Day-One is a digital platform designed to support school attendance for Canada’s K-12 indigenous student population.
Indigenous students face the lowest attendance rate of any student demographic in Canada resulting in reduced potential for high school graduation, further education, career earnings, positive health outcomes, and much more.
All Canadians suffer when students miss out on their education.
Day-One is a digital platform designed to support K-12 attendance through community support, interagency collaboration, and creating a welcoming school environment.
Please see the attached elevator pitch, and complete venture pitch for more information about this exciting new platform.
Hi Bryce,
This is one of the most unique Venture Pitch ideas I’ve come across so far and seems very relevant to Canada’s systemic issues regarding Indigenous peoples. I love your 3 tiered system, this platform stood out to me as meaningful, relevant and useful. I appreciated how you had academic research to prove this is a real issue in Canada, and your input on how you have seen this firsthand as an administrator.
One weakness of this Venture Pitch, is although it explains the market and the communities that this platform will affect- there was no business model outlined in your venture pitch. Who is the primary paying customer here? Is it schools/school districts? How much money are you seeking from the investor to build this platform and what would that look like? If you added this information in, I would have been more likely to invest 🙂 Great job overall. I hope you can bring this to life one day!
Overall, I thought this was a really meaningful venture idea and I liked that the pitch came from a problem the founder had actually experienced working in northern schools. That made the problem feel very real rather than theoretical. The connection to PowerSchool also made the idea easier to picture in practice, and I thought the three-tier alert system was one of the strongest parts because it showed exactly how the platform would move from simply tracking attendance to actually connecting students with support.
One area I would have liked to see developed a little more was the actual business side of the venture. There is a strong case for why attendance matters and why schools and communities would benefit, but I was still left wondering who would actually purchase Day-One, what the pricing model would look like, and how the venture would generate sustainable revenue. I think adding that would make it feel more complete as an investment pitch, especially since the presentation already does a good job showing the need and potential impact.
FEEDBACK: Hi Bryce, I really appreciated how your experience working within northern communities informed the creation of Day-One, particularly the focus on relationships, community support, and interagency collaboration rather than treating absenteeism solely as an individual student issue. From an EVA perspective, I’m curious about Indigenous governance and implementation. Given that Day-One would collect and use attendance data specifically for Indigenous students and connect schools with community-based supports, incorporating relevant Indigenous data governance frameworks such as OCAP® could strengthen the model by clarifying how communities would be involved in ownership, control, access, and possession of their data (First Nations Information Governance Center, n.d). I would also be interested in how individual communities might help determine intervention thresholds and appropriate supports rather than applying a standardized model across diverse Indigenous contexts. These would be additions that would strengthen my confidence in Day-One’s implementation and scalability.
For these reasons, I wouldn’t be able to invest in Day-One at this time.
Reference
First Nations Information Governance Centre. (n.d.). The First Nations principles of OCAP®. https://fnigc.ca/ocap-training
Hi Bryce,
I appreciated how your own experience as an educator and school administrator shaped this venture. The pitch addresses an important challenge with a thoughtful focus on relationships, community support, and early intervention rather than simply tracking attendance. I also liked that Day-One is positioned as a PowerSchool add-on instead of another standalone platform, which feels like a practical implementation strategy. The three-tier intervention model and emphasis on celebrating attendance, not just responding to absences, also stood out as strengths.
One suggestion relates to the elevator pitch itself. I found the on-screen captions of your narration a little distracting because they competed with the other text and visuals. For an elevator pitch, simplifying the screen and allowing your voice to carry the story would make the message easier to follow. Alternatively, showing yourself on camera for part of the presentation could help establish a stronger personal connection, especially since your lived experience is one of the venture’s greatest strengths.
From an EVA perspective, I also found it difficult to determine whether I would invest because the pitch did not include a clear investment ask. I wasn’t sure how much funding you were seeking or what the path to sustainability looked like. Those details are important for evaluating a venture, even when the social impact is compelling. Overall, I think this is a concept with potential, and a clearer business model and investment proposition would make it much easier to evaluate as an investment opportunity.
Feedback
I found your pitch compelling because you address a real and important problem that I think more educators need to be aware of. Supporting the problem with research strengthens the venture’s credibility and demonstrates a clear, evidence-based market need. The three-tiered approach is also a strength because it recognizes that attendance is influenced by multiple factors and proposes a more holistic solution through community support, interagency collaboration, and welcoming school environments.
Because your focus is specifically on Indigenous student attendance, it would be valuable to show how you see the market developing and who your primary customer would be. I also think briefly showing what the actual venture looks like—whether it is a platform, app, or service—in that short video would make the solution more tangible and help demonstrate its feasibility.
Overall, you have identified a meaningful problem with a focused and promising solution. I would definitely be interested in seeing how you develop the product and business model further.
FEEDBACK
I appreciate how this pitch frames the solution around community support and interagency collaboration rather than just tracking numbers. Creating a welcoming school environment as part of an attendance strategy shows awareness that the root causes go beyond simple truancy. The PowerSchool integration is also smart because it reduces adoption friction for institutions already using that system.
I would not invest in this venture at this time. I am curious about a few things from an Indigenous perspective standpoint: Attendance monitoring systems can feel like surveillance, particularly when applied to Indigenous communities where institutional tracking has a complicated and painful history. I wonder how the platform addresses this tension and whether Indigenous communities and families were involved in shaping the design.
