PeopleShores PBC Pathways

PeopleShores aims to solve deep-rooted bias and challenge conventional thinking in society and industry around underserved populations in the USA especially minority communities:

• Conventional wisdom presumes that under-educated and under-resourced people in marginalized communities can only perform low skill jobs, resulting in economic and social poverty
• Conventional notions suggest many technology jobs require a college degree, resulting in higher job vacancies in Corporate America or job loss through offshoring
• The conventional model is to lure trained workforce to jobs which are mostly in high-density, high-cost metropolis, resulting in broken familial/support systems 

PeopleShores challenges and disrupts conventional assumptions by creating digital operation centers inside these communities and deliver managed services to corporate America.

PeopleShores created two such centers so far and provided training and jobs to nearly 150 minority young adults. The plan is to scale to 100 centers nationwide and provide career pathways to more than 20,000 disadvantaged.

Of the approximate 32 million American youth without college educations, 4.6 million are between 18 and 24 years (Opportunity Youth, as characterized by Aspen Institute); the rest are young adults between 25 and 34 years. With rapid integration of technology in life and industry, they are increasingly left behind the curve in the capacity to be productive. The lifetime direct cost to taxpayers of one unemployed 20-year old is $235,680 (The Economic Value of OY). A majority of these under-educated are Blacks or Hispanics living in underserved or marginalized communities.

This under-educated population is increasing primarily due to financial unaffordability of college education and the misalignment of skills taught at high school with the new service economy. However, they possess enormous untapped talent and potential if we choose to invest in them. 

At the same time, according to a recent WSJ report, there are nearly 910,000 unfilled technology jobs due to lack of readily available skills. Often these jobs are either sent overseas or are staffed with foreign workers. 

PeopleShores is committed to solving this paradox by leveraging business demand to transform aspiring under-educated youth into technology professionals thus elevating society with opportunity and not charity.

PeopleShores’ mission is to empower under-educated youth in the USA with digital skills and technology careers and thereby elevate the entire community. We establish onshore Digital Operation Centers in underserved areas, especially minority communities in the USA to:

• Invest in under-educated youth with a comprehensive paid training program and subsequently onboard them as process associates (full-time employment with benefits). The skills provided include Robotics Process Automation (RPA), Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Customer Services, and Help Desk and Business Process Support.
• Enable these employees to deliver high-quality services to corporations in the areas of Digital Transformation and Technology Enablement.
• Generate revenue by charging the companies a fee for the services provided and reinvest profits to scale the operation.

Our long-term vision is to establish 100 centers in marginalized communities throughout the US and provide career opportunities for 20,000 underserved youth, creating an additional 60,000 indirect jobs (with local multiplier effect of 3) and impacting 240,000 families with sustainable livelihood, while also generating waves of inspiration, awareness, and interest across communities.

PeopleShores focuses on under-educated and disadvantaged youth in inner cities and distressed rural communities who have been disconnected from employment due to poverty, disability, racial, or social discrimination.

In order to gain an understanding of the needs and challenges at each location we operate, we forge partnerships with local social service agencies, community colleges, and workforce development centers who strive to improve the lives of the target youths through stability support and/or career readiness. These community partners enlighten us with local knowledge and assist us in the recruiting process. Such community engagement and sense of ownership from the concept through to the operational state helps the community overcome historical, structural barriers and energizes the widest number of people. 

For instance, in Clarksdale, MS, we partnered with the Economic Development Authority, Coahoma Community College, State Win Job Center, and the Mississippi Development Authority. In Pine Bluff, Arkansas, we are partnering with Jefferson Community College, University of Arkansas and North-East Workforce Development Board.

With our commitment to grow these and other centers, we will not only impact positively the lives of our employees and their families but also will elevate entire communities.  

PeopleShores provides not only high-quality paid training, but also fulltime jobs in its Digital Operation Centers - a tangible and scalable solution that creates a lasting positive impact and equitable opportunities. Its vision of creating a model for systemic improvement allows people to stay in their local environment, support their families and community, become a role-model and then inspire the next generation. By providing transformative competencies and careers in their own communities, their lives are transformed and whole communities lifted.

We also implement competency-based models for life-long learning that leads to growth in their career pathways.

