ISDE

Did you know that from the 1300 million youngsters in the world between the ages of 15 and 35 years old, only 38% are employed, and that 33% earn less than $100 per month? Moreover, due to automation and COVID-19 this percentage will very likely triple with time. This impacts negatively on their wellbeing, access to quality education, and contributes to other social, economical and environmental issues in the world. 

ISDE provides a solution to help stimulate local economies by equipping these youngsters with the knowledge and abilities to become entrepreneurs, and therefore, increase their work opportunities and income. Through an inclusive and intensive digital education platform it offers a step by step guide, in the form of virtual boot camps that include videos with visuals, voice, and subtitles, which makes it more accessible and effective to anyone wanting to start a business and don't know how to do it.

According to the International Labor Organization, there are more than 497 million people in the world between the ages of 15 and 35 years old, from whom, 167 million earn less than $3.33 per day. This is mostly due to a lack of experience and access to quality education, which makes it harder for youngsters to get a good job and have a decent income. Moreover, artificial intelligence, automation and more recently the crisis due to COVD-19 is threatening many of the current jobs, and a lot of these people will be forced to start their own businesses without having any formal knowledge on how to do it. This will in turn contribute to low income jobs and businesses that are only surviving with possibly waste of resources while they learn the ropes.   

If all these people had access to a digital, comprehensible and accessible guide on how to start, run and accelerate a business, their learning curve would be reduced and their skills would be increased, which would enable them to access to better jobs or start their own entrepreneurship faster and in turn create new job sources and employ at least one more person. 

ISDE is an inclusive, intensive and accessible digital education platform that aims to help stimulate local economies by equipping young and unemployed people to upskill their knowledge and abilities to become entrepreneurs and to access better job opportunities. This platform provides a step by step guide, in the form of digital boot camps which makes it intensive and pushes them to have a product at the end of the very first module. It consists on videos with visuals, voice and subtitles, quizzes, a project to complete, and a tutor to support them throughout the process, and it is designed to be completed within two weeks.  

It covers topics on tested methodologies, like lean startup that will shorten the learning curve and prevent the waste of resources by focusing on the client, the value proposition and using prototypes and validation principles, which are concepts that for instance, nowadays, in Latin America are not very much applied.

At the moment it is a wordpress website that will also collect data on user behaviour in order to improve the next stages, and has the possibility to apply REACTJS and Azure technology in the future.

It is targeted to the more than 167 million people between the ages of 15 and 35 years old that earn less than $100 a month, that have no time or resources to have a formal education, and want to start a business, improve their income, or have access to better job opportunities. 

Surveys with people working in the formal and informal sectors in Latin America, showed that a vast majority of them lack financial, sales, marketing and administrative knowledge, which makes it challenging to run a business efficiently. Some people run it by intuition, some only buy big quantities of a product and sale it without any structure or scalability because they have no other alternatives. 

They have expressed that if they had this knowledge they would be able to improve their businesses and generate more sales, which would translate into better revenue, and the possibility to at least double their income from $100 to $200/ month, gain access to better paid job opportunities, or even generate new sources of employment. This platform aims to build entrepreneur minded people in an accessible and effective way, so the vicious circle is reverted and generates better prepared people in the world.

It aligns to the Challenge: Good jobs & Inclusive entrepreneurship, as it is an agile and intensive course that takes advantage of new technologies and equips young and unemployed people with business and digital skills, that enables them to keep updated with technologies, so they can access better job opportunities, and increase their income, or to become entrepreneurs by shortening their learning curve and, generate more jobs. 

As it is a digital platform any person with internet can access it, and since the videos have visuals, subtitles and voice it makes it more accessible and understandable to more people. 

In the World and in Latin America, there are different learning platforms and courses online that teach how to start an entrepreneurship like EmprendeAprendiendo, Instituto de Emprendedores or NivelPAD. However, the vast majority of them are only videos of people talking about how to do it, without any further support. 

