This venture is a proposed new market for an established startup Classroom Management Software company, Top Hat. Top Hat currently has no presence in the K-12 market.
Most marketers would agree that educators are slow to embrace technology. It’s not a resistance to tech per se, but a resistance to the expenditure of precious time it takes to learn how to use the tech. Adoption of tech often hits the roadblock of time.
Concierge by Top Hat is designed to overcome the time barrier. It is one platform that can accomplish all of an educator’s tech needs, to have an adaptive, interactive, digital classroom. A classroom ready for in-person, remote, or blended learning. Only one interface to learn to accomplish all the educator’s tasks.
Deliver Presentations. Give out and grade assignments. Quick in-class polling. Online Labs. All within one platform that lies above and interacts with other LMS and SIS platforms.
One more thing…
Content is king, and the Concierge platform is designed to deliver content, in the form of fully-interactive, customizable, digital textbooks. Educators can add video, simulations, in-line quizzes, internet links, and even good old text to any resource. A large database of open educational resources, e-texts, slide decks, question banks, and quizzes are curated by Concierge in the Marketplace, and will be expanded by all users in the Concierge community. OERs will be a big part of Concierge, with a large bank initially, continually added by users and new authors alike.
Our Digital textbook team at Concierge can convert a traditional print book into an interactive digital text for about $2000 per title. With low licence fees of $5-$10 per student, it will only take 30 classes of 30 students to licence a text to return that investment four-fold, with a 50/50 revenue split for content developers.
Concierge will always be free for educators, encouraging uptake in the market. All but the commercial digital textbook feature will be free for students, and the cost of our digital texts for a school, amortized over the 5 – 10 year life span of a print text resource, is far, far lower. Saving money for schools, and making money for you the investor.
The PITCH is HERE: https://sites.google.com/a/sd61learn.ca/concierge-by-top-hat—etec-522-venture-pitch/elevator-pitch
Hey Allan. I’m having difficulty accessing your venture pitch through the link you shared.
Thanks, Julio. I think it should be fixed as of later in the day on the 30th.
Feedback: Great production value on your elevator pitch and venture pitch. I know it is just esthetics, but the use of multiple cameras, studio lighting, crisp audio really goes a long way to adding a level of sophistication to your pitch. I thought your venture was well articulated and provided me with needed information.
The elevator pitch was great, it had a very professional look to it. Also, the data that you provided for the venture pitch was detail and provided the potential investor with great points to ponder. The compatibility was great too, as it shows a great fondation.
REVIEW: It is very wise to build on and synchronize with existing systems, rather than adding one more platform to the mix. I appreciate the level of detail in your venture pitch. I am a little confused at how Concierge is different from the rest of Top Hat however… is it the database of resources that sets it apart? (I am only vaguely familiar with TH through our class OERs.)
FEEDBACK: Everything about your production is top-notch. You definitely come across eloquently and as someone with an attention to detail. Your statement that “Adoption of tech often hits the roadblock of time” is ON POINT.
Thank you for sharing, Al!
Laura, your comment on why Concierge would be different than Top hat is bang on, and was my biggest miss in the Venture Pitch. I was having a hard time getting it into the Elevator Pitch (time limitations), and then neglected it in the Venture Pitch. The differentiation was the market: Top Hat has no current interest in the K-12 market (as they have a student-pay model), but I felt with a lower access cost, and adding SIS integration would provide entry into the K-12 market for the platform…if a classroom management application would have the ability to pass information like attendance and course marks and report card comments into MyEdBC, PowerSchool, and others, that time-saving for teachers would be huge. Then more investment for acquisition of titles would promote a regular yearly revenue stream for text access. Likely a pipe dream, but only having to know how to use one app would be marvellous…especially if it wasn’t as bad of a user interface as MyEd. (any app that uses the term “Query” rather than “Search” has spent no time or money on ergonomics.)
Hi, Allan,
Thank you for introducing us to this venture with Top Hat! Here is my review with comments and feedback.
Elevator Pitch:
– this pitch is professional and high quality and I appreciate the effort that must have gone into producing it! You also present and speak well which made this medium an excellent choice for your elevator pitch
Venture Pitch:
– clear product description, ROI and rationale for an investor to make the jump
– my main recommendation is to break the info. down into chunks and identify a few main sections as opposed to using point form for all data as it is difficult to absorb the information; key reasons to invest (like the ROI) are also getting lost in the mix
Suggestions:
– Organization of Ideas
– have a few sections: i.e. Market Size, Revenue Model, Competitive Analysis
– lead with key rationale for why the investor should buy followed by the how/why
– ex. Rapid Market Penetration – (due to) Freemium model for schools and districts; free access to OERs
– Visual organization
– recommend having columns end at the same place to maintain balance on the page, move Funding Rounds and Current Investors
to another tab, and other content to other tabs/sections, etc.
– Use charts, graphs, etc. to simplify and highlight important information
Overall, you’ve presented a clear business opportunity and revenue generating model using Concierge, with your elevator pitch being a highlight in your presentation. Great job!
Hi Allan, your elevator pitch is very professionally produced! I can tell it look at lot of time and effort into the production of the video. Well done! I like the way you’ve worded your sentences in the video too. You sound very convincing! In your venture pitch, you included some great functions for the product, and it’s great that you made it compatible with some of the most popular LMS such as Canvas or Blackboard. It is also smart to add the existing partners that you have currently which shows investors that you already have steady users. I think it’s a good strategy to keep it low-cost, and subscription-based.
Thanks for sharing!
Al,
Concierge is a good idea. I agree that most educators are slow to embrace new technology and we need to help overcome associated barriers.
Elevator Pitch
– Professional and concise.
– I like how you close the pitch; saving money for schools and making money for me.
Venture Pitch
– Content “What we do” and “Why invest” were sufficient in details.
– Compatible with various learning management data forms is important.
– Font can be larger, perhaps break into further sections.
– As an educator, it is a great idea to help us increase efficiency and productivity.
– As a potential investor, I would want to know the risks and gains in investing in your venture.
I like this. Thanks for sharing, Al!