YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The winner of the Youngstown Business Incubator’s 2024 Shark Tank pitch competition is preparing to take its product to the next phase of development, but it wants to get input from its expected customer base to refine the education technology product.
Registration is open for a July 12 user testing session for Little Tusk Inc.’s edtech product. Lauran Woolley, who is developing the product with her husband, Jordan, said they are seeking 18 to 20 children ages 8 to 12 – the app’s target market – and parents to test its minimal viable product, or MVP, and provide feedback.
Woolley, a fifth grade teacher at Leetonia Exempted Village Schools and president of Little Tusk, said she uses the My Classroom Economy with her students. In the environment, the students have careers, earn paychecks, pay rent and pay taxes. That inspired her to develop something that would help children learn these skills outside the classroom.
“It’s not something that is heavily taught,” she remarked.
Little Tusk already has been conducting feedback rounds among its development team members, but “the most valuable feedback will be from customers or potential customers, and children who are going to be interacting with the app,” Woolley said.
Woolley said through years of using various edtech platforms in the classroom, she has noticed things that kids like and dislike. “I want to make sure that before we start investing major amounts of money into building this full-fledged app that we have a clear idea of what it is that parents and children want in this product,” she said.
Snack and drinks will be provided during the session, which will be available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 252 W. Boardman St., also known as YBI’s Tech Block Building #5. Little Tusk also is incentivizing participation by offering prize packs for children participating and $10 Dunkin cards for parents. Click HERE to register.
In addition to winning Shark Tank last year, Little Tusk is a YBI portfolio company. It is working with YBI’s Evolve Technology Program, which provides direct assistance to startups like Little Tusk.
“This is the first iteration of their web application for their company, and they need to test it,” said Chandler Fiffick, senior director of the Evolve program. The tests are necessary to learn how the product works and how children respond to it.
“It is our pleasure to be able to provide the infrastructure for them to set up an event for free,” YBI’s Fiffick said. YBI isn’t charging for the use of the space, which is “a huge benefit for any company.”
Woolley credits YBI as being “the only reason that we have come as far as we have. We wouldn’t have been as far as we are now without YBI,” she said.
The Woolleys, who began developing their product about two years ago, won $50,000 at last year’s Shark Tank event.
“We’re trying to be as frugal as we can with the funding we have,” Woolley said. “Obviously, we’re working out of my house right now, just so that we can save that money and use it towards building the application. So I would love to utilize the space that YBI has when the time is right.”
Little Tusk recently was accepted into the JumpStart Trailblazer accelerator program, beginning next month, which will provide resources that Little Tusk won’t have to use its own funding for, Woolley said. The startup also is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign in December.
“We’ve already spoken with a few investors who are interested in the project,” she said. “We personally have not taken anyone’s money yet because we want to make sure that we have a crystal-clear plan on how it’s going to be utilized and to make sure that we’re able to maximize the impact that it has on our project.”
Pictured at top: Lauran Woolley, president of Little Tusk.