etower

Connectthis Feedback - The pain point is well felt, but I am not entirely sure it is completely well identified. Both teachers and parents alike talk about a lack of respect and understanding. Colliding spheres of influence and authority cause friction and problems arise where there is high levels of blame and judgement and low levels of appreciation and credibility. Cultural competency is a huge problem combined with competencies of dealing with blended and marginalized family types in school settings. I don't see how this app will help facilitate relationships with these communities. Differing values and expectations around the value of particular types of learning create conflict and both sides feel the other is unresponsive and disrespectful. As both a parent and teacher I sit on both sides of the fence here and I see the highly conflictual nature of parent/school relationships today. Beyond simply not having time or resources, there is the added question of if it's valuable or desired. I wonder about information overload. While it is nice to have access to all information, I am not sure I need a pop up every time my child gets a mark on something. As a parent I feel that reduces not improves my child's level of responsibility. This app also seems mostly concerned with the teachers providing information and parents responding. It still feels like a one way rather than two way model. I would need a lot more details about the type of functionalities specifically this would support and research from parents and teachers about what they want in terms of home/school communication and relationships. I am also concerned about the financials here. The initial cost seems very high for a relatively low share of the company. For that level of investment I would be expecting controlling shares. I would also want to see exactly how this money will be spent because it seems unreasonable for app development that uses largely existing features recombined into a new product. I liked that you used a website for your venture pitch. I thought it added a level of professionalism.

Cloudle Feedback - I thought you did a great job of finding a simple but unique solution to a very specific problem. The elevator pitch was ok. I generally don't like Prezzi for automated presentations, but that's more of a personal preference. I did like that you used voice-over and included a photo so that it felt more authentic and credible. I really appreciated that your presentation included very clear and credible expertise as well as direct financials. This was one way your presentation really stood out for me over others. I think your financials and marketing make sense. I've commented on other presentations about the reliability of voice recognition and I'm particularly concerned about voice recognition in a multivoice environment. You pointed this out but didn't fully answer how this was going to be solved but I was reassured by the expertise your team is bringing in this area. I was hoping for more clarification about the ethics and pedagogy of recording not only lectures but discussion. I have seen research that shows that students who have recorded copies of lectures are much less likely to remember the content of that lecture/discussion because they use their capacity instead to remember where it's stored rather than the content. I would love to see more research about how this works while engaging the cloudle at the same time. Maybe the use of the cloudle would overcome this tendency because it forces students to focus on these cognitive strategies. As a student and parent, however, I would be very uncomfortable participating in a recorded environment like that and that is my biggest concern. Where are the recordings stored, who has access, what stops students from cloudleing private conversations of friends? What happens when the cloudle picks up an offtask conversation? Will Jessica's boy troubles end up in the word cloud? Or worse something highly confidential like conversations around abuse, sexuality or health? I also wonder how long it will take the younger students to stop trying to insert dirty words into conversations to see them appear in the word cloud.

This is a good start. You've identified the need. I would have liked to see you and your qualifications represented in the elevator pitch so that it could lend credibility to your idea. I am not sure that PowToon was the right tool here. I think you yourself have identified my two biggest concerns. I don't see the differentiation here. We have companies that do exactly this here in Nova Scotia and for free. There are also many paid options out there. With a highly specialized workforce like ours, we also don't often value these sorts of training opportunities for our senior employees because, as you state, it is more important to have experts working with other experts rather than taking courses online that our experts could teach. Networking is also an important side benefit of much of the more advanced PD we engage in that would be lost through online learning. Online learning has been used primarily by those upgrading qualifications (in which case it must be offered by the certifying body such as a university or professional association) or for junior staff requiring basic, specific information. In the latter case, we design our own online courses for this purpose already. I don't see a product here that is different enough from what's already available for free and as an investor I'm not sure what you are asking of me or offering me for my investment.

