Building Intellectual Property That Companies Actually Want to License
Here’s what Happened
Following the CROWN Act success, JOY Collective approached me about licensing my proprietary digital curriculum for a new opportunity they were pitching to Dove Men+Care. The concept: a national youth education program that would benefit NBA players' individual charitable causes while teaching digital skills.
I was brought on to adapt my "Beyond Social: How to Build a Personal Website" framework for this enterprise implementation, coordinating between Dove Men+Care, the NBPA, Dell as technology sponsor, plus managing educational requirements across students, parents, schools, and individual player foundations.
The Challenge
The technical requirements were complex: virtual learning environments for 150+ students across six camps, live streaming for NBA player mentorship, content management systems for branded materials, and compliance with corporate legal standards while maintaining educational effectiveness.
I had to create brand-approved interfaces and educational content that would satisfy Unilever's global compliance requirements while being accessible to students who spoke English as a second language and actually teaching them functional website development skills.
JOY Collective handled stakeholder coordination with Unilever Legal, player agents, and corporate partnerships. The NBPA managed player involvement and brand requirements. I focused on curriculum development and live instruction delivery.
The Approach
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Licensed Curriculum Architecture: Adapted my existing framework into enterprise-ready modules with standardized learning objectives and scalable virtual delivery methods that met corporate compliance standards.
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Live Educational Delivery: Served as primary instructor across all six virtual camps, teaching website development skills to 150+ students with diverse linguistic backgrounds through real-time virtual instruction.
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Technology Integration: Developed content management systems that maintained Dove Men+Care's brand consistency while supporting authentic educational outcomes and student creative expression.
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Assessment Platforms: Created systems where students could build personal websites, receive feedback from NBA mentors, and demonstrate measurable learning outcomes that satisfied both educational and corporate marketing objectives.
The Impact
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Educational Outcomes:
98% student completion rate across all six virtual camps
Students successfully built functional personal websites demonstrating digital literacy skills
Maintained engagement across diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds
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Business Impact:
Successfully licensed proprietary curriculum to Fortune 500 company while retaining IP ownership
Created reusable educational technology framework for future corporate partnerships
Demonstrated measurable ROI through both learning outcomes and brand engagement metrics
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Technical Performance:
Zero technical failures across six camps with live streaming and interactive components
Integrated multiple platforms for content delivery, assessment, and mentorship coordination
Scalable virtual learning architecture supported 150+ students simultaneously across global time zones
Why It Matters Now
This project demonstrated how to structure IP licensing agreements that satisfy corporate marketing objectives while delivering genuine educational value. The coordination required between Unilever Legal, NBPA partnerships, technology sponsors, and educational requirements shows experience managing complex stakeholder relationships in enterprise educational technology initiatives.
The technical delivery - virtual learning environments, real-time instruction for multilingual students, brand-compliant content management, and measurable assessment systems - represents the kind of educational technology implementation that companies increasingly need for employee training, customer education, and community engagement programs.
Most educational technology projects struggle to balance corporate compliance requirements with authentic learning outcomes. This experience proves both can be achieved simultaneously with proper technical architecture and stakeholder coordination.