A3 : PC Building Simulator VR Edition

Great!

Lori, you've actually inspired me to want to build a PC with my kid. And I'm not even a gamer (yet)! I have build my own machine however, and you've identified and addressed many of the frustrations, rudimentary scavenging and time consuming things that get in the way of actually building. Your elevator pitch and venture pitch combine to make an in-depth and really interesting dive into how you would optimize, re-focus and direct an existing in-market offering. Contrary to your reflection, I find that you've combined the right analysis and market stats to educate and excite even someone who is new to this market. Although, I can appreciate what a challenge it must have been to edit down the amount of information presented. The offering you've described is comprehensive, I can easily see how this would be great for schools, budding computer techs, and even hobbyists. The use of AI user analytics to scaffold learning, is brilliant. And introducing a storefront brings the venture full circle to understanding the path to profitability. Notably, your funding portion is the strongest I've seen yet. The fact that you show how and in which percentage you will allocate the $5mil investment is especially interesting. Finally, your personality really shines in the pitch materials, but it would be great to know a bit more about you, what brought you to this venture opportunity. I think you should do it. :)

Lori - I loved this. I'm an avid gamer so your idea had me hooked even before I clicked play, but of course your venture drew me in deeper. It is a really interesting take on game-based learning. It was impressive how you focused on an existing product while extending/expanding its functionality to better serve current customers as well as new ones which will come along as the market grows. I have seen this simulator on Steam many times, never pulling the trigger to buy it, but making it more accurate while adding VR could be the clincher for me. The pain point or problem you've identified - so many options, none having exact capabilities, fear of blowing something up, and so on - is real, and I've experienced it. I'm a "geek" and "techie" but I'm embarrassed to say I've never built my own gaming computer because of fear of messing something up and having wasted so much time, effort, and MONEY. Forum trawling is real and, while fun and interesting for some, can be tedious and frustrating for others. Your venture really would assuage this by lowering the bar for those who want to enter this area of DIY. By making your product more accurate, and especially by linking it to a real-world store (genius), you take the original product from being "huh, neat" toward being a product that's essential for anyone even remotely interested in exploring building their own system. Using AI to process user data, learning their skill level and scaffolding their experience is really clever and totally do-able. It seems to me that your product differentiates itself by being the only one of its kind, which is a boon to the venture as a whole. You clearly identified a very specific (but very real) market while musing on potential future partnerships and expansion goals, which I appreciated. I would have appreciated more specifics during your $5M Ask as well as your 5-year Returns, but you (like myself) identified these areas as being weaknesses that could be supported by hiring the right team members. On that note, I found myself wanting more when it came to this venture's championship, such as a little more information on what makes you uniquely qualified to lead this venture; you are clearly passionate about the idea but I don't feel like there was enough meat on the bone when it came to why I should care about you, or trust you. But overall, brilliant work. It's extremely difficult to pull together a video that hits all the marks and I think you did a truly honourable job. Congrats!