Market In The Middle Program

FEEDBACK: Thanks for your pitch, Greg! It was very detailed and its comprehensiveness suggests your investment in the idea. Based on the pitch, I wasn't entirely convinced that the program would engage students, which is interesting given that it is based on taking students through a sales event. However, as the exercise is designed for EVAs and not customers, this may not be relevant. This particular EVA struggles with Prezi presentations. For those of us who don't use them all of the time, Prezis become a source of frustration as progress requires clicking and the navigationally challenged can end up zooming in on content we are trying to close. In my experience, they also seem to take longer to load than YouTube videos, which is somewhat surprising. Presentation style aside, I am glad that you are giving your students the opportunity to engage in such valuable experiential learning!

Feedback: Thanks for sharing Greg! I think business ed and entrepreneurship are valuable skills to learn. The whole framework you've highlighted, having students learn how to build and eventually sell a product is a great idea. However, the Business-Ed department in my school does exactly what you are promoting. I still think it is a great idea. I teach at a 9-12 high school, so students have the opportunity to take business-ed as an elective. Your pitch allows students to get a taste of the basics at a younger age which can eventually shape their elective interests when they reach high school. I would have to agree with our peers. I did think your elevator pitch was the venture pitch. I was confused at first. At around Christmas time the business-Ed classes hosted a fair every lunch hour for a week. They set up their booths in attempt to sell their products. Teenagers in their case were the target audience. The most successful candidates sold some form of food, which complemented the lunch hour fair. Some weren't as successful. They had cool ideas, but the market and price point of their product failed to generate them any revenue. Both situations were great learning experiences!

Feedback: Hi Greg. I love the idea, and I certainly think it would prove to be invaluable to the students and to the teachers. Also, I like the idea of creating the venture pitch as a prototype of the actual website. I was a bit confused with the format though--the "elevator pitch" was very detailed and I initially thought it was the 'venture pitch'. As teachers are required to maintain the website (over and above all their existing responsibilities), do you foresee any challenges or resistance from them in terms of buying this product? Thank you!

(Feedback) Hi Greg, I like the marketplace site and of course I believe in the relevant importance of this venture. I agree with To everyone else that a video would be more effective, even with just you pitch your idea enthusiastically. I would suggest too that you look into Design and Entrepreneur classes at the middle school level. For example in IB MYP (middle year program) students from grade 6 start learning the design cycle--maybe you could discuss that aspect of production and learning that would result. In Singapore at Canadian International School--their STEM program (k-12) replace the E for Engineering with E for Entrepreneurship. I am certain their curriculum goals and galleries are available. Many international schools have market days in which a similar market design to sales and pitch process is followed. Finally, would suggest considering how maker movement and maker spaces would be utilized and encouraged through your platform.

FEEDBACK: Thank you, Greg, for your pitch on Market in the Middle. A program like this would be a really awesome hands-on and experiential opportunity for students. If the elevator pitch would have been in a different format, such as a video, you could hook investors faster. Instead of finishing the elevator pitch, I flipped to the website and saw more in less time. I almost feel guilty, because the work you have done is very thoughtful and thorough, but I would have missed it if I were an investor. I also worry that the additional equipment needed could be a barrier in terms of cost and training needed to use it. Thank you again.

I would like to add to my review FEEDBACK (as I had forgotten this) Hi Greg, with sincere interest I read your venture pitch! If we had gathered these insights earlier at school this A3 Assignment would have been a peace of cake :) As an entrepreneur I would be interested to invest, I would probably supply your product with the necessary hardware equipment, but would want each school to order the "soft ware" or additional tools with me. An other idea could be that you "translate" this program in a blended learning (online and teach the teacher) course and you offer this for free to all kind of schools (maybe make a different level starter- intermediate- advanced business) and calculate a license fee for each student on the program. Their profit when selling their products is theirs (ROI). Or you make money with "train the trainer" to teach this program. As an Investment Angel, I would like to know if I financially invest in this, how much is my return? Other than that .. I think with this relatively "straight forward" idea, you can make a lot of success. I like it !!

FEEDBACK: sounds like a great idea....just too much info for an elevator pitch to get me super interested. A quick video might be more effective.

FEEDBACK: Hello Gregory, thanks for sharing your venture. I loved the idea of this! I would invest for sure. For students to have a real chance at using what they have learned in school to do something creative like this is amazing. Good job! I would be interested in seeing if there is an opportunity for younger students to give a try at this that would be cool. For your elevator pitch, I love the use of prezi but perhaps for the elevator pitch adding some audio would keep the audience motivated to go through? Just a thought.

Hello Gregory, thank you for sharing your venture! I found your idea particularly interesting because it reminded me of a business leadership program I attended in my last semester of high school where we studied outside of the traditional classroom, took trips to Toronto and New York, and completed an end of the year project where we were to design a fundraiser for a cause of our choice. The structure of our fundraiser had lots of similar elements to the Market In The Middle program (including developing skills such as communication, critical thinking, financial planning and decision making). The potential for grade 8 students to gain practical, real-world knowledge through MITM is crystal clear. I wonder if this program may be better suited for high school students? I mention this because as an EVA I see an opportunity to expand this venture even further. As Anouk mentioned, the program could be designed for multiple levels, beginning with beginner in grade 9, providing students the opportunity to take the program each year, ending with advanced business in grade 12. Whether the students are in grade 8 or 9-12, would this be a compulsory course? Extracurricular? An elective? I can definitely see many students getting excited about a class like this, however, if it was compulsory, I can think of some students that may not enjoy the front-line marketing work. You did mention that an investment may result in an increase in student participation and larger groups could be divided into different roles, with some focusing on the website while others focus on the creation of the product. I think this is a great idea for meeting different interests of different students. Maybe those who are interested can give speeches on why they think they should be the CEO of the term! The main thing I would like to know as an investor would be, how much would these things cost me: 3D printers, laser engraver/cutter, storage and organization systems, and training programs for educators (which I think will be necessary in order to expand across school boards)? The program sounds excellent but I can't invest just yet until I know how much my ROI is and where it would come from! Also, if it is in anyway possible, I would recommend transferring some information from the "elevator pitch" to the MITM website/venture pitch, it took me a bit longer than 1-2 to get though the first Prezi. I know I had lots to say but I see great potential in this. Thank you! Great job. PS, what do students do with the money they make!?

(Feedback)Hi Greg I think this is a great idea. I do however believe there would be some competition in this area. Just as an example, when I was in high school I did ‘Enterprise’ which was a business course where we essentially had to do the same thing you are presenting. (It is a course available to all high school students in NL). The only difference being some of the technologies you would use, although I’m sure by now they are using similar technologies. It would be interesting to see what the difference in these two programs would be at this age.