Futura Tabula is latin for Future Map. Find out how we are helping students map their futures!
You can access my venture pitch at https://www.futuratabula.com.
A3 Venture Pitch: Futura Tabula
15 responses to “A3 Venture Pitch: Futura Tabula”
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FEEDBACK: Hi Nathan. I enjoyed the pitch you made for Future Tabula, especially with the detailed market and opportunity. I liked how you addressed MyBlueprint, which is a program I use for CLE, and how you offer a more holistic experience for students. You also open avenues for other investment opportunities by sharing additional markets. I honestly don’t see many areas of improvement for your pitch (I think it’s done really well). Perhaps in the about us page, having a short blurb about the development team can build rapport?
Hi Jackson; thanks for your feedback! I agree this section looks a little thin. I was not totally sure what to say about the programming precisely because this is an unfamilair area for me, but I think it is worth a shot! Thanks!
FEEDBACK: Hi Nathan, as an EVA, I enjoyed reviewing your OER. Thank you for this. Assisting students to understand their personality, learning styles, etc… by running aptitude tests is a great idea, and I certainly agree with you, its not out of reach. I think the hardest part is tying your idea to the “why” successfully, in order to secure funding. Investors (e.g. parents, schools, etc..) would probably need a bit more justification on “why” this is such a worthy concept. Once that has been clearly communicated, the rest would just be implementation and delivery.
Thank you! So you think this would be more successful if I could convince the audience why it is so important to make a future plan for oneself? I honestly felt like this was something everyone just understood naturally, but you are right; there may need to be some more effort explaining why this is needed. I could perhaps find some data on career satisfaction, personal satisfaction, and so forth to try to quantify an actual problem that can be linked back to people not having a future plan. If, for example, I could find data that showed people who do not proactively plan their future career are more likely to change jobs frequently, report lower satisfaction, or even earn less, I could clearly point to a way of improving that (i.e. through Futura Tabula). I believe this is what you are getting at, but please let me know if I am wrong!
REVIEW: Wow Nathan, the pitch is amazing and super attractive as an investor, I’m definitely on board with the concept. I found myself nodding in agreement with the problem as the lack of future planning for students is indeed a problem in the current education system. The focus on results/grades and accomplishments seem to overshadow the long term importance of personal development which is why I’m glad Futura Tabula exists. Since we’re on the theme of Latin, metaphorically we could say most students are like a blank slate and knowledge comes experience/perception (Tabula Rasa) why is why nurturing is important as helping students find their path in life is arguably a fantastic form of preventive action. The only concern I have is the potential risk of “framing” a student towards a particular pathway at a young age as some students tend to find their interests later in life/University rather than end of high school. I appreciate the concept of using reliable personality tests such as Big Five/MBTI but acknowledgment of potential limitations/risks would improve the way Futura Tabula works. Overall, fantastic pitch and concept. As an investor I would probably chip in even though the return doesn’t seem too attractive haha (as I’m already sold on the idea)
Hi John; thank you for this review. I think Tabula Rasa is definitely another potential name for this; great connection! I like your point about interests changing later in life. I guess to rectify this, I would need to pitch Futura Tabula almost as a life-long exercise that students continuously update throughout their life. They could start in the intermediate grades (maybe grade 7) and perhaps spend a bit of time each year re-evaluating their ideas. The platform would have to build in reminders at key points in the user’s life to make sure they are being asked to think about these things at the right time. Of course, there is a downside to this, that being that people probably won’t want ot interact with Futura Tabula this much. If you have already graduated from university, for example, and you feel you are on the right trajectory, you may think Futura Tabula is no longer needed. The key for me would be to find a way to continuously engage the users at all stages of life.
I just had an idea after reading your comments, perhaps Futura Tabula could function like a Family Doctor (metaphorically speaking) where it’s readily available if users need guidance/help on how to plan their life (even after they’ve graduated). Conceptually it’s always ready in the background to assist, all the user needs to do is use the app/contact FT at the right time, which fits into the idea that FT can continuously engage the user in all stages of life.
