The RebelBase Platform

Today, people everywhere face the challenge of replacing failing systems with ones that meet our needs. Yet schools and workplaces still reward "correct" answers to yesterday's questions, while only a narrow population gets the chance to build experience in innovation. Imagine if, instead, we had a scalable way to equip students and working people to learn by doing as they tackle messy problems, work with diverse teams to test real-world solutions, and make the case to key partners.

RebelBase makes it plug-and-pay for any school or organization to enable students and employees to launch practical experiments and collaborate to make them real. We drew on a decade working with schools and communities, and built what we learned into the platform’s interactive modules, collaboration engine, and streamlined tools for instructors and facilitators. The result: an accessible SaaS platform that transforms outcomes for students and organizations. RebelBase. Launch a Different World.

Most graduates lack the skills to thrive as industries shift. A recent survey of 5,000+ global executives in over 48 countries found that today’s employers demand skills like flexibility, time management and collaboration. Growth sectors in particular require skills like “critical thinking, complex problem solving, teamwork, and the ability to work under uncertain conditions,” CUNY’s Stan Altman notes.  After the present pandemic, this need will likely intensify, as more and more industries will need to change their models to survive, and huge shifts, from decarbonization to remote work, rock the economy. 

 To fill the gap, education and industry have turned increasingly to project-based learning and entrepreneurial problem solving. U.S. colleges alone launched 2,000+ new e-ship programs since 1990. In the workplace, from 2010-2015, the share of industry leading firms with incubators and accelerators went from 2% to  44%; those with innovation labs went from 5% to 20%. But schools and companies lack a modern platform to power their programs and ensure that they build the requisite skills. Today’s MOOCs and LMSs nail everything but experiential learning, while Innovation Management Platforms are great for those who already know how to innovate.

RebelBase powers programs to make the leap and equips educators with the tools to enable students to solve today’s problems. It provides a structured experiential learning tool that breaks down launching a new solution into simple steps, with interactive guidance, so users learn as they build. It also supports live project collaboration, so students learn to work on diverse teams, with feedback from instructors and peers. Educators can guide experiential learning, manage sessions and turn-ins, and score results. It is the first Innovation Learning System (ILS) that enables learning by doing.

RebelBase powers project-based learning and entrepreneurial ecosystems for universities and beyond.  It combines an interactive textbook for entrepreneurship, a platform for building and evaluating entrepreneurial projects, and an engine for collaboration between teams, facilitators, and innovation ecosystems.

Even in this early stage, entrepreneurial “rebels” in diverse schools and communities use our platform to find their powers to replace failing and obsolete systems. We encounter our users through schools, community programs, and employers. For example, in 2019, the Bard MBA in Sustainability partnered with RebelBase to host the first global Disrupt to Sustain competition. Entrepreneurs from Mexico to Zimbabwe participated through partner universities and incubators, and an expanded program will take place in the fall of 2020. On the employer side, please see the documentary trailer at https://www.a-ray.tv/work-in-progress, which tells the story of a Brooklyn social enterprise accelerator conducted via the platform). Each season we survey a growing pool of users to assess whether they are developing the hard skills, soft skills, and mindset to identify failing systems, prototype, test, build diverse teams, pitch, etc. We also learn a great deal through how users employ the platform to pursue their passions through the projects they “publish” here. We are currently expanding our analytics of opt-in data on everything from how “rebels” interact with mentors and peers to how many times they iterate a solution.

At schools like CUNY and employers like RiseBoro, RebelBase users reported significant jumps in durable skills and confidence using a digital technology platform to build new solutions. 80% of users surveyed reported increases in critical thinking, pivoting and refining ideas, tackling difficult problems, identifying opportunities to effect change, and innovation and creativity. 80% said they learned to use interactive digital tools to try out ideas and learn from others, and 82%, to refine and make the case for ideas. 84% said that using RebelBase increased their confidence to launch a new solution.