E-mmersion Feedback - I think the venture has great potential. We are definitely seeing the rise in French Immersion in our school boards here. However, we are also seeing an even greater increase in French only school attendance. Our EAL team tells us that the predictions are that the need for this will drop dramatically in the coming years and many language schools in the city are preparing for the possibility of closure. This is particular to English in English speaking areas, however, and has to do with the changes to immigration policy and timelines so I am not really all that concerned that you will not have a market for your product. As you have mentioned you are looking at scalability to other languages and countries. Another opportunity would be in Asia where English is often taught. As others have pointed out, I thought the choice to wear sunglasses was strange. Although I am aware that there are many people who, for legitimate medical reasons, require tinted lenses, in this setting it detracts from your credibility. I wondered if it was because you wanted to hide the eye tracking that can be visible on video when you read from a script. I was also disappointed by the audio quality of the video particularly in the second one. I also thought you probably could have had a better head shot than the one taken from your earlier video. These are really nit picky things. Overall I thought the pitch did a great job of illustrating exactly the challenge with current in-class immersion environments and with online interfaces. I like the idea of games, if they can be social (ie. with chat functions included). There were a couple of immediately apparent problems for me (and I noticed others pointed these out as well) which is that it seems that students will still be interacting with one another rather than with native speakers. You would need to somehow support the seeding of native speakers into the system. You would also need to ensure there is a high level of auditory interaction (the quality of your video let you down here - if you can't manage the audio on your pitch video, I'm worried about how well audio interaction will go in the actual software). I think the fee may be high and I'm not sure if a per student rate is the way to go. I like the option of having individual student purchasing ability for those who want to do it at home or those that need extra help in classes that aren't interested in purchasing for everyone, but I think you might be better served to negotiate school wide or board wide fees. I like the idea of verifying credentials. How will this apply to small schools or alternative education facilities? I really liked that you already had support from Canadian Parents for French and from a number of FI teachers. I would have liked to know more about the financial end of things. What kind of return can be expected and how soon? What kind of specific investment is being sought?

Mobile Learning Lab Feedback - I thought the overall concept was very strong and you made a good case. I would have liked to see more of you. I'm not sure what credibility this presentation has. Who are you? Who is your team? What is your expertise? Why can you make this work where others haven't? How will you take this to emerging markets? I think you might have been better served with a presentation of you speaking with some slides to show your point and a summary of your qualifications. The voice-over seemed to lack some enthusiasm so I would have liked to see more of your interest in the project. I am left with a lot of questions, which in a sense is good because you've peaked my interest. I like the business model you've set up (a teachers pay teachers sort of thing) with extra fees to bump up your project etc. I think that makes a lot of sense financially. I also like that the content is peer driven and that the content is centrally located. I would like to see an interface for teachers where they can also have a section for assessment and tracking as well as curriculum alignment as part of the package. I wish you had gone into more detail about the competition. Numerous cities and archives as well as private businesses are already underway on these sorts of projects. The advantage of your app is that it is all in one place but the same could be said of Layar or the other AR browsers. I also would have liked some reassurance about some of the ethical issues. How will you manage space hacking to ensure you do not open yourself to liability? What about students who do not have access to mobile devices? Will teachers be supported in developing lessons across platforms so that students with android, blackberry and apple devices can all participate? What about students who have inferior devices? Who is going to pay for the data charges these students will incur as part of their participation? As a teacher, I have always found geolocation tedious to develop for AR and companies like Layar and Junaio are reducing their support for geolocation in favour of image recognition. How will you facilitate teachers over the learning curve and get them interested in participating? Eventually word of mouth from those teachers who are making money would help drive business, but how do you plan to do your initial recruitment? You will need to have a sufficient level of participation in a geographic location for it to be worthwhile. Like others have said, I need to know more about how much money we're talking about to develop this and what kind of marketing and return can be expected before I could really make a decision about how interested I am in going to the next step.

