Hackaball – A computer you can throw

As Chief Learning Officer, I would not invest in this venture. I simply do not see the differentiation between Hackaball and say, a regular ball or other balls of this kind on the market. Moreover, I am not sold on the fact that children need an app, and an iPad to create rules for games to play outside. I believe this can be done without and application, and any additional pieces of technology. Many of the games the children said they created were games that already existed (Truth or Dare or Hot Potato), they just added the Hackaball. With regards to the adults appealing for investment - There is never any indication of who these people are. Are we dealing with the Founder? The CEO? Actors that were hired for this pitch? Perhaps just employees of Hackaball? Although they are passionate and confident, this makes it difficult to discern the credibility of who is appealing for investors. Ultimately, I do not believe this venture to be exceptionally original, I am sceptical when it comes to the differentiation of current products, and I am unable to distinguish the true credibility of the entrepreneurs. It is for these reasons, I would not invest in this venture.

Hackaball is an interesting concept that combines technology and play together. This game has the potential in the education field to future the concept of play and imagination. As long as the instructions to create the game are simple and easy to figure out, I see this product being a game that administrators would invest in to help introduce kids to technology. The ability for kids to actually play and create games is a niche that few technology based games can compete with in the educational market. This is a game that teachers could use in classrooms as a fun way to give kids mental breaks during the day. While the two adults in the pitch were friendly and confident individuals that captured my attention and forced me to pay attention to the pitch, what sold me was the kids. Seeing the kids moving, running and jumping with Hackaball was the selling point for me. As a parent, I could envision my daughter playing with the toy outside and I could see her inside opening up the Hackaball to see and learn more about the technology in the ball. The kids were active and engaged and looked like they were enjoying Hackaball. This sold me more on this product, regardless if it works or not. The ability to sell the competitiveness and engagement of Hackaball and on top of that, introduce young children to coding, is definitely a product that teachers and parents would pay attention and want to buy. With the introduction of coding to the BC curriculum, teachers are always looking for new ways to introduce coding in the classroom and Hackaball claims would be music to many educator's ears. For parents, any way that you can entertain your kids and have your kids learn as well is the definition of a good toy. My only fear is that Hackaball does not have a current retail price. The technology inside the Hackaball might be too pricey for administrators to invest in long term. Admin teams love to buy bulk of certain products and if Hackaball is over $100 price point, this might discourage admin teams from fully investing in Hackaball. However, despite the price, I fully believe that Hackaball has an intriguing concept that could definitely be a player in the educational technology field.

I really enjoyed this pitch and the product that it was trying to market. The creators of Hackaball identify the ‘Pain Point’ and ‘Solution’ by demonstrating how durable their product can be. The marketers also highlight its ability to make noises, change color and be programed through block coding. This is like many of it’s counterparts such as Sphero and Dash Robot. Unlike it’s counterparts, however, Hackaball is actually meant to be thrown and dropped. From a teaching standpoint I think it would be very interesting to introduce a product, like this, into a school as it has the potential to be used in ‘specialist’ classes such as Physical Education or Dramatic Arts. Areas in which ICT may be more difficult to integrate. Now would I invest capital in this product? The creators of Hackaball do not mention, in their pitch or on the Kickstarter webpage, any details in regards financial promises. This, combined with the possibility of this technology being duplicated by competition would make me hesitant to invest heavily in the company. That being said, I could certainly see myself preordering the product and encouraging my school to invest in a number of them. Hackaball’s uniqueness is certainly it’s top selling point.