Introducing Hallway, the revolutionary networking platform and global community connecting international teachers directly to International Schools. Say goodbye to costly recruiters and hello to an efficient networking process that ensures a perfect professional fit for educators worldwide.
Please see the Elevator Pitch below:
Please see Venture Pitch:
Thank you!
Paul
You did a great job really pitching this idea to potential investors, Paul. We too often use this as a straight pitch of the product but you were able to speak to the investor. The use of market size statistics helped to better understand how great this opportunity is. Personally, I have used recruiters when I went to teach in Korea and New Zealand. Both were effective and acted as middle-people, but also got a cut from the schools and I wasn’t able or permitted to speak directly to the schools that I was applying for. I would have loved to have worked directly with the schools as I would have gotten a true feel for the environment and not have to rely on a second party. I actually used teachaway and I was surprised at their take on the deal. This might be a nitpicky thing, but why did you land on calling it Hallway? That name doesn’t pull me in and I wouldn’t know what it is offering at first. I do like the simplicity of the one word. How about ‘Bridge’ as it acts as the bridge between the school and teacher? Again, just a thought I had. I also would like to know what your ‘ask’ is for potential investors. I wonder what you think is a good number for investors and how much of the company they would get for that. Overall, nice pitch and great idea.
Thanks for the feedback Simon and personal experience in this type of market. Hallway was something along the lines of a place that opens new doors but just a working name. Bridge – love it, good suggestion.
As far as an ask, I think I would try to get a very basic working platform designed and be self-funded to get some schools on board by offering free posting to begin with to create a user base then look to start monetizing and get investment. A number, hmm $500,000 – $1M once a user base has been proven and a path to profitability shown. Somewhere in the range of 10% – 20% equity ballpark. Hire some staff, build out a broader website and server costs. Thanks for your interest into my idea Simon!
Thank you Paul for a very practical solution to an unmet need. The world keeps getting smaller in terms of connectivity so it only makes sense that employers and potential employees be given the correct space to connect and learn more, rather than just generic job posting sites.
I just have a few questions. From the school side, will there be a ‘sponsored’ or ‘featured’ tier for job postings (ie. my school and posting shows up on top of any searches)? For the teacher applicants, is there a subscription? I imagine if Hallway is allowing applicants the opportunity to show more than their resumes, can they create sites/e-portfolios, which would take up Hallway resources?
Thank you again for a great product pitch!
Carlo
Thanks Carlo! So for schools all jobs would be shown on the “jobs” tab by most recent postings first as well as shown on the school’s own personal webpage as well if teachers are browsing that school. I personally find sponsored paid job postings frustrating and often burn past them. Teachers are free to create profiles and browse schools. Only the schools will be charged for posting. The more teachers who sign up for free, the more incentive for schools to pay to post jobs and white attractive talent and builds a larger user base for the platform. Yes – great thoughts about more than just a resume. Including things like e-portfolios absolutely or any other professionally relevant content like personal blogs or websites. Appreciate your interest in my venture Carlo!
This concept resonates with me because I was in charge of hiring foreign teachers at my middle school in South Korea and worked with many foreign teachers. I like the point of view of hiring teachers from all over the world with experiences and certain qualifications. I believe it’s worth getting information from personal connections between teachers, too.
Feedback
My only concern is that with all of the competition, why hasn’t someone already done this? Surely it would give them an edge over the competition. Cutting out the middle man is a great idea in theory, but is always more difficult than expected. Schools often like the single point of contact that they get through recruiters. Also, recruiters allow schools to leverage their staff during times of need without having to expand their own staff. I’m not sure that this market is as ripe for disruption as the taxi market was, or short term rentals were.
No, I would not invest in this venture. It is a very well done project and an excellent idea in a space where demand exists. There are two reasons that would hold me back from investing at this time.
1. I saw a lot of stats about how much the international education industry globally is worth. Most of that is not specific to international schools. That is not to negate this market, there is a large demand for hiring foreign teachers to international schools globally, but the numbers I would want to see to convince me as an investor would be the cost/benefit numbers for the individual consumer – the recruiting school, specifically HR. If that makes sense, then I am interested in how big is the market. If those add up, then I would determine we may have something we can sell.
2. I would like to see a little more of how it differentiates from the competitors, especially the main one https://www.teachaway.com. I believe what I am hearing in the pitch is the main difference is the addition of schools being able to access teacher profiles. To sell the product to the school, you’d need to get a critical mass of teachers, to sell the teacher on joining the site you’d need a critical mass of school postings. I think it would be difficult to quickly build both sides of the equation. What might work is if the teacher is interested in the ad, they could send the school their LinkedIn link. If the school likes the teacher, they could have a facilitator reach out to make and offer and handle the logistics.
Overall this is a really interesting idea, the competition doesn’t seem too stiff and there is a market for a problem to be solved. I think with a really attractive website, a strong marketer with good connections to get it off the ground and some good technical selling features, like a chatbot, this could be a winner. Just a few things more I’d need to convince me to put money down on the project.
Great job!