So the recent post by PaulWBryant really got me interested in the stock ISNT because I use their product at school (Canvas). I mentioned it to my Dad as an investment idea and it turns out that one of our good family friends is the ex-CEO of Blackboard (BBBB) which is ISNT’s biggest competitor. Long story short I’m going to call him soon and ask a bunch of questions on ISNT/the industry in general. This seems like a fantastic opportunity to ask a lot of very industry and product specific questions so I was wondering if you guys could help me come up with some helpful questions that I could ask so we could learn more about ISNT’s business. Let me know of any questions I should ask him!
Brennan, who is your family friend? Or if you prefer, what years was he with Blackboard? This will help inform the set of questions I’d like to suggest you ask him.
What he thinks the best products in the market are, and how Blackboard’s products stack up
His impression of Canvas, and Bridge (to the extent that he knows anything about Bridge)
What he felt are some of the problems Blackboard was/is having (Innovators dilemma?)
How fast Blackboard was growing while he was there. (Revenue, customers)
How saturated the market is, in his impression. How much opportunity there is.
As a side note, I think it would be good NOT to discuss the difficulties of running a private company, dealing with private equity investors, or the prospects of Blackboard being sold or going public again. That’s not a focus I’m really interested in, and might derail the conversation. I’d like to know as much about the LMS market ins and outs as you can get out of him!
How does he view Moodle as an open source, free alternative to the other LMS’s out there – they seen as a current or future serious competitor?
Some textbook publishers offer material exclusively through their own websites. Does he see a future where the LMS will effectively act as the “retailer” of publishers’ materials rather than have students buy directly from the publisher?
Might we ever see a “LMS war” where various LMS’s start offering content (such as might otherwise be bought from a textbook publisher) as an incentive for sales?