Classavo Co-Founders recently named to Forbes coveted ‘30 Under 30 2021’ list for Disrupting the College Publishing Industry and Helping College Students Save Thousands on Textbooks

Company Background

It all started with a program at the University of Buffalo to help a math professor teach his students how to use a calculator. 

In 2015, Classavo founder Rohan Shah knew he was on to something by creating a way for one of his professors to add dynamic content to a textbook and help students learn how to use the TI 84 graphing calculator.

Fast forward to 2021 and now both Rohan and his co-founder Huy Duc Pham were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 list of the top entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Canada.

Classavo is now a burgeoning marketplace that saves students hundreds of dollars on their textbook bills, empowers professors to easily enhance teaching content, and helps everyone learn in a more collaborative and interactive way.

Professors can select from more than 100 textbooks Classavo licenses from publishers and augment the content with videos and additional context.  Students pay $20 per semester to use Classavo, and professors can track their engagement with readings while also taking attendance and posting assignments and tests.

The Challenge

Classavo knew they had a ‘one-way door’ choice about how to structure their business, how to sell their solution, and how to market to a complex ecosystem of stakeholders: existing incumbent learning management systems, professors, colleges and universities, publishers, and students.

They soon discovered they had a wide variety of options--each with advantages and disadvantages. They could adopt a publishing model to sell their solution to each individual university or college one at a time, try to gain exclusivity with a dominant publisher, adopt a Netflix-like subscription model and signup students and or professors, or adopt a blended digital marketplace model. 

The Solution 

After attending StartEd’s Hyper Accelerator in the spring of 2019, both Rohan and Huy Duc discovered a few insights. First, good ideas are everywhere-not just on the coasts. Second, they had the opportunity to meet other founders and get their take on how to make education better. Third, they learned that getting connected to the right mentor was key to helping them determine the path forward for Classavo. 

After attending the accelerator, they concluded that a true digital marketplace with a student subscription component was the right way to go for a few reasons.  First, having a student just pay $20 per semester was a great way to quickly gain traction versus a long sales cycle with a school.  Second, the subscription fee enabled them to generate revenue fast--helping to have to raise fewer funds and generate revenue earlier. 

Third, they were able to use the subscriptions as a way to demonstrate early product-market adoption to both professors, publishers, and universities. 

About THEIR ACCELERATOR EXPERIENCE

“Great ideas come from everywhere, not just the coasts. Being from Buffalo, StartEd’s program was a great way to get access to industry leaders and talent without relocating our company.” 

“I wish there was a Eureka moment we could say we made it! But attending the StarEd program certainly helps us make an informed bet on a path forward that’s paid off tremendously.”

“Building a disruptive technology that lowers student’s textbook bills wasn’t enough. We had to figure out the fastest way to get traction and distribute it to a large number of students at a school, and a digital marketplace clearly enabled us to do that.”