Evan

Adam, I can confidently say you are addressing a real problem with your writing assessment software. Your elevator pitch makes me immediately see the need and potential and had me wanting to know the answers to some of the questions by exploring your venture pitch. As you mentioned in your reflection, it is more of an idea at this point than an actual company, I was interested in knowing more of how you will launch and the price of admission. Aside from that, I think your idea benefits both students and teachers and I really enjoyed the thought of your idea existing!

Henna, I found your elevator pitch to be interesting and I really had to question my own bias. I enjoyed the fact that you weren't asking me for any money with the Crowd sourcing platform, and that you are trying to solve an issue that presently exists with women representation in the Tech Sector. I think if we are trying to empower women and look at giving money solely to women in tech with your crowdfunding, then perhaps the money should be only provided by women? I think the social enterprise of NibbleByte being for women by women would create additional value. Additionally, from a VC standpoint, would you care what gender is behind the product/service, as long as you have a solid business plan and a product that is going to be feasible? As a Dragon's Den fan, and after watching your pitch, I did more research on the show's Canadian female Tech savy capitalist- Michelle Romanow. It would be interesting to hear her take as a female who has had to go through the corporate world and tech world as a female. Does she care more about the balance of gender in Tech and business? Or more about a good idea, growing an idea, and making money? I think business is hard and can be ruthless for any gender and we do need to make a better effort to increase your provided statistic of "5% of Canadian tech companies have a female founder". But I would argue we need to do more early on with young females in tech education and business education so we can increase those numbers.

Chris, first I want to commend you for a great idea and concept! I thought your elevator pitch was captivating and I could easily identify and relate to what it was you have to offer. What I really enjoyed was reading your reflection and identifying your strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur. I also found that pushing an idea into a business model makes it feel as though it does become your 'baby'. It is harder to accept criticism and you want to make sure you are trying to educate yourself in areas that you do consider weak in. That being said, I think a business really thrives in the management identifying that it's okay to say, "I don't have all the answers" but I will hire someone, educate myself, and explore avenues in order to do what needs to be done to address areas that you don't deem your strong suit. Every CEO is a cheerleader for their company, but not every CEO has the gift of gab or thrives with PR work, etc. I think your intentions with LURNT are equally similar to the co-founder of REDDIT, Aaron Swartz. A platform with the intention of totally free information. As others have mentioned, it is hard moderating adults on Reddit, so the challenge will be even more difficult to moderate Grade 4-12's on LURNT.

Good post Chris. I really liked your comment- "His previous experience as a teacher will earn him both goodwill and credibility with his individual customers and his focus on a quantifiable measure of success and accountability to education standards will ensure that he has some support from policy makers". I think we can sometimes overlook some of these past positions as most of us always appreciate a success story that has had an individual start in the trenches like most of us are in/are starting from.

Master of Science in Technology and Master of Economics in International Marketing. Two very fitting credentials for Kristo and his business. He sounds like he just wants to get back to the office and work, his passion is evident.

I agree with Katie that is an interesting concept, and I double down on what Ryan stated regarding that the technology they are trying to sell is extremely limited to a single lesson. To me, it is quite gimmicky and a novel idea to try once and see. The technology that recognizes the T-Shirt is in the app, the T-Shirt has nothing more of value than any other ordinary t-shirt. The T-Shirt costs $29.00 on Amazon and their website which I find overpriced as well. There are no other parts of the body that are covered and the shirt is the companies entire portfolio. This is where I think they missed the mark. Perhaps a full body design launched to anatomy and health learners would be more suitable, but they could deliver this solely in the app or a Website. The two co-founders promoting the product seem passionate, but they don't give me the impression that the experience they have with the shirt will now lead to further successes. I don't find the business path to success and I am left feeling like they are simply content with what they have done so far. The companies destination is understated and as an investor, their portfolio is simply too small. For me, the risk is too high.

I've spent the past several years learning about investing and evaluating publicly traded companies. It is much more apparent to me today than it was when I first started investing to make an extra dollar, that finding a quality management team is one of the biggest keys to success and one of my first areas I research. With MarcoPolo and the pitch, I feel compelled to invest in the company. From the start of the pitch, I gained valuable insight into the team behind MarcoPolo. With a management team comprised of a former Internet Investor with Goldman Sachs and a former CEO who grew a business to over 100 million users and an $8 billion dollar company with China. My ears began to ring. The co-founders viewed an area that was in desperate need of producing value education to the early childhood educational world. They spoke about MarcoPolo being a learning adventure that will set children up for life. Everything that they do as a company, the education comes first. They already have 7 million downloads, and just launched their revenue generator platform. They are aiming to be the top global producer of children's content and leading brand in the education space. They speak of being well positioned for rapid growth and becoming a multi-billion dollar company. The concept is clear and feasible, they are marketing it this globally for children 3-7 years of age, and the CEO and management team convey confidence that they have the expertise to deliver this to the scale

I enjoyed this ELearning page for predictions as it is a very user friendly page to almost click bait us ELearners into reading every article of the various predictions that were posted. I enjoyed reading the Hype Curve page, particularly the Plateau of Productivity page that discusses MOOTs. As Hicken stated in his prediction on MOOCS: "MOOCs: We will go against the grain a bit here and argue that MOOCs AREN’T DEAD. Our evidence? All the MOOCs out there. And all the quasi-MOOCs in higher education and CE: the cheap online master’s degrees that seemingly every big-name university is now offering. These online courses might be less massive and open than a purist’s MOOC, but there’s no question that the universities experimented with the Coursera model and learned from it. Even our own Masters Classes have become more MOOC and less Coursera. Hicken goes on to defend the MOOC by stating that the class of online master’s degrees is not open, but it is more open. These are either MOOCs or quasi-MOOCs, and if you can accept that shift in meaning, then MOOCs are enjoying a thriving productivity. There is a great deal of information for learning ventures, K-12, higher education, and corporate to analyze the digital trends. Although I agree that "Expert market predictions are a lot like fast foods – there’s an unaccountable appetite for them relative to their questionable nutritional value", they still possess the feeling of having "an edge" on the future. Bookmark the page for release of the 2019 eLearning Hype Curve that is scheduled to be released on Nov. 27th.

Chat bots tied with artificial intelligence is going to be a very interesting play in the upcoming years. These chat bots will only get smarter over time and more experience with conversations.We may not even know if we are talking to a human or if it is a programmed chat bot in the near future. Online businesses using a chat bot for customer assistance to address or stream line our needs.

Every year, since 2014, I share several articles with my students from a magazine by MacLeans on the Inventions and Innovations of the future. Notably, the 3D Printing articles are the ones that gain the most interest as they are the most mind blowing for the capabilities. Human organs, implants for people like soldiers, car accident victims, medical patients in need of need bones or limbs. What about being able to send an email of a vaccine anywhere in the world and 3D print the vaccine? Although the future of 3D printing has a very beautiful outlook, we have to bank that our collective society will not use it for negative purposes as we've heard about 3D printed guns. Scary and beautiful.