ServiSenior

The direct problem that we're addressing is the lack of job opportunities for people over 50, who are active in the workplace or who have already retired. People looking for a job either because they want to generate more income, to feel still active and useful, or both. Indirectly, we seek to reposition the figure of Seniors in today's society, where their role has been taking a secondary position and where public policies have dealt with it in a totally "assistentialist" way and not focusing on the great value and experience that they can still deliver.

Our platform allows Seniors to access a pool of potential clients that they can help out through their knowledge and experience, through a model based on the collaborative economy.

We've identified that this problem is relevant throughout the world, especially in Latam. Our platform allows for us to scale the solution globally.

The relevant indicators to measure the magnitude of the problem in Chile are: 

- Average pension: $209,981 

- Early retirement $330,761.

- Seniors' job search rate: According to the "4th quality of life in the old age" survey (PUC-Caja Los Andes), of Seniors who work, 69.2% would continue working despite not having a financial need.

- Years of retirement (life expectancy - average retirement age): 80.5 - 68.4 = 12.1 years.

Considering the information, it's clear that most people in Chile have the need to work after retirement, whether it be to generate additional income or to keep active.

In the world, there are many different realities. Countries with low pensions and weak social security systems suffer the same reality, unlike those that have solid pension, health and educational systems.

In Chile, Seniors (between 50-75) currently make up about 24% of the population, coming to represent more than 4.2 million people. By 2030, this same group will represent 28% of the population, that means 5.7 million people. 

According to the UN, between 2015 to 2030, there will be 500 million more people over 60 years (from 900 to 1.4 billion), thus indicating a global trend of strong aging.

ServiSenior is a web-app that connects services offered by Seniors, with any person or company that have a specific or permanent need. 

We do this through two models: 

1) C2C: A services marketplace offered by Seniors to solve problems that the user does not have the time and / or knowledge to solve (errands, care of people, private classes, cleaning, cooking, ironing, etc).

2) B2B - "ServiSenior Assistance": Personalized operational support platform for different industries and sectors that allows companies to standardizerecurrent tasks or services and outsource to our network of Seniors.

In both models, the user can either request a service to the first available Senior that matches the search criteria or can select from available Seniors (Uber and AirBnB models). We're incorporating machine learning to help the user choose the most ideal Senior considering past experiences, psychosocial test result, etc.

Although our focus was initially on retired people (+60 women and +65 men), we expanded the platform at +50 due to the high number of applications we had during the first year of operation (+ 60%), thus evidencing a non-visible problem in the labor market.

Through an impact assessment study that we made of our platform, the results were very powerful:

- 53% of Seniors indicated that the biggest impact of being a part of ServiSenior was the improvement in their self-esteem. 

- 81% indicated that they improved their overall connection to society.

- 86% indicated that their physical and mental health improved.

Our users in the C2C model are mainly upper and upper-middle class young professionals between 25 and 45, from urban areas, that have a high valuation for their free time and are accustomed to use online services and other apps.

Our users in the B2B model vary from industry to industry:

- Car insurance and car dealership industries.

- Schools.

- Elderly care and nursing companies.

- Companies with a big "Senior" user/client base.

The world is aging at an accelerated rate. Not only that, people are living in much better conditions thus allowing them to work better.

This will generate a great need for jobs oriented on Seniors, specially those in the retirement age. 

In LATAM, the necessity is even greater because of the flawed pension systems and the associated low pensions. The need to work is even greater (not only to stay active).

There is a great barrier for Seniors to find opportunities in the traditional market. This is why our model works, because it connects Seniors with real demands.

We want to reposition people over 50 as Seniors, people of experience, with wisdom and important values to share with society, through an online platform that allows them to offer any type of service and connects them with people or companies that need them. At the same time we promote their development and improve the quality of life of both. We look to be the company with the greatest impact on income and job creation for Seniors in Chile, Latin America and the workd, contributing to improve their quality of life. This project embraces a new, scalable, tech-based business model incorporating an age group that has been left out of society, especially by the labour market. At the same time, we look for market inefficiencies and help structure new services. This way, we develop both the demand and supply sides of the model. In 5 years time, we hope to achieve market penetration in most Latin American Markets and the US, helping thousands of Seniors generate additional income and feel reconnected with society. We hope to achieve this through a platform that not only generates new services but also connects with other existing platforms, organizations and companies.

