External Pitching

The internal pitching event was exciting. A lot more exciting than the external pitching event, in my opinion, though the addition of a bunch of external pitches to the list might have something to do with it.

Here are some of my thoughts on the different projects pitched:

Jublia

People go to events for two reasons: Content and Context, and Jublia’s main business is the latter – in business matchmaking at events with realtime data analytics. The project they propose, however, belongs to the former. They want to rethink Content, in the form of event agendas, making them interactive and personal, and bringing their data analytics approach to them as well.

Obviously, this will necessitate putting them on a digital platform rather than a dead-tree one. They want to build something like NUSMods, but for Events, so you can pick the sessions and tracks you’d like to attend, and arrange them to create your own personal agenda. This also means that organizers will be able to anticipate the demand for various sessions well in advance, make any necessary provisions (bigger venue, more seats, etc.), and push out notices with any changes.

Sounds pretty interesting, actually. Wouldn’t mind working on this. Probably would implement this as a progressive web app a la Assignment 3, so users can easily access all the information without having to download an app, but also get offline functionality out of it. Periodic JSON requests would also allow the data to be updated.

AppKyo

AppKyo’s founder claims to have hacked the app together over a weekend. It’s a minimum viable product, allowing users to sign up for two (I forget which two) SaaS services. It markets itself as a sort of “Steam for SaaS”, where companies that don’t have IT departments can easily purchase various SaaS-es, and the application will automatically set up the services for the companies.

There’s also a recommendations feature, I’m guessing just as sort of a category thing.

It’s somewhat interesting, though I doubt very feasible for a final project. I imagine making the whole “setup automatically” thing is going to be a huge pain, since a lot of sites might not even have an API for setup (since they expect a human to be doing the setup). Still, could be interesting to see someone try although it doesn’t excite me personally.

Jaedye

Jaedye is a coach for your mind. It provides something along the lines of Executive coaching / positive psychology, but without having to engage someone full-time to do it. It’s apparently targeted at people with SADA (stress, anxiety, depression, anxiety) – not really the target market for Executive Coaching.

The specific mechanism seems to be a sort of matchmaking, where people in need of coaching can seek out professionals in demand, sort of like an Uber for coaching. The goal, of course, is to make coaching more accessible and affordable, and less stigmatized. A noble goal I’m sure, though I’m unsure this is the way to go about it.

Internal pitches

NUShare and LMK

My own pitches! Basically my Assignment 1 and 3 ideas. I think NUShare has a place, (sharestuff.online is a pretty sweet domain if I do say so myself). It was the app idea that I wrote in my application for CS3216, and I do feel that there’s a need for it (though my execution for Assignment 1 was subpar).

Anonymous Facebook Chat

This pitch by Zhu Liang was interesting (obviously incorporating many features of this MIT Paper, though I’m still quite doubtful of the reasons behind this app.

I mean..it’s pretty clear that the main “pain” point is in confessing to people you’re interested in, and that’s not really something that I support or can get behind. I find the whole “confessing” thing to be a very Asian thing: that you associate unreciprocated attraction to someone with “losing face”. In other countries, you simply asked someone you liked on a date, and if they said no you just got on with your life. You didn’t have to be friends with someone for a long time, develop feelings, and then confess them in some grand ceremony. So I guess I’m personally against the idea of this app because it serves to perpetuate a particular cowardly mindset that I wasn’t fond of.

Also, it has great potential to be a platform for cyberbullying. Just take a look at Ask.fm.