I would also want to understand what evidence exists that early warning systems improve attendance vs. connecting students and families to them for institutional supports.
Feedback
Bryce,
I appreciated seeing a different tool proposed here. I think it showcases a real issue happening not only in Canada but with Native Americans and other marginalized populations in the States as well. I think it is a great idea to focus on that integration into the community. However, as many have mentioned already, what would this tool look like in action? Is it a training course for faculty or an app? How will funding be collected to bring this idea to life? Overall, I liked the idea and think this is an area we should keep as a concern and continue to think about.
Feedback:
Hi Bryce,
I thought your idea to address absenteeism with Indigenous students was interesting, novel, and something that could benefit so many, not just students, and communities, but the economy in Canada as you had pointed out. I liked how your idea was in consultation with indigenous communities and your 3-tier system takes on a holistic approach. You had aptly pointed out the funding paradox: schools that require funding the most, don’t receive it, which exasperates absenteeism. This issue deserves more attention and you have conceptualized an idea that does just that. If students didn’t have a cell phone that supported the app, I wonder if government funding could also help with that cost. I think the foundational groundwork you have laid could grow into something quite beneficial. This idea doesn’t seem to be a private investment opportunity, but I would still want to know more about the logistics if I were in a decision-making position for funding in the federal or NWT government.
Thank you for the eye-opening presentation!
Edith
FEEDBACK: Day-One seems like a very meaningful platform for supporting Indigenous student attendance. Your experience as a northern principal combined with your pitch gives a clear focus towards the root causes of absenteeism and the community based solutions it proposes.
Through an EVA lens, the concept is strong because it integrates into existing infrastructure rather than asking teachers to learn another standalone system. While I see the potential for this to unlock district funding, I would assume that marketability might be my biggest question. As a teacher myself, I know that school budgets are incredibly tight and many schools simply do not have the social workers or peer mentors required to support a three tier intervention model. If I was to invest in this I think I might require stronger evidence through a pilot. While. Day-One seems like it might be an interesting grant funded project rather than a traditional private investment perhaps.
Funding recommendation: I will not be funding at this time. I would like to see a business model showing who actually pays for the platform and evidence that schools have the staffing to run the interventions in order to be fully invested.
FEEDBACK:
Hi Bryce, this is one of the more unique and meaningful venture pitches I’ve reviewed in our Venture Forum so far, connecting a critical achievement gap to an evidence-informed service design for an underserved and highly vulnerable population. Your experience in this educational setting makes you especially credible to execute on the vision, and your decision to avoid cash or gift-card incentives, as they can be demoralizing to students facing systemic barriers, was a thoughtful design choice.
As an EVA, what I need to see to make this more investable would be a built-out business plan, including a go-to-market strategy, revenue projections, and the investment ask, as others in the thread have also mentioned. I’d also want a source for the “5000+ Remote & Indigenous Schools” figure on the Market slide, since that anchors your opportunity size, along with an ownership percentage and use-of-funds breakdown to assess capital efficiency and the scope of potential return.
FEEDBACK
Hi bryce,
As an educator, I found Day-One’s pain point to be highly relevant and urgent. The pitch clearly shows how chronic absenteeism is connected to achievement gaps, graduation rates, school funding, and long-term community outcomes. Your direct experience as an educator and administrator in the Northwest Territories gives the venture strong credibility.
My favourite part of the pitch is the three-tier early warning system. The Green, Yellow, and Red alert structure makes the solution easy to understand and shows how Day-One could move schools from reactive attendance tracking to proactive support. I also appreciated that the platform is framed around community care, peer mentors, social workers, counsellors, and family support rather than punitive attendance enforcement. This is important because attendance barriers are often systemic and relational, not simply individual student choices.
Overall, this is a thoughtful and high-impact concept with strong educational value! I believe the pitch would be more convincing with a clearer buyer and implementation model.
FEEDBACK
Hi Bryce,
Your firsthand experience as a principal in a northern Indigenous community gives the problem a lot of credibility in this pitch, and the Green/Yellow/Red alert system provides a clear way to turn attendance data into different levels of support. I think it would be interesting to see more how Indigenous communities and organizations would be involved in the design process, especially since the pitch emphasizes being culturally grounded, as well as the business side of things, like the target investment market.
I also liked the decision to avoid cash or prize-based incentives and focus instead on recognition and leadership opportunities. That feels like a more sustainable approach to encouraging engagement.
Hello Bryce
Your elevator pitch was the right length and grabbed my attention. Well done. Your lower slide sections were partially covered by the captioning but that would be an easy fix.
The idea is a worthwhile one and you clearly know the problem well. I understand the target group and the need for the app. You covered that really well. I find the research into the reality of the need well done. I would have liked to see more on the venture side. I also know that stop light colour are well used but they are challenging for visual limitations like colour blindness. Otherwise, I think you have hit the mark on including an overlooked demographic well.
I do not see this as just one demographic, although I would not want to take away the importance of it for them. I see this as being a great app for any working parents who may care but not know that their children aren’t where you think they are. Not every parent can be way from work and many jobs do not allow phone calls unless they are emergencies.
Flush the business side and I would be willing to look at this as a potential for investment.