BizSchool – Personalized Business School in Your Pocket

Review: I applaud your creative and ambitious approach in your elevator pitch - it isn't easy to use conversation to generate interest. However, from the pitch alone, I learned very little about the venture. You have recognized some pain points but I don't know how you are addressing them. Your full venture pitch is packed with valuable information and well-researched links and helpful visuals and videos. I especially love the Jimmy Kimmel video as that hooked me quickly. However, as I explored further, I found myself left with many questions: who exactly is the target audience? What is the ROI? What is the original value of the app itself? It seems like you have adapted EdTech ideas like MOOCs and personalized learning but I'm not sure that you have considerable staying power in the EdTech market. You've identified many serious competitors who have already been established in the field for years but, as an EVA, I just don't feel fully convinced that Biz School can compete. Discussing what your venture brings beyond what your competitors do is a vital aspect of your pitch that I feel you may have missed. Despite that, your original content, business plan and pitch are intriguing and credible.

Review: I found the conversational piece in the elevator pitch the be unique and I don't think many people did something that similar. The conversation relayed the pain points well but I thought that it was difficult to get a good sense of what BizSchool is, what it can do for the entrepreneur, and how exactly it was going to do it. As an EVA reading into the venture pitch, I thought the pitch lacked specifics on how Biz Venture manages to personalize learning for the entrepreneur, and how it differentiates itself from the competitor. For example, using the premise brought up in your elevator pitch as an example. If the entrepreneur wanted to start a restaurant and was unsure of how to proceed, how would Biz Venture teach accounting, marketing, strategy, business intelligence, operation management, international trade, real estate, economics, and finance specifically to help him start a restaurant? Is Biz Venture suppose to do that or am I missing something here? Perhaps Biz Venture could be augmented so that it provides this sort of information as opposed to general business knowledge in order to differentiate itself from the competition, which you have listed. I believe that in order to more strongly differentiate your system with your competitors, you needed to discuss how your system personalizes learning path for the learner, and seeing how it offers something competitors do not have, it is difficult to determine whether or not Biz Venture is a good business to invest in.

Yuandi, your venture has me interested in participating as a student already! Until taking this course, I had no previous experience in business or any knowledge for that matter, so I have been convinced at the need for your venture service. My only concern would be your sources of profit (if you are aiming for making money) and the need for a placement test before registering for courses. You might be able to get more business, and in turn more money, if you drop the placement and let anyone sign up and participate! The analysis of competitors are very detailed, so if you don't intend on making BizSchool a reality, I will be tempted to check one of those out for some personal development. Good work though!

Yuandi Du, nice work on the pitch.

I like the conversational concept for the elevator pitch.  I haven’t seen that used yet. And that Kimmel bit was a great touch. Throughout ETEC 522 I have been thinking about Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank. The boys could definitely use Bizschool.

The site is well organized and I find the high-contrast color scheme gives it a very professional air. Your “Biz Market” is excellent. Your pitch, in general, seems well researched but this section in particular convinces an investor that you have done your homework. The fact that you analysed the competition so transparently gives me confidence that you understand the market and are differentiated sufficiently.

I would appreciate a more detailed “Plan and Asking” section. As an investor, this is perhaps the most important section. I understand the difficulty from my own experience with this assignment, but perhaps just adding a few more projections that include the customer base and unit cost. I share Briar’s questions about how this venture is supposed to make money.

This is a good idea and I have used something similar from Womens enterprise group located here in Vancouver. http://womensenterprise.ca/ They also walk you through the process based on your needs and put you in touch with your mentor and resources related to your business. My concern with your application is the scalability and the resources you will use to support your customers. Who will the experts be who coach the subscribers, what are their qualifications and will they be able to adapt their knowledge for different markets, industries and regions? One think I understand from my own ventures is that the three things that matter most in business - location, location, location (and I think this still applies in the digital realm as it matters where and how your products are accessed) are not universally true and it is important to understand your market in order to suceed. While the layout and format of your app is very good and I think it would be very attractive to the generation that is using their phone as their primary resource and form of interaction, I would need to know more about how you going to support your users and the expertise that would be available and the target market before investing.

There is a grammatical mistake in the introduction (should read "committing to their own companies"; not "commit to their own companies.) Your reflection is excellent. Your elevator pitch is interesting and engaging with the dialogue and visuals you used, but there are some grammatical errors here too. I am very impressed by this idea and the website you created for your venture pitch! You have excellent information about competitors and marketing! I would like to hear more about the cost of the product and how you are different from your competitors.

I think this is an excellent idea. I can see from your elevator pitch that there is a large market for this type of product. Although much of this information can be easily accessed online, a concise package of subjects that cover all you need to know would be very handy. I think in order to make this a viable venture a great deal more research would need to be completed. You have not outlined what the cost of the product is and that would be very concerning for investors. I like that you walked the investor through the steps taken to acquire and start using the product, but I would like to see more information on how the content will be created, how it will be presented etc. Good job!

Hi Yuandi,

Interesting concept, I used to run an entrepreneurial team as an extracurricular with my high school students and organized Junior Achievement for two years. I think entrepreneurial education is very important, there is lots for an entrepreneur to know when it comes to business, on top of their business specialty! Having a one stop, high value hub for business courses make sense.

I also believe that personalized learning for the types of knowledge that business owners might need is a great idea. I know that when I needed to know something it was because I was going to use it right away. I also agree, that the typical Browser search is either too general or too technical and takes too much time to find what you want.

I am trying to understand where you make your money. Are all of the courses available for free? You mention MOOCs so it sounds like courses would be free. However, the value added personal tutor time would be where you recover your money?

Also, where are you getting the content for the courses? This would be an expensive upfront cost. If you have a chance, I might suggest looking at Mariana's e-Mining Business Model, they partner with authors but then receive money from the sale. Is your model maybe a bit like Lynda.com? Where learners pick from free one and then pay a subscription fee for monthly access?

I like that you have a needs test at the beginning of their course selection. Again, I have mentioned before how much I like quantified self and productivity apps, a tool that help point me to areas that I need to concentrate on would be wonderful.

I appreciated your venture pitch, it was different than others that I have seen so far submitted, and I liked listening in to your conversation about your needs and the pain points. You might have included some other images other than the speech bubbles, but you got the message across and I liked the last line about learning in your pocket.

Thanks so much Yuandi too for introducing us to the competition, I will definitely be checking those out!

Hi Yuandi. I think the product idea you have is interesting in targeting entrepreneurs starting out businesses. So I believe it does well in answering that pain point as people who start businesses need to worry about all facets from finances to marketing where their experience level in those areas may be lacking. I find that the potential behind the business is limited to those who are just starting out their companies because most businesses that are looking to scale, they will hire the appropriate accountant or HR person or will attempt to get formal accreditation within that area themselves. The way I view the product is potentially a Wikipedia or Coursera of businesses with a testing component. I believe it does well in probably teaching people about content areas if they are simply looking to expand their knowledge but those who are looking for very specific information – labour laws pertaining to human resources or a specific accounting process may not find a use for it. The idea that there is a diagnostic test is a unique selling point to determine comfortable areas. That is Bizschool’s selling point. I would have liked to see some images to vary up the elevator pitch to make it more engaging but I think your website was pretty clear and answered a lot of questions I had. At this time, I probably would not invest because I would like to see more on how this differentiates itself but it’s a good idea.