Want to bring your skiing or snowboarding to the next level? Let Snow-Coach give you access to the professional you need virtually!
Hope you enjoy my pitch! It can all be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/etec-522-snow-coach
Alternatively, you can access my Elevator Pitch directly by clicking here, and my Pitch Deck by clicking here.
Looking forward to seeing what you have all come up with and reading your feedback,
Mev
FEEDBACK: Hi Mev. I liked your venture pitch, especially the detail put into the problems, solutions and financials; you have clear statistical knowledge about snow sports and it shows when you address many of the problems on those slides. Perhaps it is because I’m not experienced with snow sports, but I was curious if your pitch would work well with beginners as well? I noticed you had it as a subscription-based service and to people trying it as something new, I wonder if having a slide for the target market or audience may be sensible. I also had questions about instructors taking on their own clients. Would there be systems in place to address taking Snow-Coach clients to take out the middle man, or would that be allowed? Thanks for the great read and thank you for making it accessible to someone new like me.
Hi Jackson, Thanks for your feedback! The subscription model is more down the road. The main financial model is that the instructors set their own pricing and we keep 10% of their fee. We would make the app all integrated with the tech needed along with all the marketing costs which would feature various instructors! An instructor would likely not see the benefit in taking their personal clients. We would add terms of conditions saying that if it is reported that instructors are taking clients privately virtually, this would be a breach of our conditions.
As far as being a beginner, the learning curve is so steep in the first few lessons that a person would benefit from in-person training, to be honest. Moving beyond that, I would say a novice-level skier could start benefitting from Snow-Coach! Instructors set their own rates, which would be aligned with their experience. So the example I used would be at the top end, Erica who would be $80/hour, I would be $50/hour and instructors less experienced yet super helpful for a novice skier would be around $30/hour. Hope that helps!
Thanks for clearing that up Mev. It makes a lot more sense now
REVIEW: Hi Mev, I enjoyed reviewing your OER. Your vast knowledge of the industry and passion for snowsport was quite visible throughout the presentation and delivery. As an EVA, I find this added assurance quite appealing to investors, prior to making any major investment decisions. The OER does an excellent job of analyzing the Canadian/US markets and evaluating the major competitors. I see that you have requested 500K in order to prove your concept. What plans do you have in place to secure such funding? Are you thinking about something like Angel Investors where you could offer equity in exchange for financing? Kickstarter has helped thousands of startups to secure funding and I highly suggest you look into it. The only downside is that Kickstarter applies a 5% fee to the collected funds. There will also be processing fees between 3-5%. The aforesaid fee is still within the acceptable range for such platforms, however recently other similar platforms have moved to subscription-based pricing, and/or charging the fee back to the investor.
Thank you for your feedback, Saeid! I would go to the angel investor route in Vancouver, https://www.angelforum.org/cpages/home as a starting point. Also, since my partner has successfully launched and sold his app through Rakuten, he has connections in the Bay Area that we would approach as well.
Hi Marie-Eve! Now this hits me where I (used to) live! I am a former ski/snowboard instructor turned new parent and full-time teacher with over a decade of experience teaching in Ontario, Alberta and BC, and I would have LOVED an app like this in the seasons I got injured as you noted in your pitch deck! I love how this connects clients with experienced instructors, and the use of video is such an effective means of digitizing what is typically tech-free! The only recommendation I would make is to quantify the return for investors (i.e. what % equity and/or % return after a given time horizon) so as to justify their investment, but I think you have something really special here, and I hope to see it or apps like it in the future! Cheers!
That’s so fun to hear, Brendan! Where did you teach in BC and Alberta? Thanks for the feedback 🙂
FEEDBACK: Mev, your elevator pitch is wonderfully put together, love to see an ‘on-site’ recording too, it ties your story together nicely. Great job! Also, what a novel idea! And very versatile, I could see it applied in pretty much any fitness setting. Curious if anything like this exists for say, runners. Either way great use of tech in such an applied field! If I knew more about this industry I could see myself investing for sure.
Thank you for your feedback, Ally! As for an app for runners, I know that it exists for gyms, yet unusure about running specifically. I could see how that would be helpful too, especially if the video was paired with wearable device data. My brother taught me how to run longer distances and I remember how helpful I found his cues.
REVIEW: I loved this idea. I must admit I have bias since I love snowy mountains to ski on. That being said, I have experienced the frustration of looking through “ski levels” to find the correct level and I have not found resort employees very helpful when responding to my questions. I certainly did not have the luxury of choosing a particular and specific instructor for my ski lessons, either. And I found myself looking within my network, at those who were excellent skiers and asking them if they’d teach me how to ski. This arrangement had its limitations due to insurance issues and would anger existing instructors on the mountain, if they found out I was getting a private “lesson” from a friend. Skiing is also a very expensive leisure activity and takes a fair amount of resources to get up to a mountain for a day. So, I appreciate having an app that does the blunt work for me and where I can browse through information to select the right fit for me or a client. I also feel confident that you have a good sense about the level of certification and credentials of those in the ski resort market. I would be interested to know more in the area of expanding Snow Coach to geographical areas where tourists flood in or where people have short term assignments and want to ski at the local mountain. This would be an international expansion into places like the Swiss/ German Alps, New Zealand and Japan. I’d also like to know what you would do about the turn over rate of instructors. In our local mountains here in BC, almost all instructors aren’t local residents and the roster of instructors are not consistent from season to season. Overall, I would definitely be interested in knowing more.
Hi Cindy, Good point on ‘finding the correct ski levels’, especially because they are so different from mountain to mountain! I definitely considered the need for this app to exist in the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand, Chile, Argentina) for it to be used year-round. However, for this project – I did not look at the market in Japan or Europe. I am sure there is potential but considered out of the scope to get to know. I know that Europe runs their snow schools differently, where it is not the hill providing the instructors, it is individual businesses granted permission from the mountain to operate. As for instructor turnover, there are a lot of ‘traveling’ professional instructors that although they do not go back to the same mountain annually, they are still instructing. There are also the instructors just doing it for a gap year. Our marketing would be directed to the professional instructors, versus doing it for a year. There would still be attrition but through word of mouth, incentives, and annual marketing we would work on ensuring there are enough professionals for our clients. Really appreciate your feedback and sharing your experience!
FEEDBACK: Cool idea, Marie-Eve, although I have to admit, I have no idea what a virtual ski lesson would look or feel like! Having gone to the slopes and realized that lessons for my kids are booked up, it would be useful to use an app like this to find an instructor in a pinch, although I wonder how much more expensive it would be to hire an individual coach over the group lessons on the hill. I’m assuming that my family of non-regular skiiers are likely not your target audience though, so I can see how it would be a useful tool for more regular skiers for certain. I second Ally’s comments above about expanding this to runners or other sports as well.
Hi Hayley, Yes – sometimes it would be best for a family to hire an on-hill instructor, like yours. Snow-Coach is not trying to take away from that, just adding another option for those not able to find what/who they are looking for. It’s more ‘bit sized’ lessons versus an experience on the hill for the day. Sorry to hear you were not able to get into lessons though!