I thought this was an extremely strong pitch. You clearly identified the pain point. As a person who has witnessed various individuals struggling with gaming addictions this is a really clear and powerful need. I don't usually like PowToon for pitches, but I loved it here. I think the voice-over made it particularly strong. I also liked that you included a photo at the end of your venture pitch so it felt like I could put a face to the voice. It helped reassure me about credibility. I really liked that your venture pitch included low text with voice-over. You had an excellent use of statistics that were well displayed. The presentation was professional but not over the top. I thought your solution made sense and I appreciated that it was backed by evidence. I also loved the name and tagline. I was motivated to invest. The two small criticisms I had was that I expect over time you will need an exit plan and that you will need to bring more expertise into the mix. Reading about marketing is not the same as being a marketer and I think that it could grow very quickly. I also wonder about patenting your process to ensure that someone with a stronger team doesn't scoop you. The final thing I wished for in this was more information about how addicts would access this tool and how it would be paid for. Would this be something that governments purchase and provide for free? Would it be something available to users directly for a fee online? Would it be free with advertisements built in? I would also like to see this leveraged into an app for mobile devices.

ProDev Planner Feedback - I thought that this presentation did a really good job of outlining the pain point and the solution as well as how it can work in various situations. As an outlook user who understands exactly the problems with PD planning you've mentioned, I fully appreciate the need for this plugin. I liked the touchcast video format in that I loved being able to see you which helped to establish a relationship and credibility and in that it provided for a little bit of interactivity. I thought it added an interesting and professional component. On my computer at work at least, the video lagged and glitched along which was very distracting. The audio and the video didn't sync and it cut out at times. I would find it difficult to follow. I'm not sure if this was the quality of streaming from my computer or something else. I also found the inability to scroll once I zoomed in in the UberFlip presentation annoying, but I understand that is a limitation of the tool. I thought your graphics and charts added a really professional look to your presentation that added credibility again to your pitch. The big part that was missing for me as an investor was the ask. How much are you looking for? What will it pay for? What can I expect in return? How will the product be marketed? I'm interested in investing and feel that this is a worthwhile venture, but I don't have enough information to decide if I'm willing to move to the next step. It felt a little bit like 2 elevator pitches to me.

Talkboard Feedback - I'm sorry to say that I really struggled to get through your elevator pitch. I don't think that a text medium (granted animated on slides) was the right way to sell a product that is advocating for the use of multi-sensory education and business especially with such an emphasis on voice and relationships. I think you could have chosen a better medium using at least voiceover but potentially using an actual live video that would show in the real world the pain point you're talking about with a person speaking from the front of the room. On average you had 18 words per slide (21 if you drop the first and last title slides) with one slide over 50 words. It was too much for me. I thought the arguments were clear and thought through, however, and that the graphic to represent the talkboard was clear and I liked your tagline. I also thought you did a good job of communicating what your goals were for the project and the use of the word envision in particular was inspiriting. I have to say that while the differentiation is clear, I'm not sure it's enough to be viable. You mentioned that other types of boards connect you to the front of the room and don't allow you to move around which is of course not the case with Bluetooth enabled or wireless devices (clickers or wireless mouses for example or tablets that allow you to use the interactivity from a distance). You mention these peripherals later on in your venture pitch saying that with talkboard you won't have to carry around these devices but your diagram clearly includes the need for a microphone that while not carried would have to be worn by the presenter and presumably has a wireless receiver that can be lost easily in a classroom setting unless you are working with an all-in-one device which will price it out of most educational markets without substantial subsidy. Also, if the mic is worn by the presenter rather than carried, it makes it impossible for students to drive the voice interaction without the presenter removing the mic each time. It also doesn't acknowledge one of the joys of SMARTboards which is that they allow students to come to the front rather than moving the teacher to the back. It allows students to be hands on with the device and empowers them to move forward. It also doesn't acknowledge a key competitor in the market to the SMARTboard in general and to this device specifically which is the increased use of tablets and mobile devices in classrooms which gets rid of the "front of the class" paradigm all together. How will talkboard compete with this technology? I wonder about the logistics of the device. For example, if it requires voice recognition training to operate, what happens when you have a substitute teacher or another presenter? What happens if you want one of your students to give a presentation at the front? The voice commands were also one of the most disliked features of both Bluetooth and GoogleGlass when they first came out. People felt very silly having to talk to their device out loud and other options are being added to them so that they can omit the command "OK Glass" for example. The added distraction of the voice commands in a busy classroom may also be difficult compared with the unobtrusive push of a mouse button. My children often have fun messing with the Bluetooth voice recognition in our car that constantly screws up the names of musicians and bands which is often a problem with auto-readers. How will the device distinguish between the voice of the teacher and those of students near by? As an investor, I am also concerned by the finances in this venture pitch. I don't know how much you are asking from me as an investor and what I can expect to get out of it. You mention $500 000 to employ 6 people which seems a bit steep for contract work depending on where you are doing your development. None of these people are project managers to oversee the big picture and this cost does not include a prototype or any overhead or marketing that your sales people would need to be effective. You will clearly need substantially more capital beyond the first phase so I know I am not going to see a return on investment for quite some time. This is a high risk venture in a market that I already see as saturated. I'm not convinced you will be able to convince schools or boards who have just committed huge amounts of money to install SMARTboards to change over so quickly for one added feature that I'm sure SMARTboard can add quickly as a peripheral to compete once it comes to market. I applaud you for mentioning this challenge in your venture pitch up front, but I'm afraid you have not convinced me it is surmountable. Maybe I'm just a stingy investor, but I am not sure I would see good profitability on my money based on what I have to go on here. Josh Ballem brings up some interesting alternatives that might be worth considering.

