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ETEC 522 – Ventures in Learning Technologies
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LURNT – The Reddit of Education

By christopher wong on November 24, 2018

The Internet’s true power lies in creating communities and sharing resources.  Lurnt will become the premiere resource for students in Grades 4-12 to find, create and share educational resources to supplement their learning.  It will function as a resource aggregator that is curated by students for students.

At this time, I am currently seeking early stage angel investors with a shared passion for technology and education.  Investment and equity stake can be negotiated based on what a partner can bring to the table both financially and in terms of business acumen.  Investors should expect returns once we are ready for an initial public offering or acquisition from another larger educational business seeking an established online presence and community.

Thank you for reading and I hope that you find the following presentation informative.

Christopher Wong

Elevator Pitch

Venture pitch (and elevator pitch) can be found here: https://gnowsirhc.wixsite.com/lurnt 

Reflection (as of 11/29/2018)

Like many others here, I was initially very nervous about developing and presenting an idea that I would need to share with other students in this class.  ETEC 522 is full of energetic, vibrant and positive colleagues with great energy and pitches. I’m usually more introspective and very risk averse – starting any venture without knowing absolutely everything ahead of time scares me.  

Developing a concept, the elevator pitch and a venture pitch has given me more confidence in looking to perhaps solve education related problems (and do so profitably) or exploiting market opportunities.  In the past I would have simply thought of an idea and let it pass without giving it a second thought.

One of the most important lessons I learned while developing a venture was to understand my own strengths and weaknesses.  By understanding who I was and what I was good at, I am better able to seek others who share my passion and complement my abilities.  I know that I do not know enough about financing and valuation so I would need to find partners who can fill in these gaps. As an EVA I recognize the importance of a strong leadership team.  A good concept in insufficient without a team to bring it to fruition.

Being able to accept and value criticism is another critical aspect to being a entrepreneur.  LURNT felt like my baby and I immediately felt defensive if someone pointed out a fault in the venture pitch.  However, such critical analyses are the only way to improve the idea and the communication of the product. Being open to change and understanding that one does not have all of the answers is a quality I would look for in an entrepreneur.  

Understanding that I do not have all the answers and proceeding anyways is another important lesson I learned.  Ventures are inherently risky because not everything will go to plan – projections are simply projections and there always seems to be the random element of “luck” found in timing and serendipitous events that separate successful ventures from unsuccessful ones.  

Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of my pitch here is my reflection

Strengths:

I felt I made an engaging elevator pitch.  I was happy with how it turned out and many of the comments on my venture posting seemed to support me on this.   I did find it challenging to say everything I wanted to say within one minute but I found that helped me prioritize only the most critical and relevant information.  

I felt the pitch was very honest with what I would actual do if I were trying to start this venture.  I honestly don’t know how I would go about valuing my business and would seek a partner who would be able to help get this product to market and succeed.  Money, although important, would not be my main consideration at this point – rather I would be more than willing to give up significant equity to someone who was equally passionate about the idea and could guide me through early stages of getting the venture up and running.

I feel I did a good job of articulating who I was and what my strengths were to investors.  I feel that my enthusiasm and experience in education would make myself and the venture an attractive investment.  

Weaknesses

As seen by some of the comments in the venture posting, I believe I could have done a better job articulating possible revenue streams for LURNT.  I had initially conceived of a start up with a quick exit strategy that wasn’t focussed on revenue or profitability. Instead I was looking at Facebook, reddit and other Internet ventures with the focus on building a strong user base then selling the venture or being acquired and letting another business deal with monetizing the users.  

I wish I had a stronger grasp on the numbers and business potential.  While there are similar competing ventures (reddit, teacher currated LMSes, Khan academy) it was hard to find something exactly the same to confidently base numbers on.  However, I find this will be the risk to a certain degree that all businesses will face.

Not all aspects of the business were thought through.  I noticed that many of the commenters expressed reservations about having a self-moderated aggregator and discussion forum.  In hindsight, I should also have thought about how Grade 4-12 students may not have the emotional maturity to handle such responsibilities.  Managing to keep a respectful tone and environment, while ensuring that users feel that it is their voices being heard will be a fine line to tread and may require professional paid moderators.

