SalaDeMaestros.com is a venture that seeks to facilitate a more fluid communication among all the members of the educational community of Baja California (Mexico). The venture pitch provides the professional profile of all its members, demonstrating a high qualification for working in this project (e.g. by mentioning their degree of expertise in the field). This […]
Continue reading Venture Pitch Critique Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
I looked at the Royal Rhoades Open Courseware initiative pitch and I feel that this was geared to internal decision-makers than a venture capitalist. After watching the pitch, I found that I needed more details on the following items:  Types and number of courses to be created Projected time and resources needed Details on the […]
Continue reading RRU Open Courseware Initiative Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
In a classic Simpson’s episode, the town is convinced to buy a monorail by a slick salesman. What distinguishes a good salesperson from a good pitch is a message that is not only persuasive, but is competitive and marketable. This company – Evernote – smartly offers a free basic service (that can be upgraded), employing […]
Continue reading evernote in under 200 words… Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
I have been using Evernote for some time now, and I am a huge fan of the tool, but if I had watched this pitch first, I may never have tried it. For a quick pitch, there should have been a greater effort to catch my attention – having the CEO standing still in front of the camera, speaking a bit too quickly in my view (at times it was not easy to distinguish his words). I would expect this type of pitch to come from a high-school student who has just created his first free-ware assignment in class. Maybe I am being too harsh, but I would not buy his product, let alone invest in it….and like I said, I love his product after all!! How did I learn about it? Word-of-mouth by trusted friends who are also big fans of the product. The idea is great…but I find the pitch far too amateur-ish.
I also find that both the appearance of the presenter and the lack of “visuals” leave me unclear and uninterested about most of the products promoted by these elevator pitches, including this one. I guess the CEO’s Everclear logo t-shirt and clean, non-distracting background are improvements over some of the pitches on Youtube, but I guess I need the motivation of an assignment to listen to any of them twice! Maybe I have “caught” ADHD from my students. Perhaps, if my money was on the line …?
Hi Karen,
I have been noticing the lack of visuals in these pitches as well. It doesn’t seem as though the presenters are taking advantage of what new media has to offer. I keep wondering if this is something that is a key characteristic of elevator pitches (that we are supposed to be focusing on the person face to face). I did a little digging and found the following article that debates the current status of the elevator pitch: http://www.theworkbuzz.com/career-advice/is-the-elevator-pitch-outdated/
Hey! Great link, Emily. It did make me reflect about this whole process, and how sometimes when I’m being a talking head up at the front of the class, the best approach would be an elevator pitch, especially given the short attention spans of my victims, I mean, students.
I’m not a fan of feature lists as pitches. I prefer to hear a story about a problem and how their venture will solve that problem and take advantage of a huge market and competitive barriers to entry to build on their solution. I realize EverNote is a successful app, but I nearly fell asleep during this pitch. No passion about how EverNote can change my life…
I like the clarity that your summary brings, David. I think those key points are at the heart of assignment 3, as well.
You had me at Simpsons. Classic pitch in that episode by Lanley – not sent by the devil (since he was on the level), as he reassured us.
I also thought that the foot-in-the-door marketing strategy was smart. Giving something good away for free that can only get better with a small amount of money is a great form of, well, manipulation. I would have mentioned it as you did, but you did so first and actually knew what to call it (well, I assume that’s what it’s called).
I think, to encourage a bit more interest (if the pitch were a longer venture pitch, perhaps), I would either further develop or promote the compatibility and tagging/organization/searching. I’d like to see some more in the lines of automatic tagging, labeling, and organization. Not everyone is ready for the semantic web yet. If or when we’re all on that train, something like Evernote won’t be as useful. Their time to strike is now!
A couple of comments before we leap forward. Last Week: Â First, I enjoyed everyone’s comments and discussion last week on the various future-surveying reports and sources that are available. Â I hope it demonstrated both the value and limitations of these materials. Week Change-Overs: Â As eager as we all are to move forward, please don’t post […]
Continue reading Welcome to W3: Analyst’s Bootcamp Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
Well said!
Everton
As the Provincial Administration IT manager of SET-BC (Special Educational Technology), I am always on the lookout for new technologies that can assist students with disabilities. Peekabu’s pitch for a “new way for people to interact with their computers without ever touching a mouse or keyboard” sparked my interest. Peekabu 60 Second Pitch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSWm1-5ffk&feature=related [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQSWm1-5ffk&feature=related] […]
Continue reading Pitch Critique: Peekabu Studio’s Gesture Computing technology a nice touch but seems out of reach just yet. Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
Hi Karen,
Great analysis (and good digging, detective!). I agree with you that the use of “what if…” questions as an introduction is effective in establishing the need. Nice way to set the stage. The more pitches I watch, the more I reflect on how the tips we teach students on effective strategies fro writing persuasive speeches are the ones we are noticing here.
Emily
Great points in your critique! As this is an elevator pitch I guess there are limited ways to incorporate demos. But he seems to like to use his hands in distracting ways while talking…. so why not use his hands to demonstrate the gestures he’s talking about?
I hate “what if” pitches. I prefer “here’s the problem, here’s how we solve it” pitches. He could demonstrate with body language the problems he is trying to solve and how he will solve them. He could identify the markets for this technology and what the (presumably failing) competitors are (like Dragon Dictate for instance). To me this seemed like a pretty thin pitch that didn’t describe its markets properly, competitors, or where money would come from or even how far along the product was in development.
Again…. good critique on the missing points!
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
jarvise 3:50 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Angela,
Your point regarding the fact that this product is unclear on how it will “capture revenues” has been something I’ve been thinking about too. Is this a product that involves a customer paying for the service? I have been thinking about ed tech products in general, and trying to figure out how a customer evaluates whether or not they are getting their money’s worth. If you invest in a tool that is supposed to improve communication in your school, how do you know if it is happening? I guess some planning would have to take place beforehand to decide what the benchmarks would be. I’m often wondering when it comes to educational products, how do we know when it is working? How can we attribute a positive change to a particular product in a complex environment?
Emily
Angela Novoa 12:59 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Emily,
I get your point. I have seen how sometimes schools invest on technologies that later turn out to be underutilized because teachers do not learn how to use it, because teachers are not clear about the purposes for using it, or because these technologies weren’t tested before.
David William Price 12:28 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Nice work providing balance in the critique. Noting dependencies on other services and barriers to uptake by the intended clients are great points!
Angela Novoa 1:00 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for your comments David 🙂