BOLT – Simple. Secure. Paperless K-12 Assessment

Review: Your pitch is full of solid info, with great hooks and pacing that ensures your credibility. Your website is well-designed and your logo is simple and cool. As a classroom teacher, I've struggled with restricting student use of devices during testing so I can definitely identify with the paint points you've brought up. BOLT comes at an important time in education and I like the environmental aspects of your venture. As an EVA, I especially appreciate your Blueprint page where you break down the numbers and growth plans. I like the idea of a 12-month action plan as that gives you considerable time to prototype BOLT. A K-12 assessment tool is tricky to design as it would have to generate value in both kindergarten and grade 12 and I wonder how BOLT can do that. What ways would BOLT differentiate between two vastly different customers? I am impressed overall with your confidence, design and concept.

Feedback: Your elevator pitch does a good job of delineating what BOLT can bring to the EdTech sector and how it can work in a classroom. As a secondary school English teacher, I very rarely give tests or quizzes as we have largely moved to project-based learning where students are driven by critical questions and we explore different types of text that help them formulate complex answers to these. Truthfully, I can't remember the last time I gave a test -- years ago. The focus is really on critical thinking, whereas texts and quizzes often work well for content, which isn't much of a focus anymore. That being said, I know my science and math colleagues use tests and quizzes often and I have a feeling in any subject area where teachers are teaching content (e.g. periodic table, geometry, the second world war) this would likely be quite popular. Could it be embedded into existing LMS? (e.g. could Bolt be used within the Desire2Learn shell?) In terms of instructional design, this seems to be the current trend. I think, however, I might consider using tests or quizzes as formative assessments to measure what they already know, etc. if I had access to technology like BOLT. I'd love for it to organize the results for me and keep track of the data to give me snapshots over time (e.g pre- and post-assessments).

REVIEW: Good pitch, well articulated. Pedagogically, I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea of testing, I do see this working in other sectors. Though moving at a glacial pace, education has (started) and will eventually phase out tablets. Now testing is also going to eventually become something where many teachers phase out, especially in the elementary years. I do see this working with corporate learning or other sectors. I like that it is paperless. I like that I could build a quick assessment if need be. It can be useful, though I would have a hard time backing a venture based on testing (as a teacher anyway). Overall, the pitch was professional and well done.

Claudia, you have developed a great pitch. The layout and the logical progression of information was easy to read and digest. I need this product. I have said elsewhere that assessment is an aspect of my teaching practice that I really struggle with. Just listening to that photocopier churn out paper assessments that I know the students will hate and that will only yield dubious assessment value, sets my teeth on edge. So from a teacher’s perspective, I am already hooked.

From an EVA’s perspective I find that you have answered all my questions sufficiently. I especially enjoy the competitor comparison (Nothing Beats Bolt!). It is a simple graphic but does so much to show how Bolt covers more bases than anyone else in the business. Your 12 month action plan also confers confidence to potential investors.

Your site looks very professional. My suggestion would be to add some more ‘academic’ sources to your pitch. For example, you mention ‘authentic’ student work. Perhaps some research into why or how Bolt would be better than paper tests would help sell it to overwhelmed administrators.

Great work.

Hi Claudia Fantastic elevator pitch! What software did you use for it? I had a super frustrating time trying to figure something out and eventually landed on Filmora. Bolt really identifies a current gap in how teachers use technology. Being able to lockdown what other applications are launched is a fantastic add-on too; that's got to be one of the biggest concerns with using technology for testing. Also, as a bit of hippie, I really appreciate the environmental angle you've thrown in here too - BC is probably a great demographic to start with. Your mock-ups are great too, it's refreshing to actually be able to see a product being pitched in "action". I think being able to electronically share the results with parents is huge too, and honestly was a bit shocked to see that no other products out there are offering something similar. It might border on too much micro-managing from the parents, but the capability to share is certainly an important feature. I really appreciate the timeline you set out in the Blueprint section too - I'm thinking I should have done this too :) My only 1 criticism here, strictly imagining myself being an investor (because, this is seriously great!) is that I would have liked to see some numbers regarding the cost model (ie, is it per school, per device, per student) and then an idea as to how I - the investor - would make my money back. All in all, fantastic work. I'd definitely be interested in investing!

