SchoolBook – Social Media and a Virtual Classroom

Hi Jesse, interesting idea! I like the "mobile first" concept, as I think it's the way we are heading to. I also like the idea of having everything in one place. Strong competitors though! I'm not a teacher, but I think this could work well for students at the highschool level.

Hi Jesse, First off, LOVE the name -- so apt. I thought you did a great job in both pitches presenting the most critical pieces of information in such a way that made it very clear what SchoolBook was aiming to achieve. I understand other reviewers' hesitation about relying on every student having their own device, but if we're not there yet, we will very soon be, so that wouldn't deter me from investing in the venture. I do, however, know that there are other apps, like Edsby, that provide a product very similar to what you're proposing so I would want to see ways that SchoolBook could differentiate itself from its competitors before making a final decision. Overall, a very thorough presentation and examination of SchoolBook's potential. Thanks for sharing!

REVIEW: Hi Jesse, thanks for sharing these excellent pitches! Both of your videos are of a high quality and enjoyable to watch. The key strengths I saw in your venture pitch was the integration of a social media feel and the idea of being mobile first. I think you have chosen a difficult venture area to break into with this app, and I wonder about its overall viability. You will certainly have a great deal of competition, and given the ever-changing role of technology in classrooms I wonder if an app would be a good investment. I really appreciated your assessment of the value of a mobile first approach, and the ability for schools to mitigate the costs of hardware. I am also very keen on the idea of being able to access a learners history through archive data to be able to chart their learning progress over the years. As an investor, despite the benefits that your app pitches, I would be hesitant to invest in this product. With larger tech companies beginning to focus their efforts towards education I wonder what classrooms will look like in the next few years.

Review: Hi Jesse – interesting idea. There is a lot I like about this pitch. School purchasing of hardware seems somewhat outdated in a very budget conscience world where as you point out security and infrastructure costs are significant. BYOD seems to be the ideal path forward, but I can’t imagine primary grade students bringing their own device – perhaps school supplied hardware for younger students and byod once they move past primary is a good compromise. Apart from this I thought the pitch was well thought out, particularly the financials – you have a great sense of how much funding you need and where you can go with that funding. It did occur me to that your solution seemed similar to Edmodo, but the key differentiator (mobile first development) is significant and seems to meet the students where they are – on their mobile device! I have spent some time as a substitute and the biggest source of tension with students is their mobile device – some teachers ban them altogether, others tolerate, but I find the most successful strategy is integration. You’re price point seems reasonable and affordable for schools – I think it varies from school to school and board to board, but I know the Toronto District School Board has adopted Edmodo across the board, available for teachers to utilize – I would imagine selling at the board level would also be successful. I could have used some more info on your team and a bit more flushing out of your sales and marketing plan, but for the most part, great job!

Hi Jesse! Thanks so much for you venture pitch! I can associate with your pitch because our school is undergoing a lot of infrastructure changes including the implementation of a new 1-to-1 program in the Middle School and a new LMS for the entire school. There are a couple points in your pitch that I would like to address and offer some constructive feedback. First of all, in terms of your competition, there is an LMS that is quite similar to your concept called Edsby. The interface of Edsby is similar to Facebook, it has course management functions similar to Edmodo, and its pricing structure is around $5 per student per year. You may want to check out their website and YouTube videos. Secondly, when talking about a software based, device agnostic, cost effective and highly mobile tool for the classroom, one cannot deny the presence of Google Apps for Education. Many of the functions that you mentioned could be handled using a combination of their free and integrated tools. It would have been interesting to see how you would position SchoolBook to a GAFE school.

Hi Jesse, Thanks for sharing this venture, it's really neat. I need to qualify my review here by sharing the fact that I am not a classroom teacher and don't have a lot of experience with LMS beyond Connect - this is because I am both a student at UBC and a faculty member. My previous experiences at university were all "old school" pen and paper affairs. I'm really interested in your venture, in that it leverages devices that students already have. I thought your pitch was well developed, and your understanding of the market was strong! However I think your venture possibly makes an unfair assumption that students have devices that they can exclusively use to access the platform. In our community I see many students at the post-secondary level from poorer communities without smartphones, laptops and tablets. Students like this tend to borrow laptops from our library each day and return them at night. They are using public libraries to complete their homework because they do not have internet at home. Until the issue of equity in device ownership can be assured, I am fairly uncomfortable with investing in a venture like this.

Like another review I have made, I want to preface this one by saying I am a social media holdout who only got a twitter account last month for this course. That being said, Schoolbook seems like a neat take on the LMS concept and I am intrigued by the mobile-first philosophy. I think it really speaks to the student user but it might not be a great fit for some parents and (if my school is any indication) about 30-50% of teachers. In looking at other platforms throughout this course, I see a lot of the other companies getting key teachers to try out the platform and bring it into their schools. This might be a marketing angle you want to consider to get to 1% of Edmoto's market penetration. Signing up younger, tech savvy teachers to be ambassadors (they'd sell the students and educate the social media holdouts like myself) for you could speed up your expansion.

Hey Jesse, thanks for sharing your pitch. It was quite interesting to watch, and something that I am pretty sure many educators would love to see. You nailed it when you said "mobile first" experience. I have found that most LMS don't offer mobile experiences, and you really want something that brings school into the context of the mobile millenia. 

I feel that it is a challenge to recruit new schools, and would encourage your pitch to think of a strategy which offers some type of incentive to get schools on board (beyond the advantages the app could provide).

One of the biggest challenges you may face is how crowded this market is. You have LMS on one side, with thousands of options. On the other side you have Social sites popping up, with many that only a 12 year old would know. With that in mind, you would have to make a really compelling story to interest investors. 

Jesse, I enjoyed your pitch and your idea. As we continue to move into a mobile world - this app can fit into that scene. There are many positives that you have included into the concept that could make this app something that users want to use. I like how the work and information can follow the student. This could be useful to capture the progress that students have made. Finally, the communication that could be had between teachers and parents through this app could take it to the next level. Thanks for the pitch.