Final reflection

Overall, I enjoyed working on this project.  I think it has given me more confidence to perhaps become an educational entrepreneur if the right idea or opportunity presents itself.

Rating
Average: 4.8/5 Stars
 
 
 
 
 
2 Thumbs Up!

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2 Dec Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Chris, I loved the powtoon Elevator pitch great pace great information a real hook. Your website layout and information was clean and convincing. I think you have a real winner on your hands if you could in fact garner the kind of viewership reddit has. I think making the comparison to this platform is a great starting point. I liked your market research and insertion point information. I feel like I will echo a lot of what the comments already present have to say, however you made a solid pitch here and the behind the scenes work really shows through.

2 Dec
0 Thumbs Up!
Lori Jones @lyj503

Chris, I loved the powtoon Elevator pitch great pace great information a real hook. Your website layout and information was clean and convincing. I think you have a real winner on your hands if you could in fact garner the kind of viewership reddit has. I think making the comparison to this platform is a great starting point. I liked your market research and insertion point information. I feel like I will echo a lot of what the comments already present have to say, however you made a solid pitch here and the behind the scenes work really shows through.

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1 Dec Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Chris, first I want to commend you for a great idea and concept! I thought your elevator pitch was captivating and I could easily identify and relate to what it was you have to offer. What I really enjoyed was reading your reflection and identifying your strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur. I also found that pushing an idea into a business model makes it feel as though it does become your 'baby'. It is harder to accept criticism and you want to make sure you are trying to educate yourself in areas that you do consider weak in. That being said, I think a business really thrives in the management identifying that it's okay to say, "I don't have all the answers" but I will hire someone, educate myself, and explore avenues in order to do what needs to be done to address areas that you don't deem your strong suit. Every CEO is a cheerleader for their company, but not every CEO has the gift of gab or thrives with PR work, etc. I think your intentions with LURNT are equally similar to the co-founder of REDDIT, Aaron Swartz. A platform with the intention of totally free information. As others have mentioned, it is hard moderating adults on Reddit, so the challenge will be even more difficult to moderate Grade 4-12's on LURNT.

1 Dec
0 Thumbs Up!
Evan @evl255

Chris, first I want to commend you for a great idea and concept! I thought your elevator pitch was captivating and I could easily identify and relate to what it was you have to offer. What I really enjoyed was reading your reflection and identifying your strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur. I also found that pushing an idea into a business model makes it feel as though it does become your 'baby'. It is harder to accept criticism and you want to make sure you are trying to educate yourself in areas that you do consider weak in. That being said, I think a business really thrives in the management identifying that it's okay to say, "I don't have all the answers" but I will hire someone, educate myself, and explore avenues in order to do what needs to be done to address areas that you don't deem your strong suit. Every CEO is a cheerleader for their company, but not every CEO has the gift of gab or thrives with PR work, etc. I think your intentions with LURNT are equally similar to the co-founder of REDDIT, Aaron Swartz. A platform with the intention of totally free information. As others have mentioned, it is hard moderating adults on Reddit, so the challenge will be even more difficult to moderate Grade 4-12's on LURNT.

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30 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Hi Christopher, I really enjoyed your elevator pitch and venture pitch. I thought your elevator pitch was perfectly done, as you emphasized the NEED, the Lurnt solution and the target market so clearly and eloquently. To me this was one of my favourite venture pitches I've reviewed, because it was effortless to read through and it made sense in the order that you put all of the information in. You clearly did your research on other companies such as Reddit and Quora that are big competition for Lurnt, however you addressed how and why Lurnt is a great contender in many ways. I like how you incorporated the stats on how well the other competition is doing and what their value is, and then basing Lurnt's company value somewhat on those numbers. I absolutely love the concept and believe that a search engine such as Lurnt should be in every classroom for all students to use, rate and review sites so learning can take place in a more effective and efficient manner. You address a very good pain point here. A lot of thought was put into this, and as an investor I would definitely fund a venture such as yours. Thanks for sharing!

