A3 Submission – BLEND

FEEDBACK: Your venture outlines a detailed assessment strategy of various blended learning environments. You articulate very well the demand for blended learning strategies in post-secondary institutions. The big concern is adopting a blended learning solution riddled with implementation inconsistencies as you pinpoint competitors for being guilty of, but I am unable to determine how BLEND would fare any better. How can an investor verify that BLEND truly provides consistent designs? Although instructors are required to design blended learning environments, they may intentionally design a course that some would interpret as inconsistent with other courses offered by a department. Does BLEND step in to help standardize blending learning environments in a particular institution at the behest of instructors or policy makers? BLEND is a great tool, but I am confused about who the customer really is.

Feedback:Use of info graphics made your pitch very attractive and appealing. The organization of your venture was great and easy to follow. Your analytic arguments were factual, concise, and confidently expressed. As an investor I was impressed to know about the key players and the competitors of this product. Having said that I feel that your ‘ask’,budget and return needs more depth and detail as currently it looks uninspiring and vague. Overall Angela good job!!!

FEEDBACK: Your elevator is quite interesting. You provided good intro to the problem and solution, giving us viable idea to addressing blended learning needs. The info graphic is also good, and you provided a variety of graphical information about your venture. Generally speaking info graphic is a good medium, though for your topic pitch is a bit lengthy, and may require additional effort from investors to connect to your ideas, which may be tiring and there is a risk that all your facts and ideas won' t be picked up immediately. It would have been better if you used other medium to deliver your pitch where investors would be able to pick up your energy and passion much easier. You should have done the pitch using video with narratives, or other kind of presentation, empowered with audio narration and visuals, and that would guaranty better and clear pitch delivery. You have an extraordinary team of experts on your crew, and good ideas and solutions, but you did not ask a definite amount of money, nor you offered any value of your company for investors. Looking from investor perspective, they may not be clear on your ask, therefore may require additional clarifications and justifications of your ask and the scope of your venture. Do not be shy to ask for money when you have the solution in place, and an excellent team, and huge market. I understood that you limited yourself to Canadian market only, which may be right for the take off phase, though later on you should be able to grow your team and your support base, to avoid turning down other HE institutions that may need your service. That way, you would be able to expand your offers to worldwide markets, do more and together with your investors profit more. I tried to analyze it not only from EVA perspective, but also from an educator and investor perspective, so I hope that this feedback is going to help you with your venture. Regards, Milorad.

HI Angela FEEDBACK: REVIEW: I enjoyed watching your elevator pitch and really liked the design of your infographic. Being a visual learned, the infographic was a great way to introduce your company. It was easy to follow, informative, and very user friendly. I also liked the way that you organized the ideas on your infographic with a variety of visuals and text display. Your idea is certainly one that is in predominant use in today's market. Your product would certainly get funding with some considerations to address. In your infographic and pitch you stated the pain point and your solution. In both, your credentials, team and credibility were demonstrated well. I think talking more about your competitive advantage to other blended learning companies and emphasizing why you have an advantage over your competition with regard to proprietary technology or services in more detail in "What we do section". As an investor, I was a bit unclear on how you are different or competitive. Perhaps listing four or five key features that make you different from Echo360, Publisher and Template etc. Using the same visual creativity in your infographic, I would recommend using some graphics, statistics or graphs in your elevator pitch would make as captivating as your infographic. I was unclear on your company's needs for investment? What was your ask? Return? Exit plan? How much money do you need to start your company and how will your company pay out an investor and which exit plan would you offer? What is your revenue model and how would your company grow, expand and make money? The post-secondary market statistically is a large one. Perhaps focusing primarily on one area of the market then expanding with growth. You mentioned you worked for a college, do you propose to market BLEND at the college post-secondary level or university post-secondary level? I think both levels may have different needs given a different type of student. Perhaps your BLEND model would be slightly different for college vs. university. What are your future goals for your company as it grows or once an investment is made? I certainly think more post-secondary institutions will follow your BLEND approach. Well done Angela.

FEEDBACK: I think this project stood out because of its use of graphics which made it easy to follow. In terms of site design, it would be ideal for the user (or investor) not to have to scroll to access more information. I understand from other comments that the instructors were not looking for financial/revenue information, however, if I was acting as an investor, the financials would be a key component on whether a pitch was successful or not. Great feature adding your team...this added depth to the company you've created. Very nice work.

Hi Nidal, I actually spoke with David about the monetary information and he said that it was not an expectation of this assignment. I had thought about including it. Thanks for the feedback.

FEEDBACK – Hi Angela, I found your venture pitch good, but I’m not sure I got the idea of what BLEND is from the 1 minute elevator pitch. It is very professional and a great idea in terms of what the market needs, and I’m sure the info-graphic is excellent. I think it might have needed a bit more creativity in delivery. I’m more theatrical and find that anything that sells needs to be interesting and captivating, so I tend to add a bit more in my pitch.

Feedback I loved your elevator pitch. I was interested right away because you looked professional and you had experience in the field. Your team is also experienced and professional. I thought that your quick overview of your competitors' strengths and weaknesses was very helpful: it gave me the background as to why your venture was needed. In your venture pitch, you mentioned that in house solutions don't work. I would like to know why/ Will universities still need in house solutions if they use your service? James.

FEEDBACK - I'm not sure the best way to give feedback for venture pitches so I think I will go with a two stars and a wish style approach. 2 stars – The presentation of your elevator pitch was very well done, it was both clear and well paced. I also liked how you stated your qualifications at the beginning. It was an effective way to establish your expertise and gain the investor’s trust right at the start. My one wish is more related to my own uncertainty of how things work in higher education. I think that support for blended learning programs is a great idea, I am just unsure of whether or not that would happen internally through a professional employed directly by the institution or if a higher education institution would contract that out?