Developing an EdTech startup into a growth company
The Company
Photomath is an app founded in 2014 to help high school students struggling in math to learn the subject without the need of a tutor. Investor-owned, the app had over 270MM downloads in March, 2022, and was acquired by Google that same month.
The Challenge
Gaining popularity during Covid, Photomath was touted by students as the ‘cheating app’. Additionally, ’math solver’ competitors were entering the market (Google). And as it was a free service, they were looking for ways to monetize.
The Actions
Senior marketing oversight for Brand Strategy, already underway with an agency
2022 Marketing OKRs, including expansion of ‘test’ PR & Social Media projects and marketing budget
Marketing Team organizational expansion recommendations
Managed Marketing team and ad agencies
Results
Finalized Brand Strategy with C-Suite; developed go-to-market strategy to ‘bring brand to life’ internally and externally; communicated strategy to employees and found ad agency candidates for first-ever campaign
Provided rationale and received approval for expansion of marketing team to bring marketing knowledge in-house, including Social Media Coordinator, PR and Product Marketing Managers
Received investor approval on a marketing budget that was 4x that of previous years (and needed to compete and grow)
Provided rationale/received approval for expansion of brand marketing tactical plan – especially PR and Tik Tok, where the consumers spent their time
Drove organizational change in terms of team silos, developing processes within Marketing, Product, and Creative to become more transparent and communicative
“Marie, I have learned so much from you in the past few months! I truly appreciate everything you taught me - I will use your advice to expand my role at Photomath!”
- Risa Takenaka, Product Marketing Manager, Photomath