V-Project
For my A3 project I created a company called V-Projects. The V stands for Virtual 3-D Worlds and the projects refers to its emphasis on project based learning with our course material. I have both pitches as a video with my self reflection included at the end of the venture pitch.
Elevator Pitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCq06ncMi70
Venture Pitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMUhaZalspE
cheers,
Colin
Posted in: Venture Forum
jenbarker 12:31 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
I really enjoyed your pitches. Which program did you use? I use iMovie and would love to know how to impose graphics alongside my image. Your elevator pitch was great and included enough key information to catch my attention. Your Venture Pitch demonstrated the pain point, solution, and differentiation of your idea. You provided examples of your competition and reasons why your product is better. Your ask and return were clear too. I liked how you mixed graphics with the video of you speaking. You conveyed enthusiasm and knowledge of your topic. The only weakness I saw was similar to what you pointed out, I am not sure that the CEO’s background experience is enough to champion this venture. Here I might have added some fictional information to your CEO and additional executive team member to garner more credibility. Overall, I thought you venture was great. Thanks for sharing, Jen
Colin 7:17 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank-you Jen, the elevator pitch was my experiment with PowerPoint and the venture pitch was all done Adobe Premiere Pro. I agree that I could have made a fictional executive team to make it more believable as my experience wouldn’t be enough to make it successful.
joeltremblay 4:21 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Colin,
Great presentation values. The talking heads feel suitably hi tech and I thought that the elevator and concepts were really well thought out. Good job.
Jonathan 9:16 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Colin —
Awesome. Adobe Premiere Pro? Were the background images already given as samples or did you need to recreate them? Did you have to green screen it to make it work? With respect to your virtual world idea — i’d say that the way you did the video matched it very well.
So back to the video! — 🙂 Experiment with powerpoint? How was it done?
My favourite part of it was the connection with your virtual world to an LMS — that to me makes this an important feature that we (as teachers don’t currently have). I’m curious as to how these assignments will tie into the LMS though. Other than that — I’d say you have my money!
Colin 9:07 pm on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jonathan, no I used free video backgrounds and then just removed the blue screen and replaced it with this video. The Elevator pitch was done in PowerPoint where I had only one slide with animations all timed out. Then exported to video in PowerPoint. It worked okay but I do like Adobe Premiere Pro better.
tomwhyte1 10:10 am on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
To facilitate and objectively review the venture pitch you have put forward, I will be utilizing the guidelines provided within our course, Section 2.7 – Deconstructing a Pitch.
CEO & Team:
The CEO of V-Project appears credible, convey’s confidence in this venture, and has experienced the development and implementation of this project into a traditional classroom environment, and witnessed the potential of this approach in other educational settings. Unfortunately, no information was provided regarding the rest of V-Projects team, therefore a firm assessment of their ability to manage a start-up to a successful venture cannot be provided at this time.
Venture Concept:
Even though the concept of virtual worlds is now commonplace within the world of educational technology, thanks to such ventures as Second Life, the specific focus of this venture for distance learning, when combined with the ability for institutions or individuals to rent spaces, provide historical recreations, purchase individual courses, and even offer online tutoring services, sets this venture apart. From the information provided, it appears that this company has done the pre-requisite research to determine its potential viability, however before investing a review of this literature would need to occur. Overall though, V-Projects is an interesting concept, that deserves further review.
Marketability:
V-Projects discusses the potential of going global with this service, however specific information regarding potential customer base is lacking, making guesses on market size, share and potential revenue difficult to complete at this. Further information is needed in this area to determine if there is enough need for this market to ensure its success. As for this companies competitive edge, they have provided intriguing features that most schools and teachers would like, such as the ability to control elements such as language and clothing, as well as bullying safety features, all of which are necessary in an online learning environment. A potential concern for investors is the use of the Open Source software as the foundation for this online learning environment. While, this company has made enhancements and additions, further research into the legal requirements of sharing these (due to the open source movement), puts into question the innovative advantages they currently possess.
Venture Plan:
V-Projects is currently in Beta Testing, and feels with a small investment will be able to enter the market, and within 5 years return this investment. This will be accomplished through what appears to be a freemium model, with additions of course purchasing, space rental, and tutoring services, each of which provides good revenue sources to make this venture a success. Overall, before investing I would like to experience proof of concept, and investigate the infrastructure V-Projects has set-up to ensure a consistent and effective online presence.
Pat A Son 11:32 pm on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin
You are certainly a confident and credible CEO and your venture has a certain appeal to me. However you did not provide any information about your team but I am willing to overlook this omission and rate this venture on the impression you have made via your pitches.
As for your venture it is certainly viable and you have assembled a credible set of tools that makes for a believable platform for learning in a 3D environment. However I have are some major concerns about your venture.
