Lilian Lim

Thank you so much, Ryan for this fabulous idea. I live in a different country from my 80+ year old parents and bought them a Samsung tablet to stay in touch with me via online calling apps like Skype and Whatsapp. I thought that a tablet was the easiest device to use because of its size, screen shortcuts, widgets, touch and voice capabilities. Over the years, I have had to send screenshots with Skitch arrows (just like Ryan's) and mini-videos on how to handle tech problems that crop up. After having mastered sending photos and audio messages to me, I introduced my mother to the world of YouTube so that she could search for health videos and food recipes. Since she couldn't type well, I taught her to use voice search, and to use her YouTube history to search again for watched content. Ryan's Tech Help paper idea is excellent because that is exactly what my mother does - keeping a written notebook for all the steps needed to use an app or switch a window, etc. My next goal is to teach her to do online shopping for her groceries and household supplies since my father is now no longer able to drive and get about. I therefore fully appreciate Olive Connect and what it can do to help ultra old seniors (I'm already a senior myself) stay connected and engaged with the larger digital world. Although Ryan is not clear about his potential market size, I can see that there is a dire need for such a solution in the developing world as more seniors are introduced by their financially able children to the digital world for the first time. Falling prices of digital devices and Internet service fees across the world are now making it affordable for this generation to capitalize on real world market-disruptive services like private car hailing, online grocery shopping and delivery, cooked food delivery and even prescribed drugs delivery. Go-Jek (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Jek), a transport and logistics company founded in Indonesia made it to number 17 of Fortune's 2018 list of 56 companies that changed the world. Go-Jek's app-based on-demand services include transportation (GO-RIDE, GO-CAR, GO-BLUEBIRD), logistics (GO-SEND and GO-BOX), food delivery service (GO-FOOD), grocery delivery service (GO-MART), shopping delivery service (GO-SHOP), entertainment ticket selling service (GO-TIX), medicine delivery service (GO-MED), massage service (GO-MASSAGE), beauty service (GO-GLAM), professional cleaning service (GO-CLEAN), automotive solutions (GO-AUTO), digital payment and e-Wallet (GO-PAY), bill payment (GO-BILLS), phone credits top-up (GO-PULSA), loyalty points (GO-POINTS) and fuel-delivery (GO-PERTAMINA). It is now expanding into other developing countries in the region like Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines. With such a cornucopia of convenient services available, a senior who is home-bound could have all the products and services they need at the touch a finger. Olive Connect only needs to teach them how to use such an app and maximise its potential to alleviate their mobility and accessibility issues. Ryan, I hope your platform will extend its assistance to more seniors and in more countries. I would invest in your product if I had the money.

Hi Victoria, Beyond Reading sounds like a much needed product to help students with language learning disabilities and struggles to access the rich world of books. Being able to listen to audiobooks and highlighted text would be a boon for dyslexic children and also for ESL/EFL Learners who may recognize the printed words but not know how to pronounce them correctly or recognize them when heard (such is the confusion of how English words should be pronounced). Being able to choose between the two main standards of pronunciation - American or British English will extend the use of this technology not only in the Anglophone market but also to countries in the developing world eager to teach ESL/EFL programmes online where there is adequate internet coverage. In Vietnam for example, parents are not able to read to their children in English and local teachers of English do not have good pronunciation. They will therefore find such a product a great asset to add to their library. The built in comprehension checks and data management tools will relieve teachers of burdensome administrative work in large developing world classrooms. Given the option of a home-based subscription, Beyond Reading can also be used as a leisure reading resource so that learners, both disabled and ESL/EFL can build their own personalized library and reading journey outside the classroom assessment environment. Being able to read to themselves will allow students to become independent readers. Although you have strong competitors like Raz Kids and Epic, the assistive technologies built into Beyond Reading will be immensely helpful for struggling readers and their parents.

