Connecthis – A3 Pitch

Good use of technology to present your business pitch, and venture presentation. Attractive designs used on the web. First the 1 million dollar for 30% of the company is probably way more than required to get started in this type of business. Many of the software solutions currently used throughout K-12 education already have some or most of the features that this business would provide. That's a pretty big market to take on if you want to move into their market space, and provide all the same features. If targeting the areas with solutions that don't include the same features you offer, would require that your product cost minimal as it would be used just as an add-on to the systems currently put in place. This would require that the start up costs be much less to be viable and competitive.

Feedback:This is a very interesting message and it is important to have a connection between school and home. However, it needs more clarification and there are many technology would do the job. Also putting your voice in would make a difference in your pitch.

An interesting idea for a venture, and one that I must confess, I was playing around with myself. I thought your elevator pitch had most of the crucial information to promote your idea, but I found it lacked a little in social presence. There was no voice or picture of anyone from the championship to put a face to the product. I found your venture pitch to be organized and informative. Although you did very well detailing the pain point, I had a little difficulty conceptualizing what the product would look like. For me, the one area that had me the most concerned, as a potential investor, was the ask. A million dollars for 30% stake seemed a little steep. To me, that would mean that you value your company at $3.3 million, and I’m not sure you’re there yet. Overall, I thought the idea and solution to the problem were fantastic, but that your revenue stream and ask needs to be reconsidered.

Connectthis Feedback - The pain point is well felt, but I am not entirely sure it is completely well identified. Both teachers and parents alike talk about a lack of respect and understanding. Colliding spheres of influence and authority cause friction and problems arise where there is high levels of blame and judgement and low levels of appreciation and credibility. Cultural competency is a huge problem combined with competencies of dealing with blended and marginalized family types in school settings. I don't see how this app will help facilitate relationships with these communities. Differing values and expectations around the value of particular types of learning create conflict and both sides feel the other is unresponsive and disrespectful. As both a parent and teacher I sit on both sides of the fence here and I see the highly conflictual nature of parent/school relationships today. Beyond simply not having time or resources, there is the added question of if it's valuable or desired. I wonder about information overload. While it is nice to have access to all information, I am not sure I need a pop up every time my child gets a mark on something. As a parent I feel that reduces not improves my child's level of responsibility. This app also seems mostly concerned with the teachers providing information and parents responding. It still feels like a one way rather than two way model. I would need a lot more details about the type of functionalities specifically this would support and research from parents and teachers about what they want in terms of home/school communication and relationships. I am also concerned about the financials here. The initial cost seems very high for a relatively low share of the company. For that level of investment I would be expecting controlling shares. I would also want to see exactly how this money will be spent because it seems unreasonable for app development that uses largely existing features recombined into a new product. I liked that you used a website for your venture pitch. I thought it added a level of professionalism.

Connectthis appears to be a viable venture as it offers a mobile solution for creating and maintaining communication between school and home. The mobile platform is particularly appealing as it supports the future of education technology. Your presentation outlined key elements of a successful venture, including: Problem statement, solution, implementation, proposal, and brief bios. I’m a bit unclear about the market/competition for such an APP however. Although I’m not persuaded to invest in Connecthis, I appreciate the effort that went into producing a company web site with individual pages and an embedded elevator pitch for this project-- that’s a lot of work!

FEEDBACK: Your venture identified a large concern many parents, teachers and students share- communication. You do not state that your product could be used beyond the education boarders. Business and sports teams all face similar challenges with communication and your app could be the perfect solution for them. I suggest you market your app beyond education. I am not investing in your venture because there are very similar free apps on the market now. If you can identify how your app is different, you could see great success with your venture.

The elevator pitch about the product is concise. It presents the pain point and solutions coherently within a single minute. The music was suitable for the idea: connecting people together. For the venture pitch, you explained what problems you are solving well and came up with a great solution for providing continuous communication between homes and schools. You also described how Connecthis works in great detail. This would help investors understand what the product can do and put their support behind the idea. For the product/platform comparison, you could use a table format to show the superior features of your solution more clearly. That would convince investors that your platform differentiation is significant. Overall, your business plan - pricing model, product roadmap and revenue model - is solid and investors would benefit from the information you provided. One minor concern I have is related to this statement: "Competition is limited, because no one is offering a complete solution like we do." According to the Perfecting Your Pitch seminar video (http://vimeo.com/24813502), promoters should be careful when claiming that there is no competition. Investors might start to wonder whether the market is really there - the message "No other companies offer a similar solution!" could be interpret as "There is no real market for this product/platform".

Hi jfouellet, I think that your idea is a great one - it is easy for school and home to feel disconnected or disjointed, overwhelming families and schools alike. I liked the PowToon format of the Elevator Pitch, but I had to watch it a second time in order to determine that Connecthis was specifically an app. Your Venture Pitch was detailed and presented a clear Pain Point. I wondered about expansion beyond K-12, however. I understand the original idea to be applicable as a communications solution for students, teachers and parents. In higher ed, would Connecthis still be an appropriate tool? Is the parent portion an add-on for K-12 only? Finally, I liked that you had a clear financial ask in both presentations. As a potential investor, however, I would be looking for more detail on what $1 million would specifically enable.

Hi,

I've broken my comments down for each pitch. However, I did want to commend you for the use of technology in both presentations - PowToon and Weebly.

Elevator Pitch
I found that I did want to learn more about your product at the end of the pitch, good use of iconography and music was suitable. I chose to provide my comments before viewing the Venture Pitch. My main suggestions here would have been to add a voice over so that you could have decrease some of the text on-screen, and if not slowed the transition rate, and clarify what information is the 'hook' for the consumer.

Venutre Pitch
The idea of creating a corporate site for your product is interesting and shows creativity. The design walks the visitor through some key areas of a venture pitch. I think this would be a great feature for investors to be able to go to after an in-person pitch. I thought if it were a pitch, the 'ask' made in the Elevator Pitch could have been moved here with more detail on how profit was going to be achieved.

Mark