Executive team (7):

     Executive Chairman & Founder,

     Chief Executive Officer

     CFO

     Business Development Manager 

     HR Manager

     Manager, Community Partnerships & Social Impact

     Manager, Service Delivery 

Full Time Staff & Associates: 

• Clarksdale, MS:
  • Full-time Employees: 52 (90% Minorities)
  • Full-time Contractors: 40 (90% Minorities)

• San Jose, CA: 8

PeopleShores is in business to create opportunities for the underprivileged Young adults, especially minority population. For each job that’s created in a community, approximately 3 other jobs are created. We’ve so far impacted more than 100 people in Clarksdale, helping their community with 250+ new jobs.  As we mostly hire from marginalized groups in the Clarksdale location, our impact reaches even further, touching the often forgotten groups in our community. In Clarksdale approximately 70% of our employees are women and 90% are people of color. Our new center in Pine Bluff has a similar ratio. In total, our workforce primarily consists of minorities, homeless, autistic spectrum, destitute women, veterans and economically challenged people. 

Our approach is to bring digital jobs closer to the communities dominated by socially or economically challenged populace. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core tenents of our organization model and social commitment. 

The uniqueness of PeopleShores’ model is bringing hi-tech jobs within access of under-educated youth by establishing digital operation centers in their own communities. We achieve this by two innovative strategies: Regional Ecosystem Model and Employee Engagement System.

PeopleShores has developed an innovative Ecosystem Engagement Framework to engage regional stakeholders who assist us in understanding and addressing local nuances. Since stakeholder may have different motives, we align them to the higher purpose of elevating their community and to the idea of creating 200+ technology jobs in their community. This framework drives buy in, support, and commitments from each stakeholder.

For instance, our Mississippi center eco-system comprises of:

• Local Government (Clarksdale City, Chamber of Commerce, Coahoma County)
• Training Support Agencies (WinJob Center, Skill Tech Center, SDP Workforce)
• Community (Individuals, Non-Profits, Churches)
• Academic Institutions: (Community College, Delta State University)
• State Government (MS Development Authority, MS Employment Security)
• Technology Partners (Automation Anywhere, UiPath, Qlik)
• Business Partners (HORNE LLP, EY)

The innovation is also in our employee engagement and development system which trains, supports, and nurtures our employees. Customizing through an empathetic understanding of individual constraints is an important component. For example, Neuro-diverse individuals may need more time on soft skills development and less on digital skills training. Trainees limited by their academic journeys might need extra basic tech skills training. Another aspect is using existing staff to coach and train new recruits. This way, they are fully engaged as role models and have a vested interest in getting new employees to succeed.

We establish Digital Operation Centers in under-privileged communities where we employ and train young adults in digital transformation initiatives such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI, Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Cyber Security and core business processes. These trained folks deliver high-quality managed services in the areas of Digital Transformation and Technology Enabled services to Corporate America. Our approach is to partner with technology platform providers as a ‘front-end’ approach for increasing productivity and providing lower costs and value to clients. By partnering with technology companies, we can build the knowledge, credibility and capabilities of our associates. This then builds the foundation for expanded services and value to fuel our business relationships and create a long-term, sustainable career path for people.

To compliment our technology enabled business services the company offers two business models. One is a direct, company to client approach with dedicated teams that are trained on a client company’s processes, business culture and business objectives so they can relate and align services for impact. PeopleShores other business model is a business partner approach. In this scenario we offer a ‘workforce colocation (co-lo) model similar to the same approach used by infrastructure and technical service companies. Service providers are able be a part of impact sourcing and leverage PeopleShores singular focus to recruit, hire and train disadvantaged or disenfranchised talent in areas that these companies would typically not recruit or build centers.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a widely accepted model. However, Impact Sourcing (socially responsible outsourcing) is fairly a new concept which started capturing the attention of large companies. Some Fortune 500 companies have already started allocating a portion of thier outsourcing to impact sourcing service providers like PeopleShores. For instance, Google, Microsoft and Facebook have earmarked 10% of their total outsourcing to Impact Sourcing. 