1. Hi Winter, your concept of sending one sentence a day to a language learner is indeed helpful in this day when we are overloaded with language sources ranging from TEDex to BBC Learn English to VOA. The app has a minimalist design that does not distract the learner. Being able to store the sentences will afford easy and frequent review. The freemium model is a good business model especially if the paid version is competitively priced. Hosting it on WeChat makes Orange English even more accessible since everyone is on it constantly and the potential for advertisement placement is huge. Your team is small and efficient with just one content creator and one learning designer, which will keep your costs down. Therefore, $100,000 is a reasonable amount to ask for, considering that the market in China is massive with a total revenue of $1.4 billion forecast for 2022. Earning a revenue of $1 million at the end of 12 months is therefore not inconceivable. 2. I am currently a language learner of Vietnamese and living in Vietnam where I have been teaching ESL/EFL for the last 6 years. It is the fifth language that I am learning, with English as my native language, Malay as my second (intermediate proficiency), Mandarin Chinese as my third (elementary proficiency) and French as my fourth (beginner proficiency). I am ethnically Southern Chinese and I grew up in Singapore, which is a former British colony with a multi-racial and multilingual cultural mix. 3. I have found it most effective when I learnt a language using the communicative approach, where I learnt vocabulary, whole phrases and sentences in thematic contexts. This approach helped me to have a feel for the rhythm of the language, to have better listening comprehension and to respond appropriately. Knowing the context was extremely important since the purpose of using a language is to communicate semantically with an audience. Therefore, I would like to suggest that when your app sends one sentence a day to a learner, it should be embedded in a context with a short two- or three-sentence dialogue to help them know when and how to use it. For example, the sample sentence you used was 'I'll keep you posted.' This is an informal way of saying 'I'll keep you informed (of the progress of our project/decision/etc)'. However, it's not clear from the Orange English app what this sentence really means or how to use it. Google Translation of the Chinese explanation in the app states 'I'll maintain/stay in contact with you.' The word 联络 (lianluo) means 'to be in contact' but it does not connote the meaning of following up or updating the listener with a progress report or with the latest information. 'To keep someone posted' is actually an idiom so it cannot be translated literally. It therefore needs to be embedded in a context and a short dialogue so that the learner will use it only when replying that he will follow up on an earlier conversation with more information later. So, can I suggest that an explanation in Chinese could be this: 我会及时通知向你为发展情况。(Translation: 'I will inform you of developments in the situation in a timely manner'.) I hope your app succeeds as this minimalist approach can be very helpful as an add-on to a larger English learning platform for targeted speech practice.

These Great Courses sound really enticing for anyone who wants to continue learning outside of school. However, I find that their prices are rather high, especially compared to the largely free, but equally great courses available from Coursera, EdX, Future Learn and the like. Even the subscription model is expensive at $19.99 per month. I wonder if Rollins should change his business model to match what the MOOCs are doing or lower the price of his subscription fee. I am of the view that Rollins as an entrepreneur and founder has not kept up with the changing learning technologies available and instead continues to offer only downloadable audios and videos or CDs and DVDs. Financially, this outmoded method of content distribution may not be profitable, given the competition from 21st century interactive and collaborative learning modes today.

Victoria said that Markosian is “an expert in product design, gamification, technology, scalability, consumer growth and marketing”. If his team members are all multi-skilled like him (co-founder is Kevin Donahue, former YouTube, Google and Disney executive), it is no wonder they do not need to have a large team to create and manage this epic-level website. They are astute entrepreneurs who have maximised their productivity with judiciously chosen team members.

Vinod Dham is a serial start-up entrepreneur extraordinaire! He has been developing new hardware and software for over 40 years and should be ranked with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who began innovating at about the same time. He had the right ideas at the right time and place - the last quarter of the 20th century, in America (not in 20th century India). His innovating and entrepreneurial spirit can be clearly seen in how his career moved from producing chips to developing AI to pioneering Venture capital and Start-up fever in 21st century India and now, to blended online technical education. He has astutely responded to the high-speed changes in the world of technology, which in turn shaped the world that we have today. I give him a 5-star rating as an innovator and entrepreneur.

This is a revolutionary way of teaching a foreign language because immersion in that language environment is certainly the ideal way to learn a new language. To be more convincing as a credible language learning tool, the AR lessons could be part of an integrated language skills online course where the student first studies all the language elements of a themed unit. He then practices several structured conversations with his online tutor in the run up to his AR lesson. While participating in the AR experience, a video recording is made of the experience and then sent to his online tutor. His tutor will then meet him again to give feedback, followed by assigning him some follow-up lessons for further practice. If this VR/AR company, ImmerseMe ties up with a company that has already designed complete thematic courses, like Innovative Language (see https://www.innovativelanguage.com/ for company website; see https://www.fluentin3months.com/innovative-language-review/ for a thorough user's review), this will be truly a boon for language learners, especially at the Intermediate level where they are ready for more extensive conversational experiences.

