Maximiliano Fernández, fundador de Maximilan Water, junto con Dave Martinez, cofundador de Dave Martinez Ventures y DMV A...
Problem
There are few frontier education opportunities in South America
When conducting research on what Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Draper did when they were kids, we discovered that all of them were non-standard students trying to fit into standardized schools. Education in standard schools is not enough to tackle the 21st century challenges that will change the way the world works. The demand for creative education programs is growing faster than the current system can handle. This is leading students and educational facilities to turn to alternative youth education programs.
Solution
YEII: encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation
YEII was founded to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation among children and youth. We work to stimulate creativity, curiosity, resilience, teamwork, abstract thinking and adaptability among our students. Our programs use techniques that teach through experiences, activities, contests, family involvement and a learning process that generates a positive impact regionally, nationally and internationally.
Product
Four key program areas
We focus on four key areas: In-School Curriculum, Teacher & Educators Training, Impact Events, and International Competitions. Within these areas, we provide direct training in Frontier Technologies, Innovation Challenges, and Business Competitions. We teach students in workshops and through one-on-one mentoring, and we offer extended courses for all grade levels. At the end of the school year students are part of an Entrepreneurship and Innovation contests where they pitch their ideas upon investors and entrepreneurs to move their projects to the next level.
Traction
Winner of Pro Magazine’s Startup of the Year 2019
Since our pilot program in 2015, YEII participant count has grown at a rate of 30% each year. We have 28 patent processes in place and 400+ projects a year. Over 10K+ students across South America and Mexico have participated in our programs, and in 2019, we were named Startup of the Year by Pro Magazine. We've secured partnerships with organizations like Lego SeriousPlay and Microsoft HoloLens, along with more noted names in the educational field.
Entrepreneurship Organization Acceleration Program
YEII now is part of the EO Accelerator program which focuses on 4 key areas: Execution, Strategy, Cash Flow and People. The purpose is to get the company scale up to the next level. |
Along with structured educational content focused on the core areas of first-stage businesses, the Accelerator Program affords you the unique experience of learning from and connecting with the world’s most influential entrepreneurs.
Customers
10K+ students and growing
Our customers include educational facilities such as Brillamont, Collegio Cambridge de Monterrey, Centro Educativo Nobel, and more. We currently have 10K+ students in our programs and many of our graduates have gone on to earn numerous scholarships in STEM fields.
Business model
Working with organizations to better serve students
With our current business model, it only costs us $50/student each year to run our programs. We have two main forms of business; a B2B yearly service model, where we work with schools to train teachers and host private events, and a B2C subscription model, where we will use social media and streaming tools to disseminate information and content to our students.
Market
4M+ accessible students
There are over 145K+ schools in the Americas looking to engage their students in the worlds of technology and innovation. We have the potential to reach over 4M students, with participant count growth ranging from 2-7%.
Competition
First to market leader
YEII is one of the first companies of its kind to provide such detailed, innovative educational facilities to students in South America and Mexico. We work directly with schools and education partners on our programs, thereby offering students the best learning programs available.
In the U.S., our program has led our students to participate in the Young Inventors Challenge in the Chicago Toy and Game fair with great results. Our team won in November 2019 for the Best Game Concepts prize!
Vision and strategy
300K students across 300 schools
Our vision is to be an international leader in education for frontier technologies, entrepreneurship and innovation. We are seeking $1M in funding to help us grow our organization and capture 300K students across the Americas and new partnerships with 300 schools (ten schools per city).
Funding
We've bootstrapped our operations so far
While we've largely supported the business ourselves, we're looking to open up this opportunity to our community and supporters so that they can help us in our next phase of growth.
We've also received support from Dave Martinez Ventures, who has provided frontier technologies (VR, AR, Robots and AI) to YEII for the past 3 years, helping us foster technology innovation among kids.