A3: Let•mino Pitch

REVIEW: I thought your elevator pitch was really well done. You are articulate and professional. Your idea is new and creative and this would have been something I could have used in school myself! I was extremely shy and was not confident asking questions during class or after class. I would like to know if there is a limitation of distance for the product. I was thinking that this would be a good way to let a teacher know of bullying outside the classroom as well. It seems quite versatile, which speaks to the extensive research that you have done and the viability of the product.

FEEDBACK: Nice pitch Bobbi ! You have never failed to surprise me. You have said all the right things in less than half the time :) I personally believe that the shorter your pitch, the more effective it tends to be. Apart from the correctly timed animation, the clear message, I also liked the fact that you presented a detailed worldwide market analysis to support the argument. If at all you need suggestions, then I would suggest you could work a little on the voice. Keep it up !

Great points Mehida. I completely agree! Looking at other pitches even though I couldn't find similar comparable products, I could have used other bands and band pricing (which I did consider) to help highlight the similarity yet differentiation inherent in my product approach. This would indeed have made my pitch much stronger. I also think there's such a think as being too straight-forward, and realize that I could have taken more time to simply expand on, or talk about some of the additional points in my research to fill more time. : )

Review: Bobbi your venture on wearable technology is great. Your analytic arguments were factual, concise, and confidently expressed. As an educator we know that there are many students who are shy to seek help from teachers and from their peers. I can see that using this wearable device you can empower your student’s intellectual capacity. Furthermore, I think the power of wearable devices for education is tied very closely with their mobility. Much like mobile devices such as smart phones, wearable technology can be with the learner at all times. Therefore your product is unique in this sense. I can see that your pricing is also very reasonable which makes it more marketable and saleable. I have mainly two concerns with your pitch. One you need to need work on the competitive framework of your product as you need to provide a decision centric analysis to a prospective investor. My other concern is that though you covered most of the elements but your pitch was too short and brief. Overall you did a good job and I will be happy to recommend your venture.

@Milorad, thanks for the feedback. I'm responding to comments, as critique is most valuable as a two-way conversation in design.  :) I appreciate your encouragement with regards to videoing myself,  my choice has more to do with personal comfort (I relate to the topic of social anxiety). I'm fine with in-person/group presentations and have represented my university in news media. Outside of this, I have no desire to immortalize myself in video on the internet. More than half of our cohort opted not to,  a respectable choice as we advocate for safe and collegial sharing environments inclusive of difference, so I hope you won't judge my pitch based on mine ;) -- Aside from that, an analysis of competitor products is a good suggestion. In truth I had trouble finding any that weren't sport related or had a social imperative, but I'll keep digging! :) Manufacturing cost at the seed funding stage before the product is fully prototyped and developed is a concern perhaps not yet quantifiable, but I'll certainly keep it in mind. :) Series B funding is on my roadmap classified as the expansion phase extending a year to my exit seen on the roadmap chart (3:08-3:26). I could maybe have zoomed in on the different areas to help highlight it a bit more? Expansion to 3 markets was covered a little further on my second to last slide, but you're right about exit strategry as I didn't include talk about this (I did schedule it on the roadmap slide though 3:08-3:26). Do you think an exit strategy is appropriate to be expanded upon in a seed funding pitch? Or will it look like I lack heart, and already have one foot out the door?

REVIEW: Congratulations on your very good elevator and the pitch. The video would be definitely much better choice that narrative over the images in transferring your passion and energy, so I do not fully understand why did you miss that chance and not used video. (Do not worry about the privacy, it does not exist anymore). Your speech volume is of low level, and to better transfer your passion and energy, keep it a few notches up. Initially, you did not offer any rough tech specs, of the product, which did not give the investors some tech ideas about your product, so they cannot easily assess the feasibility for investment, competiveness and market success. Also, the price you set is too high, so if you want to be and stay competitive, consider lower price. To me $70-100 would be much more appealing price. You have some big wearable industry players as powerful competitors, and you did not provide any analysis of competitor products, nor provided side-by-side comparison with your product, to show investors why they should care about your bracelet, not competitor bracelets. To make this venture pitch perfect, I suggest using video as the most powerful medium, cover the competition and employ your team to research the possible manufacturing costs (I believe they should not exceed $20 per piece), offer some specs of your product (even wish list), so that way you'll really get investors highly interested and they may accept your suggestion and invest into the product. You did not define what happens after the series B is done and your exit strategy. Anyway, you decently covered the most important aspects of your venture, and I RECOMMEND it for investment. I hope that these suggestions will be helpful to you and your team to launch quite decent venture and profit. Regards, Milorad.