It is well known that people learn better when they do the things instead of only watching and hearing videos, when they apply the knowledge that they are learning and when they have someone that answers their questions. Therefore, our proposal offers different ways, like quizzes, tutoring sessions and a project to work on throughout the course, to ensure that the participants really interiorize the knowledge and that they finish the course with at least a Minimum Variable Product(MVP), in a very short period of time. This is what makes it intensive. Therefore, it reduces the learning curve and saves resources in an affordable digital platform, which also makes it accessible to a lot of people. It is also designed to be inclusive as, besides the voice, it has visuals and subtitles which makes it understandable to anyone without any previous business knowledge, including people with hearing disabilities. 

At the moment it uses very simple technology: it is a wordpress website with a learnpress plugin to review the quizzes and exams inserted. Each lesson has its own video with interactive visuals and subtitles which was produced with open source software. Learnpress will help us to collect data on user behaviour in order to improve the next stages. 

During the 2nd phase of the project and with the data compiled we would develop the platform hosted in Azure servers, and we will develop the web framework with REACTJS technology, by developing the necessary components to improve the user experience.    

The Prototype is developed in wordpress. As it is very simple technology almost all websites in the world are built using wordpress with different plugins

www.isdedigital.com

 ISDE focuses mostly on youngsters and unemployed people between the ages of 15 and 35 years old. According to data from international organizations like OCDE and ILO this is the moment to focus our efforts in the young sector, as they will be carrying the social economic development of their countries. In addition, only in Latin America region, 30 million youngsters (22%) don`t study or work, and according to CEPAL about 76 million youngsters start working between the ages of 15 to 29 years old which represents  50%  of this sector.  Data from BID says that one of the reasons why half of the population in Latin America end up working in the informal sector is due to the lack of opportunity to access formal knowledge and build capacities.

Therefore, we focus our theory of change in the fact that if they get an accessible way to build their knowledge and skills they will become more productive and boost their local economies in this way: 

• Activities 

Participants receive ongoing training and mentorship through the digital learning platform and bootcamp, they have access to resources and to mentoring sessions online. 

• Outputs

Participants start their own entrepreneurship to a point where they are operational, and improve their income and generate at least one more job position.  

• Short term outcomes

Entrepreneurs improve their income and create new job sources, so the unemployment rate decreases. 

• Long term outcomes 

 The local economies are boosted by the creation of productive businesses, skills acquisition and new job sources 

As we are in the early adopters stage  it serves about 100 people (20 to 25 people from Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico). We are aiming to grow at 20% per month so at the end of the first year we would have served 743 people, and in 5 years we would have generated 4.5 millions entrepreneurs. 

Our goal is that during the first year it reaches at least 9500 youngsters, and that it will help them to land a job, and at least double their income, as they will be improving their knowledge and skills on entrepreneurship, innovation and digital topics. This will be possible through digital bootcamps that in an intensive way will improve their knowledge and skills to jumpstart their entrepreneurships or enable them to access better opportunities. 

Since it is a digital platform the idea is to scale it to different countries in the world as it will have the option to be delivered in English and Spanish, so  more people can access it.  It is worth mentioning that it will also target the deaf community in a second stage by adding universal signal language to ensure that it is inclusive. 

The scaling will be done through marketing campaigns expanding country by country, in a structured way. We will start with Latin America, then USA, specially targeting the latin community, and then move to Africa and other parts of the world thay may benefit from it.  

Our ultimate goal is to boost local economies by providing the tools to unemployed or low income people to scale their businesses or create new ones and therefore, provide new income sources. 

Right now there is no full time staff on this project so it has been built out steadily but slowly. Therefore, to grow and increase users to a constant 20% per month, we need full time employers or freelancers and a good marketing campaign, for which, funding is needed. Another challenge right now is the legal and fiscal knowledge in order to make sure that we comply with the legislation and privacy data regulations in each country where we are intending to operate. 

To tackle the first challenge we are aiming to grow it organically and present the project to an investor in order to get seed investment in order to grow it and then escalate it exponentially with a second round of impact investment. To tackle the second barrier, we are intending to find legal and fiscal international expert advisors. 

Four people part time

Priscila Escudero is a Social entrepreneur, digital marketer, web analyser and designer, innate student and passionate about learning. Her mojo:"For the creation of a more inclusive and just world"

 Jose Sandino is a social entrepreneur, technology enthusiast, web developer and graphic designer, he has worked for 2 years in development. His mojo: "Developing the future for a society with better opportunities"

 Santiago Caicedo is a sales and entrepreneurship consultant that specializes in strengthening sales skills in people, and processes to approach producers to the market. He has more than 20 years working in the sales field for different sectors including private companies, universities and the United Nations.  He defines himself as a social entrepreneur and a tech and innovation enthusiast.   

