Doorpodz is a venture proposition for an online community connecting people looking at changing career paths (known as career movers) to industry advisors using online profiles, instant messaging and live chat. I am really excited about my venture proposition and would like to take the opportunity to share it with you. Only have a minute? […]
Continue reading Doorpodz Posted in: Venture ForumTagged: venture RSS Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Jenny Brown
-
Jenny Brown
After reading the first few posts for this week’s task, I was thinking are there any females that are the founders of learning technology ventures? I have found one that I will report on later this week but I thought this article might be of interest to some: The Face of Success, Part 2: Where […]
Continue reading After reading the first few posts for th… Posted in: General-
jenbarker
Jenny ~ Interesting that you bring this up. I explored Design2Learn and I too was surprised that their leadership team consists of all males except for one.
-
melissaayers
Thanks for sharing that Jenny – it was a really interesting article. I hope this is a trend that will change in the future as I am sure when we look at the education domain that statics would indicate there are more female educators than male I would imagine.
-
David Vogt
Jenny –
Thanks for opening this question, and for presenting a great example of a female entrepreneur in the Founder’s Parade.
As the article points out, there are some obvious historical reasons for why there are still fewer women championing tech start-ups. I won’t dwell there because I’ll just end up saying some unfortunate things about immature male-dominated cultures.
What I will say, in context of this week’s discussion, is that an entrepreneur is typically someone who is brave enough to go where few have gone before, to see an opportunity in a wilderness. An entrepreneurial woman won’t be daunted in a wilderness of men – she’ll actually see this as an advantage because she has innate tools and perspectives that are lacking in the ecosystem.
This is particularly true with learning technologies, which can be characterized as the awkwardly opportunistic marriage of an engineering culture with an education culture. It isn’t so much that the cultures are actively antagonistic as they are simply far apart. All the best opportunities are in that wilderness in between. Be brave – march in!
David
-
Jenny Brown
Thanks David. This course is great opportunity to entertain the idea of marching right in! At the moment I seem to be tiptoeing back and forth. Prior to this course, my thoughts were only really related to coming up with and implementing small creative ideas at my workplace so this shift in mindset is taking some time.
-
teacherben
Here are 15 women with successful start-ups:
http://www.inc.com/ss/christina-desmarais/15-women-watch-tech-startups.html#11
-
avninder 3:18 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I liked how your elevator pitch was geared towards investors and not necessarily end users of the product. You seemed very engaged in the pitch as well.
Paula Poodwan 3:48 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenny,
Your elevator pitch is professionally done. The video is of good quality with the logo and perfect lighting. Your tone, pitch and excitement in your voice make it all very interesting to watch! Your elevator pitch is clear in which you started with the pain point and then you moved on to the solution.
The idea of Doorpods is innovative and I feel excited to listen to you. You are also very clear on how Doorpodz will make the money. However, I think since there are already some free social networking sites out there that provide similar concepts: people can blog, post questions, chats , and many times they can get advice online for free, so I don’t think most people would want to pay to use Doorpodz, unless they are very serious or desperate, then they may sign up and pay for chat and advice from the professional.
Overall both of your pitches are very engaging. Even though you didn’t have much visual in your venture pitch, your passion, your excitement, and the words you chose kept me engaged the whole 7:17 minutes. Well done!
Mike Rae 4:27 am on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Jenny, great job on your pitches. I thought the most intriguing part of how doorpodz would make money was the idea that industry advisors could have the option of answering to create their own supply and demand within your site. A good advisor could charge more based on his or her chats (after they are rated)…if you want 5 star quality, maybe they choose to charge more per minute. It could create a space for people looking to move career paths a new outlook.
One of the drawbacks of the idea is that I don’t think the numbers of people out there looking to change career paths are that high, so it is a relatively small market, but if you did corner that niche, with the right marketing perhaps it could be profitable.
thanks
MIKE
Jenny Brown 1:54 pm on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks everyone. I would agree that I am a bit concerned as to if people would pay to chat or not but there are some models out there that are working. Mike, I wondered about the need as well, how often do people fully change careers? I did mean to find some stats about this, but time ran out, I just knew it was something I was going through and have a few friends going through as well. I thought that it could also be a starting point for people to have some inside info on a company they are interested in so maybe not a total career shift but inside scoop on a different position. Thanks for the feedback.
Jonathan 7:42 pm on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Jenny —
Really interesting idea! I like it. I enjoyed both the short and the longer versions of your presentations. As an EVA, I would probably like the shift to change to more of a marketing site for jobs (I think..). Like Mike, I am worried bout the market for people wanting to change jobs and how you would be able to maintain users. I see it as a great recruiting tool, but then the question for the industry leaders or managers with jobs is how could they sift through the piles of applicants. It seems like a good extension to something like Linked In possibly?
