ssiebold

HI Josh, I agree with Benjamin regarding the value of your idea and your passion for the topic. Aside from a wealthy benefactor, other options for funding could include local business or corporate sponsors, you could try crowd sourcing (I think that is the approach at Wikipedia), or I wonder if you could partner with education institutions. It may provide value for theology students to be able to connect with each other and may even be a way to attract new students. Great concept - best of luck with the venture.

This is an excellent concept and one that does lend itself to a great venture. You set up the pain point and solution extremely well; the endorsement from parents and school groups further strengthened your pitch. Your ideas for scalability including the potential to move to other languages and into Europe set the stage for expansion, which is appealing to investors. One aspect that would have make the pitch more compelling is one or two visuals to demonstrate how the interfaces will “look” and “feel” and to spend a bit more time on the product (although I will concede that would be very labour intensive for a fictional venture as you declare in the you tube posting). Your passion for the topic comes through which aids in your credibility; your focus on the safety of the kids who will participate is also a real selling point to parents. Overall a very well thought out pitch.

You did a very compelling job establishing the pain point in the elevator pitch. Similar to Nicholas' post, I had a bit of trouble with the solution: would online be the best format for those with a computer based addiction? Although online provides a sense of anonymity and safety, it feels like it could present a high level of temptation to move back to gaming. You did profile two other online services for gaming addicts, so I may be completely off base; if you were to pursue the venture, that might be a piece to address in the pitch. Beyond that issue, your planning is credible and the tone empathetic; this feels like a very worthwhile venture. Your visual presentation was also very strong.

This is a very creative approach as scaffolding of understanding cognitive learning strategies. I was at first skeptical as I had always thought of word clouds as a novelty rather than a metacognition tool. Listening and reading through your proposal, I became more convinced as you covered the pain point, solution and differentiation well. The only question was in the optimistic forecast in creating a working prototype – I imagine there would be challenges with getting the technology to work with multiple inputs and canceling out less relevant words. Your expert team provided reassurance that you are on track, as did you confident presentation of your product. A very strong pitch overall.

This is a great and novel approach to professional development. I work with a very large organization, and we definitely struggle with education and professional development processes, and the dreaded annual compulsory learning modules. Your solution does have merit if it is easy to institute and track learning activities on a daily or weekly basis. You did a great job of covering your bases in the venture pitch. The only piece that was missing for me was a rudimentary demo so I could “see” how the plug in will work – the table on page 4 was the next best thing. This was also a really great pitch format with the links to supporting media and resources. Very well done.

Really interesting concept - you did have me convinced you were up and running until I read your reflection. You make a compelling case for the pain point, solution and product differentiation. My only question was around privacy as kids get older; would there be any FOIP issues that could derail the product, particularly with older kids? Overall a very good format for the pitch; easy to follow and comprehensive.

This does look like an amazing product with huge potential to impact a global issue. You have effectively conveyed the pain point/need, the potential for your solution, laid the foundation for the championship (experts involved) and what makes you product different. Links to more information with respect to the research you have conducted and the members of the team would enhance those elements even more. It appears this is more of a social value pitch versus a true entrepreneurial one - it may be valuable to label it as such even more clearly, although the price point you have set does indicate quite clearly that profit is not the prime driver. This looks like a pitch that could go to crowd sourcing/donation to raise capital if I am interpreting the intent correctly. Overall a very strong presentation and venture product. Well done.

This is a great venture concept. You did a great job outlining the evidence for a growing potential market - the pain point being particularly in growing economies. The solution is also compelling. On a personal note, the concept is also appealing as a parent – directing my “digital natives” to productive use of their technology tools is very appealing. There could be a secondary market here (potentially at a lower price point) to augment your revenue stream. One question for me is whether there are any other players in the market currently – if you are first out of the gate it would make your pitch even more compelling. Great work on the media and packaging of both pitches – very credible and it feels viable.

Wow, This is truly an original idea. Your proposal is very strong in outlining the benefits, differentiation from existing services, marketing, the ask and return; pain point felt irrelevant to this proposal as this appears to be a value add venture, so it was appropriate to leave it out. When reading the proposal, it also appears there could be partnership opportunities to source local university content in your course library to assist the student population in “multitasking”: completing their required studies while speeding recovery. The only critique is to provide a stronger championship section to sell investors on the ability of the team to realize the venture potential. It appears you may be able to launch this enterprise on your own without needing outside investment given the low start up estimates, so this may be less important than marketing the concept in a way that is accessible to your potential customer base, which you have done effectively.

Hi Kamille You have effectively outlined a pain point and market for a venture that cost effectively meets the training needs targeted at small to medium sized companies. Outsourcing to WTS who can provide a blend of both generic and customized content appears to have great potential to provide a more cost effective solution than providing that training completely in-house; a general idea of the logistics of the company start-up would make your pitch more compelling. It would be great to see the concept more fully developed, as it does have promise once the company hit its stride with a large enough subscription base to fund new course development and sustain profitability. It reminded my a bit of Lynda.com for employee orientation.