Open Allies – Venture Pitch

Hi Ryan! Thank you for sharing this awesome venture with us! You have clearly describes how this venture can improve the lives of anyone involved in education. One my concerns is the vast target audience that you have described in the elevator and venture pitch. In order to feel confident in this investment, I would need a greater description of the initial steps that you intend to make before opening your product to the market. Overall, this pitch was well thought out and I could see great things for it in the future!

REVIEW - Great pitch, Ryan! You have identified a pain point that affects the entire education sector, from individual students to entire institutions, and you clearly describe how your app would solve the problem. Your pitch targets just about anyone and everyone who has anything to do with education, and I believe we all have something to gain from your service. You highlight key value propositions, namely saving money, time, and effort compared to dealing with physical textbooks, which every educator and student ever would value. Without any competition, your venture seems very likely to capture your target market of educational institutions as well as individual educators with ease. My only questions are that I don’t know how much money you are actually looking for, as “a small initial investment” doesn’t provide an answer to me, and the return on investment does not seem particularly appealing to an investor who receives no monetary gain from your venture, so it seems to me that your backers would be limited to those who are directly involved in education.

FEEDBACK Ryan, Way to go I am sold. As everyone has said both the elevator pitch and venture pitch pictograph are really well laid out and effective. I think you have a great plan to have this as a non-profit, it would be very hard to justify a for profit venture in the area of OERs. Almost everything I need as an Eva is there. What I would think of including is market trend forecasts information for the investor. I know them as a MET student, but as a pretend EVA I may not. I know you've already done your summary so I'll keep it short. You didn't specify if this was K-12 or post-secondary. One added solution or benefit for the post secondary crowd is the price of textbooks for the student. We spend a lot of time going over our textbook list to try and keep the huge cost down for students. A couple of our faculty just finished on OER nursing textbook through the BC Open Textbook Project. Now there is one less $150+ textbook for our nursing students to buy. I think adding the student centered aspect of keeping post secondary student debt down would also enhance your OER. As an EVA I would definitely invest in this venture, as an educator if you ever need anyone for health sciences/nursing curriculum… Congratulations on a great idea and venture pitch, and congratulations on completing your MET program, you've added so much to the courses I've had with you. Thank you, Eva

I want to thank everyone for your feedback and constructive criticism, I really appreciate your comments :) I wrote a reflection based on everything received so far here: https://virtual.educ.ubc.ca/wp/etec522/2017/08/11/a3-reflection-for-open-allies-venture-pitch/ Thank you everyone :)

Great pitches, Ryan. I'm hooked, line and sinker. I can see parallels of your venture with an open-source project like Firefox or Linux, both of which rely on a strong community of volunteer specialists (coders/programmers particularly). Do you see yourself accessing this type of resource base? You mention bureaucracy in your venture pitch, and perhaps you could further address how Open Allies will meet this challenge, as problems here may go beyond price. All in all, thanks for getting me excited :)

Ryan, I really enjoyed both your elevator and your venture pitches. They were informative and very well designed. I think you've targeted a great pain point in the market. Your concept is appealing to educators, administrators, districts and investors. As an EVA, I am worried about the initial feasibility of the venture. I understand the idea of creating/adapting/modifying as many resources as possible, but where would your starting point be? Having a plan of what curriculum, grades or subjects you would start with would also allow you to provide more specific information about the experts that would be involved in the process. Once that has been provided, I would certainly be willing to invest in your venture.

Ryan, thank you for this pitch. Very nicely done, elaborated. I really enjoyed it and I appreciate the work you put into it. Although I felt it focuses on clients more than investors, I understood at the end that in your case clients can be investors. I Would like to know more about the venture: the business plan for growth, whether you have done any pilot, where in Canada you want to start. I assume this is a project that will have some limitations to certain jurisdiction, but if not would you be able to explain how you will overcome differences in programs and textbooks used. I also would like to know more about the skills of the people involved. All in all, I liked the pitch and would like to understand better how I can earn on this one (I am not a millennial so I am less concerned with the social/economic arguments :) ).

Ryan your venture pitch was very detailed, thorough and concise. You considered all angles and provided a support to your clienteles from beginning to end. Key highlights for me include that Open Allies is a not-for-profit educational venture, that it understands the administrative constraints, and that it supports crowdfunding for schools who may not to be able to afford the idea. The pitch is suitable for different types of institutions and as thus is aiming high. This may be a good or bad thing. For me, as an EVA, I would like to know specifically what you can offer. I guess you have me hooked and wanting more info. I would be interested in knowing more about this venture. PS. the Piktochart design was clear and easy to navigate. Thank you for this pitch.

Hi Ryan, This is a very interesting venture and one that I can see myself wanting to get in on the ground floor. Piggy-backing on the Open Education Movement is a great way to set your venture up for success. This is a movement that has seen a groundswell of support as the digital age continues to cause the earth to shift under the traditional publishing companies. Open Allies has positioned itself to be a major player as an educational consulting group in an area that has very serious growth potential. Not only that, by making your venture a not-for-profit, you target investment from large foundations looking to help develop an education model that shares a philosophy of openness over corporate greed. Your ASK is fair but could use a little clarification. I would target the funding on building algorithms that help Open Allies develop, find and organize the information they are looking for. I think you are right to offer perks and rewards to investors. This could include logo advertising on your products and promotion of foundations who become the main investors. I see Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation written all over this venture. Finally, I think your pitch was very clean and straightforward Ryan. You have a keen eye for design and this makes reading through your pitch an easy and enjoyable experience. Count me in!

Ryan you’ve hit the ball out of the park with this venture. Your elevator and venture presentations are on point. You have presented a very polished document that I know many investors will take a second look at!. I think this venture is timely in terms of the way our current educational system has been working. If the system isn’t ready for this now, it will be soon enough. The only thing I would be recommending is that you start small - give the investor something to latch onto that is attainable. Focusing on specifics - grades, subjects, etc - would make it that much easier to grasp. I would like to know more about the team putting together the resources and be confident they are qualified for the job, especially with respect to the curricular experts.