The Tickle Trunk

Hi Ben, I can see the use for your product at both the school level and the school board level. Boards often have kits for science/tech experiments and projects that they lend to elementary schools. You might have additional business opportunities there as well. I thought your inclusion of shopping sites could also provide opportunities for cross promotion or advertising, and could lower the cost you need to charge for the subscription service. Overall, I think the student-centred management of resources is an important selling feature for secondary education teachers.

Feedback Hi Ben, I find the idea interesting. But I don’t think I will invest in this venture. Here are my reasons for that decision: 1. Who is the team creating this product? What is the business expertise of the team? 2. If a school has already invested in an LMS would they buy another one? Since Tickle Trunk is a specialized app, will it be preferable over a one stop solution provided by any other LMS? I think you should position your app such that even if the school has already an LMS platform, your app can just be integrated with it. Like an add-on. It can use the existing data of LMS and can enhance its feature? Can you also partner with the Leading LMS to improve your venture? I liked the presentation of elevator and venture pitch, but I think this venture needs to be little more seasoned before I will invest in this. Regards, Moumita

Hi Benjamin, Great elevator pitch! I thought that the photos you used represented your venture really well. The quote from Barack Obama is a good way to draw people into the conversation around materials and management. Demonstrating the benefits to teachers, such as recovery of lost time and better prices for materials, made for a convincing argument. I like that you acknowledged the competition readily, though I would have liked to hear more about what distinguishes your app. I felt that your energy and confidence grew over the course of the venture pitch, and became very convincing by the end. It’s an idea with a lot of potential, and maybe could have stretched to 8min with a few more examples of projects in different subjects.

As a teacher who employs project based learning in my classroom, I see a market for this specialized product. It is an ambitious task tackling programs such as Edmodo but I think the fact that you are specifically targeting the PBL market could lead your product to success. Further, planning a true PBL unit is a daunting task for many educators so if this interface is user friendly, word could spread quickly within the education community about the resource. I think your product is addressing the recent changes to the BC curriculum and as schools transition, your product could be situated perfectly if marketed well. I am always more inclined to try a product that seems to be catered to my specific needs. In order for me to invest, I would love to see field testing and a detailed idea of your revenue and cost stream. Great product with a lot of potential! Baljeet

Feedback I can see the pain point you are addressing as it relates to you venture pitch. I must admit I was expecting a physical box somehow included in your venture . I am wondering if a subscription model is the best format for this particular venture? I would wonder if your app could have students spec out the material and you work with one or more of the suppliers you listed (I am thinking of Amazon and Asset Panda) to provide a one stop solution that would provide all the materials needed as specked out by students (wait for it….) delivered in a tickle trunk. Materials could be inventoried through existing software leaving your company to focus on developing the framework and criteria needed to address units or topics as they relate to PBL and either market those to schools or give them away as a free item, knowing the ROI is in the materials students/schools buy. You could price structure your venture to take a percentage of sales under the tickle trunk app and leverage the existing production/ inventory models already established. As an EVA, I think there is a potential to meets the needs of this market but I am not convinced it is worth investing in The Tickle Trunk at this time.

FEEDBACK: I really enjoyed watching your video. I know I want to de-clutter my classroom with all the files and make it all in a cloud. It can make it very Feng Shui and bring some calmness in the classroom. I think a cloud based app would be able to help students and teachers to become more efficient and also help with storage in the classroom. I appreciated the photos of clutter in the classroom and how you presented your idea.

Hi Ben. At first I questioned the need for such an app, but then I thought back on my experience teaching a course called Exploring Technology a few years ago and remembered how difficult it was to track materials for the robotics unit and the bridge building project. I can see the usefulness of your product. Your elevator pitch does a good job of introducing the pain point and your solution. I wondered if it was necessary to have students use the app, but I can certainly see the benefit in them being able to view their project plans and a list of necessary materials - though this could be easily communicated through a teacher’s website or an LMS. I am not convinced that it is wise to leave the tracking of materials up to students to input into the app - it leaves a lot of room for errors to occur which would compromise the whole idea. I am not sure that your product offers enough perpetual value to warrant a subscription based revenue model. It seems more like a product that one would purchase outright. The discussion of statistics concerning adoption of LMS’s does not seem to fit within the context as Tickle Trunk is not an LMS. While your product is an interesting idea and addresses a real issue (materials management), I would not consider investing.

The pinch point in this venture pitch was immediately obvious to me. I don’t teach at this level but I suspect that this is a niche that has yet to be filled and this app seems like a logical solution. I can only imagine the workload on a shop teacher to keep track of inventory and the pain of re-stocking for each new group of students. Adding a cloud based LMS component to the app is interesting and may increase the subscription rate for this app of may hinder it if customers are loyal to an existing LMS. I would suggest offering the inventory and LMS components separately or together (perhaps you did this and I missed it) As I was watching the venture pitch I also wondered if you might want to consider adding RFID tags to all new inventory that arrives at the school. The app could be designed to connect with the RFIDs to automate the inventory process. As an EVA, this would be a keep selling point and perhaps could be an in-app purchase for those who like automation and feel it's worth the additional cost.