Guys, exciting news.
We're launching a new company Memm and it's now live.
What is Memm?
Stay tuned to find out.
(upbeat music)
In this video, I'm gonna be answering
your questions about Memm.
If you wanna see how Memm actually works,
check out this video on the
Med School Insiders channel as well.
What's going on guys?
Now on Instagram, I asked you for questions about Memm
and I'm gonna be answering those questions here.
So first, what is Memm?
Memm is a new MCAT study tool
that me, Richard and Louis
have been working on for quite some time.
And now it is officially live.
It is the best, most effective way
to memorize content for the Science sections of the MCAT.
So that's Bio/BioChem, Psych/Soc, Chem/Phys.
It does not include anything from CARs
because CARs is not about memorizing any information.
It's about reading a passage
and answering questions about that passage.
Kind of related to this who is Memm for,
and how does Memm integrate with other MCAT study tools?
Memm is for anyone
who is studying for the MCAT and who wants
to learn and memorize the Science based information.
First, we have a flexible scheduling system,
so you can use either your own schedule
and then use Memm in conjunction with that.
Or you can use one of the schedules we create for you
with Memm and then use your own study materials
in conjunction with that schedule.
The other way is Memm is comprised of cards and sheets.
So sheets are these like review sheets
that contain all of the information you need to know
about a certain topic.
And then the cards are essentially flashcards.
Now on both, we include a link to other resources
for further explanation.
Let's say you're learning about binocular visual cues,
and you wanna learn more about it, more in depth.
We'll actually link to,
let's say a Khan Academy video
or some of resource where you can watch it more in depth.
How long did it take for your idea to turn into reality?
How did you and Richard meet
and why did you choose one another to found Memm?
So first of all,
Richard and I we've known each other since middle school.
We went to the same middle school, same high school.
He went to the East Coast for college in medical school.
I stayed in Soquel for college in medical school.
And then we got together in residency.
We are both in Soquel and we got together over lunch
and that's kind of what started this whole new chapter.
We initially had a different project we were working on,
that was not Memm.
And that got us working together
on something medical education related.
After a year of working on that,
we had to drop it for a variety of reasons.
And we went back to the drawing board.
Completely from scratch saying,
okay, we're no longer gonna work on USMLE, step one,
let's work on something else.
Let's work on the MCAT and let's do some brainstorming here.
So that was a little over two years ago
that we started working on what essentially became Memm.
And last year in the fall
we actually had Louis join the team as the tech lead.
So there's three of us
and Richard and I are more of like the business vision,
the ideation, the content, the marketing, stuff like that.
But Louis is the coder, the guy who's building everything.
The website, the backend, all that stuff,
which is super, super important.
So the three of us together,
we each have complimentary skills that are providing value.
I don't want you guys to think that this is like
me or only me.
It's definitely not.
It was a team effort
and we're all very proud of what we've created.
It's gonna be something special.
Why the name Memm?
When you're naming a company,
there's essentially two strategies.
Either you do something that is descriptive,
that helps with SEO and just people recognizing
what you're about.
For example, Med School Insiders,
pretty obvious that's fine about med school.
On the other hand, you can choose something more generic
like Apple or Takeya or a variety of other brands.
So we obviously took the latter with Memm,
and part of the reason is that we want to expand
beyond just the MCAT in the future.
So if we named it something just MCAT related
that obviously wouldn't be fitting.
And the other reason is, after our brainstorming session,
we wanted something kind of related to its function
and Memm obviously a play on memory.
Kind of highlights the feature,
which is that this is a focus tool on comprehension
and memorization of large quantities of information.
What timelines are you thinking in terms of test taking
with this study aid?
Generally speaking, you should spend between
two and six months to study for the MCAT.
Using Memm you can expect to spend between
two and six months.
It kind of depends on what other commitments you have.
So Memm helps accelerate the learning process.
But in terms of the general timeline,
you still need to learn a lot of information for the MCAT.
You still need to do a lot of practice questions, et cetera.
It's important to note here that
Memm is designed to work in conjunction
with other resources.
So Memm is for the memorization of all the content.
So you no longer need to use
something like Anki or Flashcards.
We have Memm for that,
but you still need to do practice questions
and practice tests, Uworld, AAMC, things like that.
You also still need content review.
So some people look to Khan Academy videos,
or to MCAT test prep books.
We're also creating a Med School Insiders MCAT course,
which will also serve this function
and work very synergistically with Memm.
Is it like Anki on steroids?
Kind of, I mean, we took a lot of inspiration,
Richard and I have used Anki for years
through all of our med school careers and also in residency.
And Anki has a lot of issues.
So we definitely addressed those issues with Memm,
but we've also added a lot of new functionality
that isn't included in Anki.
Which leads us to the next part.
Why is it better than existing study prep?
Is it supposed to be a primary or supplementary study aid?
What differentiates Memm from other MCAT prep
that you talk about in your videos
and how was Memm different from MCAT Anki Decks?
So what's unique about Memm is that
it combines a lot of evidence-based study principles,
spaced repetition, active recall,
interleaving, desirable difficulties.
Combines it into one easy to use tool.
And we saw a lot of it is with Anki.
For example, the learning curve,
we've addressed that.
The issue that a lot of people don't create good flashcards,
we've addressed that.
We've already created the cards for you.
The issue of I see it
in context and understanding from memorization.
A lot of people when they use Anki,
they just memorize these facts in isolation and they don't
have the bigger picture of where it all fits in.
So we've created these review sheets that are interactive,
and they contain all the information very well,
organized and structured.
So you can see
how things relate and what all the content is.
