Patrick Conlan

Review - Groupwork 2.0 seems like a very natural and updated use of the Google Apps platform. Excellent job presenting the demographic information and the problem in which you are trying to solve. I would have like to have known how difficult development of this platform is going to be and what technology is going to be involved. Google obviously has many resources to provide these services and it seems like a small startup could have troubles competing against them in this space. I think you are probably right on with your investment request. Most others in this program have been asking for 5-figures but your number seems much more realistic if not even a little conservative. Overall, good job. As a big fan of Google Apps, I think your product would be well received.

Review - SociABILITY sounds like a great tool. I really enjoyed your pitch. It was well done and presented a good amount of information and ideas. You broke down the problem very well and touched upon the market demographics. I think it is a good use of modern communication technology. My only real concerns with the venture would be about privacy for people on the service. I think any time you have a social app, making sure that only an appropriate amount of information about individuals is shared can be tricky. While the app seems like it does a lot of awesome stuff, I wonder if it might be too large in its scope for an initial roll-out. There appears to be a lot of intricate pieces to the app that would be hard to execute perfectly if that was the only feature. No harm in shooting for the stars but introducing more features later is probably a good idea. Excellent job with the pitch.

Review - I was intrigued by the TALO venture pitch. I think it is definitely a product that is needed in the future of online education. Your background information was excellent and well presented. I would have like to have seen more demographic information on how many and who are these teachers that need professional development in this area. It is a safe assumption that there are a lot but some numbers would have been great. I wonder if this is a good starting point to a larger suite of professional development topics or if there are better ones to focus on first? The biggest issue I had with the pitch was the fact that you wanted venture capitalists to hand over money for a product that is going to be free. Now, that isn’t the first nor the last venture that goes that route but it makes me wonder what business models need to be in place in order to cater these financial bakers? What will they be getting out of this besides knowing that education is going to get better? I honestly have no idea.

Review - The READgauge app looks really great. I like that you have a very clearly defined problem you are trying to solve which has not been addressed by your competitors. Good job highlighting that information. I would have like to have seen more details on demographics for your user base and what your preferred revenue stream would be. I’m assuming it is a subscription based model but since it is an app, would it be a one-time purchase? Neither are negatives, just some clarity could be applied. I worry that your asking amount is far too low for the development of the app and its subsequent licensing needed for the literature. Since you want to use the cloud for accessibility, servers and developers are going to take up quite a bit of money. I can only image what book publishers will charge you to use their content as well. Good idea though and I really think we will be using stuff like this in the future very regularly.

Review - eSCiPi seems like an interesting idea. I’m not entirely sold on the fact that this is needed as compared to the other social tools in existence. I worry that administration of the platform is going to be a large cost to whoever is running it. Also it would have been good to know what the technology is going to consist of. Web and communication standards are constantly evolving and it could dramatically affect the viability of your platform. I was left wondering what the demographic of this venture is focused towards. I can see a wide range of uses throughout all ages but that might be too much to focus on for an initial rollout. Lastly, for a product like this, I feel that asking for VC should come after some initial R&D has been addressed. Since this venture has start-up written all over it, it should exist in some form before asking for the cash. Good job overall on building out your idea.

Review - Key2Key sounds like a novel approach to word processing. I never thought about the natural stages of developing written material and how a word processor could help ease the process. Good unique idea. I really appreciate your clearly defined problem. It seems like you have a real grasp on the situation. While I am not entirely sure that people would want to use your product to help solve that issue, I think it could definitely find a niche market for writers. I feel as if the pitch is lacking in some information that is necessary for a VC funding round. In particular, I felt like your market is way too large. It would most likely be better to focus on a smaller market segment to begin with and really knock it out of the park. Being spread too thin could be a disastrous beginning. I did not see a formal money amount being asked for which leads me to believe that the development costs and timelines haven’t been fully fleshed out. Lastly, I would really have like to have seen some demographic information on how people use your competitors’ products and where you fit into that picture.

Review - Edsecute is a good idea and I think it could be useful for quite a few schools and districts. It basically seems to be an educational/information technology outsourcing firm at its core. There is nothing inherently bad about that, I am more biased to having internal personnel. I would have like to have seen a cost benefit breakdown of hiring internal versus external to show that as a company you can deliver a real value. I am worried about the footprint of the business since it does seem to be limited in the market locations you will have to work with in the beginning. Eventually once a reputation is established, a larger national presence shouldn’t be an issue but at the start it might be. My big question for this venture is that if you are merely existing as a service provider of information, why do you need venture capitalist funding at all. It doesn’t seem like any money is going towards development of products or that much R&D. Once an established knowledge pool is created, it seems fairly routine from market to market.

Review - The Nano Interactive Paper was a very cool venture pitch. I love the sci-fi aspect of the technology. While I think your timeline for the technology is way too soon, I’m sure you were just playing around with it for the project. Very neat idea none the less. I really like the way you laid out the problem in which you are trying to solve. Although, I think that for a cutting-edge product that this, releasing only one model to begin with is probably better than going all-in with four variations. I don’t recall seeing much information on your user demographic. While I can see kids of all ages using it, narrowing down your market would have been helpful. Your breakdown of the manufacturing costs and msrp is welcomed but I think you are not including a huge amount of overhead that should be associated with your product. Marketing, development, support, etc, are all things that need to be accounted for.

Review - The Kurzweil Firefly app seems like an interesting product. I like the idea of utilizing the Kurzweil platform for another area of educational technology. I think that the asking investment price is far too low for such a product as this. What with development costs, marketing, support, etc. I would be a little hesitant to invest in this venture from the information given as I don’t see a huge reason that this application is different from competitors in the same space. It would have been nice to see information about the development team and a future plan for updates and new features. The demographic information also seems a light.

Review - ReciPROcity seems like an interesting venture concept. I appreciated the good amount of detail on the content of the business. There was substantial information on the product in which they are going to launch. However, I felt that the pitch was a little light on how this venture is going to be different from its competitors. Also, the deep explanation of the revenue stream is well done but I would like to have seen more information on expansion and growth for the company.