jormiston

Brittany, I enjoyed your simple approach to both your elevator and venture pitch. Although the elevator pitch was visually pleasing I think a narration would provide a nice "personal" touch for any potential investors. I for one like to hear the interest and engagement of the person "behind" the venture. I think it's important to make that connection with your audience. That being said, you did a fine job of outlining the pain point and illustrating the solution to essay organization and writing support for high school students. However, I'm not convinced that your product is unique. Although you did mention Evernote as a competitor, I would suggest rather your competition to be literacy software solutions Kurzweil 3000 and Solo 6. Both software application provide the same solutions you are proposing with StickyNotes. As an investor I would need you to convince me as to why teachers would use your product instead of the two I previously mentioned. It's unclear to me how your product is superior. As an investor I would have to decline.

Susan, in your elevator pitch you use animation very effectively to illustrate what your product is and does. You identify the problem and state how CPR is the solution. Your venture idea is solid and I think has definite market appeal. I appreciate your use of humour by including Dame Edna as part of your team. You make good use of graphics to illustrate competition comparisons. Although you include information about a development plan, I found your plan to be some what too general and as an investor I would have liked more details. Also, as an investor I'm less keen when I find out that I will have to wait at least three years before I see a return on my money. Your experience in the nursing field does adds credibility to CPR as a service. As someone previously mentioned, a website would be perhaps a better suited for a venture pitch vs ppt, and definitely worth consideration as a format to "showcase" your product (if you decide to move forward with your idea) in addition to providing a venture pitch to potential investors. I think your idea CPR has a lot of potential. As an investor however, I would need more details regarding your development plan before investing.

Daniel, great solution to a problem that is highly relevant to teachers. Your teacher credentials and technology role within your school certainly lends credibility to your product. Your elevator pitch effectively caught my attention as a fellow educator who could benefit from your product but not as a potential investor. However, I did move on to view your venture pitch which did provide information relevant to investment. You did a fine job illustrating how your product differs from the competition and provided a product demonstration that was very detailed. My only concern with your product is that it is cloud based. I'm wondering if security and privacy issues around student data would not be an issue for parents, schools, school districts etc. I'm also unclear about the ASK for your venture and your monetization plan. As an investor, what would my return be on my investment? So, prior to any considerations for investment I would require some important questions to be answered.

Roma, what a great visual to use for an opening and thank you for introducing me to Magic Leap! I think you have a good idea for a venture but I think it may be a little ways into the future before it can be materialized. Your enthusiasm and interest that is apparent in both your elevator and venture pitch is appreciated as a potential investor. However, I am not sure how my investment would make money. I think if you focus more on pitching the benefits of the investment rather than the selling points of your idea would be a better way to go. You rely heavily on other companies and use their examples to "push" your product and I had trouble with this as a potential investor. More detailed information on Asseticity and how it all works would be helpful. As an investor, I'm not sure what my return would be. I do find your idea for creating a VR library of training resources interesting but in my view useres would find your product too pricy. Asseticity requires the support of 3rd party companies (Hololens, Magic Leap) and their products will be expensive and beyond most education budgets. As an investor I would also require details on your development plan and predicted go-to-market time frame as well as your distribution plan prior to any serious investment consideration.

Maureen, you have provided a very thorough presentation for your venture TALO. I agree with the pain point but I also think it's more complicated than what you have suggested in your venture pitch. Skills/knowledge of the instructor is only part of the issue as one must consider also the effective tools/tech within the LMS that is available for instructors to use in online courses. Providing a free of charge and fully facilitated online course has it's benefits but also looses flexibility for time management which is the attractive component to online learning especially for busy professionals. As an investor I agree that there is a problem and a need to improve the interactive element in online learning; and not only regarding instructors but as well among online students. I'm just not convinced that professional development is the solution that will solve the problem. I'm not sure that TALO would "stand" out from the vast amount of competition and so as an investor I would decline.

Ivana, I appreciate your idea for an app that can assist youth with career goals. However, as an investor I would have liked to either hear or see your engagement with the product rather than simply reading about it. I did appreciate the detail your website included about the venture and your background in humane resources and business sales lends some strength to your pitch. I'm not entirely convinced there is a niche market for CareerPave though and in my view as an investor I believe it will be a challenge to compete with all the apps available. I'm also not sure that $5000 will be enough to get started in development and coding for the app. As an investor I would be reluctant to invest.

Danielle, your elevator pitch is to the point and includes relevant details for a potential investor. The venture pitch is very professional. Good use of graphics to show the market status and you illustrate this information early in your presentation which I thought was an effective strategy. By doing this you capture the interest of the investor and subtly let them know it's in their best interest to pay attention to your pitch. Your venture pitch is well organized and follows a logical structure which as an investor was much appreciated. Your presentation was "crisp" and "uncluttered" allowing me as the investor to focus on important facts without visual distraction. I do think your product is interesting and my only concern would be the perception of parents. I think there could be some concern around health issues and concern for unhealthy attachments youth may potentially develop to non reality and "escapism" from their real world and life. I do see the learning advantages but I think it would be wise to consider the potential disadvantages as well. I do think you have a viable product but I would be reluctant to invest without further research into the potential psychological hazards; I would need some information/survey results illustrating how parents viewed your product before I would invest. That being said, I was quite impressed with your presentation, the amount of market research, and the use of effective and informative visuals.

Patrick, I really liked both of your presentations and how each had a real professional "slick" quality. The use of visuals was very effective and your voice narration perfect! Your elevator pitch was able to catch my interest as an investor but at the end of it I am still not quite sure exactly what STEMverse is. A VR universe yes, I got that, but what does that really mean? As an investor I might not be that familiar with your comparisons Second Life and Khan Academy and therefore would not have a reference for understanding your product. Your venture pitch is very detailed and provides important information but the tools and technology that your venture will need are still in their beginning stages of development and distribution. Mainly only developers have access to the viewing devices that you specifically referred to as using and needing for STEMverse. As an investor it's a bit of a "stretch" to envision how your product could work in education at the present and so as an investment it I would have to decline for the time being. Also, you didn't state an amount for an investment. However, I do believe your idea has a lot of promise and that we will in the distant future see an educational space like STEMverse.

Kim, you have a very interesting idea here. I appreciate you taking the use of language text to the next level of augmented text overlay on objects in the classroom. I really liked the line "imagine a world where what they see is also what they read" in your elevator pitch and found it to be very effective is drawing me in to want to learn more. I would have liked to see more pertinent details within your elevator pitch though. Your venture pitch was very thorough and supporting your venture with concrete reading theories added credible value. However, the choice of presentation format as pdf was not engaging for me and I think as an investor I would expect some level of interaction or engagement with the person "behind" the venture. So for instance a narration to add a more personal element to the piece. This does't mean the idea or product isn't worthwhile, only that the presentation (for me anyway...and only my opinion) was a little flat.

Craig, what an innovative idea for a venture. You immediately caught my interest when I heard "crowdfunding" as an approach to field trips. I thought your elevator pitch was very effective and good use of visuals. Regarding your venture pitch, I felt like I needed more details of how the venture would actually work. Does the teacher solely design the field trip or is it a collaborative effort with the organization/venue? Your experience and teaching credentials are impressive and definitely provide credibility to your venture. I'm not sure how I would make money (as a teacher) but maybe the money is made by the organization? So, I was left with some questions after viewing your venture pitch, but I was also intrigued and would be interested in further demonstration/discussion from you about the venture details. I'm not saying that I am completely sold on your idea but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of investment either.