Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jonathan Tanaka, Founder of Logic Made Accessible Inc., located in New York City, NY, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Logic Made Accessible Inc is an educational non-profit that develops and disseminates simultaneously world-class and accessible curricula in areas such as formal logic, philosophy, and critical reasoning to students all around the globe. Our team of researchers and developers are mainly affiliated with Columbia University, but we also have researchers and faculty advisors from the University of Chicago, University College London, the University of Maine, etc. Our customers include autodidacts of all ages, teachers looking to augment or supplement existing curricula, and schools interested in integrating electives into their lists of course offerings.
Tell us about yourself
I began working on founding Logic Made Accessible after realizing that accessible, open-access curricula in logic do not exist, and this fact is concomitant with a certain undesirable trend towards hyper-specialization and unreflective education in pre-college pedagogy. Logic Made Accessible began as a project under Columbia's Department of Philosophy, with faculty members serving as primary advisors.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Our biggest accomplishment has been the number of students and schools who are already using our online curriculum. At the moment, tens of thousands of students across five continents are using Logic Made Accessible's curriculum, and we hope to double this number within the next year.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Certainly, the most difficult aspect of this industry (the educational industry) is working with schools and administrators, who are understandably wary of changes to existing curricula or of allowing teachers to have a certain level of autonomy in modifying existing curricula without approval. This difficulty can be surmounted by approaching schools and school districts from particular angles, such as through networking or through educational non-profit partners who already have connections with such schools.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
In this particular industry:
- Develop partnerships with already existing non-profits and NGOs who work with schools. Establishing school connections is difficult at the onset, so non-competitive relationships with other NGOs who already have such connections is a perfect way to build up one's profile.
- Make use of volunteers and interns in local universities, such as faculty, graduate researchers, and undergraduates.
- Be prepared to radically modify one's approach to entering and catering to a particular market in response to reflective testing.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://aristotelianlogic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/logicmadeaccessible/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/logicmadeaccessible/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/logic-made-accessible/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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