PeopleShores progenitor, RuralShores in India, is a pioneer of this impact sourcing model. It was founded in 2008 by the same founder of PeopleShores, Murali Vullaganti, with the idea of creating employment opportunities for rural youth by setting up technology and BPO centers in rural communities in India. Today, this model is scaled to 13 centers with more than 3000 rural youth on its payroll. But in the last 10 years, nearly 11,000 people in the economically challenged rural communities were employees of RuralShores somepoint in time and now climbed the career pathways ladder working for larger companies in the management roles. 

The following video provides highlights of this successful model:

RuralShores has leading global brands as its customers whose business processes are being managed from its rural centers. These include FedEX, Bayer, Amazon, Dupont/FMC, Accenture, EY, Walmart/Flipkart and HDFC Life. RuralShores continues to expand its operations.

PeopleShores's aim is to replicate the success of RuralShores in the US impacting positively thousands of lives of minority communities in both distressed rural communities and inner cities. The successful Clarksdale MS model can be replicated throughout the country.

Lack of opportunity for the underemployed leads to poverty, lack of self-esteem, and societal issues.  According to the International Labor Organization, "Nothing is more fundamental to poverty reduction than employment." It then argues vigorously for "decent" employment -- work that offers people a good income, security, flexibility, protection, and a voice on the job. 

Our Theory of Change is based on three pathways:

• Identify change agents in industry and society who can help change mindsets,
• Build tangible solutions in one under-represented region that can be scaled globally, and
• Engage and develop broader ecosystem in the region to sustain this change.

The decade-long execution on this approach in India (RuralShores) is a proven success and documented in case studies by Everest Group (in Collaboration with Rockefeller Foundation), Harvard School of Business and Saïd Business School of Oxford University. With our approach we focus on both short-term and long-term outcome for the community.

Short term outcomes include:

• A workforce that can address the needs of corporate America
• An elevated financial environment for employees and their families
• A journey to alter the socio-economic conditions of under-privileged locations

Long-term outcomes include:

• Self-determined career pathways for those who didn’t have one
• Improved quality of life for not just employees and the family but the community where they live
• Increased tax base for local city/county enabling investment in needed services

Our planned activities are centered on three principles of change and focus on desired outcomes:

• Engage with civic and government organizations to assess efficacy of our model for the designated location
• Encourage corporate America to outsource their work, knowing that the output will be competitive to meet their requirements
• Recruit and train employees who may have never imagined a work life of white-collar work

Our business model is crafted to yield economic profits while simultaneously fulfilling the social mission of elevating an under-privileged community.

One-year Goals:

• Scale existing technology centers and create new centers in two more minority communities. This will create transformational technology careers to 500 young adults, provide sustainable livelihood for 500 families, and make a difference in four marginalized communities.
• Potential locations identified include Detroit MI and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Five-year Goals:

• Create additional 20 technology centers in the interiors and innercities of the country. Create an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs to take Center Head roles, develop each center and demonstrate commitment to their region. 
• Having gained experience, learnt business principles, and acquired leadership qualities, some of the employees of today will be groomed to lead new centers.
• The impact on the communities include 12,000+ indirect jobs and significantly stimulated economic activity. 4,000+ direct jobs will also save Government/tax-payers approximately $1 Billion.
• Delighted by the quality of service delivered by the dedicated associates, our 25+ marquee customers grow to be loyal and referenceable.  PeopleShores will establish leadership in the digital transformation services marketspace.
• Financially, PeopleShores will achieve self-sufficiency to fund the growth and expansion on its own. This will also lay the foundation for PeopleShores to realize its vision of creating 1,000 such centers around the world and help one million families to lift out of generational poverty. 

The primary barrier that exist today is the mindset of the stakeholders in our ecosystem. From prospective employees who lack confidence, to community members who underestimate the talent, to Government officials who feel that Silicon Valley skills and jobs are a farfetched idea for their region, to academic institutions who feel that a computer science degree is the ticket to get a hi-tech job - they all think that their workforce doesn’t have the ability to learn and deliver technology services to Corporate America. Changing this perception requires profound persuasion and perseverance.

Another challenge is convincing prospective customers in PeopleShores’ ability to manage their processes through our associates with reliable service governance structure. To scale and sustain the model, it is vital that Corporate America recognize the socio-economic value of Impact Sourcing and support the initiative by outsourcing their process work.

