I have imagined a virtual reality smartphone app for coaches to be able to teach players what they should be seeing from their position on the floor. Coaches would input the play sequence and players could select their position (guard, forward, center) and see what they play looks like from their position as they move through the sequence.
Update: Permissions have been granted and I can upload the full venture pitch.
Hi John, I agree that your product could have real potential in American markets where college sports (including basketball) are highly valued and there is major funding for sophisticated training. As an EVA I would invest in the early stages of development and I would likely want to know if I would be able to have some amount of ownership or paid dividend in return. I think your product might also benefit from low-cost VR options (maybe partnering with Google cardboard, or something similar) which might allow you to create software and save institutions some money on the hardware. Overall, an interesting and educationally helpful venture. I think your product will also benefit from any advances in VR technology while you continue to develop the software in your first year (or so) of starting this business.
REVIEW: Neat. This is what I like to see. VR and AR are WAY too competitive of markets to break into right now, though I believe your niche idea would breakthrough. It's clear you've researched your product and area. Well articulated and well presented. This would be amazing for students to play and learn Bball, especially with the lack of gym time students get. This does however have neat perspective in competitive play. Overall, awesome idea, well designed and straightforward. I do see this being duplicated. But this hasn't stopped anyone. Cool stuff!
Hi Jon, Elevator pitch is crisp and to the point. Really loved the presentation. Venture pitch contained all the required elements. You have done a great job! You mention why you believe this product would solve a certain problem for basketball players, but if you think of the investment each player has to make,especially buying VR headset, do you think that is feasible in 2017? It took smartphones couple of years before they became mainstream, even if VR headsets do become mainstream, I think it is ambitious to expect that to happen next year. Now, if you expect basketball learners to buy VR headsets just for this particular app, I do not think that is very feasible. So although your product has potential, you need to do financial planning to sustain yourself for the years when the VR headsets will take time to go mainstream. One thing you can do is to partner with VR headset manufacturers. They can use your app to promote it to customers, and you can get your share to sustain yourself till the numbers start picking up. Regards, Moumita
Hi John, This is a really intriguing idea. I can definitely see the benefits for coaches and players. I don’t know much about this field of educational technology. When talking about “The Problem” around 35s, it might add more emphasis to have a video clip of curtsied footage. I would have liked to hear more about how much money the other companies you mentioned were bringing in to get a scale of how large they are and what kind of market share they hold. Will your app be similar to theirs and built for basketball, or will you be building other specific features to distinguish it? I think you very successfully made the point that VR will have great benefits in sports training, and with the major competition not offering an option for basketball you seem to have a great niche market!
hi John, this is great, a form of VR education applied to something outside of the traditional classroom. Much like Sports Psychology, it's very interesting to see the "usual" applied to sports. Particularly neat that you got someone from EA on board with this. I think, given its usage within football, it's a natural progression to get this technology accessible to more athletes and sports. The business model is smart as well, microtransaction are a natural part of many apps today and I think would make sense to both investors and consumers. I'm really impressed for what you've hypothesized here, and role-playing as an investor, I would absolutely back your product. Thanks!
Feedback: I had to review your pitch a couple of time to get my head around the offerings of this venture and I’m glad I did because after my first pass I think I have a better understanding of what it is. I was impressed with your presentation format and the experience you and your partner bring to the table, but I think as an EVA you are still in the building of a concept rather than something I would feel comfortable investing in for a return at this time. I agree with others that some sort of a simulation would go a long way to helping and investor conceptualize the benefits of this venture and other than being a different sport, provide an opportunity to differentiate you from others in this market. That being said, my juices started flowing thinking of ways that could help a product like this standout and as I haven’t experienced any of them, I’m going to spitball in the dark here. You provide evidence of the size of the market for this product and I see that there is huge potential at the amateur level as a teaching tool It would be interesting, I think, to have the functionality to allow users to ask questions and the software provide real-time adjustments to the scenario playing out. For example; Where/ who is the point guard in this play? What would this look like in a man on man system etc.? I was also thinking if a coach could customize the properties of players (Height, stats probability, etc) in the scenario to demonstrate why a play would be run or is preferred against an upcoming team, it may provide a more real world perspective. There are many opportunities that VR related simulation could enhance and in the world of sports none are much bigger than that of basketball. Your venture has legs but at this point, I don’t think at this time it is defined enough for me to invest.
FEEDBACK: I can really appreciate your app and your idea concept for it. I think the PE teachers in my school would greatly appreciate an app like this for their classes and also for the school team. It would be interesting to see how this would come out in the market and if it could take off. Especially it could be used for the NBA. I like how focused and narrowed down it is and how it very specific for a field. It seems very cool and I would like to see it come to fruition.
FEEDBACK: Your venture is intriguing… This course has really opened up some cool ideas on how virtual reality could be used in education. I have been using Google Cardboard in my ICT 9 classes for the last year or so. I had students build SketchUp models they walked around...but they had to be kept extremely basic (i.e. four walls, a door, maybe one multiple-polygon object). In other words, even with late model smartphones (e.g. iPhone 6S) the graphical capability for VR is currently severely limited. There is a lot of ‘lag time’ when a student swivels their head. Based on this experience, I have a hard time seeing how realistically-rendered environments in a fast-paced sporting environment could be displayed on the current generation (or even the next gen) of smartphones. More capable VR headsets might be capable of such graphical power, but this would require a deeper investment and may limit the ability for whole teams (of 15+ players) to participate collectively. While I do certainly see VR headsets being used in schools, and perhaps some day sports, perhaps your timeline is a bit too optimistic..? Costs just seem a bit too prohibitive for a realistic, interactive, sport-training environment at the moment (Maybe in the US, where NCAA has the $$$ to invest in such tech..?)
The use of VR in sports training will absolutely be ground breaking. I remember when I was doing dragon boat training, we hired video production company to short how we performed and posted these videos on youtube so the whole team could watch and reflect together. Using the VR technology will bring the sports training to a different level. The whole pitch is engaging and convincing. At the same time I wonder if Jo, you can provide a rough product demo and show how this works in parallel of physical training. Do players hold their mobile phone while playing basketball? Would be useful for investors to have a clearer view of how this works. In general an ACE idea!
