VivaKit

Who it's for

University and gymnasium instructors in Denmark (and copycat jurisdictions adopting oral-defense mandates this semester); today they cope with Calendly + Zoom + re-reading every essay the night before and scribbling notes in Word, or lean on Turnitin, which only flags suspicion and runs no defense.

The problem

Time: 30 students x (prep + scheduling + 10-min call + write-up) is 8-12 hours per assignment per class. Legal: grades from oral defenses are appealable, so the institution must be able to prove what was asked and when, under GDPR — a Word doc on a laptop does not survive an appeal.

How to build it

Web app: PDF/DOCX essay upload -> per-student question cards (each question cites the paragraph it probes, with 'claims only the author can explain' follow-ups) -> public booking page for 10-min slots -> browser call room that starts recording only after an on-screen consent step -> one-click signed PDF minute (student, timestamp, questions asked, verdict) for the gradebook file. Danish and English UI.

How it makes money

Instructors pay EUR 149-249 per course per semester out of pocket (or departments EUR 3-8k/yr site-wide) because the workflow is legally non-optional and the appeal-proof documentation is the part they cannot improvise; free options (Calendly+Zoom) produce no paragraph-anchored cards and no signed minute, and Turnitin only says 'maybe AI' — it cannot run or document the defense.

Why it doesn't exist yet

Incumbents skip it: Turnitin's business is detection scores, not live verification, and LMS vendors big in Scandinavia (itslearning, Moodle partners) run 18-month roadmaps — a one-country mandate in a small language market never wins a sprint. The indie gap: the valuable parts are unglamorous localization — Danish-language UI, GDPR-compliant recording retention, and an appeal-proof minute format — none of which require scale, just speed, and the mandate hits this semester, not next roadmap.

First users

Danish instructors are already complaining in union newsletters, teacher Facebook groups, and Gymnasieskolen/Folkeskolen comment threads about how to run these defenses this fall; a Danish-language landing page posted in those channels with a free first-class tier converts 10 pilot instructors within weeks of semester start, before any procurement process exists.

Build size

2 people x 10 weeks. Included: essay parsing, question-card generation, slot booking, WebRTC call room with consent-gated recording, signed PDF minute export, da/en UI. Excluded: LMS gradebook sync, plagiarism detection, mobile apps, proctoring.

Biggest risk

itslearning or Turnitin bundles a native 'oral defense' module into contracts institutions already hold, announced before the spring 2027 semester — distribution beats the indie even with a worse product.

Conditions for a hit (all 3 required)

• Given a student essay (PDF/DOCX), the product outputs a per-student card of at least 5 questions, each visibly citing the paragraph number it probes — verifiable by uploading any sample essay.
• Each completed session produces a downloadable signed PDF minute containing student name, timestamp, the questions asked, and the verdict, without contacting support.
• Students self-book 10-minute slots on a public scheduling page, and the built-in browser call room records only after an on-screen consent step.

How it's judged (in 6 months)

Public customer list, case studies, or Danish education-press coverage (e.g., Gymnasieskolen, Folkeskolen, Uniavisen) showing >= 5 educational institutions using such a tool for live oral defenses by judge date, or a launch reaching Product Hunt daily top 5 whose description centers on oral-defense/verification sessions.(judgment date 2027-02-09)

AI self-confidence 40/100 — self-reported likelihood of meeting the criterion, not a business success rate