Just Right Reading

Hi Charmaine, I really enjoyed watching your elevator pitch as you showed enthusiasm for your product. I teach elementary school students and I agree that the reading resources for upper level students are scarce, therefore, Just Right Reading is a great solution to enhance students’ literacy skills. I also like the fact that you integrate the CUBE with your business pitch. This is easier for potential investors to understand the market for reading EdTech. One question I do have is whether teachers can modify the questions and tailor them to meet students’ needs? I think that will be a bonus considering teachers know their students well and therefore, can come up with good questions that helps deepen students’ understanding of the texts. Overall, well done! I would definitely consider buying this product for my students.

Hi Charmaine, I thought that your pitch was great! I can tell you're enthusiastic about your product because of the tone and excitement you used during your elevator pitch. It was awesome to hear someone be so excited about a project they're doing! Overall, I think that this is an excellent product. I have tons of students who would benefit from a product like this - ones who come to Canada and need leveled materials that aren't too juvenile. One of my students complained about having to read "animal books" on Raz Kids, so I would definitely purchase and use this product regularly. I have a question regarding the subscription plan outlined on your "Cube" tab. It says you will offer both school-based and district-based subscriptions. Does this mean the school has to buy a whole school subscription even if only one or two teachers want to use it in their class? I'm wondering if it's an admin decision (whole school) or teacher/educator decision. I think you did an awesome job! This is a great idea and I would love to see it become a reality.

Hi Charmaine, your voice clarity and enthusiasm in your elevator pitch was instantly attention grabbing! This feels like a very appropriate way to use machine learning. Assessing literary capacity with each student can be very time consuming and this helps address that. I understand the strength of correctly identifying reader’s levels, but how about a way to also assess the text’s level of difficulty? For example, if I want to pull a little known short story and put it into the library how will I (or the algorithm) know the appropriate reading level? Also who is developing the reading comprehension questions? How do you make money? (Subscription model is mentioned but not enough detail is provided). I have all these questions because I really do think this would be a great assistance to many teachers, and could also be really appealing for those in special education.

REVIEW: Great work Charmaine! Your elevator pitch was engaging and I’m glad you spoke from your perspective as an educator. Your mock-ups were also a great addition. The venture pitch provided a well-thought out and thorough description of the Just Right Reading product. It also addresses a real-world issue that educators face in the classroom as evidenced by your reading performance data. I thought your CUBE analysis was clear, concise, and informative. As an EVA, however, I would have liked to see the market status a bit more focused on the e-reading or digital literature market. My other piece of feedback is that I would have liked to learn a little more about you as the founder, especially considering your prestigious nomination for the teaching excellence award (congratulations!). I think it would help solidify your expertise as an educator turned venture founder. The venture has the potential to be quite successful with the right content partnerships. With a little more focus and detail on the market status, in addition to learning a bit more about your drive to lead a venture, I think Just Right Reading is worth funding and investing in.

Hey Charmaine, what an excellent and insightful tool! My mother actually helped co-create one we are now using in schools across South Africa called the Virtual Reading Gym (https://www.virtualreadinggym.co.za/) which has been received with great success. Overall, your pitch was well put together and hit all the major information points required. The only real nitty gritty feedback I have is that there was a lot of reading content that got a bit overwhelming after a while. It may have been nice to break the content up with a little more imagery or use means other than textual to convey information, but that really is just picking hairs. Good job overall!

Charmaine, as an educator I would definitely purchase your product. I teach grade 6/7 and every year, I’ve had at least two (if not more) students who are English Language Learners. As an 11-13-year-old student, it’s embarrassing (to them) to be reading a “magenta” levelled book while their classmate is reading a novel. It’s also extremely boring, especially when they can read big, difficult texts in their own native language. Most of our levelled books and the books on Raz Kids aren’t just ‘right’, as your elevator pitch addressed! So, on that point alone, I think your venture addresses an important pain point that potential investors should capitalize on. For your financials, perhaps more information on how the money will be spent, how much your product will cost, and how you will market the product, will give potential investors more confidence in Just Right Reading. Your About Us page states that you don’t currently have a software developer for your product, but your “ask” is for $200,000 to develop the program. As a potential investor, I would be hesitant to give my money to a venture that doesn’t have someone that can execute the product they say they are making; I would want my money be put to use by an experienced software developer who can make Just Right Reading as described.