Quatro Solutions at 1 Million Cups Orlando

Quatro Solutions (see their business pitch here) is a start-up company that created a tablet and resources for educational purposes.  Their bet is to help schools implement a full digital curriculum for their students in each course, turning paper into digital content. Quatro Solutions manufactures the actual device, built on Android platform, and have several partnerships and resources built into their services to allow schools to efficiently transition from paper to digital.

Although they cannot take a teacher’s content and turn it into digital, they are able to provide teachers with the tools to include their worksheets and texts by simply turning them into a .pdf file. They also provide schools with teacher training for the use of the tablets, and fully compatible information in case the school decides to change tablets for the following years.

With all this great features their tablets also cost a fraction of what their competitor’s devices, at around $300.00 per device. They also charge some extra fees if the school is in need of extra help such as training or insurance for the tablets, to help elongate their lifespan.

Although they provide a great service, one weakness that I find with Quatro Solutions is the fact that they are not very well known, because they are just starting; their first tablets were sold on April 2013. With giants like Apple and Samsung in their same line of business, they are going to have to do an outstanding job with their technology and service, in order to establish themselves in the market. One strength that I find is the fact that they want to sell exclusively to institutions, which spares them to go into the retail sale market, which is a lot different to the model they have been using until now. Also, their tests have proven successful in increasing the understanding of the students while using their tablets.

For the presentation itself, I would say that you should never start by apologizing because your presentation may not be as prepared as you would like, even if you found out on Monday that you had to pitch your business on Wednesday. I would also tell the presenter to slow down and enunciate, to avoid losing his train of thought and using pet phrases too often, or simply getting his words wrong. As for the business, I think hey should focus their differentiating factor on their services and partnerships, and not focusing so much on their price. Price is a very fluctuating item and nothing stops their competitors to possibly come out with great products of the same price and from a better-known brand. That is why I believe that it is those other factors that should be used as they main strengths.