30 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
Katie Cowen @kelpie51

Hi Christopher, I really enjoyed your elevator pitch and venture pitch. I thought your elevator pitch was perfectly done, as you emphasized the NEED, the Lurnt solution and the target market so clearly and eloquently. To me this was one of my favourite venture pitches I've reviewed, because it was effortless to read through and it made sense in the order that you put all of the information in. You clearly did your research on other companies such as Reddit and Quora that are big competition for Lurnt, however you addressed how and why Lurnt is a great contender in many ways. I like how you incorporated the stats on how well the other competition is doing and what their value is, and then basing Lurnt's company value somewhat on those numbers. I absolutely love the concept and believe that a search engine such as Lurnt should be in every classroom for all students to use, rate and review sites so learning can take place in a more effective and efficient manner. You address a very good pain point here. A lot of thought was put into this, and as an investor I would definitely fund a venture such as yours. Thanks for sharing!

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30 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Hi Chris! I really liked your EP and Venture pitch. the way you have presented it and organized your content.(great work). Your venture Idea is also interesting. you have really thought about one of the biggest problem for student. Too much of information can lead to too much of confusion and students often get confused and do not know about the trusted sources as well. you Idea could help them to find a solution to this problem .Overall Good Job!!

30 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
harshita rathore @hrathore

Hi Chris! I really liked your EP and Venture pitch. the way you have presented it and organized your content.(great work). Your venture Idea is also interesting. you have really thought about one of the biggest problem for student. Too much of information can lead to too much of confusion and students often get confused and do not know about the trusted sources as well. you Idea could help them to find a solution to this problem .Overall Good Job!!

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28 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Hello Christopher. I think this venture is a great idea. I like that it is learner focused and the elevator pitch was thoughtful and intriguing. My only concern is that one of your competitors has a stronger footing in the educational research market, especially in some districts in BC. Gale Learning Systems and more specifically Research in Context is an established database in several schools through out the province. This is database provides engaging reference, periodical, and multimedia content supporting national and state curriculum standards for grades 6 to 12 in language arts, social studies, and science. Middle school students will benefit from an interface that delivers a combination of the highly visual design and navigation preferred by younger users as well as the authoritative content and user-focused tool set needed to support middle school assignments and coursework. Gale also has a database that is designed for high school students as well. The teachers in our district currently use it and more and more students are slowly becoming familiar with the Gale database system with more of an emphasis for improving research skills over the past five years. It will take some time to convince some teachers, more specifically librarians, who are the ones who would share the benefits of databases to their fellow colleagues, to shift away from Research in Context and move to the Lurnt platform. However, the learner focused approach can differentiate Lurnt from its other competitors. With a friendly interface, Lurnt can really apply to the students who struggle. If the upvotes can be managed effectively, this is another tool that can help students avoid endless hours of searching for the right article or source for their assignment. The upvote can be the key in reducing research time as well for students who will be able to find the right information that was highly ranked by their peers. I think with the right approach, Lurnt can have a solid footing and rival Gale Learning Systems and Google as a place where students will seek to do their research on assignments and projects. Overall, this was an insightful, thoughtful and creatively venture!

28 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
philip barrington @philipb

Hello Christopher. I think this venture is a great idea. I like that it is learner focused and the elevator pitch was thoughtful and intriguing. My only concern is that one of your competitors has a stronger footing in the educational research market, especially in some districts in BC. Gale Learning Systems and more specifically Research in Context is an established database in several schools through out the province. This is database provides engaging reference, periodical, and multimedia content supporting national and state curriculum standards for grades 6 to 12 in language arts, social studies, and science. Middle school students will benefit from an interface that delivers a combination of the highly visual design and navigation preferred by younger users as well as the authoritative content and user-focused tool set needed to support middle school assignments and coursework. Gale also has a database that is designed for high school students as well. The teachers in our district currently use it and more and more students are slowly becoming familiar with the Gale database system with more of an emphasis for improving research skills over the past five years. It will take some time to convince some teachers, more specifically librarians, who are the ones who would share the benefits of databases to their fellow colleagues, to shift away from Research in Context and move to the Lurnt platform. However, the learner focused approach can differentiate Lurnt from its other competitors. With a friendly interface, Lurnt can really apply to the students who struggle. If the upvotes can be managed effectively, this is another tool that can help students avoid endless hours of searching for the right article or source for their assignment. The upvote can be the key in reducing research time as well for students who will be able to find the right information that was highly ranked by their peers. I think with the right approach, Lurnt can have a solid footing and rival Gale Learning Systems and Google as a place where students will seek to do their research on assignments and projects. Overall, this was an insightful, thoughtful and creatively venture!

