Reflection

Overall, the most important thing that I realized in reflecting on my venture pitch is that, while I am creating a business centred around VR technology, for my venture to be successful I am counting on VR technology not becoming a staple in education. I think that maintaining a sense of realism about the place VR is going to inhabit in the future of education has made my venture possible. Laptops and iPads have been technological staples in schools for well over a decade now, and yet most public schools still struggle to find funding to maintain a basic level of technology in their school building. This does not seem poised to change anytime soon, which makes VR becoming a staple in most schools completely out of reach, as it has fewer indispensable applications than both of those other technologies. This venture approaches VR as an engaging and desirable supplement to other educational methods, which would resonate with the majority of teachers, our main market.

I think that it was a well-reasoned venture pitch overall and felt that I priced out the venture quite well, to determine what kind of investment I would need and how profitable I could expect it to be over the course of 4 years. I also felt that I was able to make a strong case for how EduTrip VR fulfills a different role than its competitors, making it a practical and low-cost way to implement VR in schools.

In reflecting on feedback from my peers, some things that I would change about my venture pitch would be to reframe my “risks and competition” section in a more positive light for potential investors, especially as I think that this venture is unique enough that the existence of these other companies will not negatively impact it. I would also consider increasing profits by formatting lessons for teachers that allow for one headset to be used by two students during a VR experience, which would mean a substantially lower investment for the company and would mean that we could potentially change our pricing somewhat to make it even more affordable for schools.

Another thing that I learned about the venture as I pitched it is that it may need more “wow factor”, for lack of a better term. It was the only venture pitch in the class that was tied to tangible physical technology being provided, and was thus limited to a specific geographical area. This kind of technology is useful for students in metropolitan areas, but actually delivers even more benefit to students in rural settings. If I were actually to go forward with this venture I would want to look at how we could find a financially feasible way of successfully providing VR experiences to more rural locations. Taking the company in this direction might provide the venture with a unique sense of purpose that could motivate investors.