I’m excited to share Momentum, a behavioural engagement platform that helps students stay actively engaged in their career development journey.
The idea was inspired by a challenge I see firsthand in higher education: while universities invest heavily in career services, many students struggle to maintain momentum without ongoing support, and one-on-one advising isn’t always available. Inspired by behavioural research, Momentum is designed to help students build confidence and consistent career habits while extending the career support already available at their institutions.
I’d love for you to check out Momentum!
PDF of Venture Pitch with References
I welcome any thoughts or feedback that you may have!
Hey Jennifer. Thanks for the submission. I think you and I are working in a relatively similar vein – using AI companions for the benefit of students.
I especially like how research-informed your presentation was, in particular the “Research Informed Design Slide”, and the fact that you alluded to compiling an advisory board to help guide that research-first design early on.
If I had any const4ructive feedback, I would say that to me, I felt there could have been more emphasis put on the value proposition to the institutions and purchasers of this B2B SaaS product. I can see how a particular go-getter of a student would want to pay for this subscription, but what’s really enticing the higher ed institution to purchase a license for this software? You allude to a “growing emphasis on demonstrating career services impacts” in the market drivers slide. I would try to hammer home why you believe your venture is the solution to that emphasis for the sake of the bigger institution so that your prospective EVAs know you have your eyes on the big fish.
Anyway, that’s pretty nit-picky feedback. Great presentation! Thanks.
Jake
Thanks so much for your feedback Jake! It’s incredibly helpful and one of the things I was struggling with when I put the pitch together.
I think that because I see the gap from my own experience, I need to ensure that I am connecting the dots for investors and anyone else who doesn’t work in career development at an institution as to the “why.” For example, institutions are increasingly invested in career outcomes because of pressures like increased reporting, and favourable metrics require students to stay engaged in career activities. Specifically, a program can better recruit new students if 90% of their alumni are employed in their industry within one year of graduation, but the students have to be engaged in career development to see that success. There has also been an increase in work-integrated learning and co-op programs, which require career centers to constantly keep on top of student activities. For students to succeed with any career related goal, whether it’s finding an internship, or finding a role after they graduate, they need to stay engaged, and Momentum meets this exact institutional need by extending the reach of busy advisors through behavioural support that keeps students on track.
Your comment has really helped me with my reflection, and it’s great feedback to keep in mind if I were to deliver this pitch again. Thank you!
What stood out to me with Momentum was that it focuses on a part of career development that can easily get missed. Universities already have career centres, workshops, and other resources, but students still have to actually follow through between those interactions. I liked that Momentum is not trying to replace career advisors or the systems universities already use. Instead, it fills that gap between appointments through smaller goals, reminders, progress tracking, confidence check-ins, and reflection. The two different use cases were also helpful because they showed how the same platform could work with both a more scalable institution-led approach and a more personalized advisor-led approach.
One thing I was left wondering about was how Momentum would keep students using it over time. Since one of the problems identified in the pitch is that students don’t always follow through with the career resources already available to them, I think it would have been interesting to hear more about what would make students keep coming back to Momentum rather than seeing it as one more university platform they have to check. The reminders, milestones, and confidence check-ins are a good start, but this is something I would be interested to see explored further
FEEDBACK: Hi Jennifer, I really appreciated how clearly Momentum connects behavioural research with specific platform features, particularly the focus on extending rather than replacing existing career services. Your professional experience also provides a strong foundation for the problem you are seeking to address. From an EVA perspective, I would be interested in seeing the financial model developed a little further. While your $500,000 ask and intended uses are clear, additional detail around institutional pricing, expected recurring revenue, and the number of institutional customers needed to reach sustainability would help strengthen the confidence I’d feel in investing. Overall, I think your concept addresses a credible gap, but improved clarity around the economics and long-term competitiveness would make the investment more compelling.
For investment, this would be promising – but the financial model needs further validation before I would venture any further.
REVIEW
Hi Jennifer,
I really enjoyed learning about a problem space that I probably would not have considered on my own. One of the things I appreciated most was that Momentum is designed to support human career advisors rather than replace them. I see online that are already many AI tools encouraging students to mass apply for jobs or generate generic resumes and cover letters, but your venture takes a much more thoughtful approach by keeping human coaching at the centre and using AI to maintain momentum between appointments.
One part of your pitch that really shifted my thinking was the idea that career services need better data to demonstrate their impact. I agreed with Jake’s observation about strengthening the institutional value proposition and I think continuing to emphasize that perspective strengthens the B2B investment case.
From an EVA perspective, I also wondered whether Momentum could become more than a student platform. Could career advisors contribute to the goal libraries, coaching templates, or successful intervention strategies that could be shared across institutions? Platforms such as Seesaw have shown how professional communities can increase product value while creating stronger network effects and customer retention.
