Here is my pitch for an original app called READgauge. The purpose of the app is to allow teachers to quickly and effectively assess the reading comprehension of their entire class simultaneously. I hope you enjoy the pitches!
Elevator Pitch
Full Pitch
REVIEW: I think your presentation is clear and articulate and the flow of your argument is logical. However, I have doubts that READgauge as presented will have any success due to the fact that it only assesses comprehension and not reading fluency. All of the reading assessment tools you spoke of assess a student's fluency as well as comprehension. To gain a true understanding of a student's reading level, teachers need more than just a quick comrehension test. I would recommend that either additional features that assess fluency be developed or READguage should be rebranded as a clicker tool and positioned to compete in that market as an alternative way to assess comprehension across the curriculum. At this time, I recommend a hold on investment for further product development.
Review - The READgauge app looks really great. I like that you have a very clearly defined problem you are trying to solve which has not been addressed by your competitors. Good job highlighting that information. I would have like to have seen more details on demographics for your user base and what your preferred revenue stream would be. I’m assuming it is a subscription based model but since it is an app, would it be a one-time purchase? Neither are negatives, just some clarity could be applied. I worry that your asking amount is far too low for the development of the app and its subsequent licensing needed for the literature. Since you want to use the cloud for accessibility, servers and developers are going to take up quite a bit of money. I can only image what book publishers will charge you to use their content as well. Good idea though and I really think we will be using stuff like this in the future very regularly.
FEEDBACK: Excellent job on the elevator pitch, I especially liked the opening animations. In your venture pitch you spoke very clearly, confidently and kept eye contact with the camera and were not reading off of anything. It felt like you were speaking directly to me and fully believed in your product. You did an excellent job of identifying the pain points and how READgauge can solve that problem. I would invest ! great work !
Review: Your pitch was clear, decisive and easy to follow. You were able to gain the viewers attention with engaging graphics and a well executed voice over. Your confidence in the product added merit to the advertising. You address a market that shows room for development. You speak about the direct benefit to teachers. I believe many teachers would be interested in the product, although I have questions around the pedagogical grounding. If this became the primary accountability measure, are teachers missing out on much of the information gained from individual assessment. The 'why' of errors in comprehension. Your pitch addressed the benefits, primarily time, and the niche as compared with competitors in similar format yet lack reading comprehension as an option. Seems like an untapped market. I am wondering about the logistics of administering the test to all students at the same time. Is there reading research to back up the assessment? Who is team you would be working with? Your investment request was clearly outlined, both in what you wanted and what you would be able to provide in return. Additionally, you showed vision in what that money would work towards.
Thanks for the feedback! It's been very helpful. This idea was really birthed out a similar frustrations to Lane. It is frustrating using so much class time to test reading comprehension. It's exiting to receive feedback that I might be onto something, and that this concept truly could be helpful, and possibly even a viable business venture. I would totally agree, that the weakness of the team is something worth highlighting. The next move for this hypothetical app would be to beef of the team with some quality designers and programmers.
REVIEW: As a venture analyst I recognize the potential in your product and the value that it would add for teachers and learners. You have presented a strong case for the need of teachers to diagnose comprehension deficiencies in students that is effective, accurate and time-saving. You have also articulated the manner by which READgauge would operate with existing tools as a means to flag the learners most in need of attention. In this manner, your tool adds the value of prioritizing interventions possible. I am concerned that the mechanism for feedback in the READpauses is multiple choice questions, which allows for guessing by students. There needs to be some consideration that weak readers jeopardize the validity of the assessment and develop some means to deal with this. An example would be subsequent questions stemming from initial selections that aid in determining why a question was wrong. I also need to know more about you, your team and how you are the ones to champion this venture. Finally, further information how will READgauge will be marketed, price, the possibility of in-App purchases and other means to secure revenue for your investors must be further developed. I believe that you have a solid product that addresses a legitimate need among teachers as a diagnostic comprehension tool. I recommend investment in this venture with the provision that you further develop your marketing plan to address these concerns.
Caleb, I really like your idea for your venture pitch. We have been mandated to do repeated reading comprehension tests as well in our school, and currently we do them all with multiple choice paper and pencil tests that take hours to one class to complete, but hours to analyze. Your elevator pitch had me interested and I would have naturally looked into your venture pitch for more information. I felt that the venture pitch was focused on the consumer and needed more information for the investor. Before making a decision to invest, I would need to know more about the team of people that were working on READgauge.
Just from your elevator pitch, my interest is piqued! I somewhat dread doing our reading comprehension, as it is so time consuming and hard to manage behaviour. This is a really good idea - I'd invest!
Read Gauge Review: The pain point is clearly identified. Read Gauge definitely would fill a niche market catering to reading comprehension. The market is presented as a hot commodity yet I would like to know the overall trend of the market; has this market continually increased for many years or is this simply a momentary peak? I would feel more comfortable as an investor to be presented with a trend rather than a static number. The product is well outlined and detailed. Yet at times it seems that the pitch was more oriented to the consumers of the product rather than the investors. The 1st 4 minutes truly focussed on the reason teachers would want to use the product more than why investors would buy into the company. Excellent sales pitch for the consumers. The “ask” for the investors is very clear and describes the use of the money. However, I am not too sure how the company will make money, there is no mention of the target audience (bought by the teacher the student or the school board) or the amount the product will be sold for. As an investor, I would have liked to see the size of their clientele pool, their projected possible revenues and the manner Read Gauge intends to reach its clientele. I am also unsure in regards to the business experience of team members of Read Gauge. I have only been introduced to one member of the team and actually know very little about his business skills. Both the elevator pitch and the venture pitch do an excellent job at separating Read Gauge from the competitors. The competitors are presented not degraded and Read Gauge is presented and shown as superior to them in reading comprehension in a clear and concise manner. The CEO of Read Gauge shows confidence, passion, seems knowledgeable and professional; I would definitely do business with Caleb yet perhaps not on this venture. The teacher in me loves the idea; I simply believe that a bit more work needs to be done before I am willing to invest. Very professional presentations!
Feedback: Glad to see you used a multimedia platform to introduce your product. Voice was nice and clear and visuals were pleasant. I like Video scribe. In terms of your elevator pitch, the whole point was to ASK for money. You need to add it to your elevator pitch. You would not get to the venture pitch at all without having that included in your elevator pitch.You have identified a need in the marketplace, and your app would fill this void. I found the elevator pitch could have made it more interesting to watch and listen if it had more interesting and interspersed images, charts and infographics. I was glad to see you asking for an amount in the venture pitch portion. It would have been a good idea to introduce your partners in this pitch and how you were going to market the idea.