FEEDBACK: Nathan, I’ll echo others here and say that your elevator pitch and venture pitch are spectacularly put together, very well done. I certainly think you have a market and a solution that warrants investment. One thing I am curious about is what happens after a student gets feedback (AKA the ‘support’ model of the platform). Since you plan to market to businesses (schools), is Future Tabula something that would support educators who, in turn, support students directly with whatever findings they receive? Or is there some sort of ‘help me’ guide that you’d want Future Tabula to offer? Also curious if you’d consider other business partnerships with Future Tabula (similar to ‘sponsored content’, if you will).
Hi Ally; thank you for the thoughtful feedback. I guess I could see this being used in two different ways. One would definitely be as a tool to support educators who are supporting students (i.e. guidance counsellors). If the platform was licensed to a school or board, we could have a level of admin access for the counsellors so they can better assist students. I think the three elements (student, counsellor, and Futura Tabula) would work together to try and find the best outcome for the student. To connect to Cindy’s point down below, this could also be a way of extending the findings of FT further into things like mentorship programs or volunteer opportunities. The second way I see FT being used is just on an individual basis, whereby the user does not have any administrators looking after them. I suppose FT could have a team of coaches and/or psychologists that users could connect with if they feel they need help beyond what the platform is offering. Perhaps I could take a page out of Brendan Stanford’s “The Tech Tutor” pitch and build in a feature where FT recommends local psychologists, life coaches, etc. that might be a good fit for them based on the results they get. I suppose this also takes me to your question about business partnerships; following this thread, I think we could incorporate some in the way of providing additional services and indeed, sponsored content.
REVIEW: This is a good resource for schools who may lack a component in their Career Education curriculum. I’d be interested in diving deeper to analyze the assessment tools this program uses and the overall, psychological rigour it conducts on an individual. I wonder about its potential competitors like My Blue Print and consultants who run aptitude programs to produce a person’s “best career fit”. I’m also wondering how this would be better than an overall Career Education and Career Learning Connections course (that we run in BC) which provides all the features your program offers but even more such as field work, volunteer work and mentor-ship over 1-3 years PLUS students receive credit toward their Graduation Program. A feature like mentor-ship and hands-on experience WHILE receiving school credit for these things are invaluable for students and young people who are emerging into the world of post-secondary school and the workforce. Thanks for this interesting venture idea, Nathan.
Hi Cindy; thank you for this great feedback. The psychological side would essentially be handled the psychologists employed by Futura Tabula (if I were to put this idea into real practice, I think one of the keys to its success would be a strong psych team who make the best choices in terms of the assessment tools). I am somewhat familiar with My Blue Print so I mentioned them a few times in the pitch; my general feeling is that they mainly just focus on post-secondary and career pathways and thus FT would be a better offering because of its more holistic approach (I.e. touching on additional dimensions like hobbies, admirable qualities, social life, etc.). I like what you mentioned about the career education and career learning connections course you run in BC; this sounds really cool. We do have some guidance and career education courses at the high school level in Ontario as well that might be similar. I could see teachers of those courses using FT as a component of the course. I think this would motivate students to actually engage with the platform more since they get a credit out of it. I also agree that fieldwork, volunteer work, and mentorship are hugely important in a person’s development, so perhaps FT could offer ways to connect with these opportunities. I kind of mentioned this above in my response to Ally’s feedback; we could have the platform make suggestions for example, on places one could volunteer if they were interested in a career in childcare so they can get a taste for that career before going too far down the path.
REVIEW: Although I have not done a lot of research into how guidance counselling has changed in the years since completing high school, I nevertheless feel confident that this venture has definite potential. I could see it as an aid to human counselors as starting point for conversations on future plans. I think you could actually help your marketing by discussing how many teenagers are more likely to share their inner desires and plans with an electronic interface than a human counselor. Quick question on the funding model: you say schools will get unlimited access for $99. Is this unlimited for the year? Or is it a subscription (I’m assuming the latter if you intend on continuing to develop the product). I was also curious about the personality test aspect, as I had thought that many counselors were moving away from these tests and into more open ended questions, which your system so excellently seems to tackle using AI. Would the idea of this app be to help lead the users to their own conclusions, or would it be providing answers for them? Finally, I really liked that your app differentiates itself from the market by analyzing so many aspects of the individual, rather than just aptitudes (as someone who was pushed into an engineering degree by guidance counselors who based their advice on my ability to do math and nothing else, I think this is a much needed element in the design). I’m not sure I completely understood what “admirable qualities” meant. I was wondering if this covered personal values, like religion, environmental attitude or socio-economic/political views. Overall, I do think this is a great idea, and I love that you put together a very strong team of psychologists and programmers to make it happen! I would certainly invest in a share.