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27 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Christopher, I think your venture is an awesome idea. After reading the comments you already have, I found myself having similar thoughts as to your elevator pitch, it was captivating and thoughtful- well done. My concern has to do with moderation, as a reddit user, I know that there are many trolls out there, how are you going to moderate the site to keep it educational and safe for school use. If schools are paying for a subscription, there needs to be a certain quality to the links as well as educational value. As the website is user moderated, I wonder what grade 4-12's will be posting and commenting. Overall great job!

27 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
Aggie @aggie13

Christopher, I think your venture is an awesome idea. After reading the comments you already have, I found myself having similar thoughts as to your elevator pitch, it was captivating and thoughtful- well done. My concern has to do with moderation, as a reddit user, I know that there are many trolls out there, how are you going to moderate the site to keep it educational and safe for school use. If schools are paying for a subscription, there needs to be a certain quality to the links as well as educational value. As the website is user moderated, I wonder what grade 4-12's will be posting and commenting. Overall great job!

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27 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Amazing Job Christopher! Not only does your product address a real problem in a HUGE market, your pitch is incredibly thorough and thought provoking. I found it quite clever to pitch your idea without any human, verbal dialogue - it was super simple, witty, short, and ultimately very engaging. The product information, features, screenshots, design principles (top commenters, karma points etc.) are all brilliant and speak to your attention to detail. I really believe this a fantastic idea. I work in a support block setting at a high school. Students are constantly struggling with the internet to find quality, relevant information. Lurnt offers a what appears to be a engaging and reliable program to help students and teachers. The moderation piece I think needs some clarification. I too would like to know a bit more information about the numbers. How much does Lurnt cost for users? Is there a whole school plan? Finally - what is the company valuation? The elevator ride got me hooked. Now I just need to understand how my investment is going to pay off. Love this idea. A fantastic job Christopher!

27 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
dustin hyde @dmanhyde

Amazing Job Christopher! Not only does your product address a real problem in a HUGE market, your pitch is incredibly thorough and thought provoking. I found it quite clever to pitch your idea without any human, verbal dialogue - it was super simple, witty, short, and ultimately very engaging. The product information, features, screenshots, design principles (top commenters, karma points etc.) are all brilliant and speak to your attention to detail. I really believe this a fantastic idea. I work in a support block setting at a high school. Students are constantly struggling with the internet to find quality, relevant information. Lurnt offers a what appears to be a engaging and reliable program to help students and teachers. The moderation piece I think needs some clarification. I too would like to know a bit more information about the numbers. How much does Lurnt cost for users? Is there a whole school plan? Finally - what is the company valuation? The elevator ride got me hooked. Now I just need to understand how my investment is going to pay off. Love this idea. A fantastic job Christopher!

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26 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Hi Christopher, hats off to you for crafting a well thought out product and engaging pitch. I couldn’t agree more that there is high demand for to peer-curated learning tools on the web. We need look no further than Youtube to realize the power of peer-created and peer-rated content. I have often dreamed of an Educational Youtube whereby instructional videos are rated, curated and tagged by users so that teachers and students alike can find the most effective instructional videos appropriate for their grade level. It would appear LURNT broadens this idea to include a wide range of instructional resources. I agree with you that the success of LURNT relies heavily on successfully building a strong user base, ideally a user base that is willing to pay for your service! I imagine it will be challenging to convince teachers, students and parents to pay for access to curated, but otherwise free, content through LURNT. I would be interested in your thoughts on how you forecast LURNT being profitable without overwhelming the user with advertisements? I ran into a similar challenge with my project and realized that there is a certain expectation in education that content should be cost and ad free. It’s no wonder that Khan Academy is so successful and why I find Study.com videos equally frustrating. On another completely different note, you are among a very small handful of people that I know who have lived in Burkina Faso! I lived just south of Ouahigouya 15 years ago.

