3 thoughts on “Learning Unlimited”

  1. dave says:

    NO, I would not invest in this venture. I am going to individually address each of the four pitch criteria individually. I will admit this is my first time doing any such activity, I apologize if I completely missed the mark in any area.

    CEO & Team
    Other than the first introduction of himself as the CEO, there is never any mention of any other team members. I am particularly sketchy as to what exactly his interest is here, or what his original background was that led him to this venture. Another aspect that worries me is that all the university students are volunteers, it would seem to me that would bring with it less accountability.

    Venture concept
    I do commend the CEO on wanting to make more connections between university/college students and high school students. I know quite a few universities in Canada already have programs like this and to be honest, I cannot see a reason this would need to be done on a larger scale. I think it could be managed locally and there is no need for Learning Unlimited.

    Marketability
    The market size is quite substantial, basically the whole of North America, anywhere there are universities/colleges. I am unclear of the revenue to be generated with this product, I got the impression it was being done as a volunteer project, unless the students are paying a fee to take part in the courses. If the students are paying for it then again I must raise the accountability of having volunteer university students, especially if they know someone else is making money off of their services. To me their competitive edge rests solely on the expertise of their volunteers, which again is a questionable aspect for me.

    Venture Plan
    Not sure how realistic their plan is to have this program running in over 50 universities/colleges across the US within five years. How are they contacting these universities, it would take time and man power to infiltrate a university. First, they would need to find an interested person within the administration of the school to help them find the appropriate space and students to teach. Once they have found enough qualified volunteers, they would then need to somehow advertise around the local area. Again, all of these aspects require a significant amount of time and actual people on the ground. I question that it would be that easy to find people that would contribute the time required as a volunteer.

    If I had money to throw at a volunteer type organization, I am afraid this would not be it. Perhaps suggesting to this gentleman that he create a “volunteer teaching program” as some sort of package that could be distributed to all universities, relying on interest at the other end and dedicated volunteers to emerge might seem like a more viable operation. To be honest, while the goals are admirable, there is simply no need for a company such as this.

    Cheers,

  2. Thanks for this analysis, Dave. I think you’ve take a Dragon’s approach to trying to find the value proposition and as a result what you’ve surfaced is largely a volunteer organization scheme that is admirable, but is not a business, as such. Many of these sorts of businesses rely on donations to remain viable, and I expect that may be the primary revenue source for this one.

    If you take a look at http://learningu.org you’ll see the information there has a pitch for donors and a web site to collect revenue. This may be an intrapreneurial scheme, and most such schemes require a sustainability plan to be viable beyond the initial start-up.

  3. Rocky Lam says:

    I would also not invest in this venture. Like you said, there are already programs out there that serve a similar purpose. I actually worked with the Learning Strategies Team, and they collected volunteers around the campus to do exactly what this venture sets out to do – bridging high school students onto university campuses. Perhaps if he wanted to streamline the program for all the different university – but again – they use volunteers and voluntary spaces from the university – so I can only assume that this would be a non-profit organisation?

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