Cynthia Arochi defines herself as a permanent student and an enthusiast for innovation and social causes. She is specialized in sustainable development, project management and social innovation entrepreneurship, with more than 14 years leading projects abroad in the fields of environmental conservation, and community development through experiential education. Her mojo: “Together we can achieve more” 

At the moment  we are working with El club de emprendedores de Argentina and the group called Junior Achievement in Nicaraguan, and with the organization Evolve Abroad from South Africa in order to participate in a joint course with international students. 

The 167 millions youngsters between the ages of 15 and 35 years old that are unemployed or earn less than $100/month (Segments) can improve their income by either starting an entrepreneurship or by gaining access to better job opportunities, and therefore, boost their local economies (Value proposition), through a digital product that offers an online learning platform and virtual bootcamps (Intervention).  

During the first year it aims to reach 743 people, and by the end of year five reach 4,5 millions people, with a 70% efficiency (Impact measures). 

Customers: 

1. Individuals: Generation Z and Millenials.  

2. Organizations or governments that promote entrepreneurship programs in order to achieve the SDGs, reduce informal or unemployment, who are willing to pay for scholarships to provide these skills and tools to their population 

Customer value proposition: It reduces the learning curve of any entrepreneurship. It also enables the governments and organizations to get closer to these entrepreneurs, as it can also be tailored to their specific objectives. 

Key activities & Resources: Creation of content and product, platform maintenance, marketing and partnerships, administrative support. Cloud services and technology, mentors and supporting team. 

Partners & key stakeholders: students, investors, organizations, governments, entrepreneurship associations, and advisors. 

Revenue: At the beginning 100% will come from the individuals, then it will be divided 90% individuals and 10% from institutions, and then stay at 80% - 20%.  

Any surplus will be reinvested 

Cost Structure: The highest cost percentage comes from marketing and wages. 

Right now it is in  bootstrapping and prototype phase, we are selling the product to potential entrepreneurs through memberships. During this phase, we are following the entrepreneur support business model in which we sell business support, and appropriate training for the entrepreneur is key to succeed. 

During the second phase it will add the organizational support business model in which it will be offered to organizations and governments to sponsor scholarships, and target low-income populations. 

In a third phase we will be looking to add an impact investment in order to grow it and escalate it and reach more countries.   

First we thought that it was a good opportunity to continue learning and develop our project. Then, as we got more involved it became evident that it was a great opportunity to create contacts and alliances, as well as a window to be able to reach more people. We truly believe that a good network boosts the impact of the projects. Finally but not least, we also realized that  it also helps to solidify our team from four different countries. 

We are urgently looking for advice on how to legally set up a digital worldwide organization, that operates in different countries. 

We are also looking for investors especially for Impact investment, and advice on this matter. 

We need a push on how to efficiently launch the product with a marketing campaign. Finally if there are any thechnologies out there that we don`t know that we could also. 

We don`t have anyone in particular in mind, any help would be very appreciated. 

We are very open to create short and long term partnerships with any organization and/or other solver working towards the same objectives.

The idea of creating this solution has always been to use the technology to bring knowledge closer to the people in order to better up their job opportunties and income. Our solution is thought to be intensive with a product at the end of the virtual boot camps, therefore to have a final result, shorten the learning curve of starting a new business and to be inclusive as it has graphs, subtitules and voice so people with hearing disabilities can use it, young people that is studying but want to start a business, and people with no university degrees.

The prize would be used to develop the web, improve content and processes with the posibility to automate processes, as well as marketing campaigns. 

The idea of creating this solution has always been to use the technology to bring knowledge closer to the people in order to better up their job opportunties and income. Our solution is thought to be intensive with a product at the end of the virtual boot camps, therefore to have a final result, shorten the learning curve of starting a new business and to be inclusive as it has graphs, subtitules and voice so people with hearing disabilities can use it, young people that is studying but want to start a business, and people with no university degrees.

The prize would be used to develop the web, improve content and processes with the posibility to automate processes, as well as marketing campaigns to bring this solution to more people.