Hello!
Come check out MathMentor, an app designed to help students of all ages with learning math. It’s design was inspired by the existing enterprise known as Photomath, but has been improved to include features that make the app more of a personalized tutoring application.
Let me know what you think!
(Incase the elevator pitch link doesn’t work: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PMDa8Bk00uHPjqWIh3zQF6dEOOcPG9Ue/view?usp=drive_link)
FEEDBACK:
I believe the focus on personalization is valuable, and it’s clear you’ve thought through the tech aspects that will enable that individualized support. The camera recognition is nifty. The additional resources makes ones think of the Netflix or Spotify (or, I guess, YouTube) recommendation algorithms, except the machine learning, instead of being used to enable rabbit-hole consumption or binge- watching, is being used for good, promoting resources tailored to what the student has been actively focusing on.
Hello Nik,
Your venture pitch is fantastic! The way you organized and designed your pitches are appealing. I was motivated to learn more as I went through your work. Good idea to have a video for your elevator pitch. This helped bring your ideas alive right from the start and gave it a more personal touch. I like the way you created original value by explaining how MathMentor stands out from its competitors. I’m not sure if you did this intentionally, but I noticed you used “we” instead of “I”. Your approach made me think of a team behind MathMentor, and not a single person, which, in my opinion, strengthened your idea. A group of people can bring more knowledge and skill than one single person is able to bring. In general, I sense your passion throughout your pitches. It’s clear you are invested in students’ success. If you had an opportunity to implement MathMentor on a small scale, perhaps you could use examples of success stories to strengthen your pitches.
Emma
I do not know why but your elevator pitch did not work for me. I know that this type of tool would be useful for people who are not just in educational environments. I think that it would also take the stigma or embarrassment away from people who struggle with math. Additionally, I was impressed by both the practice and the recognition that would allow individuals to see math problems explained and solved for them. This is a tool I could see implemented in the way you have designed it within a short timeframe
Did you try the link that Nik provided? It didn’t work in the Genially for me, but the link did.
Hi Nik,
Great venture pitch for MathMentor. Although there are other similar products on the market, you defined how yours is unique, or perhaps brings together a unique combination of features. Math is certainly the area of knowledge that is most universally recognized as both challenging and important. I believe parents are willing to open their wallets when it comes to math learning and many are not satisfied with math taught in the schools. Even if schools are doing a good job, as you point out there are limitations on teachers with classes. Therefore, as David mentioned above, your focus on personalization I think is what brings the real value to this product. I think it hit on the right pricing model with the freemium model offering step by step solutions and additional resources. Once a user likes this tool, I am sure they would pay the annual fee of $89 to access the extra problem sets. One problem, this is not a problem with your product, but one problem this does highlight is how students with financial resources are going to have ever greater access to more empowering tools as technology evolves.
I think your product could be investment worthy!
Thank you.
Rich
Hi Nik, thank you very much for this fantastic venture. This is a really great idea. I’ve always had the feeling students had the pre-determined mindset that math is too hard, and difficult to do well in compared to other subjects. However, I agree with you that this is because math is progressive, and any missed or misunderstood concepts could be catastrophic in the future, making the subject seem difficult when it really doesn’t have to be.
Your company’s concept reminds me of language learning apps. For example, Duolingo or Memrise use AI to generate practice sessions that are just above student’s current level of competency in the language. If they get questions wrong, the app returns them to the previous completed level to practice more. This gives students good practice and progressive improvement. I think your premium service (in addition to PhotoMath OCR technology that is already available!) provide similar results in math, therefore it could be very useful for most students who struggle in math, reducing the need to hire expensive tutors, increasing accessibility to practice math at any time. I think it is a good investment opportunity. It has potential to acquire large userbase, generating great revenue.
Hey Nik,
Great venture pitch! As others have mentioned, I like your idea of making math tutoring more connected to the phone by using a camera and a suggestion feature to get students to the right video to help them. Your research on this market and competitors was thorough. Your marketing plans are also sound and common practice for phone applications. Concerning your elevator pitch, I liked the video format you used, but this may be my opinion based on seeing those typically at conferences.
Looking at it from an investor’s perspective, I would look into investing in this.
REVIEW:
Hi Nik,
Thank you for putting this venture together. I really like how this venture related to me in a way that I was never strong in math and because of that, I never excelled at it. Your app is interesting in the way that it uses AI and AR to analyze the problem and guide the student to solving the solution; it’s simple and down to earth and that is how students learn now. I also really liked how you laid this all out and that you also touch on the competitors that are on similar terms. Furthermore, I liked what set your app differently from the competition.
As I was going through this, I had some wonderings that may strengthen this venture.
The pricing point I feel is very steep. I wonder what your competitors are offering in terms of pricing. Is there a break for schools and or districts that purchase this app? I think if you had an in-between, more schools and districts could be open to investing in this for their students. Also, as this is an app and one of your target audiences are school districts, I think you might have a problem with one app being bought and uploaded to all school devices. I think if this were to be profitable, you should make it more for an individual account subscription. I also wonder for the investor, what is the Return on Investment?
Nik, besides my feedback, I think this idea is a great one. If I had this growing up, I feel I would’ve enjoyed math a lot more. Thank you for putting this together!
Jeremiah
FEEDBACK
Hi Nik,
Very strong, persuasive pitch! As someone who struggled with math throughout his entire high school career, I think this is a very strong idea with lots of opportunities for growth. Is this a platform that would just be accessible to schools, or would this also be available to parents as well for struggling students at home? Also, what would be your criteria for hiring tutors to students? Also, as I’m assuming you’re a math specialist, would ever consider teaming up with teachers of other subjects to create, say, a science mentor? History mentor? Granted math is definitely one of those harder subjects. I personally found it very difficult to come up with the right enterprise to best represent who I am and what I would like to introduce as a new educational venture. This one seems definitely like something that is badly needed in the education industry. I think this is a very strong pitch, and I think you’re really onto something here.
Thank you for sharing,
Adam Turpin
Hi Nik,
Great elevator pitch! Engaging and trustworthy.
I think this is an investment-worthy venture. I like the personalization, the mobility, accessibility. Great pitch.
As a rather frugal individual, the jump to an $89 membership (reasonable though it is over a year) is a big one. Is there potential for a monthly membership? Or a mid-level? Or perhaps providing a free-trial period would suffice. Whatever you decide, I think this is a useful and practical venture.
Steve
REVIEW:
Hi Nik,
Your product seems great and your elevator pitch was well delivered. Your financials are clear and what you are offering and asking is also well communicated.
As a teacher, I worry how an algorithm will know how to give enough “hints” to get a student through the problem but not do it for them. I have tutored math before my self and it is a fine line between learned helplessness and progress.
As an investor, I would worry about the enormous amount of similar apps that will be on the market, or already are. You listed a few competitors and some personalization/accessibility points that set MathMentor apart, but some of those points (such as hints and step-by-step solutions) are already used by the competition. It will take serious marketing and innovation to get a large piece of this market! However, your vision and your confident pitch have convinced me to invest in your product.
Hey Nik,
Loved the idea of MathMentor! What a great pitch and something that is not only useful but is practical as well. We see it every year, students trying to tie down a tutor for homework and not to help them understand the concepts anymore. However, with MathMentor students can advocate for themselves and learn from that app in their own time. I feel that it would be great to break into schools in a district by presenting it to students for free and ready to navigate. Then with enough traffic you can start to think of charging people, does that make sense? Great work overall!