Originally posted by MET student Victoria Ramsey on 23/09/2018
I came across this pitch on Kickstarter, and was fascinated by the point that it is coding geared towards girls in particular. Until now, I have not really thought about the subject of coding as being intentionally marketed for one sex more so than the other, but after hearing the pain point of targeting girls due to the need for more women to be in the technology industry, I can understand it. It is essentially using “friendship” knick knacks as an hook to inspire and interest girls in STEM, which, arguably, could be seen as more male-dominated. Thoughts?
I would not invest in Jewelbots. Sarah and Brooke’s desire to ignite curiosity in girl coders is a wonderful start to increasing diversity in the coding profession. However, flower friendship bracelets do not seem to fit well in the current market. It is very gender-specific. Many of my students currently identify as “they/them”. Some of my students who identify as “she/her” may not like the flowers. In my role as an educator, I heavily encourage students to venture into coding. In fact, we were in the development of a gender-neutral period tracker app. This came from a student who questioned why period tracker apps tended to be “girly”. They felt we need to increase inclusivity so anyone, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression would benefit from an inclusive period tracker app. Future consideration of this venture is that as we increase awareness in gender identities, ventures like Jewelbot would limit their market.
No, I would not invest in this product.
A key factor for my investment is audience scale and this product is too narrow. Creating a product that requires learning to code, limits your audience, furthermore only to those who want jewellery (girls as indicated in the video) isolates your audience further. Whilst the concept behind Jewelbots is intriguing, code-able accessories, the marketing and product design fall short. In an ever-increasing gender-neutral world, counting to push a gendered product will fail. Furthermore, this product relies on other technology such as an iPhone, which further limits its audience to children with mobile devices. The look of the products as well is no longer “fashionable”, and this will be a problem regardless as trends change rapidly. This product seems to continue to perpetuate further stereotypes that girls only care about social aspects in life “Instagram” or “friends being closer”.
To have me invest in this product major changes would have to occur including a complete rebranding. This tool could be better marketed as an accessibility device for Deaf or Visually Impaired individuals as an alter system for their needs.
I would not invest in Jewelbots. I believe that coding has come a long way since this was developed but I think developing tools and programs to get younger children, and children of different genders, into coding is a very viable and something I would be interested in investing in. However, this particular venture is limited in scope and potential. Many of the target audience would be parents, as I would not imagine this being involved in schools with the links to social media, and young children have access to smartwatches or parents want to limit the amount of access to online tools that children have.
Most coding is creative and interesting but it is purely based on communication with others as opposed to the limitless potential of coding spaces. This feels very much like a new toy to “invite” girls into spaces with what people think girls want but it does not teach the adequate skills or tools that girls want and need to learn to participate in these spaces.
The co-founders are engaging but it seems more like an ad for the user than a pitch to investors, whether elevator or venture.
To recap, I believe this tool limits the users and is taking up space in a conversation that really needs to address a lot of the problems that this company seeks to answer. This is not an effective answer to the problem in my opinion and would not invest in this venture.