Yes, I would have invested in both the original Cubetto, the programming wooden toy robot cube presented in the first venture pitch, and now in the expanding Cubetto universe called the Cubetto Super Series presented in the second pitch. This Super Series consists of extension sets of maps, storybooks, collectible play cards and more ideas on how to play with Cubetto. This is a Kickstarter Gold project, created by Primo Toys. The context of the second 2.02 minute venture pitch can be found on their Kickstarter Campaign Site. After launching at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2016, Cubetto is now travelling in the museum’s world tour, The Future Starts Here alongside groundbreaking technologies by Apple and Google. It is an exhibition that questions how our world would change if new tech ideas became part of our everyday lives. Primo Toys claim that they are shaping the future of educational technology with Cubetto. Such a context alone is enticing enough for an investor-grandparent-teacher like me. Now, on to the venture pitch presented by the founder-inventor Filippo Yacob. This pitch feels like it is a story enthusiastically told to a group of parents having tea together in a sitting room. It has both substance and style as found in the structure of the script and in the warm fuzzy child-oriented visuals which would melt the audience’s hearts - those of parents. These parents are among the potential investors; they are also their future customers, since, according to Primo Toy's Kickstarter page, investors will be gifted with Cubetto accessories or full playsets as rewards for pledges from as low as $10 to $350. This company was also quick to tap into the educational market through getting Montessori approval for its toy. Hence, academy pledges up to $3500 will receive the complete education package of 10 lots of the Maps Special bundle, an online training session and a membership to weekly lesson plan updates and unreleased resources. Using the 5 Ts taught by Adam Lorant, The Art of the Pitch, I will now dissect the script and label the parts of the script according to the different 5 Ts: Trouble, Technology, Team, Traction and Treasure. It starts with the story-like “Once upon a time..." voiced by the founder and inventor of Cubetto, Filippo Yacob. 'Back in 2016, you helped us launch Cubetto, a LOGO Turtle-inspired, Montessori-influenced coding toy for girls and boys ages 3 and up that helps them learn programming without screens'. Catchy Concept Pitch - Here is where the catchy concept pitch is used: 'learn programming without screens'. This catch phrase is fundamental to the true value of the product because parents and teachers want young children to learn coding but are anathema to their spending inordinate amounts of time on the screen while doing so. 'We've been on a journey ever since and boy, what a journey it's been. We've introduced 1 million children in over 100 countries to coding irrespective of gender or language'. Traction - The company's track record with this product since 2016 is casually but clearly stated here. We remember that it is only 2018 now and over 1 million children have already used this product. 'Cubetto is a friendly little robot who loves to go on epic adventures. His board is a control panel and his blocks are a real programming language that you can touch. Children use the blocks to write programmes that help Cubetto find his way home, exploring loops and algorithms along the way'. Technology - Here, the founder Filippo Yacob explains succinctly how the robot toy can be used to teach children how to programme. The audience is convinced that this technology works as we watch the children play with the Cubetto successfully and exactly as described by the inventor. This is also clearly a differentiated product as many other robotic toys need screens or written language for coding and are also too complicated for very young children to handle. As seen in the video, the physical sizes of the wooden Cubetto and the wooden coding blocks fit nicely when held between two little hands and when gripped between two chubby fingers, respectively. 'Last year, you helped us make Cubetto's world bigger with new places to explore and new lessons to learn. Thanks to Kickstarter Gold, today millions of children are coding their way across ice and swamp, time and space, card and even canvas'. Team - The big experience from the last two years was made possible because of the team support from the investors and from the company staff, which the investors helped to fund. 'Now we're back to introduce a brand new one of a kind adventure for Cubetto and your little ones to explore. With a super limited edition series of collectible packs, we're here to take you to the African Savannah. The African Savannah pack will take your children on a wild safari ride across sun-baked plains and rolling grasslands with animals and friends. It comes with a map, a beautifully-illustrated story book, a collectible set of playcards for coding activities, navigation tasks and games'. Trouble - Making game extensions should not ordinarily cause big monetary trouble to the company, compared with the much higher cost of making the original game product. However, the company still needs funds to pay their future developers and to acquire the materials for new extensions. It is worth noting that the Trouble is stated in an aesthetic way, with emotive words like 'will take your children on a wild safari ride across sun-baked plains' and 'rolling grasslands with animals and friends'. 