Float Taipei Feedback The audio and video quality of this elevator pitch was excellent and I thought it took the right tone. I thought the clean no nonsense approach was the right one for the elevator pitch. I liked that I got to see the person making the pitch face to face. I thought the inclusion of the dog was gimmicky and unnecessary if not a bit unsanitary related to the sparse spa feel invoked in the further presentation and that was probably the point at which I decided I was less interested but perhaps if your investors were dog people it may not be so bad. I wonder if the idea of floating translates well to a Canadian investor audience? I was an elite athlete at one point in my career and I have known many college athletes and although I’ve heard of sensory deprivation tanks, I’ve never heard or anyone who has actually used one so I am having a hard time imagining the market for this type of spa. Perhaps it is one of those things where availability would encourage use and that the reason I have not heard of people using them is simply a problem of access but because there is some doubt in my mind it would be helpful if you would provide some evidence for the market need. You briefly mentioned your competitors, but I wonder if they are not already maximizing what market there might be. I think you might have to make the cultural link for your investor a bit stronger unless you can assume they are coming from the same cultural context. That being said, I thought that you did make it sound appealing to consider and I thought you seemed credible and interesting. I think I would have more interest if I were an investor in the region you’re proposing for your service. In the expanded pitch I was concerned about the finances. In your operating expenditures you didn’t include any figures for overhead (eg. Internet and web hosting, transaction fees and payment tech equipment, electricity, water, heat, taxes, décor, maintenance, accounting services or other management once you leave the business, laundry, towels etc.) nor did you include the cost to purchase your start up learning materials or the cost of developing further ones that you mention. I was also concerned that compromising on location may result in lower profits. I was not sure how much I, as an investor, was being asked to put up, what shares I would have in the company and what profit margins I could expect from the overall profits of the company. For me, I don’t see a big enough profit margin here once you pay out the overhead and you and your partner to make my investment pay off, although the turnaround time seems quick which is nice. I wish there had been more images in the expanded pitch to give me the feeling of this type of atmosphere. My biggest concern is that all of the research espousing benefits of the floating technique is related to the sensory deprivation involved. Altering that deprivation to introduce stress through learning materials seems to me that it would actually have a negative impact on the health benefits that floating encourages. I would need to see some evidence that this technique is both effective for producing the same health benefits as non-learning floats and that educational outcomes are improved through this type of learning before I would be willing to invest. I might be willing to invest in one unit within an existing shop as a research initiative in order to conduct testing to see if the benefits pan out.

Hi Ariane, I've sent it. Please let me know if there are any problems.