To bring hi-tech skills and jobs to the target communities, PeopleShores continuously needs to stay on top of the latest developments in the digital transformation. This requires investing in subject matter expertise and pursuing leading technology platform companies for partnerships.

Another challenge is reliable availability of high-speed fiber-optic network connectivity in rural communities . It is critical that we have access to reliable networks at each center location to connect with our customers.

Given that PeopleShores invests heavily in employee development (training & nurturing), the runway to profitability is longer than a typical pure commercial Outsourcing company. This is a common challenge for social enterprises.

Mindset barrier: Identify an external catalyst in that community aligned with PeopleShores’ mission and an internal champion who can build and run the Technology center.

For example, the external catalyst for Clarksdale center is Jon Levingston the local economic developer whose aim is to bring jobs. His due diligence of PeopleShores and leadership included visits to San Jose center and RuralShores (India) to assess its effectiveness on rural communities. Once convinced, he took up on himself to rally other stakeholders.  Internal champion was Murali Vullaganti who demonstrated commitment to purpose+community by relocating  to Clarksdale and built local relationships. Murali also worked with clients and other stakeholders in the ecosystem. We need to create a Catalyst and a Champion at each center.

Customer challenge will be overcome by showcasing current customer processes, providing references and organizing site visits to interact with the team and learn capabilities. The fact that RuralShores today manages 100+ complex processes for nearly 25 high-profile international customers is a testimony to the model.

Growth capital requirement will be met initially by raising equity  and subsequently through internal accruals.

Lastly, PeopleShores has a passionate, committed, and experienced leadership team with entrepreneurial and innovative zeal. We will craft a talent development model to identify and develop a catalyst and champion i.e. Center Head in each region to run these new Technology Centers in their region.

Since the primary purpose of PeopleShores is to change the lives of individuals, their families and their communities, only time will deliver the ultimate scorecard. The data we ultimately want to collect is the impact and results of how a professional career path opened doors, enabled someone to become a leader, changed the view that a child might have of a parent, and how experience and confidence changed the course of someone’s life and the lives of others. PeopleShores is confident that the right things are being done and the mission is being validated everyday we go to work and hire another person.            

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There are rare situations when the right team is at the right place at the right time to achieve a purpose-filled mission that no matter the odds and challenges, can only be successful. This is PeopleShores.

The team’s individual skills and experiences are balanced, complimentary and come together as the many pieces needed to make the best whole. This is all then fueled by a common motivation centered around the ‘Business of Life’ instead of the typical ‘Life of Business’.

Simply put, the solution is to change the lives of disadvantaged people by creating technology-based career opportunities that in turn uplift families and transform whole communities. The ironic situation is that we have already seen the future and know that the solution works. One person today like Sharlette becoming a Process Supervisor or Spencer developing Robotic Process Automation BOTS instead of working in fast food or Marquisha being home at night with her young son instead of being an overnight worker at a department store validates success for PeopleShores. The only issue now is replicating the model to become a force multiplier.

The world has changed in the last decade and more jobs have been created outside of the United States. The disadvantaged including minorities have suffered, and the time is ‘now’ to create new hope that drives a new trend – jobs across America. PeopleShores is the right solution at the right time and its leadership team has the experience, expertise and emotional connect to make it happen.

Community Stakeholders:

They help us understand local challenges and provide needed support to address them. They vary by location/center.

Today, these stakeholders include Goodwill Neuro-diversity Pathways, Pivotal, Catholic Charities, City of Clarksdale, Coahoma County, Chamber of Commerce, EDA, WinJob Center, Coahoma Community College and Mississippi Development Authority (Clarksdale).

Technology Platform Providers:

To become an Impact Sourcing leader in Digital Transformation services, it is critical that we collaborate with world leading technology companies to gain expertise and access to their customer base. For these partners, PeopleShores fulfills their capacity building and social responsibility goals. 

Our current partners include Automation Anywhere and UiPath (Robotics Process Automation), Qlik (Data Analytics) and Huddl (Collaborative AI).

