#6. What is your business / operations / sustainability model?

We will be generating revenue through grants that seek to make sustainability education more widespread, and in addition to this, we will be relying on corporate sponsorships, as well as subscription fees for the app that will be paid by the Kazakh government. By design, the team is looking to secure multiple sources of revenue stream to make the app more affordable for institutions.  To minimize the subscription cost, Save Tuba will secure corporate sponsors who are trying to create an image of being green, which will yield both financial support and good will for the venture.

To increase the probability for sponsorships, the app will be personalized to its region. Creating a targeted app will make the app more compelling for school administrators and school-aged children will find it engaging and relatable to complete the tasks. But most importantly, we can tap into local businesses who would be willing to invest into our project so that the tasks inside the app also have a connection to the local business.  Thus, increasing the probability for sponsorships. 

To encourage continued interest with the app, there will be special weekly or seasonal in app events which will have tasks that give certain sponsored companies exposure. Additionally, there will be a store for the Save Tuba character “Tuba” where students can buy shirts and hats in exchange for coins they collect by completing levels. Some of the merchandise will be “sponsored” and available during the special events or can be exchanged using coins.

The revenue will allow the team to provide salaries for a CEO, who will be responsible for recruiting sponsors and managing our relationship with the Ministry of Education.  Additionally as the venture grows (at 40 schools and then at 60 schools), two Managers will be hired to offload some of the support provided by the CEO.  The Managers will serve as trainers and support for the teachers on how to use the app.  We will also be paying a teacher at every school – a Save Tuba Ambassador, a stipend to serve as the first point of contact for their fellow teachers using the app at each school.  Their role includes clarifying information within the app for the students, troubleshooting basic tech issues, and assisting teachers with the small group and large group Action Tasks. Incentivizing a few teachers in each school to become the apps ambassador in their respective institution will help create a foothold for our project and will help us train new teachers quickly and efficiently. Finally, we have expenses allocated towards a programmer, who is going to be updating the app, as well as server and marketing costs.

The subscription costs are not final, since at this stage of our venture we are not sure how many schools we are going to be reaching out to. Once we develop a clearer idea, we are going to have to revise our business model.

#7. What is your scale-up strategy? Explain with clear financial and social value projections.

As shown in our Income Statement (pictured above), the scale-up strategy includes a growth timetable of 10 schools in year #1, 20 in year #2, 40 in year #3, 60 in year #4, and 80 in year #5. To support the growth, a Manager will be added to the staff at the year #3 (when we reach 40 schools) and again in year #4 (when we reach 60 schools).  As shown, the steady growth of subscription fees ($200/school) will be used to invest back into the venture.  Another critical staffing design is the paid Teacher Ambassador at each school. Naming a teacher from each building to serve as a liaison will pay dividends beyond the financial cost of the stipend.  The venture will be able to capitalize on the trust that fellow teachers have with their Teacher Ambassadors.

#8. What is your implementation plan? What is your “go to market” strategy? Please provide a specific timeline.

As of Summer 2021, Save Tuba has begun communications with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Ties from within the ministry have had a chance to look at a running version of the fifth level, and have requested to view the full curriculum, which is a meeting that will be set up in the near future. In other words, having now established connections with the Ministry, they will offer more detailed feedback on how we can modify the app to cater their interests. Once we produce our final version of the app, we will implement it into middle-school curricula under the supervision and guidance of the Ministry. 

In the meantime, we will finalize coding for all levels during the Spring 2022 semester. The beta version of the app will be used to conduct focus groups with teachers and students during the Summer 2022. The focus groups will help the team collect user input that can be factored in the updated version provided to the Ministry for implementation. These processes were active over the Spring 2021 semester during our “alpha version” stage, and we hope to recommence them once we have all six levels of the app running and ready for user feedback. The final version of the app will be based on the feedback that we receive from these focus groups (in addition to the Ministry’s input from the beta version that will be ready to implement in 10 schools in January 2023).

#9. What does success look like for all the stakeholders? What are your metrics of success? How will you measure impact?

If our venture succeeds, in three years, we will have raised awareness about the various environmental issues that Kazakhstan is facing, helped students become more knowledgeable about what they can do to save their environment, changed the sustainability paradigm in Kazakhstan to a large capacity, and have set a precedent that will encourage other schools across Kazakhstan to incorporate sustainability education into their curricula. 

We will be using a variety of different metrics to gauge the success of our venture, such as keeping track of the number of schools and students that use the app, and discerning any change in sustainable behavior among the students in the schools we’re targeting in the short term, as well as following a potential change in sustainable behavior among the general Kazakh population in the long term.