ONCON Inc. – Online Conference Venue and Event Management Services

Hi Briar, I found your pitches to be well-researched, informative (without overwhelming), and highly credible. I think you've identified a gap that exists and one which will likely grow in the future -- especially as companies look for ways to provide PD while keeping costs down. Your site clearly conveys how you and your team's experience and expertise have helped you develop ONCON. I have questions about your competition, as well as what technology you need to leverage to get ONCON going, but its certainly a niche that needs to be cornered and your extensive knowledge and experience make me feel confident about investing in ONCON.

Hi Briar, I am very impressed by your extensive knowledge on this topic. As I read through your venture pitch, I am convinced that there is market potential for this product. However, since I am not knowledgeable about your market, I will not invest in your idea. In addition, I found your asking is quite high, and that is another reason I won't be investing in it as an EVA. A $500k asking has to have a very good revenue source or market potential to justify the price. If you can improve a little bit more in building a promising picture for an EVA, she might be interested and give you the money!

Hi Briar! I rather enjoyed your elevator pitch and proposal. I also have experience in online conferences and event management so this presentation did catch my attention from the get-go. However, a couple major points kept gnawing at me as I read your pitch. First of all, I am curious why would you intentionally restrict your services to only one market (Journals)? For me, less is not more, especially when you are just starting a business. You have a lot of experience with online conferences, why not open it up to as many educational organizations and sectors as possible. Secondly, I did not see any mention of your competition. Are there any other companies that offer consulting services similar to your concept? It would be interesting to see how you would differentiate yourself from any other companies that may exist.

Feedback – Hi Briar, great job – I always find your video content compelling, loved the RSA animation! Definitely seems like there could be a need in the market, you have certainly targeted a niche that will looking to extend their footprint and an online conference is a great option for them. The presentation was slick and generally well outlined. I really liked how you included an exemplar with the video of the online conference you already hosted. It demonstrated proof of concept in that you were successful ably to moderate sessions online with multiple attendees. It did show that anytime you introduce technology it can be bumpy, but you also demonstrated how to stay calm, work through it and overcome technical issues. Your ROI seems low, but 1% could be typo as in the weebly your ROI is 52k (10%), described as 1%. Apart from the ROI, it seems like you have assembled a quality team – my only concern would be that your skill sets overlap and you could possibly use some sales and marketing expertise. On the whole, great job!

Nicely done! Well researched and well presented. While I have never attended an online conference, I think there is a niche out there for this. I am familiar with webinars and other versions of online meetings and they work quite well. I particularly like the idea of having Open Access journals and generating revenue through the sale of past conference presentations. Storage may not be an issue at the beginning, but down the road, you will have to look into getting a dedicated server or cloud space to store all those video files.

Hi Briar, Nicely done. Here are few points that stood out for me: Your phased start-up chart was very insightful. It read as a view into your thought process for this venture, which was nice. Identifying the need to put a MVP (minimum viable product) out the door was great to see as this is often overlooked. The key to the success of this business seems to be proliferation and getting your numbers up. In this vain, how you are approaching the marketing of your product was a bit confusing for me. Getting right in front of everyone who's trying to access journal articles is what you're after here. Would this not be through library systems? If you could figure out how to partner with large libraries, or even cosy up to the software companies and form a partnership, perhaps you'd achieve that end. While your dream team has a very polished presence, but the qualifications of your COO and in particular your CMO don't seem very strong given the undertaking you are looking to pursue. This poses a potential credibility problem for investors. I would be inclined to look for people with expertise in marketing for a marketing position. You did a great job with this venture pitch. I am keen to know if you're going to run with it. Regards, Esther

Hey Briar, I think this is a very important idea,and the more we can replicate the many aspects of a conference the better received such a platform will be. It sounds like your team has a good deal of experience, and is well prepared to cover the areas needed to make this venture work. Applying an Open Access model is a great idea, particularly if you were to engage partners who are more about the dissemination of their message than the safeguarding of the IP. Monetizing this may be challenge, but I do think that you have some good numbers in terms of what you feel would be the costs associated with the development of this venture.

Hello Briar, very interesting concept and well executed pitches. I have very little experience in this field and as a result would not invest as an EVA. I am not sure of competitors and others services that provide similar products to ONCON. I think your idea is very well thought out and you provide a lot of credibility through what you present on your website.

Briar, thank you for this awesome pitch! As an academic, I see the value in the service you're proposing to provide, particularly the aspect that will possibly allow me to save my own professional development funds, or to utilize them more strategically, whilst still being able to share my research. I thought you did a good job of addressing the expertise of your team, of the challenges, and the need for such a service. I was also really appreciative that you were able to share an example of the format of the conference in your YouTube video for the REALIZE 2015 forum, which helped to put a "face" on how this product might be executed.

Review - I went through your pitch, both the 1 minute video and the website for your product. I am interested in the product as I think it could be used to connect many individuals from various locations in order to facilitate a conference(s). During economical challenging times, travel fees and other costs associated with attending a conference in person might not be an option. I think you have covered areas that could make conference live in more of a digital world. It would be interesting to see the possible layout for such a product.