jesse mayer

Hi Lisa, thank you for the feedback. You're right in that it's a tough market, particularly competing against giants like Google or Edmodo; there's certainly no shortage in current offerings. I think a mobile-first LMS is due, one way or the other, but I too wonder how much social media ought to be integrated. thanks again

Thanks Chris, I appreciate the feedback and I think you nailed it when you talk about integration with the cell phones, rather than outright banning. Ultimately, why should teachers ban such a powerful tool that students actually *want* to use. Thanks again!

Hi Gordon, both real great pieces of advice and I'll have to check them out. I hadn't heard of Edsby, but do work with a couple schools implemented GAFE right now; my understanding is that although they are technicall device/OS agnostic, they're still ultimately designed in a laptop-first (or Chromebook) way. I'll certainly need to explore this more though. Thanks again!

Noan, to start with, what a great elevator pitch! Definitely did the trick of relaying some basic info and getting me hooked. The basic functionalities of the platform are direct and, as you note, overcome the biggest challenge of GBL; management of resources. I think you're marketing strategy is very well poised for today's (and the future's) landscape of educators, but I wonder how suitable it is for students/teachers that are not necessary Digital Natives; I know it's a ever-growing minority, but there are still those who grow up with little to no exposure to video games. Again, when it comes to your Plan/Ask, I think you did an exceptionally professional job in explaining the breakdown of costs, timelines and schedule of return (certainly important to the investors themselves). I like the actual business model itself too, in that the content creators can set the price - I think it's also smart to advise a general cost of $20/package; this makes it very reasonable for educators to use the product. I think, as some others noted, your ask is probably too small for the work required; I work in IT and I can definitely say that an annual budget of $15000 USD is minimal, at best. All in all, I'm thoroughly impressed with what you've created here, and although not an educator myself, think there would be tremendous value in the platform. I look forward to seeing what else you come up with in the future - great job!

Hi Erin - thanks! I completely agree with your insecurity; it's a tough and unfair assumption that all students would have a capable device (or even, a device) that they could use for this sort of application. It was my major hesitation in positioning a mobile-first LMS. Again, I appreciate the feedback!

hi John, this is great, a form of VR education applied to something outside of the traditional classroom. Much like Sports Psychology, it's very interesting to see the "usual" applied to sports. Particularly neat that you got someone from EA on board with this. I think, given its usage within football, it's a natural progression to get this technology accessible to more athletes and sports. The business model is smart as well, microtransaction are a natural part of many apps today and I think would make sense to both investors and consumers. I'm really impressed for what you've hypothesized here, and role-playing as an investor, I would absolutely back your product. Thanks!

Daniel, really great job here identifying a very future-thinking app. Given the sudden and overwhelming success of Pokemon Go, this seems like a great time to introduce an AR/VR education-based app - there's got to be TONS of ways that teachers could find really thoughtful and applicable use of this app. Your business plan is great, really detailed information that would provide a potential investor with the right knowledge to make an informed decision. As you acknowledge, the development time of the software is definitely going to be the biggest hurdle here; the key will be to keep the costs low enough to allow for the business model you outline, while keeping the UI simple enough to promote widespread adoption. I particularly think the "open source" aspect of this - or how teachers are given the ability to create their own lessons vs using pre-existing lessons - is one of the strongest features. Similar to my own venture pitch, I think the biggest success (in terms of penetration and adoption) would be having specific key teachers use the program first, as a means to get more teachers on board. There's bound to be people who simply won't want to learn how to use a new platform, but the key teachers would end up being the biggest advocate. Great job!

Hi Gordon, great job with PowToon. I've used this before, but you definitely did a great job within the tool. I thought your idea was well thought out, both in terms of a missing tool for teachers, as well as a way for an existing company to further penetrate a market. Your implementation section was especially well done, it's obvious you put in a lot of time and effort into thinking about the pricing model. I think this is a great fit for today's learning culture as it even promotes a sense of learn anywhere as students could use their own devices in a pseudo-byod style in order to watch and discuss on their own time. Great job!

Hi Dan Great elevator pitch; concise and to the point. This seems like a great idea, although I don't have children myself, it seems like an application that parents would certainly embrace. The features you describe are great and I think you've really covered both sides of usage in that both parents and teachers would find value here. Additionally, you've found a system that will actually result in less administrative work for teachers while likely providing more accuracy and accessibility for parents - really a great job. As an IT Consultant I appreciate your detail regarding security also; it's refreshing to see someone think about the backend of things and address the requirement of protecting data and keeping it in the country of origin. Many people throw around the idea of using the "cloud" without really thinking about how it works. In terms of competition, and back to the feature of a digital signature; do you anticipate this being reliant on certain software (or an app) on the smartphone itself? I'm wondering if parents would have to have a PDF writer (instead of just a reader) in order to do this. This is really great work Dan, I found your venture pitch to be very well thought out and covered anything I could think of really. As a peer, I am thoroughly impressed. As a potential investor, you'd certainly have my buy-in here. Great work!

Good work Erin; definitely a well thought out product for an existing problem. I struggled a lot with references during my undergrad and tried Refworks and just google scholar's output ability - but this definitely seems like a far better idea. You're right in that it's sure to help students learn what is/isn't required too. From the investment side of things, I think it would be beneficial to understand/think more about the business model and maybe how you plan on getting students empowered enough to use the tool. I think the major hurdle here is going to be re-educating students that it's easier to use the tool than to ask the questions. Reading the comments below, it seems like this is a legitimately great idea that many educators would endorse, so I think you should definitely explore it more in terms of timelines, costs (you don't mention the pricing model at all) and the recompense on the 15k investors are being asked for. Great work overall!