I am interested in the pay to chat to an executive feature though for sure. Thanks for the pitch!
— Jonathan
Jenny Brown 4:30 pm on November 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I totally agree Jonathan,
It would be perfect to pitch as an extension to LinkedIn. Not sure if anyone else has thought about it yet.
kstackhouse 10:17 pm on November 29, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenny,
After watching your videos and reading your disclaimers it seems as though you have thought of just about everything. Both the elevator pitch and the venture pitch were easy to view and your message was clear. You did a nice job in the elevator pitch piquing the viewer’s interest to watch the second video. In the venture pitch you progressed your ideas nicely and moved a good pace. Your confidence and enthusiasm for the venture showed through out. Nicely done. I think the venture idea is a good one. I think there are a lot of people that do actually change jobs/career paths now compared to just one generation back. I can tell you that 3 people in my immediate family have done this. I don’t know if they would have tried a service like this or not. I think with how comfortable people have become with social networks that it is a real possibility. Great job.
Ken
jenniferschubertubc 10:20 am on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenny!
First off, KUDOS for getting through a whole venture pitch in one go! (You didn’t even edit, did you?!) Outstanding.
I worked in the software field for a company called Cluen that created contact database management systems for executive recruiters. Doorpods would have been an extremely natural add-on to our program! I am intrigued by the concept of being able to chat with Industry Advisors, and do believe that there are good people out there that would be more than willing to take part.
While watching both the elevator pitch and the longer venture pitch, I did have some questions arise… but as soon as I was writing them down, you answered them! I think that is definitely a sign of a good pitch. Get the audience thinking and engaging just enough to ask questions which you end up answering before the pitch is over. Excellent work there.
I am not sure if I would invest in Doorpods only for the fact that I’m not sure there is currently a market of users willing to pay for such a service. The idea is stellar, but unfortunately, the economy is still not. That said, you provided a sound presentation of a good idea. Well done.
Jenny Brown 7:37 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Jennifer. I took a lot of takes (at least ten – it was a long Friday night) and was reading off the computer screen using a PowerPoint presentation and clicking through as I went. I did mess up three words so I did very slight editing. I am glad to see that there might be interest for the product, but yes I think how to make the product make money needs to be re-evaluated.
Patrick Pichette 8:20 pm on November 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenny,
I enjoyed watching your elevator pitch and thought long and hard in terms of its feasibility. I think this is the point that I struggle with most as I’m not sure if a need exists for this service or whether it would be viable. If anything, I could see this type of service tied in with LinkedIn rather than a standalone product. With the established user base of LinkedIn, there would likely be a greater incentive for recruiters to pursue this type of recruiting approach. Still, you propose an interesting venture and although I wouldn’t invest in it personally, there might be some hope for it if your market research showed promise.
frank 1:53 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Nice work.
I’m on a similar page as Patrick on this.
Certainly, there is a need for services that cater to people who are going through a career transition. Whether Doorpodz has identified the specific painpoint most people are willing to pay for to overcome, I’m not sure.
There is already ample information about various careers online and if you’re interested, it’s not that difficult to get an information interview with people in areas you’re interested in exploring. Networking is not that hard in the age of social media.
As far as helping employers/recruiters, most people hire people whom they know, because we make people decisions based on how we feel about them, not data on page. I say this having been one of the few who got a job in the government, without having had a connection. I was the exception.
The rule was and still is that someone has to know you and vouch for you, and this is truer the higher up the proverbial ladder you go.
Perhaps something to think about going forward with your venture. GL!
Scott 6:09 pm on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Jenny, I found both your pitches well constructed and executed, resulting in a high likely hood that I might invest in your venture. Your relaxed and sincere delivery backed by in depth knowledge of your venture concept, make you a natural choice for CEO of DoorPodz. As noted by several of my colleagues, the venture concept has a great deal of strength and I particularly appreciate the details you were able to provide concerning the marketability and multiple revenue structures you outlined.
I small part of me is left wondering however, the degree to which your concept aligns specifically the with education market? This is an entirely irrelevant concern for your idea general, however considering we were to have our “EVA hats on” during this evaluation process, were I true to this criteria, I feel that your concept might fit better in the context of an employment business venture.
A second minor critique, relates to your ability to connect to the viewer, with respect to eye contact. I’m being nit-picky here, but since your pitches are already at such a high level and improving upon them is challenging, it’s worth mentioning that any future versions of your video pitches would benefit from the addition of an improved form of tele-prompting to aid in maintaining eye contact with the camera lens. Nearly everyone in our course faced this same challenge when recording their video pictures and your approach of reading from PowerPoint slides was was likely the most common solution. Simply finding a way to move your computer screen even closer to the camera lens, might help to solve this issue.
In the end, I am left feeling most impressed with your venture concept and your ability to communicate your ideas.