even though she is educated as well, it’s the experience or intellect that adds value to this company.

• any personal reflections this analysis has inspired regarding your own entrepreneurial potential.

          I think that having family members on board provides great initial support for any venture. Though, it may be tough to achieve honesty towards the ideas and directions of a venture from family members. Having the opportunity to include friends and family gives the entrepreneur the chance at knowing the type of people they are prior to mentioning any sort of available job prospects.

          In terms of my own teaching experience, the ‘Howard’ family story is inspiring and makes me want to apply what I have learned in education so far (6-7 years teaching experience) to a similar business venture.

Thanks.

-Regen