Final Reflective Thoughts:

I've thought about Yuja from time to time over the past few years because I was really impressed by a demo I attended a few years ago. However, I've yet to convince anyone else of the value, which is partially what motivated me to revisit it for this assignment.

It was challenging to look at this product objectively and summon my inner "EVA skeptic".

One of the most important things I learned for my upcoming 'Venture Pitch' is the critical importance market status. According to testimonials, Yuja appears to be a well designed, robust lecture capture video solution, and yet they are relatively unknown to the average educator I've encountered. My hypothesis is that this may partially be explained by the massive competition and confusion in this market space, which must make it incredibly challenging to demonstrate original value to the customer. It has also made me consider the business strategy of selling a "premium product" to fewer customers vs. a lower cost product to many customers. As a passionate educator, it is difficult for me to reconcile the idea that only big organizations (who can afford it) are served by particular technology solution; and as an EVA this business strategy erodes my confidence that the company's growth will continue to be aligned with the best interests of education. I acknowledge that this is likely my personal bias, but it also makes me consider that this bias may be more prevalent in the education space, and its effect will have to be carefully considered when I craft my own venture pitch.

Overall, this assignment has made me realize that there are many spaces for skepticism to creep in to any venture (even an already proven and successful one!) and a successful pitch will require looking at an idea honestly, from all possible angles and figuring our how to highlight the most opportunistic, to the correct audience.

Thank you,

Sally Bourque