And then on the actual flashcards
when you flip it around to the back,
we include an excerpt from that sheet
that highlights the fact that you're being tested on
and also includes related facts.
So let's go back to binocular visual cues.
If the card is testing you on a binocular visual cue,
in the bottom,
you have the excerpt from the sheet
about binocular visual cues,
but also an excerpt about monocular visual cues,
because that's related.
It's something that students would often confuse.
Primary or supplementary?
I mean, I don't really think there are primary
and secondary study aids with the MCAT.
You just need to make sure you address content,
memorization, practice questions, practice tests.
Now how was Memm different from MCAT Anki decks.
So other than the design of Memm,
which is already different than Anki,
the reason the actual content of the cards are different
is with Anki decks, they're not regularly updated, right?
So you kind of get them as they are.
They're not all comprehensive.
The people who created these decks are other pre-meds
who were studying for the MCAT,
not people like me and Richard who already
got 99.9% on the MCAT,
but also studied and obsessed over
what is and what is not included on the MCAT.
What do you need to know?
And what can you leave out.
What's a waste of time.
So our cards, we also follow Flashcard best practices.
This is very important to actually memorizing and learning
the content you wanna learn.
Otherwise, if you look at these pre-made decks,
a lot of them reinforce pattern recognition
where you don't actually learn the content.
You just kind of recognize the card
and you're reinforcing a pattern recognition
rather than actually understanding the material.
And the other thing is that the Memm content
is constantly being updated.
It's a web app.
We have feedback.
So if there are ever any errors
or if people want us to elaborate on something,
we have a system for that
where we can regularly update
and improve the content over time,
which is also lacking from
something like a pre-made Anki deck.
How much will it cost?
For one month it's $129.
For three months it's 249 and for six months, it's 399.
You also get 20% off if you use the coupon code MSI 2020.
And if you're not sure, you can actually try it.
Seven day trial, no credit card required.
And once you do purchase a plan,
you have seven days to request a full 100% refund.
Next question, what is the first thing you did
when you decided to start Memm?
Now, contrary to popular belief,
starting a company like Memm is not about having this great
idea and then just executing it for six or 12 or 24 months,
and then having this great, amazing thing at the end.
It's about a process.
Now part of that process was creating an MVP.
A minimal viable product,
and then having users test it
and then adding to that and refining it
and improving its functionality.
And you do that over months.
We started doing this in November or December of last year.
And this is actually one message we got
from one of the beta testers.
So in the first email,
she says, "Hey, I've been using your service
"as one of my main content review sources.
"I wanted to ask, if I go ahead and buy a membership,
"would I be able to access my cards today or tomorrow?"
She was finding value.
She wanted me to use it immediately.
And then we said, "Yeah, for sure, here's a coupon code,
"thanks for helping us and providing your feedback."
Then she said, "Hey, thanks for accommodating me.
"And I was able to get into my account.
"I didn't find a place to put the referral code."
So she actually paid the full price
because she was finding so much value.
"And nonetheless, your service has been a lifesaver
"and brought my practice test scores up immensely,"
et cetera, et cetera.
So real people have been testing this
and real people have been finding value.
This is key when you're starting a new business like Memm.
So we followed "The Lean Startup" methodology
and similar concepts.
And I'm gonna leave links to all those books
down in the description.
If you're interested yourself.
And what this comes down to
is a lot of iterating and testing
and improving and doing that over several months.
So one thing we did is we provided beta access.
We said, hey, we'll give you free access
to the early version of Memm,
and in return, we just want your feedback.
We're gonna ask you some questions,
maybe do some interviews with you, et cetera.
And at the end of that, you ask a survey
and in the survey, one of the questions is
the beta program is coming to an end
and you ask them, "If you can no longer use Memm,
"how would you feel?"
And you want at least 40% of them to say,
"I would be very disappointed
"that I could no longer use Memm."
And I'm very happy to say we had over 40%.
And the reason this is important is
it demonstrates that you have product market fit.
People, love using your product.
They don't want to stop using it.
And therefore, when you release it to the public,
it should have favorable results.
Now, "The Lean Startup" methodology
and associated philosophies, we used it here in Memm,
but you'll note that I didn't use this for Blue LINC or
Med School insiders.
The reason is Memm is innovative.
It's a new tool.
So in Blue LINC, it's a biomedical incubator
at UC San Diego.
And I decided to model it after Stanford's biodesign,
based on my research of biomedical incubators
and the different types of models
and what would be best in that situation.
Med School Insiders,
the innovative part of Med School Insiders
isn't the product we're offering, right?
We're offering services that are,
have been around for a while.
Admissions consulting, tutoring, things like that.
The innovative part is on the backend with us.
It's what the customer doesn't see.
It's how can we reliably and reproducibly provide
top tier service, make our customers really happy,
make them love us and then recommend us to other people.
So that's a different process too.
Here we're creating something entirely new from scratch.
So that's why we did "The Lean Startup" methodology instead.
I mean, I could talk for ages about this whole process.
At the beginning, you have to do things that downscale.
So you're having one-on-one customer interviews,
you're doing surveys,
you're doing all these things that take a lot of time,
but they are critical because you're getting valuable
feedback from people who are your target demographic
direct end users.
Anyways, if you guys are interested in more of the,
like the business process, the story of starting Memm,
like the pivots, all that stuff.
Let me know, I'm not sure if you guys care about that,
or if you want to hear just more about
how to do well in the MCAT.
But again, if you're interested,
check out memm.io use MSI 2020
for 20% off your subscription.
If you wanna see how Memm actually works,
check out this MSI video and thanks for watching guys.
Much love, and I'll see you all in that next one.
(upbeat music)