Business Alliances:

These alliances enable us to deliver augmented services to end customers. These organizations sometimes sub-source their client’s work to us and sometimes enlist us for a joint bid. They use our partnership to demonstrate their commitment for Impact Sourcing to their clients and investors. For us, they act us another business development channel.

Today, we have partnerships with Accenture, Cognizant, Q Analysts, Horne LLC, EY and KPMG.

We continue to expand this network of partners.

Impact Investors/Grantees:

To fulfill our capital requirements, we partner with a number of investors and Grantees. To-date, we raised equity investments from two organizations, an LLC and a foundation, and several grant funds from state/federal agencies.

Although PeopleShores’ vision is grounded on creating impact in the community we serve, our business model is similar to that of any profit-making business process outsourcing company. We strongly believe that a viable, profitable business generates greater impact in society through higher employment and an elevated level of the economy for the community. Our model stresses training our workforce in the technologies needed for commercial businesses and thereby preparing them to be productive for the future. We have and will continue to partner with companies at the leading edge of technology.

Like any profit-making services company, we continue to market our services through various channels and seek corporations with an elevated vision of impact sourcing such as Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.com. Our track record with RuralShores in India has validated that we can compete with other services companies through a higher performance at a competitive rate. Since our workforce is motivated by getting this life-changing break, they are dedicated to their work and this ensures lower employee turnover for PeopleShores.

The community we serve also recognize that without our participation, they would have been “left behind” and only offer low skilled, low paying job opportunities. With higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs we also directly impact society and the standard of living. They take pride and ownership in being selected by us. Clarksdale is proud to be a center of service and even more proud of the fact that the visionary and founder of the company chose to be among them.

Like most start-ups, our initial capital needs have been met via Investment capital raised from angel investors who are prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and senior executives at large technology companies. They not only believed in the mission and business model of PeopleShores as an Impact Sourcing company but stay engaged by introducing us to potential customers and investors.  We’re also working with Social Impact funds and foundations to support our capital requirements for expansion and operating cash flow needs.

Our second source of income is the service fees from our customers for the work executed from our locations. We contract with customers to deliver high-quality digital services and business process outsourcing services from both locations.

Lastly, we apply for grants from county and state governments for specific needs, be it infrastructure expansion or additional funds to support training requirements. We’ve also applied for and received grants from city workforce development agencies that pay a stipend to the youth during the training period and subsidize training costs for a short duration.

While we are currently relying on investments and grants to make up for the gap in our operational expenses, we expect our expanding revenue stream to close this gap and cover entire operational expenses within next 18-24 months. Need for any additional non-revenue capital would be primarily for strategic expansion/growth. RuralShores already proven financial sustainability of our model. 

When we decided to start PeopleShores in the United States back in 2017, with a mission to bring technology jobs to the underserved and underprivileged, it was merely an idea based on the success of RuralShores in India. Our challenge, like any other start-up was to raise capital. After meeting with several potential investors, our fears were put to rest as many were ready to take the leap of faith.  A group of entrepreneurs and senior executives came together, formed an LLC and made an initial investment in the formative years, which helped us transform our idea to reality. 

Our source of revenue is Digital transformation services and Business Process Services provided to our customers. Our current revenue is generated from the following sources:

Business Advisory Firm/State Agency - 40%

Digital Transformation Services company - 20%

Multinational IT Services company - 10%

A large City Government Agency - 30%

Lastly, PeopleShores received a decent amount in PPP loan which has been forgven now in entirety. Also, PeopleShores continues to receive support from regional workforce boards, and several government agencies including Delta Regional Authority, Mississippi Development Authority and Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

PeopleShores is preparing for Series A funding by the end of July 2021.  The capital raised will be utilized for further growth and expansion to support our mission of setting up more centers in minority dominated underserved  communities across the United States. 

We continue to expand our client base and expect to grow the revenue stream. Covid-19 has accelerated enterprises’ use of digital transformation technologies to improve process efficiencies. We see an increase in demand for these services. This is uniform across all sectors and more so in the health care and government sectors.

Several organizations are looking to bring onshore some of their offshore processes as part of derisking strategies. PeopleShores centers provide a viable alternative to deliver services onshore in a cost effective manner.

