Purple Bananas is an app that uses data-informed methods to teach individuals to respond to another’s verbal language while also training labelling of objects and increasing vocabulary.
Woodbury, CT 06798, USA
One Liner
One Liner
Purple Bananas is an app that uses data-informed methods to teach individuals to respond to another’s verbal language while also training labelling of objects and increasing vocabulary.
What Problem We are Solving
Problem
Training pre-language skills can be very expensive and taxing on families. And now, especially during these times of Covid and difficulty finding staff to support, the need for technology to assist in some of the pre-language training is extremely necessary. Additionally, professionals are able to use the app and build their own individualized programs for their clients, which saves tons of time and money from making their own materials.
About Us
About Us
For 5 years, we have been working with children and families living with Autism, providing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services, in-home, in-school, and in-clinic. These services have consistently been in such demand that we found ourselves needing to wait-list many families. And it was hard to get professionals as there are not enough of them. Even our own professionals were at a risk for burnout as they were overloaded with all the responsibilities on their plate added to the programs for their clients they needed to create. And then, on top of all of this, Covid hit. We received calls upon calls pleading with us to help—so many of these children were struggling so greatly not being in school. But we could only serve so many. It broke our hearts. So, we thought of Purple Bananas to provide supports to families waiting for services, to families who do not have insurance or money for services, to families who are not comfortable during this time with having staff in their homes, and to professionals who need to save time and money in program creation and review.
What is it?
Purple Bananas is an e-learning app with two options: basic (pre-built programs built by professionals) and professional (allowing professionals to design their own programs for their kiddos). Purple Bananas uses discrete trial training to teach, takes data that can be seen in graphs within the child’s account, and raw data for a professional to download and further analyze. Within the professional portion of the app, it is fully customizable. The professional is able to choose everything from how the program will be taught to what will be taught to what programs are going to be played alongside of the other.
Additionally, Purple Bananas is $5.99/month for the basic app and $13.99/month for the professional app. This compares to paying for a Registered Behavior Technician/Board Certified Behavior Analyst/Speech Pathologist that would charge anywhere from $15 an hour to $150 an hour. According to the Council of Autism Services Providers, for ABA to be effective, training should be anywhere from 15-40 hours a week, which is supported by the following two studies: “Applied behavior analytic intervention for autism in early childhood: meta-analysis, meta-regression and dose-response meta-analysis of multiple outcomes” and “An evaluation of the effects of intensity and duration on outcomes across treatment domains for children with autism spectrum disorder.” These stats promote the understanding that families can find a savings from $46 to upwards of 9k a month (assuming there is anywhere from 1 to 15 hours of training per week).
And while we know that this app does not replace Autism services in full, it can help, and it does teach necessary pre-language skills in a similar way to if a professional were teaching the child. Additionally, we have learned that many Applied Behavior Analysis companies keep losing their professionals, in part, because they burn out with having to create, print, and laminate their own materials for training their clients. So. we created a professional portion to the app where a professional can create their own fully customizable programs, which saves so much time and money.
Market Potential
As noted earlier, we have experienced many families seeking ABA services desperately. This experience is not singular to us as a review of the literature demonstrates that ABA services have been in demand for years while the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder has been increasing through the years.
According to a study performed by Vanderbilt and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorder, they found that diagnostic and intervention services for children diagnosed with Autism can take up to 6 to 12 months to start receiving services (Gordon-Lipkin, et al., 2016).
The concern around wait times is so great that a study was performed analyzing methods families use to manage the wait (Smith-Young et al., 2020). According to an article in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, “waitlists are filled with the same families desperately trying to navigate over-burdened systems, and it is clear that we must work toward more coordinated and effective solutions on their behalf.” Furthermore, the author suggests that “new technologies and creative means to address the problem are greatly encouraged (p. 142).
And to add to the issue of demand, COVID has increased the need. In fact, Genova et al. (2021) found that COVID created a 78.63% disruption in services and caused 62.77% of individuals living with autism have regressed behaviorally. And to make matters worse, the CDC reports that Autism rates have risen from 1 out of 150 in the year 2000 to 1 out of 44 in the year 2018. This suggests that the demand for autism services will increase and that these families will be living for long periods of time without any kind of supports.
All of this speaks to how great the market is for this app.
Competition
A list of competitors is the following:
Otsimo, Autism ABC, I-CAN, Bitsboard Flashcards and Games
Otsimo is our biggest competitor and is $13.74 a month. Does not have fully customizable programs. Instead the “customizability” is based on parent interviews and not on direct assessment. Parent interviews tend to be incorrect. There aren’t levels-all programs can be played at the same time so none of the programs can be building blocks on the other.
Autism ABC is $5.49/month; $36.99/yr. Mixing of matching and labelling programs. No levels, no customizability, very limited programs.
I-CAN is $7.99/month; $49.99/yr. Mostly videos that teach social skills; the numbers/letters/colors were not working.
Bitsboard is $29.99/yr. Does not use ABA methodology; does not take data; and only names the picture when it is pressed.
Who we are?
Anna Reinhardt Thompson, BCBA, LBA CEO. Creator, designer, idea-haver
Martha Calciano, COO. Supporter, listener, keeper of feet on the ground
Chris Thompson, CFO. Devils-advocate, challenger, giver of different perspective
Appendix
Applied Behavior Analysis is the science of learning and behavior. It helps us better understand a behavior, how the environment influences it, and how learning takes place. Overall, the focus is to decrease problem behavior and increase pro-social behavior.