FEEDBACK: I really like this venture, and can immediately see how I could use this in my own teaching profession. I work in a school with a 1-to-1 program, and do currently use paper for tests (it’s pretty much the only time we use a lot of paper!), due to the desire to maintain the integrity of assessments. The ability of BOLT to ‘lock out’ other applications during tests is its biggest selling point. Preventing copy-paste, and basically turning their laptops/iPads into digital ‘paper’ is an excellent concept. I do think that this would work best with iPads (iPad Pros, specifically, due to their paper-sized screens!), along with a stylus, as many of my tests require drawing diagrams, labeling pictures, and completing math equations (something that is very difficult to do with a laptop, unless they are using a peripheral device like an Intuos tablet & stylus). I also like the addition of time-sensitive questions, as it forces students to be more attentive when it comes to time management (although for some students, this could make their anxiety levels go through the roof!). The fact that students can perform tests digitally is a big step up from traditional paper-test writing, since you can add drag-and-drop features, animations, and other, more interative and engaging elements. This is one of my favourite ventures. Well done!

Hello Claudia, I really enjoyed your elevator pitch. Including the visual reference to a computer and the iPad really helped to strength what your Pain Point and Market Focus is for your Venture Pitch. In your venture you might face some pretty fierce and steep competition because from an EVA Point of View this would be competing against other educational mark programs such as Edmodo and Fresh Grade. But from an EVA perspective I think there is potential here for you to angle your pitch to be the exact opposite from these large and well established enterprises already and target the smaller markets or buyers who wish to buy for themselves. Or for clients who do not want to support the large multinational organizations for their own reasons.

BOLT is definitely an innovative and compelling concept. The future shall and will go towards paperless assessment, which can be saved on cloud server so people can maintain a long-term record of their learning outcome. Claudia, a great job both for elevator pitch and venture pitch! They both articulated very well validity of the concept and how it is compared to alternative approaches. As an investor, seeing part of the product demo further convinces me. It would be even more compelling if we can add in some business analysis such as business model, market analysis, etc.

Hi Claudia, Great use of the elevator pitch. You definitely picked an area of education that needs a lot of help. I'm sure every teacher was nodding their head when you say you can help them with true authentic assessment. I like the fact that you put a couple of examples on your website to allow us to see what it looks like. As an investor the only thing I think needed to be explained a little further would be the money. A little more specifics on the how much it would cost schools etc and maybe some expectations on how much you feel will come in on year 1,5 10. Good Job

Hi Claudia,

I appreciate the authenticity of your software application. You are a teacher’s teacher helping out colleagues with a product that will help make our lives simpler. Thank you. I agree there is too much paper assessment but I have never really thought about how to get out from under it. I think your idea has promise.

I especially like that you mention the product will allow teachers to share their assessments with each other! Again, I think you are thinking as a problem solver to a common teacher problem, which if solved can bring your company some attention. I don't know much about the market, I am familiar with the competition you mention; but I am incredulous that aren't other BOLT like products out there - your product has more and more potential! Definitely, thought your comparison table was powerful argument for how you beat out competitors.

Another strength of your proposal is the growth opportunity that you mention the tool can interact with educational records management systems. I must admit, I have been out of the K-12 system for almost a decade now, but I am interested to learn more about these electronic student management systems. Is this all digital now? Again, an integrated application would be so helpful. I just remember have to go to the records room at year end and having to manually enter my homeroom data, yuck. So again, great solution for teacher pain points.

I liked your action plan, from experience in participating in software development, I feel, considering the multiple user roles that need to get designed, and the complexity of how different users can interact will require significant architectural specification, and subsequent prototype testing, that your timeline might be a little on the optimistic side. I would give yourself an extra year. Again, from what I know, and perhaps there are other ways to bring software products to market, but beta testing basically starts with a almost market ready product. Just stretch out your timelines, the activities that you are engage in seem reasonable.

As an investor, I was just quickly thrown by your physical location in a business sector. Does your company need to be downtown in the financial/corporate business district? It is just a lot of overhead costs that you might as a startup not need to carry. Unless you feel there are other businesses that you need to connect with (?).

Great job, I would as a teacher definitely take a look at your product to solve my paper issues!

Briar