Reading Buddy

I like the enthusiasm in your voice right from the get go. You are easy to listen to and your talking is clear and emotional! I wanted to listen to your Venture Pitch after as your Elevator Pitch gave a taste of the product but didn't answer all questions. Your Venture Pitch had great pictures and visuals. I found that by having the same sentence and pictures in the opening scenes of both your pitches made your Venture Pitch less grabbing to start with, but as I continued to watch, the better it got. I like that you will have French and English to start, as it also leaves many unopened doors for other languages to be added. I think you could have added some more statistics to show numbers of struggling readers etc. I think this is a great idea and has a lot of potential.

REVIEW: Hi Monique, I really liked the idea you present here in your elevator pitch. It is a great concept. It certainly helps two populations at once with one resource which is always nice. Your venture pitch covered all of the key categories (problem, product, market) and was well researched. I would maybe put in something about quality control in the longer pitch. How can you guarantee that the reading that students are recording is accurate enough that others can be learning from it? I also liked how you differentiated your product from what is already available. Well done!

Feedback: Hi Monique, This is great idea! I like that it engages both the reading buddy and the reader. I enjoyed watching both your elevator pitch and your venture pitch, but did find the music to be a little bit distracting. I am curious about the cost per student for using Reading Buddy - to me, $250 seemed a little bit on the pricey side. Would parents be absorbing that cost or would it be the school board? I am also confused about the format of this product (maybe I need to go back and watch again) - will it be like an app for a tablet? Or will it be its own device? Or will students use it on the computer? Will it complement a non-digital text? Overall - I think this is a great idea and as a potential investor I would consider investing in this idea! As a teacher, I would also love to have technology like this available to me! Thanks for sharing :)

FEEDBACK: I think your investment idea is a valid one given that so many students are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer amount of reading they may have or are unmotivated. I enjoyed your enthusiasm in your voice within your venture pitch and the real-world components that READING BUDDY would offer with familiar voices in the program. You have a large investment market in Edmonton. I do agree that French resources are difficult to find. How will you market your product in French or English since it is for a French immersion market? You used a lot of great photographs and visuals. Investors would be interested as well in infographics, graphs or stats about your competition and market. Addressing specific competitive qualities of your product could also be added.

Feedback Hi Monique, I enjoyed your pitches and I love your idea. I think the strength of your product is that it is collaborative. There are already many ways for students to experience texts on line, but collaboration is difficult. I spoke to a teacher in Northern BC who was doing a similar project that had students use technology to read with students in remote locations. The benefit of this program was that it was real time and the students were actively engaged. I think your product has similar potential. James.

FEEDBACK: Your investment opportunity is convincing because you have provided a nice breakdown of how you'd be using the funds. I like the images that add a visual element to your target markets. I find the background music a bit annoying because it keeps coming on and going off at seemingly random moments. Also, what I would have liked to see is more visuals that illustrate your main points rather than image after image of children reading. Overall, well done.

Review: Your pitch is very clear and straightforward. I would encourage you to use visual and not read the text on the screen but use them to highlight your ideas. From your pitch I am a little unclear how this works - is it an app, how do you (the company) pay for the books? how does it improve reading? You might want to focus on one or two positives (don’t over-promise) for example, highlight that the difference between a good reader and a poor one is often the number of hours they spend reading. Reading buddy will increase the number of hours in a fun, simple way that builds the learning and self-esteem of both the reader and the child who lent their voice. Your venture video was very well done and answered many of my questions. I wasn't sure about the pricing _ $250 and 5 text. That would be extremely but perhaps I misunderstood your pricing. The only other concern I would have is your ask is too low. Having had a startup with a burn rate of $70,000 per month (and no salary for the co-founders) I think you could blow through this very quickly, especially if you have to pay for copyright on the books or create your own. The idea is a great one especially with the inclusion of French. I'd expand you market quickly and include Spanish so you could take advantage of the huge market in the US!

Feedback: I enjoyed your presentation as it outlined clearly what your goals were and especially your investment requirements. I think it was a good idea to set a reasonable investment target including the way it would be spent. It would be great to see when an investor would be able to re-coup their initial investment, but that may be out of the scope of this initial presentation.

FEEDBACK - Hi Sheljon, Educationally, I think your product is one of the more important ones for emerging readers. I think that a $20,000 investment is low-risk with a high probability for success, and that your plan for expansion is also safe. But as an EVA, I personally am looking for something that can be distributed across a larger market and one that will give me a bigger return on my investment.

REVIEW- I was immediately intrigued by your venture. As a teacher and Learner Support Team teacher (also known as a resource teacher), I know it’s not easy teaching students how to read! I really love this idea. Especially since I know that it’s difficult for some parents to read to/with their child(ren) every day. I know you briefly discuss the competition in this market, but I wish you discussed it further. Although I know of a product similar to Reading Buddy, called RAZ kids, the only difference that I can think of is that Ready Buddy allows for the buddy to record the text. Question: are you the only venture that includes a French text with recording? I appreciated the in-depth discussion on the investment funds and how you will be using them. At this time, I think I would invest in this venture. I think this is an excellent idea but I’m just concerned if the little buddy won’t read at home if they don’t like their big buddy (I have seen this happen a couple times). How can Reading Buddy avoid this problem? Overall, a wonderful idea and great pitch. Thanks!