BEMIZU

The United States has been struggling with income and racial inequality since her foundation. This problem creates profound roadblocks to national growth, an increase in crime & political inequality, as well as decrease public health & education. COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of the U.S. safety net program such as guaranteed basic income or health care system. Financially, about half of lower-income Americans report job or wage loss of which only 23% have enough funds for three months. Healthwise, the pandemic also disproportionally affects communities made up largely of POC.

Through BEMIZU, workers will have the power to negotiate for a sensible wage protection program and finer health care insurance that other developing nations’ citizens enjoy.

As BEMIZU grows, we will be able to ensure financial and psychological freedom to both its workers and businesses, so that they can focus on achieving their goals. (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

In this application, BEMIZU will use the concepts of “poverty” and “income inequality” interchangeably as it affects the same group of people and has the same roots causing the issue.

Poverty is far from being evenly distributed across the U.S. People are disproportionally affected based on race, occupation, and social status. Of 38 million people living in poverty, 9.1 million are African Americans, 11.2 million are Hispanics/Latinos, and 26.2 million are service workers.

The majority of those living in poverty work in the food service, warehousing, transportation, and accommodation industries. Though these industries together employ roughly 20 million workers in the U.S. (BLS), they are notorious for paying low-wages with few benefits and offering limited opportunities for advancement.

Factors contributing to poverty have been debated among experts for a long time. Many experts lean toward technological change, globalization,  structural pressure, historical factors, the decline of unions and the eroding value of minimum wage as having the most significant weight on the issue. 

"As part of BEMIZU's work force, workers and business owners will be provided related resources like education, technology, and promotion in order to gain knowledge in their working field in order to overcome presenting challenges."  

Our vision is to ease and support every human’s struggle on their way to achieve a successful and fulfilled life.

BEMIZU will first be a scheduling tool for our users. Small business can use our advanced predictive algorithm to apply a just-in-time system for their resources and labors in order to operate efficiently. With our advanced scheduling system, BEMIZU can match workers’ available time slots (supply) with business’ required labor space (demand); and therefore, maximize both parties’ productivity resulting in higher pay per hour for workers and reducing wasted resources for business.

Our mission is to provide continuous resources and services to everyone and every organization to enhance their living standards while chasing their dreams, and close income inequality for strengthened communities. 

Even knowing that the cost of replacing an hourly worker can be up to $3.200 annually, which is contributed to by the cost of recruiting, interviews, lost productivity, orientation, and small business, especially for those in the service industry, still struggle with retaining their workers. BEMIZU will be providing a retention program weekly for small businesses along with industry-related classes for our members in order to promote the benefits of non-degree pathways to success. 

Our vision is to serve all those working a non-career jobs in order to make their end meets, while making time to achieve their career in other field such as arts, music, or still figuring out their lives' goals. However, understanding that our vision is tremendous, our first target industry will be the food industry, our target customers will be family-owned and small-chain local restaurant along with its workers. 

In my experience working in the food industry, most if not all small restaurants operate individually under its owners' management. Because they operate separately, they have difficulty to achieve an economy of scale in order to negotiate better prices, big data, and provide/receive human resources. Also, because of their business size, workers are often not offered enough opportunities to learn, and to be promoted within the organizations. Along with that, it is almost impossible for small business to provide insurances, and benefits that corporate employees can enjoy. 

There are 12 millions food service workers in the U.S. of which 30% are minority and 1 million restaurants of which 22% are owned by minority. BEMIZU will be able to provide resources for POC to combat systematic pressure and to fulfill their goals. 

As part of our market entry strategy, we will be providing a management tool to restaurants owned by Black, Indigenous, and Latinx owners for free. It does not only help them to command resources efficiently, it also has our advanced analysis functionality connected to BEMIZU’s recruiting platforms to create jobs for the workers in the community.

Not only will BEMIZU ensure our members achieve short-term goals, but BEMIZU will also provide group work and educational resources to help its business retain experienced workers and give them access to skill-building, and training opportunities to make informed decisions regarding their future careers. 

We are a startup founded in the U.S. We are committed to improve the lives of, to generate opportunities for, and to provide our services to the disadvantage communities in the U.S first and then the world. In the U.S., because only a few States such as Oregon, Washington, California, have taken a more forward steps in dealing with poverty, we will start there first. We will first approach small businesses and workers in Oregon and Washington before looking to assist communities in New York City, Philadelphia, and so on.

We will start in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA by providing our management tools along with our predictive staffing algorithm to applicable small businesses. These tools will be linked directly to our job board which in turn create labor demand for BEMIZU early adopter workers. This approach does not only let us assist small business in saving resources, but also let us get direct feedback from our clients while creating gigs for BEMIZU’s initial users.

When we staff 20 business with 5 miles radius, we will partner with local colleges, universities, and governmental offices providing industry-related classes to our member owners and workers in order to improve their knowledge and to start planning for their future. 

Full time staff: 

Hoa N Le 

Bastian Hieu N Le

Ken Bergmann – CEO DewMaker Design, Inc.

