200+ students
students
Applied Economics · Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
Students don'tjust study markets.Theybuild, create, make, and shapebuildcreatemakeshapebuildbuildcreatemakeshapethem.
SavingSooner is a co-founded applied economics and entrepreneurship program. We teach microeconomics and business models in a summer bootcamp students sign up for.
200+ students across 28 states.
A summer bootcamp students choose to take — with participants from across twenty-eight states.
across
across 28 states28
states
Two cores
What the bootcamp covers
Students learned how individuals, businesses, and markets make decisions when resources are limited. The curriculum connected core economic theory directly to entrepreneurship, pricing, competition, and real-world business decisions.
Topics covered
- Supply & Demand
- Opportunity Cost & Scarcity
- Consumer Behavior
- Price Elasticity
- Costs, Revenue & Profit
- Marginal Analysis
- Market Structures
- Competition & Competitive Advantage
- Market Failure & Externalities
- Applied Economic Decision-Making
Supply & Demand
- How changes in supply and demand affect prices
- Understanding shortages and surpluses
- Identifying factors that shift supply or demand
- Predicting how consumers and businesses respond to market changes
- Applying supply-and-demand analysis to real products and industries
Opportunity Cost & Scarcity
- Understanding scarcity and limited resources
- Evaluating trade-offs when making business decisions
- Calculating the opportunity cost of choosing one investment, product, or strategy over another
- Prioritizing resources such as time, money, labor, and inventory
Consumer Behavior
- Why consumers choose one product over another
- How price, branding, convenience, quality, and substitutes influence purchasing decisions
- Understanding willingness to pay
- Identifying customer needs and purchasing incentives
- Connecting consumer behavior to product development and marketing
Price Elasticity
- Understanding elastic vs. inelastic demand
- Measuring how customers react to price increases or decreases
- Determining when a business may be able to raise prices
- Evaluating how discounts and promotions affect revenue
- Applying elasticity concepts to different industries
Costs, Revenue & Profit
- Fixed vs. variable costs
- Total cost and marginal cost
- Revenue and profit calculations
- Break-even analysis
- Understanding how production volume affects profitability
- Evaluating whether a business decision is financially sustainable
Marginal Analysis
- Understanding marginal cost and marginal benefit
- Determining whether producing or selling one additional unit makes sense
- Using incremental decision-making in hiring, advertising, inventory, and expansion
Market Structures
- Perfect competition
- Monopolistic competition
- Oligopolies
- Monopolies
- Understanding how the level of competition affects pricing, marketing, innovation, and profitability
Competition & Competitive Advantage
- Identifying direct and indirect competitors
- Understanding substitutes
- Comparing businesses based on price, quality, convenience, service, and differentiation
- Identifying opportunities to create a competitive advantage
Market Failure & Externalities
- Positive and negative externalities
- Public goods
- Information asymmetry
- Understanding situations where markets may not produce efficient outcomes
- Examining the role of government regulation and incentives
Applied Economic Decision-Making
Students applied economic concepts to practical questions such as:
- What should a company charge for its product?
- How many units must it sell to become profitable?
- How will competitors react?
- What happens if production costs increase?
- Should a company lower prices to increase demand?
- Is the target customer willing and able to pay?
- What market conditions make a business opportunity attractive?
Students learned how to take an idea and develop it into a structured, financially viable business. The curriculum focused on understanding customers, creating value, generating revenue, managing costs, and building businesses that can grow.
Topics covered
- Problem Identification
- Customer Segmentation
- Value Proposition
- Business Model Development
- Revenue Models
- Pricing Strategy
- Unit Economics
- Market Research
- Market Sizing
- Competitive Analysis
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Go-to-Market Strategy
- Business Financials
- Scaling a Business
- Pitching & Communication
Problem Identification
- Identifying meaningful customer problems
- Distinguishing between a product idea and an actual market need
- Evaluating the frequency and severity of a problem
- Determining whether customers are motivated to pay for a solution
Customer Segmentation
- Identifying a target customer
- Creating customer profiles
- Understanding demographics, behaviors, needs, and purchasing habits
- Distinguishing between users, customers, and decision-makers
- Selecting an initial target market
Value Proposition
- Defining why a customer should choose one business over another
- Connecting customer problems to specific solutions
- Developing clear value propositions
- Identifying differentiators and competitive advantages
Business Model Development
Students explored the major components of a business model, including:
- Customer segments
- Value propositions
- Distribution channels
- Customer relationships
- Revenue streams
- Key resources
- Key activities
- Key partners
- Cost structure
Revenue Models
Students compared different ways companies make money, including:
- Direct sales
- Subscriptions
- Freemium models
- Advertising
- Licensing
- Commission-based models
- Marketplace fees
- Service-based revenue
- Memberships
- Franchise models
- Usage-based pricing
Pricing Strategy
- Cost-based pricing
- Competitive pricing
- Value-based pricing
- Penetration pricing
- Premium pricing
- Understanding customer willingness to pay
- Testing different price points
- Connecting pricing decisions to demand and profitability
Unit Economics
- Revenue per customer
- Cost per customer
- Gross margin
- Customer acquisition cost
- Customer lifetime value
- Contribution margin
- Understanding whether a business can profitably acquire and serve customers
Market Research
- Conducting customer interviews
- Creating surveys
- Researching competitors
- Estimating market demand
- Identifying industry trends
- Using customer feedback to refine a business idea
Market Sizing
- Total Addressable Market (TAM)
- Serviceable Available Market (SAM)
- Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)
- Estimating the realistic size of a business opportunity
Competitive Analysis
- Identifying direct and indirect competitors
- Comparing pricing, features, branding, and customer experience
- Conducting SWOT analyses
- Identifying gaps in the market
- Developing differentiation strategies
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Developing the simplest version of a product that can test an idea
- Testing assumptions before making major investments
- Gathering customer feedback
- Iterating based on evidence rather than assumptions
Go-to-Market Strategy
- Determining how a company will reach customers
- Selecting marketing and sales channels
- Social media and digital marketing
- Partnerships
- Direct sales
- Referral strategies
- Customer acquisition planning
Business Financials
- Startup costs
- Operating expenses
- Revenue projections
- Profit margins
- Break-even calculations
- Cash flow
- Basic financial forecasting
- Evaluating whether a business model is financially viable
Scaling a Business
- Identifying when a business is ready to grow
- Hiring and delegation
- Standardizing operations
- Expanding into new markets
- Increasing customer acquisition
- Understanding economies of scale
- Evaluating the risks associated with rapid growth
Pitching & Communication
Students learned how to communicate a business idea through:
- Elevator pitches
- Business presentations
- Customer problem statements
- Market opportunity analysis
- Business model explanations
- Financial projections
- Competitive positioning
- Investor-style pitch presentations
Applied projects
Rather than learning entrepreneurship only through lectures, students applied these concepts by developing their own business ideas. Projects could include:
- Identifying a real-world problem
- Researching a target market
- Interviewing potential customers
- Analyzing competitors
- Creating a value proposition
- Designing a business model
- Developing pricing and revenue strategies
- Calculating startup costs and break-even points
- Building an MVP or prototype
- Creating a go-to-market strategy
- Presenting the final business through an investor-style pitch
The goal was to help students understand not only how businesses operate, but how economic reasoning can be used to identify opportunities, evaluate ideas, make decisions, and build viable ventures.
Join the summer bootcamp
For students and parents looking to sign up — or anyone with questions about what we teach.