GZV #26: A Study App for Students, and Innovation wins Gen Z
Startups. Trends. Markets. All from a Gen Z view.
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Every other week I release multiple startups who are currently raising rounds that I believe are worth doing some due diligence on.💥
Let me introduce you do… Stunited
Website:
Problem:
When students are stuck on academic or study work, often times they will turn to their friends or the internet for answers, but sometimes these aren’t the most reliable sources.
Solution:
“Stunited is the #1 app for students to exchange their academic assignments & skills with one another. Search through a card stack of complementary users, create and post proposals or engage on a news feed to spark collaboration.”
What’s good about it:
Student know that the help they are getting is from qualified and reliable students.
Students can get paid for their knowledge, opening up a income source that hasn’t really been available in the past. (and trust me college kids love income sources).
When students feel stuck on homework, they now will have a place to turn, reducing anxiety.
Gen Z Take:
We will love this app because it makes school easier. Any product that does this always gets our attention.
Chegg is up 100%+ since the beginning of the pandemic. This is because learning became harder, so students turned to a resource that could help. Chegg is by no means the solution, close to half of the answers either can’t be found or are wrong.
Some Stats:
Launched in July.
1000 MAU, 2600 MAU in last 30 days (as of Dec 26, 2020).
$0.75 Cost per Acquisition.
80% acceptance rate for work proposals.
💸💸💸 Fundraising? 💸💸💸
Yes. Pre-seed round of $500,000 through a SAFE (20% discount, $2.5m valuation). $60k already raised. Main use of funds will be for marketing and development.
If interested contact: rondi.john@stunitedapp.com
Hey, Corporate America. Stop acting like Mark Zuckerberg. Gen Z doesn’t like it.
Anyone else see the recent Capital One commercial? The one where they show a website extension where you can find coupons codes for products you’re shopping? Yeah. Mhmm. Sounds exactly like this product called Honey. How about Tik Tok? Great product, super innovative. Oh, but look here comes Snapchat and Facebook with the same products.
Sure, these products may gain some small traction and open small revenue streams. In the end though, I wish I could tell corporate America one thing.
INNOVATION WINS GEN Z.
There is a very small amount of Gen Z’ers who will switch from Tik Tok to Reels. Why? Because we are very comfortable with the first innovation that came to the market.
Let’s look at Snapchat for example. Their first innovation, sending pictures as a conversation, was a huge success. Next, they added stories. Then they added filters. Add those two features with streaks, maps, private stories, deleting snaps, chat features and you have an app with nearly 250 million DAU’s.
Multiple innovations and keeping your product new and fresh will keep attracting Gen Z. That is how snapchat has done it for years.
My advice is this: When you see a new product like Tik Tok come and take the market, don’t copy it. In the end, it won’t be worth it, rather think about a way you could innovate from the new trend. For example, if you’re instagram, make the discover page more innovative. Use the same elements of the Tik Tok algorithm to help young instagram creators become famous.
The options are endless, just think. Don’t copy.
Thank you.
Feel free to email or text with any questions or comments about the newsletter, Gen Z, or startups.
thomas@genzvoice.com