Bamboo Dan: a student support system

Hi Tomek, As other reviewers have mentioned, your dedication to this difficult cause is admirable. Your pitch certainly conveyed the inspiration for this venture with great sincerity, but it, along with your site, lacked some of the essentials that investors need to know before handing over their money -- product details, marketing and growth plans, for example. How much money do you need to help Bamboo Dan grow? And, what potential is there for generating income? Is it or can it become affiliated with Universities or other institutions where this is a big problem? Who is your competition? Or whose model are you building Bamboo Dan after? From an EVA perspective, a lot of unanswered questions leave me unwilling to invest, but I think you've definitely identified a good concept -- it just needs to be further teased out!

Hi Tomek, I admire your dedication to this tragic topic and your willingness to commit to this cause. It is a great venture to pursue. However, I don't think an EVA will invest in such project as it does not generate any income. That being said, it is a great venture for philanthropists, and I encourage you to propose the project to them and discuss the potential opportunities! In addition, I agree with my fellow classmates that you need more detailed plan written out in order to earn a chance talking to a philanthropist.

Hello Tomek, First of all, I laud your effort and thought behind this venture. A lot of us go through difficult situations in life, but only a strong few step up and do something about it. So kudos! About your elevator pitch: I think it was emotional and struck a chord, but it is not really targeting the investors or highlighting your team. So if you want to raise funds for this venture, you need to find out a way to get the investors interested. Providing number of students that can be affected/helped can be an option Your website was pleasing to the eyes and very neat, but I have some observations: You may need to think about a more detailed plan. How do you plan to start, how to raise awareness, what is your 3-5 yr goal. I know you have stated it in brief that you will test it in your institution and then spread to japan, but may be a roadmap? You can allow organizations to interact with students and arrange for sessions on for example: how to cope with stress etc. You can pitch for mentors from organizations. This could be one of the ways to tap the corporate into your initiative. I wish you succeed in your venture. All the best! -Moumita

Hello Tomek, thanks for sharing your venture. I wasn't aware of this problem at all! I can't imagine what you have been going through in the last month... I watched the elevator pitch and, as Briar pointed out, it's more marketing-oriented rather than investor-oriented. I think that mentioning some statistics -like national suicide rate, and maybe some stats from the Japanese Institutes of Technology if available- could have been beneficial to engage the audience (again, not the buyers of the product, but the investors). The website looks good, I think you could expand on the startup costs and marketing strategies. Competitors? Maybe some NGOs are already doing something about it? Are there going to be different stages? (for the venture, not the product, that you explained very well). I wish you the best of luck with your venture!

REVIEW: Hello Tomek. I really enjoyed your 1 minute elevator pitch. It just pulled on my heart and I know my students have a hard time at school. With the statistics, I can only imagine how devastating it can be to lose a student to mental health. As educators, we want to support and be there for our students. I would love to invest in your company because I believe in the cause. I believe we need to create a support system for the most vulnerable students in our schools, especially in a country where they don't feel supported or they feel very isolated under the pressure of achieving. I couldn't find your 8 minute venture video, but I did read over your materials. I think your team seems very qualified and I like the steps on how to find a community to help with mental problems. I'm surprised this hasn't already happened in Japan with the high suicide rates in Asia. Coming from an Asian background, I know how tough it can be in high school with the pressure to succeed academically and also growing up in a dysfunctional family. Pressure from school and home can lead to bleak moments, but having an outlet, somewhere, someone understands how difficult life can be, it can save us.

Feedback – Hi Tomek, a courageous decision to follow your heart - it’s not easy to change mid-stream - I applaud you for creating a venture that is a) on its way to being developed and b) truly making a difference! In terms of feedback, I recognize that this what not you originally planned and you had to pull things together on the fly, despite this, your presentation of the made for a compelling read and you seem to be on the right path to success. Although it is a difficult topic to be straight-forward with, it was not necessarily clear form the pitch what the need was or how it was being solved. I appreciated your competitive overview, but it could have used more info on the competitors that have been successful in other markets. Regardless, the idea is a good one and is clearly needed in a culture where it is difficult for students to reach out for support. Good job Tomek!

