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LTG Exam Prep Platform |
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October 27, 2014 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Dynamic, Adaptive Mobile Test-Prep Solution |
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About LTG Exam Prep Platform LTG Exam Prep Platform pioneered the space of mobile test-prep, and since its founding in 2012, the company has attracted top talent to its headquarters in Boston and its research and development team in Israel. LTG’s members include former leaders from Pearson Education, Microsoft, MIT and GE. LTG is also the creator of the Label Study Method, a patented app feature that teaches students to recognize patterns in test questions through visual cues and keywords. Along with the Label Study Method, LTG’s apps contain thousands of practice questions and flashcards as well as a tutor market place, which gives students real-time access to certified tutors around the globe.
Conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFO: Mr. Shoushan, what is the basic concept for LTG Exam Prep Platform? Mr. Shoushan: LTG was founded to revolutionize the test prep industry. It was founded based on my own personal experience taking the GMAT exam before applying to top business schools in the U.S. There were many problems in the industry, among which were high costs of preparation, low level of study content, and technology was not integrated into the industry very well. Lastly, it is not a fun process to study for a standardized test. When I realized those problems combined with the proliferation of mobile devices, I decided that I want to build a company that would revolutionize the test prep industry by making test prep accessible, adaptable, mobile centric, personalized, and simply more fun. What LTG is building are mobile apps that students love using, love studying with, and match the user needs better. It adapts itself to users and does not expect the user to adapt to the app. We are an international company, and with both our product as well as our team we try to empower students around the world to reach their professional goals by opening up for them more opportunities. We help people in China, India and the U.S. to achieve the highest goals more effectively, efficiently, while saving them money and hopefully helping them get into their dream school.
CEOCFO: Were you surprised to find that this has not been tried before, or has it? Mr. Shoushan: It is breaking ground. Most of the apps are static, while our solution is dynamic and adaptive, and our technology is advanced and sophisticated with high end user experience and design. The product is being developed by elite engineers and researchers from the Technion in Israel as and PhDs from MIT. At the beginning, I was a bit surprised to see that the higher-education industry has not gone through a big technology change, but after researching most of the standardized tests in the world, I realized that lack of mobile technology lacked consistently across verticals. Only then I’ve realized our potential. I was not surprised anymore. I would say the biggest acknowledgment was when our GMAT app, in such a short time frame, conquered the number one place for GMAT apps.
CEOCFO: How do you make studying fun? Mr. Shoushan: The biggest challenge for most GMAT students, which I’ve experienced as well when I studied for the GMAT was understanding one’s weaknesses and strengths. No solution gave a quick snapshot of what a student can do better and what the student need to focus on. The first thing that is better than most of the apps out there is that we show a user dashboard in which users can see their weaknesses and strengths and can drill down all the way to a single concept to practice, focusing on their weaknesses. It removes the ambiguity from the process of learning. The second thing is that users can connect with our global network of private tutors instantly. Usually students buy a study book and practice at home by themselves, or try to find answers for questions in online forms that are not necessarily being monitored for quality and thus explanations are not necessarily correct. It also cost a lot of money to connect with private tutors or take a full course in a classroom with one of the big education companies. LTG lets tutors connect with students to ask questions in real-time, but also provide tutors with students information and study progress. That is the tutor support. The last thing that we are working now and will be introduced next month is the social learning element. The ability to study with people from all around the world. A student can learn theoretical concepts together with a friend, practice questions on-the-go in a very interactive way, and play games to master concepts that is more engaging and fun than ever before.
