Barrie’s Venture Pitch

Hello Everyone:

To view my venture presentation in PowerPoint format, please click on the link:

http://web.me.com/mycourses/Site_2/ETEC_522_Venture_Pitch.html

If there are any uploading issues, please let me know.  Thank-you!

Cheers,

Barrie

14 comments


1 Sean McMinn { 11.29.09 at 9:51 pm }

Nice. I just skimmed through your PPT and I really like how you highlight the values of e-ducativa, followed by its weaknesses, strengths, and then the pitch. Each slide presents a valid point, followed by supporting comments. Well organized.


2 jennie wong { 11.30.09 at 7:08 am }

Barrie

Nice presentation and thanks for keeping the elevator pitch to 150 words. I spent much time cutting out much of my text so that the requirement of 150 words could be met.

Wasn’t there a 150 word limit on the elevator pitch? or was that my imagination?


3 Ed Stuerle { 11.30.09 at 12:54 pm }

Hi Barrie
Very detailed examination of the pros and cons of the product. Can’t seem to find a separate short pitch.


4 Lorne Upton { 11.30.09 at 7:56 pm }

Hello Barrie,

I am unable to upload your presentation. Do you have an alternate link?

Thanks
Lorne


5 Lorne Upton { 12.02.09 at 12:03 pm }

Hello Barrie,

I really enjoyed your venture pitch–very clear. You provide a reasonable business model and provide links to excellent resources. Thank you for all your effort.


6 Adam Rattray { 12.02.09 at 3:02 pm }

Hi Barrie,
Very interesting product. I wasn’t aware of this LMS and associated products. It is good to know that there are other choices besides moodle, vista, and D2L. I am interested in learning more.


7 Omar Ramroop { 12.02.09 at 5:58 pm }

Hi Barrie,

After reading your “old school” elevator pitch, I thought I would dive into your venture.

I applaud the straightforwardness of your presentation style and venture content. Within the first couple of slides, I knew what you were offering and the type of market environment. The organization and medium for your pitch is very apparent. I could foresee that the most difficult stage (as with many venture ideas) being the initial transition phase and establishing grounds in the marketplace. As you documented nicely in your pitch, technology has allowed for relatively easy start-ups for virtual ventures. Minimal costs – maximum exposure. We can’t really ask for more.

The areas for growth that you outline in Canada, India, China, and the United States would definitely solidify your venture in the market environment. We shouldn’t forget that the South East Asia market is booming in this area.

I would have liked to have a few more specific and concrete numbers with regards to market segmentation and breakdown as you will be in a very competitive environment. With the types of services that you are offering in the venture, it is difficult to really get across the exact service without providing a sample or example of your service. Be that as it may, and under the current circumstances, I would support and invest in your venture.

Great job and best wishes,

Omar


8 Erica T { 12.02.09 at 10:06 pm }

This is my formal review of your pitch as an EVA:

I have to concur that the elevator pitch is a refreshingly “easy read”. I did have to move on to the full presentation in order to get the full information on what educativa offers.

The PowerPoint clearly outlines the offerings of this company.
I like that you clearly laid out the risk assessment, mentioning the weaknesses (such as cost,) but that you also highlighted the Strengths (already in operation and ease of use).

The Pitch portion of the ppt thoroughly elaborates upon the companies’ offerings and leaves nothing unsaid. Very thorough.

As an EVA who is limited to choosing 3 out of 10 companies to invest in, I would need to be convinced of the draw / benefit for me as an investor.
Based on the current success of this company, I imagine you will do just fine without me. ☺


9 Barrie Carter { 12.04.09 at 10:33 am }

Hello Everyone:

Thank-you for taking the time to review and to comment on my elevator pitch and venture presentation; I sincerely appreciate.

As well, I am grateful for having taken ETEC 522 because it informed me about venture capitalism pertaining to educational technologies within the world of education.

Indeed, as a business person and a public school teacher, I have learned a lot from you and this course, which I will carry forward.

That said, my rationale for using PowerPoint as my medium for both Assignment 1 and 3 is based on what several school districts suggested, should I choose to present a product or a service to a school or to a district. After all, PPT is easy to follow, to understand, and to relate to, especially for senior management who are seasoned administrators (some of whom, by the way, have yet to welcome or be intrigued by sophisticated communicative platforms).

Overall, I have every intention of presenting both PPT presentations to administrators, which I hope will bear fruit one day.

In closing, thank-you for taking the time and the effort to review my work.

Cheers,

Barrie


10 Ammar Al-Attiyat { 12.04.09 at 1:41 pm }

Note: Due to time limitation, I’m replying directly after I reviewed the pitch content, apologies for any duplicate remark(s) already raised by other colleagues !!