Hello Tomek, Thank you for sharing your venture idea and story with our class. Mental health is a very serious issue and it is unfortunate that it is not perceived so by other cultures. I have had some experiences with students who have had suicidal thoughts and the reality of the situation can be overwhelming for all involved. I think that your website could be of great value for youth in your school. I think that your focus should be on counselling and support, and provide alternate sites to help with academics (even thought the two are related in your school). An idea may also to provide support for teachers who may be dealing with students who have exhibited signs of mental health issues. From experience I can tell you that it is a very difficult position to be in to know that one of your students is in real need and feel like you do not have the resources available to help (or at least not make the problem worse). Best of luck to you.

Hi Tomek, Thank you for sharing the background story behind this venture - many businesses succeed because there is a genuine need for their product and it seems like you have found one of those markets. As I was going through the venture pitch, the biggest question that kept arising was where the funding was going to come from. In the "the team" section you do mention that you have counsellors, nurses and government funded officials all agreeing to work on the project to help it grow - this is great! I do still wonder if these staff will be paid or volunteer and how much time they will be able to commit still having their own job and obligations. Further, I wondered if you had considered how the discussion board would be continually monitored while also having the ability for students to call in and speak to an expert. You venture has the potential to be very successful because of the great need that you have shown, I would just like to know that you have considered where the funding is going to come from - if government grants are a primary source then what is the process to obtain such funding (is there a pool already available or do you have to lobby your idea?) All the best with this Tomek, it is a noble cause and one that is sure to make a difference in many young lives! - Baljeet

Hi Tomek. This is an inspirational story and as an investor I would be compelled by this story because inspiration sells! As a non-profit venture in a society that has a dim view of mental health, as you say, you’ll no doubt have an uphill battle. I suspect you’ll get students reaching out, but will investors? You might have to reach out to investors from other countries, perhaps even Japanese foreign nationals who have been immersed in another culture and have learned to see mental health from a different perspective. I have no expertise in mental health, albeit I do have considerable experience in crisis intervention as a paramedic, and I would suggestion that there needs to be a synchronous component to your service. While the asynchronous component you describe on your website may be preventative to some degree, impulsivity plays significant role in suicides. In my experience, the time between suicide ideation and a suicide attempt can be very short. People need to talk with a live person to mitigate that impulsivity. As an EVA, I would have liked to have seen a video presentation with some sample screens and other features of the service. Finally, I am so sorry for your loss. This can be a powerful motivator and I wish you success with this venture!

Dear Tomek,

It is not easy to put your work out there for others to review, I think it takes even more courage to share this personal story and venture when it has even more immediacy to the wellbeing of your learners. I send you a warm virtual embrace.

Your 1 minute pitch was definitely more marketing oriented, rather than geared to an investor market. However, given that in your environment, funders may not really understand what you are trying to do, giving them an example of what the beneficiaries will hear and how they might be feeling might give investors something more tangible. I also loved the imagery and voiceover. I thought your metaphor of a bamboo forest and other students being in the same place a sense that they were not alone. It was peaceful and meditative. At about 0:54, you might want to change the line about Bamboo Dan leading them to another way or the light, it felt a too focused on Bamboo Dan being the only answer.

How it works. Appreciate that you have an example in the Good2Talk site. It gives me a clearer picture of what you are trying to accomplish. However it also seems like you are trying to do a lot more than counselling, you are also trying to be a place for learners to engage with professors about homework. I wonder if you might be doing too much and then your customer doesn't know exactly how to engage. Also because of the professor presence will that confuse the anonymity of the site?

You might want to consider just focusing on one aspect, it will help you focus your campaign and allow others to understand how they might fund or volunteer with the project. If you have too many things going on you will have less time to vision and steward all of the different areas; perhaps grow each section in different phases.

Costs. I see that you have lots of volunteers and people that want to support the initiative. This is great, the momentum in crisis brings a lot of energy to the mission. I wonder though about how you make this sustainable. Who are paid? Who volunteer? What are your fixed and variable costs. You should start breaking this down. Also as a Not-for-Profit, you can calculate volunteer hours as in kind contributions and show funders in dollar amounts how much they are saving by having volunteers.

Wonderful initiative Tomek! I wish you every success in this project! Let me know when there is a Donate Now button on your site.

Sincerely,

Briar