Project Catalyst

Helping companies strategically empower their workforce with personalized learning catalyzed from their current innovation pipeline.

Companies trying to cope with the pace of technology, AI and automation and up-skilling their workforce is a challenge increasing learning and HR organizations are trying to take on. Companies, like AT&T (invested $1 billion in a "Future Ready" initiative), are focused on training and online learning to help identify the need and up-skill their current/future workforce. The challenge, in our eyes, is not identifying where to find the learning, but identifying what's relevant to the individual worker to learn. Most companies and organizations are not able to invest such magnitudes of funds, let alone see a certain ROI on these efforts. Additionally, good programs must drive a more personal need - the extent to which each member of the human workforce feels they are contributing to the output of their company and feel motivated and productive to do so the best they can. We believe in an alternative solution to this problem. We believe the solution must come from within the fabric of the organization, rather through expenditures on content/expert led strategies. It must come from the thought process of the individual, the processes and teams he/she interacts with and the change that is facilitating the organization to succeed - today and in the future. With our AI-powered lightweight tool (Project Catalyst, chatbot), we help spark learning and thinking for individuals by 'listening' in on how processes, automation and AI at their company are helping solve day-to-day processes. By introducing a simple 'include' that technology teams (responsible for tech rollout in companies today) can plug-in, we believe our solution can foster a more organized thought process, creative journaling, and a culture of discovery that draws out each individual's niche area of affinity for knowledge. In the broader ecosystem of workplace learning, as vendors and learning content providers start using niche SaaS model, the onus is on the organizations to help their workforce identify their individual needs, with systemic change (rather than big changes + costly investments). In turn, the feedback from this model can be used to better advise which AI/Automation technologies are making the most impact (beyond the case for efficiency) for human good. For smaller organizations, this is much lower economic hurdle to cross versus deploying capital on umbrella learning programs and training initiatives. We believe democratizing our personalized catalyst for thought process is the key that will unlock how our workforce learns and up-skills themselves for a future we're all still defining. Let's empower the human layers of creativity, thought and learning to make them most adaptable!

This is a new technology solution in the Learning space that utilizes AI to understand patterns of how humans and machine (AI+Automation) collaborate - right from the fabric of their work organization. By shifting the onus of learning to the individual, we believe we can change the mechanics of how up-skilling is more about continuous awareness & adaptation, rather than a top-down prescription of a 120-minute web course.

We use a simple software plugin that Technology leaders will find akin to Google Analytics. This plugin adds/understands AI-driven context from machines/processes that interface into it, and subsequently allow humans to discover learning / journaling opportunities. At the core, we are using AI (NLP, Prediction modeling and Cognitive Search) to help humans better understand the impact of the machines in their work+life environment (AI/Automation).

1. Release prototype from testing/beta state (internal and closed pilots currently underway).
2. Onboarding tech leaders and HR organizations to invite & education their task force to use this technology.
3. Commercial partnerships with automation tools (like Microsoft Flow, Zapier and IFTTT) to facilitate growth, adoption and demonstrate user value.

Each individual that is exposed to their own "Internet-of-Machines" (Alexas, robots at work, and even AI tools) must be aware of how it impacts their learning. We wish to partner with leading tech companies that make these intelligent machines/solutions for others to use to standardized use of our Catalyst-plugin -- essentially drawing their human audiences with a signal that triggers strategic learning. If 3 billion people interface with the automations from the Googles, Apples and Facebooks of the world, they must be aware of how that affects them, and how they might need to adapt!

We target companies with Tech/HR Leaders that are have deployed / are currently deploying AI/Automation-based solutions (e.g. an Automated CRM, a collaboration platform, a hiring solution that makes automated decisions). 

The HR/tech leaders serve as a channel to rollout our chatbot to their audiences (their workforce - full-time & gig/part-time!), who in turn connect services that are in their periphery (like their CRM, etc.). 

The leaders also receive a self-install analytics plugin (CatalystJS) that sparks more nudges from processes not completely transparent to the workforce. 

Currently, we are testing our Chatbot/AI on a group of 132 pilot product managers who use automated CRMs, idea software and workflow automation tools (powered by Zapier). The product-manager population was acquired by reaching out to Product leaders (Heads of Product and CTOs) at small-medium digital product companies. Currently, they engage with the chatbot to get nudged on learning relevant to their day-to-day workflows (idea notes, workflow hooks from Zapier).

Demonstrate traction with the niche market we've seen to be effective with our closed beta (Product teams). We expect to focus on product-minded teams that deal with the innovation and have set workflows the rely on automation. We plan to capture 1 out of 10 product managers (10000) in our initial launch (12 months), and scale into that segment to reach a 30% market penetration in product-led learning (30000), while expanding our segment focus (broader learning targets at organizations). The network effect and enterprise-centric marketing strategy we employ is the key facilitator for this growth.

We are team of tech visionaries with human capital, learning and AI experience. Niraj Swami (a 30-Under-Thirty alum in learning industry, and a Chicago Booth Hons. Alum) also leads this project as a team in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition. With advisors from Oxford, Harvard and industry veterans who have seen learning be a human-machine collaboration, we feel very strong about our purpose, acumen and vision.

We charge the user a $5/month subscription to help understand their world of automation. For organizations, we plan to provide bulk pricing (scaled on # of employees); while for individual users, we provide a free-trial to demonstrate value and learning potential. We also provide services ($25000+) to help organizations embed our plugin.

Organizations participating in this initiative get a channel to provide a learning platform with network effects tied into their processes (Human-Machine network effects!). This sets up our solution for sustainable advantage. 

For individuals, our platform houses their personal learning journal and discovery - creating a switching cost that increases with usage, while staying personalized to them as they traverse different roles, jobs and companies!

We believe Solve can greatly help us invite other collaborators - tech leaders and organizational catalysts, who can help us educate our target market about the grand vision and drive early adoption at this stage of our company. on the path of catalytic learning.

Solve also opens up to the talented tech community of MIT, who might be able to assist in accelerating the technical acumen of the project.

Market education and customer development are key areas we feel we need advice, capital and mentorship for. Solve's array of mentorship, network of technologists/visionaries and the capital potential of helping meet our budget needs can be a tremendous boon. We are pumped about the Catalyst vision and fostering smarter human-machine collaboration - and invite collaborators who share our passion for taking an active role in shaping the future of work!