Feedback: Great use of technology to create your pitches. I thought your Elevator pitch was concise and to the point. You had a clear ask. The only criticism is that the audio was very quiet and difficult to hear. Your venture pitch had a great start with the snapshot and team introduction. Your design expertise shines in this presentation. It is well researched and structured and, other than improving the audio, I can’t think of anything that you’d need to change. Awesome work as always Bobbi!

@Everone. Thanks everyone for the great feedback so far it's really helpful to hear everyone's different take. It's easy to see now where I could improve my pitch. I followed the guide video very closely that David posted, to make sure I hit all the pertinent points. With regard to more information on how the product works, it's important to consider the level of funding being asked for (seed/angel, series A, series B etc.) and what those stages of funding are typically used for. Seed funding is very early on in development and is what I'm going for in my pitch in order to have enough capital to continue designing and developing the concept. Locking into a particular technology or idea in the early stages is considered a no-no in my context (because you're first ideas are not usually your best, and because you will likely find and/or develop better solutions as you move into alpha phase if you remain flexible) this was my reasoning for not spelling out the specifics. I could have perhaps hinted that we'd be looking into bluetooth or other comparable technology though, which would be the next course of action in the ensuing R&D stage following seed funding. My pitch mentions twice that I'm looking for market and leadership expertise, in order make clear how investor connections might help achieve my venture goals, but I realize now this could have been more specific also. In regards to length, in my context you get 5 minutes max to present, so I aimed on being as clear and concise as possible. Looking back I could have chosen a little more ground to cover. It's really helpful to view everyone elses pitches now to get an idea of how to do this. I think the suggestion to talk about potentials for additional product line development (just briefly as it's early for this) would be a great addition to this pitch. Showing the different types of functions would have been nice too but comes in a later stage beyond seed funding. In terms the ask amount for seed funding, my research showed that in 2013 average amount was 1.5 million.  I had originally aimed much lower than $500,000 and realized that perhaps I was being too conservative. :)

REVIEW - First off, I think your videos are fantastic and work well together, although I went straight to the Venture video wanting more information. So whether or not the Elevator Pitch made me go forward and want more is difficult to say, because I still wanted to know more to make a better evaluation! In any case, the concept is great and as someone on the Wearable Technology team I think that wearable tech for assistive learning is definitely one of the greatest areas of growth overall. You have capitalized on this need for wearable tech in special needs learning. I don’t have a lot of experience dealing with students who have these types of problems, but I see that it could help me in a classroom situation regardless. At a 4.3 percent annual growth rate, and 13 billion dollar ceiling, there is no question that schools will be moving towards these types of devices in the future. I am not sure, however when you say straddling the wearable tech market, what you are referring to. Assistive needs and wearable tech are two different markets, but I see your device as strictly a wearable (might be a little biased here!) Your differentiation is well indicated that health and education is targeted together. Educational wearable tech is new but health is not so much, so there is definitely a combined effort here that will. I like your projection and funding map/graph, and it seems like you have thought about the future development of the product carefully. What I am concerned about is the actually functionality o the bracelet – do you think that a vibrating bracelet will sell? Your pitch is well done, but what about focusing on product development a bit more and considering multiple functionality of this bracelet for student with social anxiety disorder, etc. The teacher perhaps might be taxed and it is likely that the student will be constantly pressing their bracelet. What is the solution for communication between the student and teacher, and how will the bracelet support and ease the burden the teacher already has? There are some good questions, but overall, great job!

FEEDBACK: These are very straightforward pitches and you outline the pain point in a very concise way. I got a good picture of the wearable technologies and special needs market and how your venture intends to exploit it. I particularly appreciated the animated in-class scenario you included in your venture pitch. However, I think that the venture pitch was too short. I need more tangible information about the product and the suggested product line. I understand the significance of the product and what problem it intends resolve, but I cannot picture precisely how it will impact classroom management strategies. I also need more information about how exactly my investment would strengthen the viability of your venture in the marketplace.