Recent events pertaining to racial injustice made many corporates to embark on a social agenda to support minorities, particularly black lives. A partnership with PeopleShores will enable these organizations in fulfilling their commitment. Nearly 90% of employees in Clarksdale are African Americans.

We continue to work with the local workforce development agencies for additional grants to subsidize the training costs

The total estimated expense for year 2021 will increase four fold compared to 2020 expenses. This is due to the expansion of the initiative to other regions in the country. Nearly 2/3rd of this is expected to be covered by the revenue stream. 

Our expenses are broadly categorized in three buckets: Employee Costs, Sales & Marketing, and Fixed center Operating and Overhead expenses.

Employee Costs: Being a services company, the employee costs which include salaries, taxes and benefits, constitute 60% of the total expenses. 

Sales & Marketing: These are direct sales and marketing expenses for personnel, salaries, taxes and benefits.  Also includes some travel expenses required for in person meetings with customers to convert deals in the pipeline to real paying customers. Currently, this constitutes just above 10%. 

We need to make further investments here. Fixed Operating expenses include rent, salaries for senior staff, legal and professional fee, business liability insurance, employee training etc. This constitute 30% of total expenses. This percentage would come down as the revenue stream increases

Winning this Challenge can accelerate PeopleShores ability to achieve its mission. More specifically:

Help Convince Corporate America to elevate Impact Sourcing:

Recognition by Reimagining partners will provide credibility to the PeopleShores vision and the goal of creating 100s of Technology centers around the USA. This recognition will allow us to convince Fortune 500 corporate clients to participate in this initiative through Impact Sourcing.

Help Change the Mindset of Ecosystem participants in Underserved Communities:

Winning will lend credibility and convince workforce boards, education institutions and other ecosystem stakeholders to partner with PeopleShores more closely. We have learnt from the Clarksdale experiment that these ecosystem stakeholders are huge influencers in the region and extremely critical for the success of the Regional Center.

Help Attract talent and regional leaders required to achieve our Vision:

Recognition through Reimagining Pathways will help create visibility to attract the right talent needed to make this model successful. Especially, at each Regional Center, we will be able to attract socially conscious leaders with professional expertise as Center Heads. We would love to have some of the Reimagining Pathways partners advise us and work closely with us on expansion projects.

Funding:

As we are embarking on expansion, we like to seek the support of the partners to provide financial support in the form of grants and/or investment

Expansion of Technology Partnerships:

We would like to draw on the partners expertise to provide inputs and insights into our digital transformation services strategy and influence the hi-tech platforms for potential alliance/collaboration

Funding: We expect to raise Series A capital in 2021 to fund growth.  With Reimagining partners & MIT Solve support we’d like to raise the required capital.

Leadership Development through mentoring and Talent Recruitment: As we expand our reach, we have a constant need to expand our leadership bandwidth. We would like to leverage  professional development and management services to promote leadership skills in our existing team and attract fresh blood.

Board Members & Advisors: We are at a stage now to expand and elevate both our Statutory and Advisory Boards. Reimagining Partners can help identify suitable candidates who can bring stature, intellectual capital, strategic insights, influence, and diversity.

Monitoring/Evaluation: Tracking the progress of the initiative and ensuring at all times that we are on the right track is another area where we can benefit from the partners participation.

Funding Partners: MIT Impact Fund, Morgridge Family Foundation, New Profi, Sales Force Ventures, and Chan-Zuckerberg Program. We believe that these funds are unique in their approach and focus and that, beyond funding, we can benefit from their perspectives and guidance in our journey.

Leadership Talent Partners: We would like to partner with Ashoka Foundation, MIT Sloan Fellows as well as top ranking social innovation programs at universities including MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, UC Berkeley, Kellogg School of Business, Duke, Univ of Michigan, and Oxford. The goal is to recruit potential Leadership team and Center Heads for Regional Technology Centers.

Socially Responsible Clients: IBM, Google, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Warby Parker, Pantagonia and Ben & Jerry’s – We would like these companies as our clients and their CEOs on our Advisory Board to support us in the regions that matter to them. We believe these companies are some of the global thought-leaders in social impact and if we can get them as our anchor clients it would significantly reduce the time required to achieve our goal of at least one Technology Center in each state in the USA.