A3: Frienglish – Venture Pitch

Great Elevator pitch. I feel you could go without the background music in the beginning, but love your voice over. You message at the end is inspiring and you sell it very well. You can see in your face and hear in your voice that you want to empower India and your heart believes in this product, so as for an Elevator pitch, you did a great job. Your opening pictures could be more engaging but your ending makes up for it! Your Venture Pitch I like your opening, I think you relay that there is a need for change with English classwork and express why. Your PowToon is cut off for many slides, so it is hard to read. I think you could have added more content to your slides to make them more appealing but overall enjoyed your presentation. I am still a bit unclear as to how your product will work and could use more data and information on it but did enjoy the concept.

Review: Sayali, I really enjoyed both your venture pitch and elevator pitch. You have a fantastic idea here, and you present it with passion, sincerity, and enthusiasm. I think your use of animation, text, and video was balanced and made both the elevator pitch and venture pitch that much more interesting and engaging. I really like how you have narrowed your market to English language learners in India specifically, and how Frienglish presents English through an Indian lens. As someone who has tried to learn other languages, I can understand how it is important to connect the learning content to a student's context and experience. If I were a potential investor, I would definitely invest in this project. Great work and thanks for sharing!

Feedback: Sayali, really enjoyed your pitches. On camera your enthusiasm and drive to make culturally relevant material for language learners is prominent. As an English language teacher myself, I understand this need all too well. I like how your product will have various puzzles, visuals and online tools. I liked the use of visuals you used throughout your pitch with yourself on camera. Learning a language in context is terribly important! Which market of language learners are you catering to? You mentioned you teach high-school English is this the predominant market of your pitch or all K-12 language learners within India for $2 US dollars per student? Wonderful you are catering the program towards the language learners culture, will you take into account phonological aspects, intonation, tone or what about other Indian dialects that differ? How will your program cater to these phonological or palette differences? Will you cover grammar as well, from a language perspective which areas of English language are your focusing on: typically programs focus on fluency, reading or writing or if similar to Rosetta Stone all four areas. To add to the credibility of your team, what other skills do they or will you bring in addition to your teaching and engineering experience? Very well done!

REVIEW: Your vision and appeal to national pride come across as compelling in your pitches. I think you have described the language-learning problems of children in India really well. Other excellent points include the way you differentiate your product from familiar names like Rosetta and highlight the competitive advantages of your product such as affordability and personal engagement. I would invest in your venture because you have outlined what you would use the money for, what the risks are and the return on investment. If you'd like to improve your pitches, go easy on the background music and cartoons. They're quite distracting and do not add to your presentation. Overall, well done!

Great pitches Sayali. You speak very clearly and concisely. I think you have a great angle on this market, culture is very important and would help engage students. Great work!

Review: I thought you had an excellent pitch. I like the beginning where you used visual and statistics to frame the problem. You created the context around the problem very nicely and then sold me not on making money but on your vision. With another minute of video you could have included some details of the product and your ask which as an EVA I need so this isn't so much a negative of your pitch but the time constraints of one minute. Love the name of the company by the way. I went on GoDaddy and the domain is actually available for around $20 for two years! for this http://ca.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults.aspx?ci=83269 I’d buy the domaine name - You never know you might want to build the company. In the venture pitch I particularly liked your use of images - the weights - student getting stronger - was well done. I also like how you framed your product and differentiated it by building it around Indian language structures and culture. I have heard that you shouldn't pitch saying you only need 1% of the market but in India's case you can make the exception I think! I also like the way talk about our pilot program (investors like an MVP) and the need to grow and expand to support other dialects. Finally I think you did an excellent job on camera and cutting away to your pitch slides. Very nicely done!

FEEDBACK - Hi Sayali, I can definitely sense your passion and personal interest in this venture, which made me want to know more about your product. I think it’s a great idea, but the investment price of $600,000 is concerning to me when the company is already valued at $3 million. And even though there is an eventual 400% return on the investment (not including expenses), I would like to get a clear idea (besides the hiring of others) on how that money is going to be spent so I can determine if it would be better spent elsewhere. That would be my recommendation to help you move closer towards market readiness.

FEEDBACK: As a classroom and ESL teacher, I know it’s not easy to teach students English. Your venture sounds interesting and promising. You speak confidently and professionally in your elevator pitch. I’m just curious what you’re seeking from investors and potential partners and what they will receive in return (I know it's a lot to cram into a 1 minute pitch).

FEEDBACK - Great presentation, your pitch is clear and your passion is evident. As an investor, I would like to know exactly what you are looking for and how you plan to make money.

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 - I think your pitch was presented with a confident and convincing tone. I also think your passion for creating a locally relevant product would go along way to persuade investors. My one wish would be for a bit more information on the competition and how you differentiate from it as I imagine there are many language learning options on the market. Thanks for sharing your pitch!