A3 – Brendan Clark – Mapper

FEEDBACK: Your elevator pitch was informative and confident. The music choice was appropriate and enhanced your presentation.You are clearly very passionate about this and it really shows through in your pitch. I'm not familiar with this area so I'm not sure how extensive of a software you would need for a high school that you can't find on the internet. You mention Google Earth and Maps...is this something you could use in your classroom instead? I was also curious if the tools for mapper are already in place, why you didn't have a team. Would you want to hire a marketing expert rather than a developer?

REVIEW: An extremely innovative idea ! I think you the nail pain point correctly regarding the importance of flexible interactive maps. In addition to that, I feel such maps would also help students understand history better in context of the Geographical locations of different places and connect the dots to understand the big picture. The elevator pitch is engaging. The background music has an adventurous tone and it complements the theme of Maps and exploration. Your voice is clear, confident and you appear totally in control. I would suggest using images with better resolution for the elavator pitch. The Venture pitch too is clear in conveying both the pain and solution. You have touched on all the points of the checklist. Just a few questions / suggestions - Incorporating the names/ backgrounds of the team would have made the pitch more authentic. Also I do not see what the Return on investment would be for the Investors. It is mentioned that the new product would be affordable, but no number is assigned to it. That makes it difficult to compare. Lastly, though the data goes to show that GIS / Geographical industry growth is high, the source could be sophisticated GIS systems used in defence, petroleum companies, government sectors etc. and not necessarily from educational sector. However, overall a great Idea and a detailed Venture pitch ! Good Luck.

FEEDBACK: I really enjoyed your elevator pitch, it was engaging, had catchy music and made me feel like I should be creating maps instead of only trying to interpret them. Your venture pitch covers all the bases a viable venture should cover. In fact, you provide so much information in text-based format that comes off as a little bit too dense. Maybe it is just too close to my bed time, but there was a few times I needed to rest my eyes. Your pitches are convincing though, I couldn't help but snicker at your question about why students are still colouring the ocean blue. I was left wondering how this app could evolve to widen its consumer base beyond students ages 8-12. Could consumers use Mapper to create their own, personalized maps to give quick and effective directions or visualize a location? Possibilities seem endless and this venture may benefit from long-term planning.

FEEDBACK: Your venture is quite well presented and clearly outlines the problem and the solution. The cloud based solution is appealing, though your ask is not clearly defined. You mention crowd-funding, but you do not specifically ask VC investors for definite amount of money to invest, which does not give them clear idea how much is needed to take off this venture. The fact is that VCs like definite ask to determine is it appealing and viable investment for them. When you ask for certain amount, you can predict and offer the amount of return and offer the value of company to share with investors. Put yourself in investor shoes, and it will make sense to you. Overalll, good work. Regards, Milorad

Review: The Elevator pitch was profession, and clean. You had a clear voice that lent itself nicely to the mood of the pitch. Music was well chosen to enhance the tone of the presentation. Your pitch was clear and concise that left me wanting to know more. The quotes at the beginning of the venture are a nice touch and add mood and credibility to your venture concept. Beginning with the face of the company is smart. I like how you drew a parallel to Four Square and its business model, this gives the investor a frame of reference (something I am now wishing I had done). I really liked that you tied your venture to learning outcomes and future job implications. You clearly identified the gap in the market that Mapper meets the needs of. You had incredible market detail and great use of graphics. What you lacked was an audience and an ‘Ask’. What are you asking for and from whom? You had a strong reflection that identified your self-awareness of both your learning and your struggles. I agree that education specific data is difficult to find and takes more time to find. Starting with the research instead of the idea is ideal, considering our time constraints and scope you did very well. Recommendation: Overall your presentation had a very clean and professional look to it. More detail on what you are asking for and from whom would make this a venture worth considering for investment.

FEEDBACK: Technology is certainly the bridge between all curriculum strands and as someone who is not a geography expert but who loves travel and geography, I think this is a great idea. I find that maps are boring or too complex and I think there needs to be a middle path for students to get engaged in the material, feel that they are learning and developing critical information processing and technology navigation skills. It would be great to create this tool that would enhance learning and permit students to link up to Google maps and other live mapping tools that will provide them with real data. It is sad and disheartening to hear that teachers today are still using two dimensional maps to teach geography, when the future of holographic mapping is around the corner and three dimensional mapping is here already. Good job!

Hi Brendan I loved the elevator pitch even though I have little knowledge in your field. It is clear what you are working on. The venture pitch is also detailed and rich with statistics. My only concern is that you are targeting the wrong purchaser. I would recommend that you approach the content authors such as Person, Cambridge…etc. I think if you offer your product with an SDK to allow educational content developer to integrate it within their authoring it will allow you to scale faster and make money.