The first is I believe that the open source license requires that all modified source code be made available in the spirit of openness to facilitate further development of the software. Yet you speak of a proprietary design for your product. The second is that I do not see virtual worlds as a replacement for current LMS but extension to them. I make this claim against the theory of multiple intelligences from which we can predict that all students would not prefer virtual worlds. As for control I believe that simply recording all activities and letting this be agreed to upon signup will be a more efficient way of managing deviant behavior.
On the issue of competition I would have liked to get more detail on what gives your product the competitive edge over other similar products.
Education has been slow in adopting IT technology and I am not sure that it will readily accept something as sophisticated as 3d technology at the moment.
You have a very good venture that needs to be tweaked as I have suggested but I am afraid that it is ahead of its time and as such I would not invest in it right now. Nevertheless you did a great job and I am truly impressed.
Cheers
Patason
visramn 3:33 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Collin,
I think this is a great idea but I think most educational systems are still too far behind in term of their current technological use to be able to take on such a brilliant learning approach. I do however feel that a tool like this would definitely be very successful in the future. Your pitch and venture analysis were extremely engaging. I was drawn in and wanted to learn more. You did a phenomenal job with the technical components of this assignment. You were very confident as the CEO of the company and your mannerisms, tone of voice and body language were a plus point. This confidence made me have belief in your product. You used the term ‘we’ throughout your presentation. Hence, you were referring to your team but your team was not mentioned. Other than that, I thought you did a great job.
Thanks for sharing this excellent work. It is inspiring to see how a project such as this can be made engaging through aesthetics. .Your effort is evident. You are a talented guy.
Nureen
jameschen 2:06 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
I enjoyed watching your elevator pitch. You provided information on most of the important points in an elevator pitch, and if your pain point was followed by the product differentiation my interests would be stirred even more. The 100% return on investment in 5 years sounds good if there are figures in the venture pitch to back it up.
Thanks for a solid presentation.
James
Scott 12:13 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Colin, the careful preparation and professional delivery of your pitch make it quite credible and convincing.
Many of my colleagues have already touched on the strengths and weaknesses of the pitch in terms of the criteria presented in this course. As Tom also mentioned, I particularly appreciated your attention to the subject of accountability for students actions in the virtual environment you outlined – the concern for cyberbullying would be foremost in the minds of my schools administrators with such a product. I also concur, that further details regarding your management team would add to the strength of the pitch.
In my naïve knowledge of virtual environments, the concept as presented seems sound, though I remain somewhat perplexed by the benefit of its open source SIM foundation which is then combined with other propriety features. In the end, is it open source?
While the exact size of the market remains a bit vague, in general I can foresee a potential market for this venture in the future. With the venture plan proposed and the financial details provided, the success of the venture appears fairly high. In the end however, due to my own lack of understanding of the technology in general, I would not invest in the venture.
As a final comment and one which could apply easily to other pitches and how the assignment instructions in general are being interpreted – I’m not certain an 8min video pitch is the best ‘medium for this message’. The production value was high in this video and the lower 3rd graphics helped, but in the end, I feel lengthy video pitches of this nature, are at risk of becoming too densely packed with information – I might prefer reading and lingering over the details of this and others pitches instead.
melissaayers 2:41 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
Great pitches and use of video! I am impressed you were able to do this with the tools you listed you used.
In your elevator pitch you clearly identify a pain point (high costs and not appealing alternatives) and what the proposed product you pitch will do to minimize this. The product/service you want to provide is succinctly describe and you ask clearly for an investment and identify how it will be used and when it will be paid back. Based on the elevator pitch, its content and professional feel I definitely was drawn to go learn more and review the venture pitch.
Despite the fact I think you have a great idea and concept as an EVA I am not sure I would invest in this venture. This is purely for the reason that I think currently the cost of developing this venture’s product/services (with current development technologies) will be quite high and I am not sure investors would be able to get a decent return on investment.
Thanks,
Melissa
sophiabb 10:59 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
Great use of PowePoint and Adobe Premiere. I found your elevator pitch very credible. It addressed your product, problem, solution, target market and ask.
I concur with another colleague that an 8 min video is not necessarily the best medium for the venture pitch, but you did an excellent job with it.
Your presentation of your product demonstrated your research into how to leverage the affordances of virtual worlds for project=based learning, attention to potential risks such as cyber bullying and plans to mitigate.
Your ask and return were clearly stated. Your market was identified but I could have liked more information on the size of the market to be better able to ascertain financial feasibility. However, your marketing/revenue plans were of different revenue options to investors are attractive and are options that I would be open to learning more about.
While you came across as a confident and credible CEO I would need more information on your team’s relevant skill sets and abilities to design, plan and implement a business of this nature to inform my decision to invest or not.
Overall, an intriguing venture proposition. One that I would invite a submission of a business plan.
Sophia