As was mentioned previously, we've taken the best part of the collaborative economy and the technology behind it, to connect Seniors with anyone needing help to solve different problems. Going into more detail, we've been able to break the digital/technological barrier by being working with technology that Seniors are already accustomed to. To start, Seniors don't even need to download an app, all they have to do is register once by filling out the registration forms and sending the required documents. Once their profile is active, all the job opportunities that are relevant to their characteristics are sent directly to their email, with all the necessary information so that they can apply or reject the offer. To do this, they simply have to click on one of the two buttons, and will be redirected to their user in our platform. If they are awarded the service, they'll receive the clients info through a new email and in their dashboard. This has been a process of co-creation, incorporating more functionalities little by little. For the future, we look to hace the Senior app towards the end of this year. At the same time, we are also in the process of building a very robust platform that will connect with any existing internal or external platform, allowing businesses to integrate ServiSenior within their operations.

We've provided two demos to show how our platform works.

- The first is an example of how to request an elderly companion service (C2C model): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dpweJ22pRk

- The second is from our B2B Assistance platform, showing how a school administrator can request an on demand Senior substitute teacher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dpweJ22pRk

1) Problem we're trying to solve:

- Low job offer for seniors.

- Low flexibility in offers.

- Improve current position of seniors in the market
labor.

2) Activities:

- Servisenior platform (development, optimization and improvement).

- Alliances with stakeholders.

- Coordinate meetings to present our value proposition.

- Marketing and communications.

- Interviews with seniors.

- Detection of industry needs (trend of jobs in the labor market).

3) Product:

- Platform that links seniors with clients.

- Selection process optimization for Business.

- Recruitment and selection services (secondary scope).

4) Intermediate results:

- Flexible job opportunities for seniors.

- Reduction of time and costs for companies (clients).

5) Impact:

- Improvement in economic well-being (fair and equitable) and social of people over 50 years.

--> Indicators:

- Increase in the income of seniors.

- Average hourly pay compared to the market (fair and equitable wages).

- Survey before and after in the life of a senior (satisfaction form).

- Number of jobs/services connected with seniors.

- Community development / Repositioning of the Figure: Cost of acquisition by people and companies.

- % of recurrence of seniors in the platform.

- Current number of Seniors: 6,517

- Seniors in one year: +15,000

- Seniors in five years: +100,000

Our main goals for the next year are: 

1) Increase number of services (monthly): +10.000 B2B services, +2.500 C2C services. 

2) Open operations in two more LATAM market by dic 2020 (Uruguay and Peru/Mexico). 

3) Close Series A round by feb/mar 2021.

Our main goals for the next five years are: 

1) Operations in all LATAM markets, US and Europe (west). 

2) Connect more than 100,000 Seniors with job opportunities that generate proven impact in their lives.

3) Achieve self sustainable business model.

At the moment, the main challenges in the short term have to due with the Corona Virus epidemic and the economic crisis it's creating. Another main challenge is to position ourselves us the best solution for Seniors seeking job opportunities and not lose out to other platforms that don't focus their solution on Seniors, thus not contemplating their specific characteristics.

In five years, the main challenges will be to scale the solution to the rest of the world. With this comes huge challenges in building the necessary team, the legal structure and making the platform as robust as possible (meaning we integrate machine learning fully so the platform becomes a better solution for both Seniors and clients).

With regards to the current challenges from the Corona Virus Pandemic, we're refocusing efforts on the industries that are thriving: 

- deliveries for e-commerce.

- operational support for Municipalities and other public organizations (delivering food and medicine to the elderly).

- curbside pick-up services for supermarkets and small shops.

With regards to the challenge considering the positioning of our platform as the best alternative for Seniors, we're currently working on building a Senior loyalty program to improve the value proposition for them. This considers the following:

- health/accident insurance.