'This is the first of a super limited edition, one of a kind Cubetto Playsets. Only available on Kickstarter and never again repeated. We call this the Cubetto Super Series. We believe that story-telling, adventure and exploration go hand-in-hand with teaching young children how to code. You’ve already helped us broaden Cubetto’s horizon before and we hope you will journey with us once again'. Treasure - no sums of money are mentioned here in the ASK section of the pitch, but again, a subtle approach is taken. The founder mentions that the investor-parent-customer has already 'helped us broaden Cubetto's horizon before'. Conversely, it is implied that Cubetto has in turn also broadened the children's horizons. Therefore, the founder is saying that if the investor-parent is still convinced of the concept of story-embedded coding and believes in the fundamental value of coding without a screen for children, they should put their money where their mouth is and 'journey with [them] once again.' The actual amount of money needed is not mentioned in the pitch because it would have looked crass coming at the end of a video that was replete with images of childhood innocence and exuberant play. Instead, the monetary details are to be found in the Rewards page of the site. Backers can choose to pledge respective amounts for the original Cubetto Playset ($225) or Cubetto Maps Special ($350), or a unique set of Play Cards ($10), or the new, exclusive to Kickstarter, African Savannah Adventure Pack ($29). Education bundles are also available for pledges starting at $1,400. This appears to be a trustworthy company as they have shipped their products to 55 countries. Their global goals can be seen in their having digital versions of their storybooks in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and traditional Chinese. Most backers come from 10 world cities like Singapore, London, New York and Sydney. Primo Toys certainly understand the Early Childhood Education Industry well and what their consumers, the parents and teachers want their children to have as educational toys. A separate very convincing video showing what parents think about Cubetto is also available on the Kickstarter site. This is what parents say as they watch their children play with the toy: 'It teaches the basic building blocks of coding and engineering without having a child glued to a screen'. 'It's good to teach programming from a very young age because IT is everywhere today'. 'The thing I love most about it is that it encourages children to learn just through playing and exploring. It supports failure as a process of learning'. 'It feels like you're building a little world of adventure and the coding is not what you're thinking about. It's all about play'. The original battery-operated wooden Cubetto toy had 3,373 backers who pledged $781,823 in 2016, exceeding the $100,000 goal. Now, the campaign that just ended in April 2018 was to raise funds for the extension packs, the latest being the African Savannah Pack. 1,293 backers have pledged $220,382 for this Adventure pack and it has exceeded the goal of $50,000. This success is probably due to its superbly created venture pitches, and the gifting of rewards in the form of Cubetto playsets and accessories. No doubt, the past success of the last two years of sales of the original playset and earlier adventure extensions have made this a Kickstarter Gold project. This is certainly a well-pitched and well-received project that I plan to invest in.

In addition to the affordances of any time and any place learning provided by mobile learning, microlearning via the mobile platform can be self-directed and cost-savings to the learner. They need to pay only for what they want to learn, specifically to patch up gaps in their learning or to review content for an upcoming examination or job interview. I believe that soft skills, professional market place skills and language acquisition lend themselves well to microlearning.

In the developing world context, a laptop is less affordable than a smartphone. It is also more bulky to carry around. Students in Vietnam already carry heavy school bags and will appreciate learning from a smartphone when they are commuting. In some larger cities, free Wi-Fi access is available almost ubiquitously. Currently, a large majority of Vietnamese students attend extra tutoring classes after a full day at school. This requires extra commuting and time wasted on congested roads. Private tutors could instead design personalised and interactive lessons to be sent to these students' registered mobile accounts. Learning analytics could provide the tutors with necessary information on how to continue to personalise the learning content for each student. Tutorial fees will in turn go down because technology will save the tutor's time and increase her reach, and it will also reduce her need to rent a teaching venue. Mobile learning is certainly the way of the future for learners in the developing world as mobile phones and tablets are affordable and portable.