For my founders profile, I have selecte…
For my founders profile, I have selected Bryan Falcon, CEO & co-founder of Haiku Learning Systems.
Since 2006, Haiku Learning Systems has been providing an online learning management system (LMS) for K-12 educators, which aims to provide the “The simplest way to bring the web to your classroom… and your classroom to the web”. I have personally used the Haiku LMS for my 9-12 classes for several years and based upon my experience, I feel their service delivers on its claims that a “LMS should be easy to use, easy on the eyes, and easy on the budget”. Haiku Learning Systems believes in harmony, simplicity and community. As such, they have worked closely with educators to create a service which enhances the teaching-learning experience, is uncomplicated, very easy to use and affordable. Based upon a “freemium” model, the service is free for basic users, while more sophisticated users pay for the service. The company was profitable within its first five years, has received funding from angel investors in the past and is considering another round of funding in the near future.
At first read, Bryan Falcon’s academic background in theatre and directing, does not immediately suggest that he was destined to become an edtech entrepreneur and CEO. However, based upon the biographical information posted on the companies website, I feel his personal experiences and beliefs about education, have strongly contributed to his companies success. His combined interests in visual storytelling, liberal and creative arts, technology and education, have helped him to develop a focused and unique solution to the “pain point” of making it easier for teachers to deliver a feature rich, but simple to use online teaching experience. It is also clear that while Bryan’s passion has proved the creative spark which ignited his venture, he has been very wise to assemble a 14 member team of individuals which provide the required strategic business, marketing, sales and technical skills necessary to deliver a high quality service, which customers find worth paying for and investors have responded to positively. When asked in an interview what his biggest challenges as an entrepreneur are, Bryan responded with “Selecting the best course of action among a multitude of possibilities when faced with an infinite number of choices in a fast-moving field. We have made strong predictions so far and are well-positioned to thrive and grow”.
In short, I can summarize that as a venturist Bryan is creative, passionate about education, able to listen and respond to his customers needs and he has carefully built a team of highly skilled individuals to support him in each aspect of his business.
References:
http://www.haikulearning.com/about/our-team
http://www.etruth.com/article/20120610/BUSINESS/706109989
melissaayers 5:37 am on September 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
HI Scott, Haiku seem to have a nice product, its the first time I have seen/heard of this LMS. It has a nice simple, lightweight feel to it. I wounder if the GUI and usability design has been influenced by Falcon (and his theatre/director background) or it was his design/development team.
C. Ranson 7:14 am on September 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Scott, I too had never heard of Haiku, would it be comparable to Moodle? I navigated through the website and looked up their partners, interesting one of them is Desmos the second company I selected to investigate. I am guessing their revenue is generated through the advanced user who pays for the service?
stammik 9:17 am on September 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The school board I teach in encourages us to use Moodle, which I have tried, but as Falcon insightfully notes, LMS which strive to offer a wide range features for everyone, as Moodle does, often become too bloated, cumbersome to learn/use and unattractive looking. Under Falcon’s guidance, Haiku instead aims to satisfy 80% of its users extremely well and realizes that the remaining 20% may not find what they are looking for with Haiku – which is ok. It’s a focused product, clearly targeted to a specific customer.
I imagine Falcon’s clear sense of creativity and design have strongly influenced the GUI, but when the the concept hits the screen, its the development team which must be trusted to execute Falcon’s vision. One more reason to applaud him for selecting the right team to execute his vision.
The “fermium” price model hooked me. It’s the classic puppy dog sales approach, just hold on to it a bit and you won’t want to put it down!
Lisa Nevoral 6:15 pm on September 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Scott, since our last course together I have checked out Haiku and liked the simplicity of it. We are still using Moodle at my school, but as you have indicated, Moodle is sometimes fairly cumbersome and unattractive looking. I find at times it is not an intuitive site, but there are things on there that I like.
I think that it wise of Haiku Learning Systems to work closely with educators to get a feel of what is needed. In my school district (and many around BC), we are using a online student information system for attendance, marks, etc. but is not user friendly. There have been suggestions on how to improve the system, but not many have been made. If Haiku can satisfy 80% of it’s specific users, I think that is pretty good for a business.