Jim’s Elevator Pitch

by 12345abcde

15 comments

1 Eveline Yu { 11.27.09 at 7:33 pm }

Hi Jim,

It looks great! Simple yet informative. Some of the words in the beginning I couldn’t hear very clearly though – or it could be my lack of understanding in the more technical dental terms. =)

I like the format that you used – which program did you use to create the presentation?

Eveline

2 Barrie Carter { 11.27.09 at 9:08 pm }

Hello Jim:

I enjoyed listening to your elevator pitch. The images are sharp, defined, and rich in colour.

I am sure that one of these days I am going to use ‘screencast.com’.

Cheers,

Barrie

3 Cari Wilson { 11.28.09 at 8:46 am }

Hi Jim,

I found your pitch interesting, especially in that what you do is so different from what I do in some ways. The pitch certainly made me want to learn more, and I guess that’s the main idea of as pitch – to get someone interested enough to want to learn more!

Cari

4 James Richardson { 11.28.09 at 9:22 am }

Hi Evelyn,

I used Camtasia from TechSmith to do the screen capture video. It is pretty easy to use (easier than Captivate). I forgot to borrow one of the in house mics from dentistry so I used one that I had at home but the pick up was relatively poor.

5 Cindy Leach { 12.02.09 at 4:59 am }

Well I’m hooked. This definitely has me wanting to hear more about your pitch. Nice format, great images, very concise and to the point. This is a very real area of need, we have a similar one in the MD field

6 Jeff Laird { 12.02.09 at 7:09 pm }

Excellent, clear pitch that identifies the market, poses the problem, shows the clear demand, and identifies the potential profit (if a foreign dentist could save $140000 and two years of lost revenue then a well designed course could demand a significant tuition). Very well done.

7 Greg Lewis { 12.02.09 at 8:30 pm }

Your pitch offers a very tangible saving to an international dentist and I believe UBC, of course, would be very interested in being a part of this (unless it compromised its two year program already in place? Just guessing) Sound was a little low to start but overall, this was not a problem. A very sound product/service it would appear. Nice.

8 James Richardson { 12.02.09 at 9:19 pm }

We anticipate that the 2 year progam applicants will largely dry up once the ‘fast track’ opens up. Then the only applicants would be international dentists who want a made in Canada DMD or DDS degree to open up options for further specialty training.

9 Brian Powell { 12.04.09 at 11:46 am }

Good pitch, Jim. The simple images and transitions enabled me to focus on what you were saying. Market, foreign trained dentists challenging capstone exam. Product online web based learning prep for exams. Savings over face to face offerings. A good tech savvy team with experience in online. I’m curious as to how big the market and how much the “state of the art facilities” reflects in the online learning content to make it as good as or better than face to face. Hooked. On the full pitch.

10 James Richardson { 12.04.09 at 4:03 pm }

Thanks Brian,

The new clinic pays off with the hands on summer session (mentioned in the full pitch) but naturally the online aspects don’t really reflect the facility. The market size is the real issue. If all 6 of the current dental schools involved consider similar ventures the market would be too small for the intial purpose however, online courses could be used to help prep domestic students for the NDEB but they would not be prepared to pay high course fees so the funding model would be less attractive to investors. It’s a shame when reality gets in the way of good idea.

Jim

11 Len Pelletier { 12.05.09 at 3:25 pm }

Hi Jim, brilliant idea and well-constructed pitch. In this project, it has been easy to tell the “fictional” pitches apart from the “real” ones and I was instantly convinced this was a real venture and wanted to learn more. Thanks!

12 Ernest Pao { 12.05.09 at 4:19 pm }

Jim, I enjoyed your elevator pitch. You did a good job with the pictures and the voice-over provided highlights to what your pitch is about. It would certainly appeal to your target audience, foreign dentists coming to BC, who could potentially save a ton of money in tuition fees. Good job!

Ernie

13 Barbara Mair { 12.05.09 at 8:55 pm }

Jim,

I think your elevator pitch is very compelling. It is very clear and presents an almost no brainer business case. This venture will cannibalize the 2 year program but if you don’t do it someone else will. So it is best to be the first to reinvent yourself. Congratulations on the presentation.

14 Barbara Mair { 12.06.09 at 2:39 pm }

I have come back as an EVA. As i said earlier it seems like a very good venture, there is a compelling reason for why dentistry students would prefer to do this versus a longer course. Unfortunately in your pitch i did not see what the investment you are requesting or the period of time that you think it will pay off. Intuitively it would seem to be a good business. The internet portion i assume would escalate well to many many students but you mention a summer hands on program. This might be a limitation to the model since you cannot have that many people on site at once. If this is so, and the investment would then take longer to pay off, is there an addition investment requirement to constantly update the course because of changing technology? As the team of people working on this you only mention yourself. Who else would be working on this with you and what are their credentials?
I thought your elevator pitch was excellent and motivated me to look at the whole business but i feel that to invest i would need a lot more financial information. Good luck with the venture it looks promising.

15 James Richardson { 12.06.09 at 5:28 pm }

Good points Barb,

Thanks for your criitique. My venture is in its infancy so I don’t have team yet. The clinic can accomodate quite a number of students (this year over 120) so this wouldn’t be a problem as I don’t foresee that many applicants. I didn’t send you my reflections page and you touched on many of my own concerns. My plan is to repurpose existing courseware so it would be updated. You hit the nail on the head with the funding. If it is run under the auspices of UBC Dentistry, there wouldn’t be much pay-back for investors. If this was strictly private, access to the course material would be challenging. Recreating the content wheel would be very time consuming.

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