CEOCFO: What is the business model? Mr. Shoushan: To give a little bit of context on our business model, historically Prep4 GMAT app used to cost a one time fee of $30 to $50, and we generated some revenues. At that time, we learned that over 90% of the AppStore revenue coming from in-app purchases, so we made the decision together with our investors to give the app for free, acquire a lot of users, and accumulate usability data. Another main goal was educate the market that a mobile solution is a good enough tool to study for the GMAT without books or private tutoring sessions. Going forward, the business model is going to be a combination of three elements. The product is ready and we are going to start charging money for the app in couple of months. The cost of the product will be the same as before – around $50, which is a bit more than a study book but significantly less than an online or offline course. The second element is private tutors, so we’ll charge transaction fees on connecting students and private tutors. The last element is we are partnering up now with MBA consulting firms that will help our students write their applications for top business schools or just general business schools. We will then work with partners in different countries to help our students write their applications.
CEOCFO: What is the geographic reach? Mr. Shoushan: We are an international team with international reach, which is one of our biggest advantages. Because Prep4 GMAT app is available through the AppStore, the cost of distribution is very low cost anywhere - China, India and the rest of the world. LTG focus mainly on the U.S, China and India, which are the biggest markets for the GMAT and other standardized tests. Today, about 40 percent of our users coming from the U.S, 25 percent coming from China and about 15 to 20 percent from India. The rest of the downloads coming from the rest of the world. All of them have prepared for the GMAT with the app. The app supports two languages - simplified Chinese and English. That is one of the reasons why we are able to show high penetration rates to the Chinese market. The traction and the position the app achieved in Apple’s AppStore, in GooglePlay, and in other Android AppStores in China is great – always in the top 10 position. It simply shows that we are doing something right and users love our product.
Mr. Shoushan: Our full name is LTG Exam Prep Platform. It is a long story how I started the company, but LTG, which stands for “Label The GMAT,” represents our secret sauce inside the platform. It’s a unique study methodology based on our patented technology that labels keywords inside every study question and color them in a different colors that matches the concepts that those keywords are testing. We are turning static content into dynamic and smart content, giving the ability for the content to change colors based on the tested concepts. It helps users to better understand test patterns and concepts inside every study question. The original name LTG came from the idea – to label the GMAT - and the exam preparation platform is the rest of the name representing the platform.
CEOCFO: Are you funded for the next steps you would like to take or will you be seeking funding and partnerships? Mr. Shoushan: We just raised our series A round from investors in China and the U.S. We are well funded to achieve next steps and milestones of the company and hope to grow it in the few years. We are very focused today on finalizing our GMAT platform, making sure that our product is technologically advanced with many incorporated technologies, science, and advanced research that we are also doing here at MIT. That is going to be the best platform that was ever created to study for standardized tests on mobile devices. Going forward, we are looking to expand in two to three months and customize our platform by plugging in more dynamic content to other standardized tests such as: SAT, GRE, ACT, PSAT, MCAT etcetera. We already talk with few high-end content partners to join forces with our high-end technology platform.
CEOCFO: What have you learned from when you started until now? Mr. Shoushan: I learned a great deal of stuff. Specifically with the product, it took a little bit of time to start getting reviews on the AppStore. The second it started, we become the leaders, by far, in the GMAT vertical. I learned that people really love the app and they are using it a lot. Looking at a breakdown of our user base, we learn that some users treat the app as a supplementary tool for their courses or private tutoring sessions and simply practice questions, but there is a pretty big group, growing on a month-to-month basis, who are starting using the app as their own sole tool in preparing for the test. That is basically what we envisioned for the company, is that the mobile solution can be good enough and would be even better than other traditional ways of studying for the test. The ability to consume small bites of information throughout the day helps build confidence in the knowledge of the test and the ability to recognize GMAT patterns and solve questions more precisely. The app let students spread their studies throughout the day for a long time, driving better performance and higher scores in shorter time overall. What we see in our market and what we learn from our users is that more and more people are starting to use the app the way that we envisioned, and that is a great result for us. |
“What LTG is building are mobile apps that students love using, love studying with, and match the user needs better. It adapts itself to users and does not expect the user to adapt to the app. We are an international company, and with both our product as well as our team we try to empower students around the world to reach their professional goals by opening up for them more opportunities.” - Elad Shoushan
LTG Exam Prep Platform 745 Atlantic Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02111 857-928-5947
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Interview
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