The goal of Hardly Hustle is to provide inspiration, drive and motivation in a 10 minute read or less. What you see is what you get. This is hot off the press without an editing team.
Genevieve King is up.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Genevieve King, I’m an entrepreneur from the Flathead Reservation and I have been an educator for over 25 years. My background is in early childhood education, as well as extensive experience in the world of sustainability. But Most importantly I’m a parent who is worried about the future world that is awaiting my kids. I own a company called Origins Education that I started in 2011 and we now have 4 brick and mortar schools with 28 teachers serving hundred of families and a 5th location coming late 2023. Origins preschools specialize in creating a new paradigm of education with organic food, eco literacy and mindfulness for children. I took the curriculum we’ve been using in our classrooms for past 11 years and started a new company: Origins Curriculum, a C Corp, and launched it online this past fall for schools, classrooms and parents of children ages pre-k through high school! We know the public education system is broken and Origins Curriculum is bringing a desperately needed paradigm to education. We have solutions for schools and homeschool families via both b2b and b2c products. Origins is the worlds first conscious curriculum brand and we offer digital, subscription-based, interactive curriculum that is scalable and built on a platform that is easy for both parents & educators to use and that is transformational for students, grown on a foundation of eco-literacy and mindfulness mixed with academics.
What did it take to get your first handful of customers?
I started with just unpaid social media marketing and word of mouth. We starting getting subscribers right away and have grown to over 500 subscribers in 4 countries with next to no marketing budget.
Have you had to pivot the business to get to where you are today?
I started off only planning on doing preschool curriculum for classroom educators but the pandemic pivot was creating homeschool curriculum for kids K-12th grade and I'm so grateful that we did it. It's transformed our company and more than doubled our consumer base.
What drives/motivates you on a daily basis?
The lofty goal of helping to save the world, one child at a time!
When will you know that you've "made" it as an Entrepreneur?
I feel like I've already made it. I'm blessed enough to be doing what I know I'm meant to do, I have control over my life and I deeply enjoy my work. I'm not in this for financial gain, I'm in it for the impact we can make on this world. We are living in unprecedented times with lots of looming potential disaster and as a parent, I'm motivated by trying to leave the planet a better place for my children and their children.
What has been the hardest part of your business journey?
The hardest part for me has been becoming vulnerable and facing my fears. Imposter syndrome is real and being a founder has been challenging in that way. Having to be the face of my company has been the most uncomfortable part. My comfort zone would be to hire someone else to speak on my behalf and just be content with being the silent owner in the background, but I've learned that my knowledge, passion and drive is what has built my company and that I have to "get over myself" and my old patterns of fear, and put myself out there. It's not about me, it's about the work.
Who or what has helped you the most in your journey so far?
My incredible team has been what has allowed this to grow to what it is. We have the most talented and passionate team of professionals and I am SO proud of them and grateful for them as well.
What are a few resources that you'd recommend?
We can invest billions into AI and tech, and launch missions to Mars, but our only chance of having grandchildren that live long enough to have their own is if we create broad changes to the systems that support both environmental AND economic sustainability, which will require having an entire generation of people who understand humanity’s place in a healthy global eco-system, and who have the understanding, drive and skills to make systemic change. And our current education system is the antithesis to this.
I suggest everyone watch the amazing documentary Life On Our Planet with David Attenborough. We all share this 1 planet and if humanity is going to survive, we need to have an entire generation of humans who understand how to live in balance. This is the why I created Origins Curriculum.
The STATS
List the founders
Genevieve King
How many hours a week do you work on this hustle?
Full time
# of Employees?
13
When did you start?
We did a beta test year for the 20/21 school year then launched officially this past 21/22 school year.
How much did it cost to launch?
I've bootstrapped the company from its inception and am not taking a salary yet. I've put my life savings into it because I believe in with my whole heart, mind and soul.
What were your funding methods and ballpark amount raised?
I've self funded so far besides a small F&F round (about $44k). We are in seed round funding right now raising $1M
Annual revenue?
About $70k for this launch year but growing by an additional $3-5k each month. This is pre-funding numbers. By year 3 post funding we are projecting over $13M
Projected revenue?
$550k pre-funding, $13M post-funding
Any call to action?
In less than a year, with nearly no ad budget, we already have hundreds of subscribers in 4 countries and counting while maintaining a CAC of less than $100. We are raising seed round equity funding, terms negotiable. Origins will use this funding to accelerate customer growth through marketing and onboarding more development and support staff to achieve our 3 year post-funding projection of 22,000+ monthly subscribers and over 13M revenue.
Social:
https://www.originscurriculum.com</> https://www.instagram.com/origins.curriculum https://www.tiktok.com/@origins.curriculum https://www.facebook.com/origins.curriculum https://www.linkedin.com/in/genevieveking