Venture Pitch A3

Feedback: I really liked the elevator pitch but as an 'investor' it didn't really grab me, it seemed to be more focus towards selling it to teachers. If I had the investor hat on I would want to know how it would make me money. I really like the concept and though everything was done well.

Anne, great work!!!! I can see that with the practical experience of classroom teaching you have made your product / venture valid, genuine and factual. This is evident that E-kuest can become successful. As an EVA, my big concern that since it is a free product, it will be difficult to motivate the investor community and therefore that should have been your central analysis. Overall a very readable and well designed presentation.

REVIEW: Your elevator pitch hooked me to want to know more about E-Kuest. It was playful and fun but didn't have some info that I would have liked to see but I was already too curious about your venture. I think this is an interesting concept and the uniqueness has potential. The ability to customize your avatar and have rewards is a great way to keep the learner engaged. I haven't played many games, but have teenagers that do, so I can see the value. I especially liked the idea of question banking for teachers, which is a time saver and as you know, very difficult to develop good questions. Will you have the capability to analyze the raw scores? This would enable teachers to improve the questions, making the gaming experience better. Although I support this venture, I would like to know more about the investment opportunity, the team and how you plan to generate revenue. I was hoping to be able to see this in your venture pitch.

REVIEW: I agree with maxim that the elevator pitch seems out of sync with the music and content, and I too would feel more confident investing in your venture if I heard your voice. That being said, I am snagged by a good idea when I see one. I think any venture that tackles game-based learning is very brave and deserves deeper analysis. Your pain point succinctly describes the inherently tricky nature of adapting game-based learning to the classroom. I am confident that your venture is cognizant that although games are effective at keeping students engaged, they do not always promote the appropriate learning goals. There is a very clear outline defining the role of both students and teachers, which is very helpful in understanding exactly how to use your product. I admire that your venture intends to include many of the academic areas of study, but your venture should make an attempt to somehow illustrate a game design that exhibits these educational qualities. I am left with the impression that this is a fantasy rpg game that only promises to be educational. I think that your solid idea would have been best expressed in a technological medium that enabled you to include interactive media. Your content on Weebly is very clear, but not ironically not very engaging. I would probably invest in this venture if I had a better visualization of the game design.

FEEDBACK: The elevator pitch is interesting, but it would have been great to include a live voice to explain the product. The music was strong and in a strange way it made ready the text hard, probably because the senses are not sure what to focus on. Using a voice would direct the user to the information more immediately. The main presentation itself had a lot of scrolling and I was running around getting information. I think a good question to ask from an investors point of view: how much will this cost and what will I get out of it. I'm not sure venture investors do what they do out of altruism, even though you do raise some legitimate points of pain for teachers. Well delivered.

REVIEW - First of all Anne, I love your 1 minute elevator video, because it is actually engaging; I find it simple, clean and engaging through the words that are presented. The thing I find is that elevator speeches focus too much on content delivery and should really be there to get the attention. It’s really a sales pitch, and you have created just that in an interesting video. I really liked your idea to foster learning through game play and incorporate all subject areas into one. It’s a great idea to allow students to choose avatars and their own path to learning; it definitely keeps it interesting and permits them to learn based on their own interests and not teacher dictated material. It seems to be a viable product in that there are options such as dual languages, and modification ability for teachers. I find that this product has lots of potential for market development, especially since there is not a single game that ties in all the curriculum material. It would be a nice option to tie in some strands of the curriculum and subject areas, so that teachers can work together in teams to target similar areas. Also, it would be nice to target one subject area when needed as well. It’s a solution that should be exploited. I like the idea as well that the team is comprised of MET students; we are so much looking for people with these credentials and years of experience in certain areas, that we should focus on providing our own team with opportunities. It’s unfortunate that we are quick to judge people based on their bios and pitches, and sometimes supporting grass-root initiatives are much more important. We might not be backed up by large corporations or universities, but independent ventures are always much more interesting and that’s when the dreamer becomes the doer!

Hi Anne I was hoping to see a video for the elevator pitch! It is very important to see you talk about the project in order to see how much you believe in it. The pain point is clearly stated. I did not understand how E-kuest includes all five academic areas of study? How is material uploaded? Is it only a question-based game? How is this going to generate money and what investment is required? The team has no experience in game development (programming and GUI) but are very experienced in education technology. How long does it take to build this project? What resources are required? None of the competitors are mentioned. This is important to illustrate your deep understanding of the market and the competition. It is nice that you highlighted the targeted markets.

Review Hi Anne, I understand what you are saying about this being a difficult transition for a classroom teacher. I have struggled through this course as well. I think your venture has some real potential. You could extend this to augmented reality. Some schools are already doing this but I don't know of a webservice that allows sharing. I think that your experience as an educator gives you clear insight into teaching and motivating students. My suggestion is that you introduce yourself in a video. Your investors will want to know who they are working with. You mentioned that you wanted this to be open source but did not know how investors would get a return on their investment. There are ways that open source can generate revenue. Jaron Lanier has some interesting ideas in his book Who Owns the Future. The website Instructables is a service that offers subscribers the opportunity to share open source resources. Very interesting idea Anne. I would like to know more about the action research project that you mentioned. James.