During the pandemic, more than 70% of after-school tutoring businesses in China said they experienced severe cash flow shortages due to a sharp drop in student enrollment, while more than 60% of business executives in the sector said they expect the negative impacts of the outbreak to continue to the end of the year. For these schools, introducing online curriculum is no longer a question of should we or should we not do it. With fierce competition of private tutoring businesses all rolling out different kinds of online course, the struggle now is how to integrate online course into their offline curriculum. Many after-school English tutoring centers are now facing the pressure to introduce quality online curriculum that can both integrate into their offline curriculum, and also meet parent expectations.
Adventure ABC is a platform that is designed to assist educators to create their own online curriculum. The user interface is designed for children 4-15 years old, and the wide variety of interactive functions allows schools to adopt the Online-Merge-Offline (OMO) learning method. With this English learning APP, schools can bridge the gap between online and offline platforms, and the integration means children can receive quality English education both in the classroom and in the comfort of their own home.
You can watch the Adventure ABC elevator pitch video below, or go directly to this website to learn more about Adventure ABC (which includes the elevator pitch video too): https://sites.google.com/view/ubcetec522-venture-pitch/home
Hi Emily,
I really enjoyed both your elevator and venture pitches. Your video was clear and visually pleasing and your website was well put together. During this pandemic, I think many schools and tutoring businesses felt some pain moving from offline to online learning. Although I didn’t feel this personally I can see the pain and challenges of having to abruptly switch to online because of the learning curve. This is a problem that you clearly highlighted and I think with your Adventure ABC app it could help ease some of this pain that schools and these tutoring businesses are experiencing. Having an easier way to move your traditionally offline lessons to an online platform is a good idea. Yes, there are many current options out there like the ones you mentioned plus other LMSs like google classroom and Canvas, etc. but they can be difficult to learn, costly, or just don’t provide a complete solution. So as an investor I do see potential here.
You mention the app is designed to assist teachers to create online courses, so apart from the app product are you also providing a service (like a chat service) to assist teachers in moving their content from offline to online? Or does the app just guide a teacher through this process? I know you mentioned the venture is a service provider but I just was wondering how it would work.
Good work. Thanks for sharing,
Grant
Hi Grant,
Thanks for your comments, I really appreciate them.
The APP is meant to act as a LMS for younger students, so teachers/schools can create their curriculum right in the platform, such as creating e-books. In the original design I didn’t think about adding a chat service, but now that you mention it, maybe I will need to add some customer service or FAQ pages to help educators understand “how to” use the system. When I used Canvas to design an online course for another MET Program course, it was really helpful for me to be able to access “how to” pages online. Thanks for the question!
Hi Emily,
Thanks for sharing your elevator and adventure pitch, I could see the potential market for your APP both in the Canada and China. Would love to know more about how long would take you to implement the APP and the roughly cost of your plan. In additional I am curious to know in what degree you would follow the Chinese national K-12 curriculum to develop your own pre-made courses material. From what I know unlike in Canada where each province has its own curriculum, the curriculum in China is made by the Ministry of Education would you need to get prove to develop online courses?
Really like your APP idea and as an investor I would consider to invest your idea once knowing the length of implement and the budget.
Congratulations on your pitch, Emily. Your idea was unique in our cohort, an LMS for younger students. Moodle, Blackboard, etc are beyond boring and complex for the younger set, so something with an easy, vibrant, simple interface, and a fun, engaging style is refreshing (and likely for parents, too!) Your elevator pitch was well-produced and engaging, with a good mix of graphics and voice-over that extended the information, not duplicating what could be read; it drew me in to the venture pitch successfully. The details in the Venture Pitch stated the problem well, and emphasized that your app would be child-friendly (so many aren’t), and that most online tasks could be accomplished from within the app. Perhaps a stronger emphasis on the ability of teachers to develop content from within the app would have been useful from a sales perspective–but this is a venture pitch, so I would have also liked to see what differentiates your product from others highlighted right from the start. In the market analysis, you pointed out the size of the after-school market. Is your app designed for the school market, or the tutoring market, or both? Both would be a bonus, if you could use the same platform for both purposes. By the end of the market analysis, it does become clear that this product is for after-school tutoring, but one that provides more content instruction than rote homework/practice. While there are numbers quoted for the whole market, you don’t really point out what the revenue model for Adventure ABC would be. Will it undercut the existing competition? Freemium model? Student (parent) – pay? Or school-paid? Is there an expected return on the investment?
Overall, a well-presented pitch, and a different target market than most of our cohort’s pitches.
Hi Emily,
When I first saw your elevator pitch, as I went to post mine, I thought, “that is a good use of Spark.” Agree with Allan that the voice-over was well-planned to enhance information beyond the text. Also loved that you did a mock-up of the app interface, as it very quickly allowed me to understand the purpose and design you had in mind.
Your venture pitch is beautiful. I did notice that it does often seem more like it’s talking to customers than investors (“Do you want more learning resources for your students”, “Don’t have a curriculum yet? Don’t worry”). On that note, I’m not sure what kind of investment you are asking for? You have researched the market well. A small thing, but because I’m not sure what companies match the logos it would be helpful if from your brand positioning graph you could link more closely with the information written above. I wanted to hover over the logos and find out about the companies. I’m sold as a customer, but not quite as an investor for these reasons.