I Read You

FEEDBACK: your sales pitch was excellent, the pace of it was really good and I loved the upbeat music. I felt like I was watching a professionally made commercial on television. I also really like the name of your venture "I Read You", it kind of has a double meaning. Not only referring to leveled etextbooks but it also comes across as "I understand you" towards students with diverse needs. Not sure if that was intentional, but very clever if it was. I love your idea of having a uniform curriculum that is customizable to meet the needs of a variety of student needs. I think this is a very promising venture and something I would feel comfortable investing in.

@rrto Exactly!

REVIEW: I am absolutely willing to invest in your venture. You did a really good job of creating an engaging elevator pitch with minimal use of graphics and visuals, other than the text. I found myself really focusing on the words and the message you were trying to get across. It is great that you emphasize how valuable your app will be to teachers right out of the gate, on the home page of your venture pitch. Educators are having more demands placed on them then ever, and more and more students are in need of extra assistance. The salience of this trend and promise of your product to address it has me instantly captivated. The simple and easy-to-follow design of your pitch is great. While reading through, any questions the arose for me were addressed on subsequent pages. The assumption I have gathered from your pitch is that you are opening the floor to any investors that are passionate about inclusive learning and potentially willing to play an active role, which is a selling point for me. Your financials are presented in a manner that is clear and concise, and I especially liked that you provided a breakdown of where the money will be spent. Lastly, the current status update gave me that final push toward wanting to invest in your venture! It is clear that you and your team have already immersed yourself in this project, have garnered attention and endorsement at the provincial level, and will be extending beyond that through your upcoming presentation at the Exhibition of Educational and Learning Products Expo!

Thanks for the clarification, Lane. I thought this was geared more for English than for science. So, in other words, you might have "fibula" in one version and "leg bone" in another?

Maureen, Caleb, thanks for the kind feedback! Tina, you raise a point that I did not anticipate - I did not think that whole schools would purchase this, but I was targeting individual teachers that would want to purchase the service. I initially thought $10 would be reasonable, but changed it to $5 to guarantee more business. I also do not intend for this service to be another teach out of the book reader. @rrto, I came up with the idea, as I'm teaching a science unit, and my FASD boy is operating at a grade 1 level, my LD student is at a grade 2 level, etc. It's been hard finding materials that they can use for our PBL units on human body, extreme environments so that they are learning the same CONTENT (wish this had italics), but at their level of reading comprehension.

Hi Lane - I found every element of your piece to be polished and well thought out. The pain point that you identify is highly relatable for your audience. Your solution helps both teachers and students. One of the features that I found attractive was the support for student self-esteem through ensuring that all students are working with the same materials, but in a form and at a level that best supports them. This is a great example of the personalized learning trend already identified in our course. From an investors perspective, your team comes across a very well rounded and includes not only educational and software expertise, but the critical business know-how as well. It also appears that you have some fairly significant champions outside of your core team. Overall, the product seems quite nimble due to its dynamic materials, and the fact that it operates across multiple languages and platforms. I don't work in K -12, so it is hard for me to assess the financials and whether the price point makes sense for your market, but in terms of the pitch itself your financials were well organized and easy to understand. Glad I had a chance to take a look!

REVIEW: As an investor I am motivated to throw my weight behind I Read You. My motivation to do so is more of an investment in the way I believe the market is going, and not the immediate impact the app could have. I feel that the financial projections are slightly optimistic, but agree that it is in line with established market trends. Currently most schools are still using hardcopy textbooks for students and until curriculums change or textbooks wear out, they will continue to do so. Inevitably, they will be moving digital at some point in the future and this venture clearly outlines a number of reasons to do so. We are already seeing digital copies used successfully at the post-secondary level and we should see it trickle down over the next number of years. What appeals to me most is how the app is something every classroom teacher would appreciate. As an investor, this is paramount to me, because any product I back must be highly sought after by the target market. The ability to automatically and seamlessly tailor the text to individuals is invaluable; especially when it makes the text available to all students, regardless of ability. I also appreciated the clear and concise approach of the venture. There was no guess work required as I switched between pages. Clearly we have a quality product that will be appealing to its audience and is in line with current technological trends…I have decided it is imperative that I back I Read You.

FEEDBACK: Your elevator pitch and pain point really spoke to me as this is a great description of an average in our district. I imagine the same problem exists everywhere. Your pitch itself is well done. You have VERY clearly identified the problem and a potential solution. You have also added the numbers to back it up and, on paper, it looks very appealing to potential investors. Now... from a teaching perspective, unfortunately I am not sure I would support purchasing this product. First, for a "minimum annual cost of $5 per student" that would mean that my school of 225 students would need to pay your company $1125 every year. This is WAY out of line with our budget... guaranteed. We already struggle to justify currently paying $75 x 4 ($300 / year) for an annual subscription to RAZ-Kids online reading program. Very few of our teachers use any textbooks (myself included). Instead, we are engaging our students in discussions, inquiry based project work, using hands on artifacts, and creation ideas to demonstrate understanding. All of these things already meet the diverse needs of learners... for free. So I'm sorry, but from an educational standpoint I appreciate where you are coming from but think I would have to pass.

Lane, your pain point here is a salient one that all teachers today can relate to. Individualized instruction to teach a universal curriculum for objective marks is a huge conundrum, but after going through your beautifully designed site, I still don't really see an answer to that question. In the "Solution" you say "We take your curriculum and create leveled (sic) passages so that all students in the classroom are working with the same materials. Each passage can be changed so that the text is now at the grade level of the reader." How can they be levelled and still be the same materials? If each passage is at the grade level of the reader, how does that help the students you mentioned in your elevator pitch who are are reading two grades below or three grades above their grade level? Some of these specifics need to be clarified. $5 per student, or roughly $150 per class, is a competitive price considering that might only buy you one or two textbooks, so it would be good value for a principal, but on your end, creating custom materials for an entire class for only $150 seems like a daunting task. That's why it's still the teacher's job and at least at this point, seems unfeasible in uploading to a private company.

FEEDBACK - Lane, I think you have put together a great proposal. You have clearly identified the problem that your solution is addressing and how you plan on providing a solution. Your elevator pitch and website are well laid out and make a clear proposal. However, when I put my Venture Analyst hat on I am hesitant to consider this venture for deeper review because of two reasons: (1) I believe your scope is too broad. While I can sympathize with wanting to solve all problems related to the current textbook/reading problem, it seems to me that you are tackling too many issues - learning disabilities, digitization, languages, learning styles and levels. That seems like way too many considerations. I believe that a narrower focus would have made your presentation stronger. (2) I am aware of some competition in this domain (Books That Grow, Read 2 Me, Read2Go etc.) and I wanted to see more about how your solution offers greater value or plans on distinguishing its offering. The one great positive in your presentation was that I could feel your enthusiasm.