Barriers to Entry for STEMscopes, which put STEMscopes at a disadvantage:
- 1. Access to Suppliers and Distribution Channels -- in order to displace current market share from competitors, STEMscopes will need to access distribution channels. However, existing 'grandfathering' affect of contracts to BrainPOP and Discovery Education will pose a significant barrier to entry because of the very slow vendor review and acceptance process plaguing school administration and buying cycles. Therefore, the companies that already have these in place have well developed (and expensive) channels into market. Also, because the decision making process involves many individuals and cross-departmental influence, breaking into these channels is time consuming and expensive.
2. Access to capital -- it takes money to make money. Therefore, without a solid stream of revenues to fund growth, STEMscopes is dependent on financial markets to fully realize growth.
Barriers to Entry for STEMscopes' competitors, which will give STEMscopes an advantage:
1. Technology IP strategy is significant within the Ed Tech landscape, and in particular, a defensible IP strategy. Based on the leadership teams' expertise, and in particular the CTO, STEMscopes has leveraged its innovative foresight to build a solid technology roadmap, which has become a barrier to entry for other players.
2. Economies of Scale has been demonstrated by STEMscopes digital offerings, however, the company will need to continue to be cognizant of the scaling limitations on print material and hands-on-kits, which have a significantly higher cost associated with scaling.
3. Product Differentiation -- STEMscopes has differentiated its product in four ways: pricing model, STEM focus, NGSS alignment readiness, and English and Spanish localization.
4. Competitive response -- STEMscopes is in a solid position to be competitively responsive, meaning it can pivot fairly rapidly to adapt to new market conditions or product requirements. This advantage is based on two key things: it is a small organization, allowing for rapid response, and secondly, expertise of managements' track record in building and scaling other start up companies.
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