Discrete Trial Training is a cycle of instruction that is repeatedly performed until a skill is mastered. It consists of an instruction, a response, and a consequence.
References
Genova, H.M., Arora, A., Botticello, A.L., (2021, November 23). Effects of school closures resulting from COVID-19 in autistic and neurotypical children. Frontiers in Education.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.761485/full
Gordon-Lipkin, E., Foster, J., Peacock, G., (2016, October). Whittling down the wait time. Pediatric Clinics of North
America 63(5), 851-859. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5583718/
Linstead, E., Dixon, D. R., Hong, E., Burns, C. O., French, R., Novack, M.N., & Granpeesheh, D. (2017, September). An
evaluation of the effects of intensity and duration on outcomes across treatment domains for children with
autism spectrum disorder. Translational Psychiatry 7(9), e1234.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5639250/pdf/tp2017207a.pdf
Smith-Young J., Chafe, R., Audas, R., (2020). “Managing the Wait”: Parents’ experiences in accessing diagnostic and
treatment services for children and adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Health Services
Insights 13, 1-10. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1178632920902141
Virues-Ortega, J. (2010, February 11). Applied behavior analytic intervention for autism in early childhood: meta-
analysis, meta-regression and dose-response meta-analysis of multiple outcomes. Clinical Psychology Review.
387-399. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20223569/
Business Model
Business Model
The app is on a monthly or yearly subscription. There is a basic app that consists of pre-built programs built for families/schools that does not need a professional to design programs. The monthly subscription is $5.99. There is also a professional option to the app that allows professionals to build and fully customize their own programs for their clients. The monthly subscription to this $13.99. All customers can try out the app for free for 7 days. They have full access to all features. We are to be advertising the app on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok). We are seeking out an influencer to promote the app. We are also attending teacher/professional ABA conferences for awareness and branding. Customers can sign up/login through social media/google/apple.
Competitive Advantage
Quote
Purple Bananas uses discrete trial training to teach, takes data that can be seen in graphs within the child’s account, and raw data for a professional to download and further analyze. Within the professional portion of the app, it is fully customizable. The professional is able to choose everything from how the program will be taught to what will be taught to what programs are going to be played alongside of the other. The ability for professionals to create and customize their own programs makes the app quite unique and unmatched by competitors. Additionally, Purple Bananas is $5.99/month for the basic app and $13.99/month for the professional app. This compares to paying for a Registered Behavior Technician/Board Certified Behavior Analyst/Speech Pathologist that would charge anywhere from $15 an hour to $150 an hour. According to the Council of Autism Services Providers, for ABA to be effective, training should be anywhere from 15-40 hours a week, which is supported by the following two studies: “Applied behavior analytic intervention for autism in early childhood: meta-analysis, meta-regression and dose-response meta-analysis of multiple outcomes” and “An evaluation of the effects of intensity and duration on outcomes across treatment domains for children with autism spectrum disorder.” These stats promote the understanding that families can find a savings from $46 to upwards of 9k a month (assuming there is anywhere from 1 to 15 hours of training per week). And while we know that this app does not replace Autism services in full, it can help, and it does teach necessary pre-language skills in a similar way to if a professional were teaching the child. Additionally, we have learned that many Applied Behavior Analysis companies keep losing their professionals, in part, because they burn out with having to create, print, and laminate their own materials for training their clients. So. we created a professional portion to the app where a professional can create their own fully customizable programs, which saves so much time and money.
Revenue
Revenue To Date
$965.00
MRR
$965.00
Revenue YTD
$965.00
Burn Rate
$6K
Users
Total Users
67
Total Users (Past 30 Days)
N/A
Daily Active Users
N/A
Monthly Active Users
N/A
Total Paying Users
N/A
MoM Growth Users
N/A
Organic Traffic %
N/A
Customer Costs
CAC
N/A
LTV
$144.00
Churn
N/A
Margins
N/A
Go-To Market Strategy
Business Strategy
We bid on words in the app stores; we are just getting on facebook, Tiktok, and Instagram; we are setting up with an influencer; and we just went to our first professional conference. We are just recently launched after beta testing. We have gotten a lot of good feedback at our first conference. There was a lot of interest and quite a few people looking to bring it into the school system.
Otsimo is our biggest competitor and is $13.74 a month. Does not have fully customizable programs. Instead the “customizability” is based on parent interviews and not on direct assessment. Parent interviews tend to be incorrect. There aren’t levels-all programs can be played at the same time so none of the programs can be building blocks on the other.
Lollipapps/Autism ABC is $5.49/month; $36.99/yr. Mixing of matching and labelling programs. No levels, no customizability, very limited programs.
I-CAN is $7.99/month; $49.99/yr. Mostly videos that teach social skills; the numbers/letters/colors were not working.
We are open to meeting up to grab a coffee, or just to chat.
We would really enjoy your feedback and insight into our venture and would be happy to discuss anything that you are currently working on to see if we can be of service!
Share
Capital
Name
Amount
Amount Raise To Date
N/A
Type of Raise
self-funded
Valuation
$300K
TAM SAM SOM
TAM
N/A
SAM
N/A
SOM
N/A
Business Stage
Business Stage
Paying Customers
Categories
Healthcare
Education
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