- civil responsibility insurance.

- training and workshops (finance/savings, use of technology, among others).

Finally, to approach the scaling related challenges, we're currently working with our Accelerator (Katapult Accelerator) to access the best mentors and experts to guide us through the process in the following issues:

- building the team (incorporating the best talent).

- defining the growth (commercial and marketing) strategy.

- implementing the best work methodolgies.

.

- 14 full-time staff (including 2 co-founders).

- 14 part-time staff.

We are two founders. Myself, Ignacio Hinojosa, and David Allendes. The project was born out of a simple conversation during dinner, where David mentioned how his dad was having trouble finding a more stable job, and how this had gotten worst since he passed the 50 year old "mark". 

Later, from the coffeeshop to the car he also mentioned some business ideas he had thought of, having Seniors do your banking errands (since there's always a Seniors at the bank) and also a ironing home service, since most people didn't have time to do it themselves, or hate doing it. From my background working at an accelarator (Chile Global Ventures), I immediately thought of the services marketplace model (TaskRabbit, Uber, etc) and that the service providers could be exclusively Seniors. That way we could help out both sides, one to solve their specific need and the other to increase job opportunities. We founded the company during 2016, starting out small and slow, since we were still validating many aspects of the project and both still working full time jobs. In 2017 I quit my job and started working on the project full time. David was working 3 days a week. As the months past and the project got a lot of exposure and interest, we were able to close a crowdfunding campaign of around US$ 200 K at the end of 2018, win the 2019 Chilean Social Innovation award, and have been recently selected by Katapult Social Impact Accelerator (Norway).

At the moment, our most relevant clientes/partners are:

- Banco de Chile (main Chilean bank), they're financing a Muncipality support program where we help them with the delivery of medecine and food for the elderly.

- Grupo Patio (mall constructor and administrator), we created a white label (Patio PickApp) for them to enable a curbside pick-up services for their small shops that are having trouble selling. This is part of a bigger project to convert these smaller shops to online selling.

- Caja Los Andes, we created a white label (Red de Cuidadores - "network of caregivers") for them that allows their Seniors to work and help out their other clients with elderly care and companion services.

Our company has two main business models: 

1) C2C platform: A marketplace of services offered by Seniors to solve problems that people don't have the time and/or knowledge to solve. For each connected service we charge a fee between 10%-30%.

2) B2B platform - "ServiSenior Assistance": Customized operational support platform for different industries and areas. The platform provides an automated solution for the operations and logistic areas of different markets, such as: Support for roadside assistance companies, assistance for Banking and Health industries, general services, among others. The logic? Connect solutions, tasks or assignments to third parties (Seniors) in different parts of the country just a few clicks away. All these services are provided by Seniors, helping them complement their income. Behind this is an online platforma that can be operated from anywhere and be available anywhere we hace registered Seniors, making it more simple to scale the solution to different markets. Through this model we charge a setup fee, a monthly maintanance fee and a fee for each service connected (between 10%-25%). 

Our strategy focuses on the SaaS (B2B) model, that includes a setup fee (depending on the type and variety of services the company needs), a monthly maintance fee and a pay-as-you-use fee for every service requested via the platform.

The focus is to be profitable and self sustainable with grants or donations, through sales.

Apart from the obvious benefits of receiving the grant, we look to access the expert help from Solve and it's MIT network as our model is still being improved and must be adapted slightly to every country, considering it's particular features. Most of our challenges have to do with defining the right strategy to grow, since we've passed the first stage of validation and product-market fit.

As mentioned previously, we look for expert guidance in building the best possible team, to be able to grow our solution internationally. To due this, we must also define the most adecuate strategy to scale. Accessing the great network of talent from MIT and Solver is key for our next steps.

The MIT Sloan faculty would be a great potential partner, considering their amazing experience in the development and formation of so many talented entrepreneurs and Start-Ups.

We feel that the challenges we're facing are very common among entrepreneurs who reach the next level, of a fully scaled solution (post Series A rounds).