Concierge-A Virtual Coaching and Engagement Chatbot for Onboarding

[REVIEW]: Well developed and convincing argument for why Concierge is an excellent investment for businesses. The main pain point - the stressful nature of onboarding - is elaborated on with key subpoints, including both the employers’ and employees’ perspectives of the process. Target markets (HR Department & Enterprises) are focused and their needs are clearly identified and described. Clear competitive advantages between Concierge and other similar platforms were stated; this section could have been elaborated on by introducing a few features of these competitors and how they contrast with Concierge. The opportunity forecast of Concierge in relation to the “gig” economy and future of businesses moving towards more employees working remotely wrapped up the pitch nicely. The one main improvement to this venture pitch would be the addition of a financial overview for investors on funding, benefits of investing, and estimated returns. Overall, this venture was probably the most convincing in terms of actual implementation and solving a real problem in today’s economy. Great job!

[FEEDBACK]: Amanda, thank you for your professional-feeling pitch. I definitely think that the product is desirable. Were I in the business of training employees, I would definitely consider this as a product to utilize. That said, because I am not in the industry, I am left wondering how much original value there is in the project – aren’t there already products out there like this? Maybe yours is different, and maybe it’s better, but to me that would be the key piece to really pitch – how this is better than the current options out there (including training platforms with chatbots). I’m guessing that might be included in your Venture Pitch, but I would bring it to the forefront, to show that there’s still a need despite other tech being out there. Additionally, narrating with a script that didn’t match the text on the screen made it a bit difficult for me to follow. Again though, the overall feel of the video was professional and I appreciated the use of screencasting to model functionality. Thanks again.

REVIEW: This venture presents a well-explained problem. I appreciate how coaching and engagement are important elements of on-boarding, but I agree they can and often get overlooked and pushed to the side when the day-to-day operations can take over. Concierge has a clear target market which has potential and opportunity for expansion. I think it solves a recognizable and appreciable problem. I found the presentation quite engaging and consistent with the feeling, brand and experience. There was good use of statistics to help sell the product. I can appreciate that as mentioned in the venture pitch, the way we work is changing and the opportunity for this kind of service and technology will be of benefit to companies. The company and service and the solution are clear, and it was really interesting. However, I’m not sure what the ask is and what the return will be for investment in this opportunity. Also, I am wondering about the plans for development and implementation of the software–would there be a test-launch? What does the roll-out look like? So, I’m sold on the idea, but I would like more concrete details and logistics around the venture just to be certain of it. As an EVA I would invest in this company, I think it is a sound idea and that the demand for this kind of service and technology will be in higher and higher demand in the future.

REVIEW: Hi Amanda, you used videos in both your pitches, congratulations! The personal touch of you making the pitch in the videos is great. Your elevator pitch works; you communicated your venture proposition immediately. Your venture pitch begins with the pain point and your description that you have experienced the pain also is persuasive. You presented your solution well; it helps that as an investor I know about chatbots. You talked about the market and the customers; this is clear. I have questions about the user subscription. I assume that after a period of onboarding the employee stops using the service so I do not understand what “$49/user/year” means. You do have a credible and compelling story of a good opportunity. You said that there are already similar products in the market and in your strong pitch your product differentiation is weak. It is interesting that you did not mention large employers such as federal governments and provincial governments. As an investor I would expect that you boost your venture by explicitly considering these. Congratulations! I would invest.

Hi Amanda, fantastic idea! Oh man, I wish I had something like this when I started my new job. :-) Your Elevator Pitch was spot on and very professional. Likewise, I felt like your introduction in the venture pitch greatly motivated how your professional experience bolsters your position as CEO. The market was very clear, the business strategy was well thought through and most importantly you could motivate why customers would pick your product over competitors. I would definitely invest!

(Review) Hi Amanda, I think this is a good idea. While this venture is irrelevant to my own personal career path, I do see how this could be helpful to the employer, as it would free up a lot of their time and stress. I think it is essential that new employees have the correct amount of support they would need in order to successfully implement themselves into a new employment, especially with the statistics you stated on how many people leave their jobs due to lack of support in the early weeks. You also make a great point about how during a pandemic, like what is happening now, essentially everything is being digitized, so that would be extremely helpful to new employees. However, as I do think this would be helpful, I can see there being some issues with hands on employment that would require person-to-person training. I think in many areas, no ChatBot can replace the training and/or support that a human interaction can replace. But when it comes to certain questions, such as payroll, this could be a great tool! I would recommend this to be invested in for large office type jobs. Perhaps federal jobs where you have people in every province doing the same jobs because the pool of people needing it would have to be big enough in order for it to be worth it.

REVIEW: Concierge appears to be a great solution to the challenge of onboarding new employees. The use of a chatbot to provide support and connection to new employees would be an effective way to do this and create savings within an organization by reducing the percentage of new staff that leaves. Using a well build and designed chatbot would also allow for Consierge to be used by organizations operating in different fields and in different sizes. The fact that there are already similar products on the market makes this a hard sell. While Consierge has some unique features I don’t know if this is enough to warrant investment. If I were to invest I would like to see the following. - specialists in HR, designers, and programmers to ensure that Consierge is scalable and customizable by clients and easily adapts to different types of jobs and markets. - ensure that Consierge functions in multiple languages even if it was set up using one specific language. This would open up markets worldwide but also encourage large corporations that may have staff in different parts of the world whose first languages are different to use it. With the previous mentioned additions/adjustments I would recommend Consierge for Investment. Well done Amanda!