Hi Hayley; thanks for this review! I think that is a good idea regarding a discussion with teenagers and their likelihood of sharing their inner thoughts with an electronic interface. I remember this topic came up in one of the opportunity forecast projects and I think the hypothesis that it may actually work better than with a human, so that certainly helps my venture. The $99 fee is for one individual user to have lifetime access to the platform. From a revenue generating perspective, I like the idea of recurring subscriptions, however, I didn’t think this would work with FT because I feel that users would make their first plan and then just think that is good enough. I want them to keep engaging with it at various points in their lives. Also, because the platform is all AI and user driven, it shouldn’t cost us anything extra (other than some server upgrades) to have users hanging around the platform for many years. I am definitely a fan of leading users to their own conclusions as opposed to telling them what direction they should take in their lives. I am not a psychologist, but I do believe one of the core tenets of psychological therapy that the solution will not work unless the subject comes to it on their own; a conclusion that is not agreed upon may seem to work at first, but will not stick. I want FT to follow the same core principle. I think the personality tests are good starting points and should be used in conjunction with various things. The free-writing periods are probably the most valuable in all of these exercises for the very reason they dig out the subject’s true thoughts and feelings. I just think the personality tests help round things out a bit. When I added admirable qualities I was thinking about that kind of person the subject would want to be, which could certainly include aspects of religion, personal values, etc. One of the writing prompts I had imagined for this dimension was to describe some people they admire (role models) and try to explain why. I am hoping they will come to conclusions like integrity, honesty, work-ethic, empathy, and so forth when thinking about what they really like about this people. From there, I want FT to direct them in ways that they may be able to act out these values themselves. That part could actually be quite tricky, but I think the value in this particular exercise is really in identifying what qualities you actually admire and then just having those in mind as you go about your life.
[REVIEW] A well curated elevator pitch had me intrigued in the concept. The high level of video editing helped, as did the story. The concept is one that not everyone is aware of, but the pitch painted the need well and supported this with market share information and potential for growth. I would appreciate more specific marketing strategies in terms of getting into the school boards, this is pivotal to the success of the venture’s true growth and profitability, and would highlight there is a plan of entry. What value does this bring to the purchaser? The end user gets the analytics that are generated based on their personal feedback, but what about that middle group. While 50% capture rate of customers is quite high, you have outlined that the market-share is there, and even with a lowered conversion rate and including a market average churn rate there is still profitability here from your detailed projections. While you outline a return to investor, there is no pricing to support how you’re FT is actually going to generate that return, is there a market standard offering price for these types of services? Making a projection would give any potential VC something to consider before they made a final decision. With this information and your entry marketing plan I would certainly invest in this creative and well thought out idea.
HI Kyle; thank you for your review! You are right about the importance of the marketing strategies to get into the school boards (they are the big fish we are after). In all honesty, marketing is not a strong point for me, so my hope would be to hire a strong marketing team and let them do this for me. I believe I mentioned that the $10 million investment I am looking for would, in part, be used to market Futura Tabula. If I had to take a stab at it, I would get FT involved in all the conventions and fairs where educators go. I might just follow My Blue Print around and see where they go! Obviously, there are some key high-level people within school boards that we have to get to, as they would be the ones to make a buying decision. The pricing is mentioned at $99 per user, however, I see that I did not include this in the section where I was talking specifically about the revenue return, so I will edit that quickly; thanks for pointing this out. I am not positive what the market standard is for a platform like this since there is really only one other player that I know of (My Blue Print), however, if we go off that one player, the $99 fee is in the right spot as far as I can tell. I have not really mapped out the market for something like this in the United States, which is something I need to do. There may be a different market standard there.