26 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
bryn hammett @brynhamm

Hi Christopher, hats off to you for crafting a well thought out product and engaging pitch. I couldn’t agree more that there is high demand for to peer-curated learning tools on the web. We need look no further than Youtube to realize the power of peer-created and peer-rated content. I have often dreamed of an Educational Youtube whereby instructional videos are rated, curated and tagged by users so that teachers and students alike can find the most effective instructional videos appropriate for their grade level. It would appear LURNT broadens this idea to include a wide range of instructional resources. I agree with you that the success of LURNT relies heavily on successfully building a strong user base, ideally a user base that is willing to pay for your service! I imagine it will be challenging to convince teachers, students and parents to pay for access to curated, but otherwise free, content through LURNT. I would be interested in your thoughts on how you forecast LURNT being profitable without overwhelming the user with advertisements? I ran into a similar challenge with my project and realized that there is a certain expectation in education that content should be cost and ad free. It’s no wonder that Khan Academy is so successful and why I find Study.com videos equally frustrating. On another completely different note, you are among a very small handful of people that I know who have lived in Burkina Faso! I lived just south of Ouahigouya 15 years ago.

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26 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Hi Christopher, I wanted to echo Ryan's comments on a job well done, as your efforts clearly show in your pitches. I also really liked your venture concept, as it is simple, easily editable by users, and the venture can be grown to cater to any grade level based on user inputs. My comment is not so much about your venture as I think it was really well done, but more so about how the content might be moderated. You mention subreddits and user-moderators, but I'm left wondering if that will be enough to maintain the academic integrity of the site? If one of your main selling features is specifically curated content for academic purposes, it might require more moderation than Reddit uses. Just a thought. Otherwise, I really like your use of user reinforcement through badging, upvotes and downvotes to encourage ethical and meaningful contribution. I liked how you mention the revenue streams of Reddit, but couldn't find Lurnt's revenue stream; if I missed it, just let me know! If our assumption is that it's similar to Reddit in that it's ad- and premium user-based, as an EVA I would consider a small angel investment in your venture. Great job! -Reg

26 Nov
0 Thumbs Up!
Reg Surette @rsurette

Hi Christopher, I wanted to echo Ryan's comments on a job well done, as your efforts clearly show in your pitches. I also really liked your venture concept, as it is simple, easily editable by users, and the venture can be grown to cater to any grade level based on user inputs. My comment is not so much about your venture as I think it was really well done, but more so about how the content might be moderated. You mention subreddits and user-moderators, but I'm left wondering if that will be enough to maintain the academic integrity of the site? If one of your main selling features is specifically curated content for academic purposes, it might require more moderation than Reddit uses. Just a thought. Otherwise, I really like your use of user reinforcement through badging, upvotes and downvotes to encourage ethical and meaningful contribution. I liked how you mention the revenue streams of Reddit, but couldn't find Lurnt's revenue stream; if I missed it, just let me know! If our assumption is that it's similar to Reddit in that it's ad- and premium user-based, as an EVA I would consider a small angel investment in your venture. Great job! -Reg

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25 Nov Posted on LURNT – The Reddit of Education

Hi Christopher. You have created a really polished looking pitch. This was probably one of the few times I've seen someone use PowToon to create something that look sharp and well done. You've clearly spent a lot of time creating it. I think your pitch would be improved if you included more of yourself. What I mean is that maybe including video of yourself between the animations or at least your voice you would better connect with the investors. I think that human connection would help with trust. I really like the idea you have for your business. My experience as a teacher is that students are really good at finding resources and sharing them with their peers. I have a few follow up question that I think investors might ask: What safeguards do you have for safety? Many parents will be uncomfortable with their kids on social media, how can you keep them safe? Sites like reddit have volunteer moderators. Who will be the moderators? For example once you've finished biology class will people still hang around to moderate? Great work and presence.

25 Nov
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Ryan Day @rjday

Hi Christopher. You have created a really polished looking pitch. This was probably one of the few times I've seen someone use PowToon to create something that look sharp and well done. You've clearly spent a lot of time creating it. I think your pitch would be improved if you included more of yourself. What I mean is that maybe including video of yourself between the animations or at least your voice you would better connect with the investors. I think that human connection would help with trust. I really like the idea you have for your business. My experience as a teacher is that students are really good at finding resources and sharing them with their peers. I have a few follow up question that I think investors might ask: What safeguards do you have for safety? Many parents will be uncomfortable with their kids on social media, how can you keep them safe? Sites like reddit have volunteer moderators. Who will be the moderators? For example once you've finished biology class will people still hang around to moderate? Great work and presence.

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