CareerPave

FEEDBACK: Interesting idea. I like that students can see which skills transfer between careers. It's almost like receiving badges for competencies. Your app can have a wider appeal that just students, however the challenge will be is discoverability. How will students and others find your app? You will have to spend a lot of money on marketing or no one will know your app exists.

Feedback: Great idea to connect much needed career planning in a format that secondary students understand and feel familiar. With so many career options and institutions to offer programming, how will you compile the possibilities? Success is a variable term, depending on the definition, different skills will be required. Who would be consulted to give this advice? You presented a clear explanation of the problem being addressed with your app.

Ivana, I appreciate your idea for an app that can assist youth with career goals. However, as an investor I would have liked to either hear or see your engagement with the product rather than simply reading about it. I did appreciate the detail your website included about the venture and your background in humane resources and business sales lends some strength to your pitch. I'm not entirely convinced there is a niche market for CareerPave though and in my view as an investor I believe it will be a challenge to compete with all the apps available. I'm also not sure that $5000 will be enough to get started in development and coding for the app. As an investor I would be reluctant to invest.

Feedback: Your idea is an interesting one considering that many post secondary students today report that they still can't find jobs in their field of study. I definitely see a need for your app, but it is a crowded market space, and as you mentioned there a plenty of free apps / government funded site that do the same thing. Perhaps adding jobs or business connections element to it might better differentiate your product. (ie career path + linkedin)

Ivana, this is an interesting idea that I think would help some of my past students that return to our community with their degree need direction on what to do next. As jgourley stated, you have focused on Ontario, but this could have been a much larger market. I agree that you could start in Ontario to start your product, but their may be specialty programs in other areas of Canada/US that would like to be in a partnership to promote their programs. For example, when I attended the University of Saskatchewan, the Faculty of Agriculture was working hard to expand the understanding of their program. I would also be more likely to invest if you had found a software developer already, and was able to include them in your description of you team.

Review— Overall, I like the concept. I think this type of things would have been really for me when I was in university. That being said, I’m not 100% sure there is enough in the business model to make this viable. You’ve pretty much focused on just Ontario, how many students are there entering post-secondary each year? That would be your market for new users each year, and of that how many would download the app? I see this as a nice cottage extra money type venture, but I’m not sure the numbers would justify. The other issue is updating, especially if you were to include private colleges and training schools. I've had some experience with cataloging programs. It takes some time from year to year. It would be a huge effort to verify and update programs each year. I’m not sure expanding your venture to other jurisdictions would work either as I think that would just complicate things. However, if you were to change to a sponsorship model and there was a suite of apps at this market there could be more potential. I understand you’re at a bit of a handicap due to the technical issues with you elevator pitch, maybe it would have outlined this a bit more for me. If I’m investing, I’d be looking for more of a return. That being said, you’re really not looking for much so I’m on the fence. If a friend of mine approached me as one of 10 or so people to buy in for $500 I might think about it. The risk is small, but if I think of it as an investment— I’m not there. Like I said I think your concept is sound, there is just a little bit to be worked out in the details.

Apologies, Ivana: my post was intended to be feedback, not a review Craig

Review of CareerPave The pain point is clearly identified and the product is well described. Yet I am not too sure how the suggested product will answer to the issues and solve the pain point; there is no mention on whether the lack of marketability of students is responsible for the current low employment rate. The target market is clearly identified and a growth strategy is provided. The presentation clearly mentions the minimum amount required to start the app, yet as an investor I do not know if that is the asking investment or not. I can clearly see how the CEO's past experience can help in advancing the company yet I do not know any other members of the team. As a investor I was hoping for a stronger rationale of the markets viability supported by numbers, facts and trends. How many students are currently enrolled in post-secondary education, how many people currently use career services? Also there seems to be a slight discrepancy between marketing the product as a B2B and also having it available to the individual for 0,99$. It is also unclear if it is to be used in association with the free career counsellors offered in post-secondary institutions or if it was to be used alone as an alternative to this service. How often will be the app be updated? As an investor, how can CareerPave guarantee a return on my investment in 2-4 months? As an investor there are unfortunately too many questions left unanswered.

FEEDBACK: I think this is a great idea but as you mentioned in your venture pitch, it is a crowded market. My feedback is that in order to be competitive, I think you need to raise the stakes a lot higher, generate enough interest to attract a sizable investment. There are too many free applications out there for a $.99 app to compete with. I feel a new venture such as this one would require enough capital to generate real and useful results. And once you have those results and testimonials, that would in turn help to sell the app at a higher price to recover costs. Thoughts on this?

Review I totally understand technical issues with computers. It makes it difficult to produce what you want to make the presentation more interesting and lively. However, in terms of your project, it reflected that you would be the CEO and that you have experience in human resources. Creating an app would mean you would need a programmer unless you know the process of creating an app or a team of programmers. One of the most difficult things to do for any app is marketing. There is such a proliferation of apps in the marketplace already and so many websites that offer job placement. The world is also in an economic upheaval which makes it even more difficult to find a job. You would need a team and many resources to make connections with would be employers looking for workers. Even though you discussed a competitor, you needed to look at a broader picture which would include marketing and a social media presence. I think you under-estimated the financial requirement for this venture. I think you need to re-think the monies and round out your team prior to submitting a pitch. I would redo the pitch after you see all the recommendations. I think you also underestimated your competition. To only include college students you would be narrowing your apps potential revenue. An investor wants to make lots of monies and when he sees you are only capturing a portion of the marketplace, he might run away. You want to make it compelling, and worthwhile. You also need to show the potential revenue in segmented markets on this app. This means the potential jobs in areas such as theater, retails etc. So you have some more number crunching to do. A lot more number crunching to do.