I was also curious about the long term vision. Could Momentum expand beyond universities into colleges, apprenticeship programs, skilled trades, or professional upskilling, where sustained career coaching is equally valuable? I believe you have identified a credible market gap and proposed a solution that complements, rather than competes with, existing career services.
I recommend funding Momentum. My recommendation is based on the strength of the problem, the clear institutional value proposition, and the opportunity to expand the platform through professional communities and additional post secondary markets while maintaining human centred career support.
Great work, Jen!
It seems like you have identified a huge market need stemming from your own experience working in career development in post secondary. I think this is a great way to make use of gen AI capabilities. The name is very fitting for the platform; it’s often hard for students to reach any kind of momentum on their own through scheduled appointments with career development services. With this platform, participants have control over their own schedule and access to instant service, support, and insight. I think Momentum would be a much needed complement to already existing career development service centres.
The AI interview platform, InStage, which I took inspiration from for my business venture idea, serves a similar need in creating that momentum in soft skill development. Here is a link to their website:
https://www.instage.io/
You may have heard of InStage already as they have partnered up with many colleges and universities in Ontario.
Thank you for putting together such a fantastic idea and engaging presentation! 🙂
Edith
FEEDBACK
Momentum is a really good pitch. The problem framing is clear and well supported with research. Career development requires sustained engagement, but institutions can only offer episodic support through appointments and workshops. I like how the pitch positions itself between existing career management platforms like Handshake and student success tools like Navigate360 by focusing on what happens between advising sessions. The behavioural design grounded in goal-setting theory and self-efficacy research gives the product a credible foundation. The B2B SaaS model also makes sense because institutions are the ones with budgets and purchasing power in this space.
I would not invest at this time.
I am curious about a few things. What happens beyond integration? Institutions will need ongoing technical support, system updates, and maintenance as their existing infrastructure evolves. Those costs can grow quickly in higher education where IT environments are complex, and integrations are fragile. I wonder what the ongoing maintenance and support model looks like and how those costs scale with the number of institutional clients. On the student side, a pilot showing student engagement and retention metrics along with a realistic cost projection for long-term institutional support would strengthen the case significantly.
FEEDBACK: This was a good pitch. Momentum seems like a practical support tool for university students who struggle to maintain engagement towards taking career actions. Your background in career development gives this venture both credibility and focus which I feel you’ve demonstrated well with your elevator pitch.
Through an EVA lens, the idea of using behavioral nudges to extend advising is smart; it fills the need where students lose motivation after a single career related workshop or lesson. That said, marketability in higher education for a B2B SaaS platform like this might be difficult. I would assume that most universities already use legacy systems that have been integrated over time, and so having the software product roll out over an institution might be a hurdle with existing infrastructure. I also worry about student engagement a bit. If a student has a tendency to ignore existing school portals, email systems, etc., how would we know that a new app would be treated any differently by a chronic procrastinator with a strong motivator?
Funding recommendation: I will not be funding this venture at this time time. I would need to see more convincing pilot data to ensure that the product could land in the market and actually stick with students.
FEEDBACK:
Hi Jennifer, I think Momentum is a compelling, well-researched vision that addresses a credible gap between the fragmented, generalized support higher-ed institutions currently offer and the continuous, personalized engagement career outcomes require, and your six years in career development make you an especially credible founder to execute on it.
As an EVA, building on what others in the thread have mentioned about institutional pricing and revenue projections, a few things would make this more investable. These include the use of funds broken out quantitatively with a defined ownership percentage, along with a bottom-up sizing of your targeted institutional buyer segments’ share of the $43.9B higher-ed EdTech market, in order to evaluate the scope and viability of a return. I’d also want more detail on the pilot design, specifically what you’d be measuring, to assess the viability of achieving your goal of validating student engagement and platform impact.
FEEDBACK
Hi jcrane07,
Your pitch does a great job identifying the gap and positioning Momentum as a behavioural engagement layer rather than another career management platform.
My favourite part of the pitch is the connection between research and product design. Features such as personalized goals, confidence check-ins, milestone celebrations, and reflection after setbacks are well aligned with the stated research around goal setting, self-efficacy, and ongoing engagement. Well done!
Hi Jennifer,
Really clear pitch. I liked how you grounded the platform in behavioural psychology concepts like goal-setting theory and self-efficacy, which gives a solid basis for why the approach could work. The market landscape table also does a good job showing the gap between career management tools and behavioural engagement tools.
I think it would be helpful to include a little more detail on how the platform differs from the habit-tracking apps you mentioned, like Habitica and Finch, since career development may require some different approaches to engagement. It would also be useful to see estimated subscription pricing alongside the $500,000 funding ask.
I also liked the two use-case flows for institution-guided and advisor-guided users. They do a good job showing how the platform could work with different institutional models.