CASE STUDIES

Shark Sessions

Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice (Brooklyn, NY)

Date: April, 2019

Duration: 45 min/3 Weeks

Attendance: 8-10 students

Cohort: High school, after-school program

The Report:

 Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice (SLJ) was the pilot of the Shark Sessions program.  Students answered a survey to measure their interest in learning about entrepreneurship. From the positive feedback, SLJ invited Ron Johnson to present Shark Sessions for three weeks to test the program for long term after school programming for the Fall 2019 semester.

 Students watched various Shark Tank pitches while recording answers and questions on worksheets to go over in the discussion segment of the program.  Students were introduced to common questions investors have for businesses, and learn how entrepreneurs started their business. Students were able to calculate business valuations, define break-even analysis,  explain the difference between ‘cost’ and ‘sale price.’

The Results:

  • 100% of students could calculate a business valuation

  • 87% of students felt more prepared if they wanted to start a business

  • 100% of students would take another entrepreneurship workshop

  • 100% of student wanted Shark Sessions to be a longer after school program.

The Feedback:

  • Students wanted to learn more about the types of businesses

  • Students wanted to know the first step of starting a business

  • Students wanted to learn more about the competitive analysis

  • Students wanted to see the progress of the entrepreneurs after Shark Tank

  • Students wanted to learn about ‘monopolistic competitive markets’

  • Students wanted more interactive activities

  • Students wanted to learn more vocabulary

Next Steps:

 For the Fall 2019 semester, we will plan for a longer workshop (approximately 14 weeks).  A longer after school program will allow the students to learn and apply:

  • Entrepreneurial terminology

  • Complete a competitive analysis worksheet

  • Participate in two Peer Pitch exercises

  • Produce case studies from select businesses from Shark Tank

We will collect feedback and measure performance, before, during and the end of the workshop.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City

Date: April, 2019

Duration:  2.5 hrs, 1x workshop

Attendance: 20 Total (10 youth, 10 adults)

Cohort: High schoolers, and young adults

The Report:

 Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City (BBBSNYC) invited Ron Johnson to lead an entrepreneurship workshop for high schoolers.  The workshop began with an icebreaker exercise to gather information on how familiar the youth are with entrepreneurship. They were asked ‘who are your favorite entrepreneurs?’  ‘What’s a problem that you would like to solve?’ ‘Do have a business idea?’

 Before playing the Shark Tank episode, we went over business terminology that we will go over in the discussion segment of the workshop.  We would pause the episode briefly to go over any immediate questions that the students would have. In the Discussion segment we talked about ‘what would you have done differently? ‘Would you invest in this business?’ ‘What would you have done differently?’

 Towards the end of the workshop, we introduced the Peer Pitch exercise.  Ron Johnson presented his own business pitch as an example before the participants complete it the pitch worksheet.  The youth created a pitch outline and presented their business idea to each other.

The Feedback:

 “Ron provided a dynamic Entrepreneurship workshop for our high school students! He did a great job tailoring his presentation to fit our needs. His workshop provided our kids the opportunity to take a deeper dive into entrepreneurship concepts utilizing the show Shark Tank. Our kids had engaging conversations and utilized the skills they learned to create their own pitches. Students that feared public speaking felt encouraged and empowered to share their creative ideas with the group!”  

Associate Director

Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City

Next Steps:

 Establish a long term partnership with BBBSNYC and introduce the Pop Up Academy program.  Pop Up Academy will be a fun and engaging experience between “Littles” and “Bigs” that will guide participants how to start a business and develop it into a real life pop up shop.  Pop Up Academy will include design thinking exercises, market research, competitive analysis, financial literacy, and public speaking opportunities. Participants will learn how to start a business, examine sales performance, and develop marketing strategies.