Train Start-up: An eLearning service venture focused on Start-ups

FEEDBACK: Hi Moumita, great work on developing your venture pitch! This is a unique and creative idea. Workplace training is an important area of education, and I have often wondered if an introductory (and mandatory!) eLearning course for new hires would help in my workplace. That being said, I work in an established environment and not a start-up. I wonder, given the nature of a start-up, how well this venture would be adopted?

Review: I enjoyed watching and reading about your venture and I commend you for pursuing the development of a service as opposed to an actual product. It is clear that you understand the pain points of start up companies and your venture is designed well to deal with their difficulties. As an EVA with experience working in a start up, I find it difficult to invest in an LMS consulting for start ups. As an employee of a start up company, it is expected that employees are self-motivated and independent, and have the ability to problem solve and to learn concepts individually. Many workers who join start ups are looking for such a challenge, and as a leader of a start up, they should be looking for employees who are independent learners to join their ranks in the beginning, why it is hard to implement an LMS for these start ups is because in a lot of situations, employees at a start up get very little time to "learn stuff on the side". Many of them are tossed into the fire, and rightfully so, because investment in too much employee training in the beginning stages of a start up is thought of by many as not a good use of resources. However, I do believe there is room to offer consulting services to companies looking for an LMS to train its employees.

Moumita, thank you for your venture idea. It's clearly a niche market that people can dive into (since I have already reviewed another post in this class with a similar idea) but the elevator pitch did nothing for me unfortunately. Just text being written by scribe was a little underwhelming and not convincing enough if I were a potential investor. However, your site was very detailed, especially your proposed scenarios! That's a great way to not necessarily get involved with concrete numbers when starting up a venture. But mentioning that work would be outsourced to a specialist in India is not something necessary to be told from the get go potentially... What if international business laws come into play because of this? How safe is my investment? What if something goes wrong on the other side (data, security, etc) - is there anything that can be done from my side to protect my investment/business contract? Other than that, I'm sure you can succeed if you make this business into an actual project, so I wish you the best of luck with it!

This was exceptionally well done. I think your site walks us all through a professional and well laid out proposal for a venture and ask for financial investment. I really liked the way your site broke down the steps, identified the problem/need in the market, provided your solution and then gave an overview of your product, options for the client and the rationale for the amount you are asking for from your investors. I disagree that the target market will not be able to support this....it is a huge market and there are many businesses who are looking at online training options for their staff and need advice and direction and then assistance in getting started. By providing this service you provide a basis from which you can grow and adapt as the market needs and you will be well placed given your connection to and reputation with the firms and businesses you have supported to both market and support existing clients and new clients with new technologies and options. This last point puts you in a very good position with the rapidly changing Edtech market. You would be invested in no one application or market but poised to promote, educate and embed them all on an as needed and as wanted basis. I have no negative comments and thank you for this presentation as I learned a great deal on how to present a polished and well laid out venture pitch.

Hi Moumita, a quite interesting idea, and one which could have lots of promise in areas like HR. Generally, I feel that startups are lean and the people onboard are experts in what they need to do. However, they may be missing some soft-skills which would provide them opportunities to potentially work more efficiently and harmoniously. Could an LMS provide that effectively? As for the presentation, I appreciated the breakdown of what you were doing on your site, but the elevator pitch did not really sway me. I would look to get more emotion out of the viewer.

Feedback: The elevator pitch was simple and to the point but I would have preferred more personalization like your voice or some images. Additionally, some of the points passed too quickly for me to digest. As others have suggested the target market may not be able to support the company in the long run so I would be hesitant to invest.

Your elevator pitch is clear and succinct. I love the high contrast and the use of Videoscribe. The venture pitch does a good job of posing scenarios and offering solutions. I don't think that many companies, especially small start-up companies could afford this training. I thin they would just need to do their own research online and ask colleagues about various LMSs that are available to help them to select the right product. I feel that this is a great idea for the already-rich, who probably don't need any support. However, I do not work in the business world. I a K-12 educator, so perhaps I am missing something here. Either way, excellent work on the presentation of your ideas!

This is an excellent idea. I thought the layout of your ideas were well organized and clear. However, as I currently work for a start up I do not see a need for such a service to be implemented in small spaces such as ours. Other employees can quickly train new learners and these businesses often do not have the funds to use such a service. I would aim your venture at smaller businesses with a quick turnover of staff. Perhaps those in the hospitality industry where training needs to be clear, effective and time efficient. There is definitely a need for e-learning in companies. It can remove a great deal of stress and help employees perform to the best of their ability. Good luck and great starting point for an interesting venture.

Hi Moumita! I enjoyed going through your venture and I think the website is very succinct and to the point. The price point scenarios in flexible payment is particularly well done. I am not sure if start-ups are the correct target market to focus in on. Most start-ups are usually hard pressed for cash and may consist of just a core group of initial developers. I think if you were to shift the target market to small businesses looking to scale their operations it might be better suited because at that time, they have staffing and a team with which this training could be directed to. As a start-up, considering the business identity and core may be changing at a drastically high rate as the business is in its infancy so a developed curriculum may no longer be relevant unless your service provides an ongoing updating process. This would definitely allow for changes to be incorporated. When you mentioned the differentiation factor, you cited being based in Vancouver. I wonder if your clientele base would all have to be based on Vancouver if you are providing consulting services? That part was not quite clear to me as I believe a LMS based business should not be region specific. That being said, I think the venture pitch does a good job at conveying the ideas, proving a pain point and offering a solution.