Hi Barrie,
Allow me to borrow the creative style you picked for your elevator pitch and list my formal EVA feedback for your pitch.

Me (Investor): OK Barrie, you were write that was a really interesting “bait and invest” as you said.

You (Barrie): Thanks, I’m glad it grabbed your interest.

Me: Yes it did, but as you would expect, I have few comments, questions and inquiries.

You: Of course, just shoot.

Me: Unlike most of other ventures I’m reviewing today, you’re bringing to the investment table a very well set up company in South America with remarkable success record (quoting you; 20 pages of clientele !!)
You: You’re absolutely right. So it’s kind of reducing the risk of new start up I believe.

Me: OK good, so why you need investment money?

You: Hmm, as the PPT says, we wish to expand our presence by entering new markets in China, Canada, US and India …that’s to name a few !!

Me: Great, this is what I wanted to confirm with you as I didn’t see it explicitly mentioning the amount of money you’re looking for or the specific purpose. I assumed – as other ventures would do – they look for funding to expand their product portfolio by investing in heavy R&D.

You: That’s of course a second priority for e-ducativa is to upgrade it’s technology to enable it to compete in the new markets.

Me: OK, I’m glad you mentioned the word “Compete” !! , does your more detailed investment portfolio package includes a technical review and competitive analysis for e-ducativa products (LMS, Video Conf.) against industry leaders such as BB, Moodle, Wimba, Elluminate …etc).

You: I guess yes, that could be arranged through the company technical team. I know we’ve been into many projects facing international competition and we won some good deals.

Me: Great, I need that and I need to be secured about how “global” your products are, in short, your support to multiple languages.

You: We follow Unicode in all our development and supporting new language is not an issue. Let me assure you that English language is already supported beside the default Spanish.

Me: Great, now we need to get into serious action, the markets you mentioned are very diversified and each need a separate marketing plan, therefore and as an ETEC 522 EVA, I would recommend to buy $250K shares directed to two main business objectives; 1) Establish presence for e-ducativa in the US market and 2) Utilize e-ducativa e-learning services in content development and attract off-shore outsourcing business from the North American market and UK.

You: Excellent, we have a deal, I’ll call for a board meeting to get their approval and move forward.

Me: Pleasure to do business with you Barrie 🙂


11 Barrie Carter { 12.04.09 at 6:42 pm }

Hello Omar and Ammar:

I also look forward to doing business with you.

Certainly, as the e-learning market continues to grow, e-ducativa is strategically positioned to expand wherever the need is.

Lastly, it is only a matter of time before e-learning becomes the dominant learning platform at all levels of schooling. Indeed, it is taking schooling on a whole new level.

Welcome aboard!

Barrie


12 Annette Smith { 12.05.09 at 1:34 pm }

Hi Barrie,

I found that your pitch was a bit too plain and simple – but that was the point so I understand your approach.

The venture seems to be quite diverse with products from LMSs to content creation and software development, as well as consultancy and support services. The current deployment of the system (the whole thing seems like a system to me) is impressive and demonstrates market readiness. I agree that this predicts success in moving into other markets like Canada and Asia.

The only references to costs and pricing is the fact that the software developers are in Argentina, where labour costs are presumably lower than Canada or Europe. I would be interested in knowing where the management, design and service staff are, and whether they are also a low-cost part of the company.

My only real concern is the open-source nature of the software you are producing. Is the OSS community involved in the production of the product? How are you protecting your investment in R & D? Is the company more focused on support and consultancy services? If this is the case then the greatest costs will be the content creators and support staff.

I would need a more thorough look at the business model before investing in e-ducativa, and would need to understand more about how the system is structured, but I think the pitch intrigued me enough to want to learn more.

Well done!
Annette


13 Adam Rattray { 12.06.09 at 6:30 pm }

Hi Barrie,
As this is an established business that has been running in Spain and Argentina for some time now with 3000 students using the LMS, it already is quite appealing. You did not really discuss who would be running the company in the satellite countries that you were looking to run the company and that was a bit of a concern. Also, I am assuming that this is not an open source product so how would you compete with an open source giant like moodle or even LMSs with comparable features like D2L has.
I also noticed that most of the screenshots of the product were in Spanish. Is an English version of the product available? This made me think that maybe this product isn’t ready for the North American market yet. However, if a little bit more was put into this product to get it ready for the world. If it had a bit more of a technical advantage then I would say that it is a viable choice for investment.
Thanks for this presentation. Great work!
Adam


14 Mark Reed { 12.06.09 at 9:29 pm }

Barrie your presentation for Educativa was very interesting. You provide excellent detail and good substance which creates solid credibility – your market focus on Spain and Argentina has an unique niche.

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