Advisors: 

Wale Martins – Program Manager – Microsoft

Jude Chike Onianwa – Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft 

BEMIZU understands that problem solving and decision-making are multi-dimensional. Therefore, respecting and valuing differences in race, gender, ethnicity, age, physicals and language abilities, cultures, religions, and sexual orientations will enhance our overall performance. 

BEMIZU is an innovative platform developed after observing the current occurrences, industry and market changes, the changes in perception by the upcoming work force, and BEMIZU is foremost an innovation by combining current social norms.

The U.S. pre-COVID seeing the rise of the Gig economy. Over one decade, the number of freelancers increase almost double with estimated 24% of Americans reported earnings from “digital platform economy.” After COVID, the U.S. economy shows all its weaknesses. Many small, minority-owned business were and are forced to shut down due to their thin margin operation habits. Many workers were out of work due to unforeseeable circumstances. The trend of the U.S. workforce moving toward a more robust work schedule is accelerated by COVID. More and more Americans are looking for short term work to cover their short-term costs while business need on-demand workforce due to the unpredictable demand in this unpreceded time.

Along with the issue of working hours and wages, workers from low- and mid-income always have been concerning about their health and their family health. As our clients base grows, BEMIZU can subsidize small business with resources to offer their employees benefits such as insurance, sick days, and even vacation days.  

BEMIZU’s ideas are not entirely new. BEMIZU is recognizing the changing perception of workers. The perception of work as a way of life is changing to the perception of work as a mean to life. BEMIZU takes advantage of that trend and reinforce it with networking effects for social purposes.

BEMIZU's solutions for social change is a combination of existing technologies. BEMIZU uses a combination of existing technologies in order to serve low-income and part-time service workers better. BEMIZU can be defined as a mix of: 

- Professional network platform: LinkedIn, UpWork, Translator Cafe, 

There have been a lot of professional network platforms existing. However, all of them only focus on making the initial connections without attempt to strengthen those relationships. BEMIZU does not only provide best match available based on skills and availability, BEMIZU also nurture those relationships by providing on/offline work shop to improve employees and employers communication.

- On-demand workforce and scheduling system: Thumbtacks, TaskRabbit, CoachUp, 

BEMIZU is looking for provide flexible work for service workers in their field of interest. Users have the ability to use our calendar to mark their availability and be recommended to employers with matching schedule.  

- Predictive analysis: 

Minority owned business often does not have access to big data. By providing management tools to business, BEMIZU will be able to assist business with basic demand predictive analysis, so business can manage resources efficiently. 

Group benefits: 

Small business often do not have enough resources to provide their employees benefits like vacations, insurances, and opportunities to grow. As our clients base grows, BEMIZU will be able to group workers in areas in order to negotiate better employment package for our users. Workers will be able to choose and purchase discounted benefits once they pass a predetermined number of hours working with BEMIZU. 

BEMIZU’s ideas are unique because of how we combine each of its components for social changes. Most of its components have already proven its success in one way or another:

• Social media for professional connections:
• JITs – Management Software:
• Collective bargain insurance:

LinkedIn is the prime example in the field. LinkedIn focuses more on white-collar jobs and more on career opportunities as opposed to BEMIZU focus more on blue-collar jobs and more on short- to mid- term work commitment.

Workplace management software is also a proven technology. Right now, scheduling, paycheck, POS, and resources management are usually offered separated or combined differently. JITs will be a resources management software. JITs provide efficient control over inputs (inventory and labors) by learn patterns from historical outputs (production and workload).

Workers have been able to negotiate for better pays, vacations, work hours, and more through unions. However, service workers in smaller establishment usually are not well supported by unions in negotiation. BEMIZU will support these group financially and legal advices in order for them to achieve a desirable outcome. 

9.0 percent of service workers who were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks were classified as working poor in 2017. When COVID happens, it only exposed the systematic pressure on the service workers who were already living in bare minimum. These statistic shows that Americans are constrained financially with health care, and freedom of choice because of their working condition.  

On the business side, PNAS reported 41.3% of businesses were temporarily closed,  the number of full-time and part-time employees had fallen by 32% and 57% respectively. These statistic shows that even American small business are living day by day; therefore, unable to take care of their workers.

Also, when there is massive supply (labor force) and all work performance will be recorded and rated accordingly, the workers will be motivated to perform their best. That will lead to best workers in specific area, industries, and within their skillset, ones will enjoy an extreme flexible schedule, since their services are always in demand. Without the burden of working hours and schedule, BEMIZU’s users will enjoy a better lifestyle, and be invested in what is best for them such as family, other careers, hobbies.

When BEMIZU achieve a mass labor force, we will be able to assist workers to negotiate better health care coverage. Right now, service workers working with small businesses are often uninsured or underinsured, because either they cannot afford individual plans, or their employers are too small and do not have resources to offer insurance. This issue creates a tremendous stress on the low-income and mid-income population along with their families. BEMIZU will group large number of workers within specific area or industries in order to reduce the risk for insurance company while having a leverage when it comes to negotiate for insurance for these groups of people.

When a population has better access to healthcare, and be able to invest in long-term goals, more opportunities will arise. Fuck yeah. 

With our current team members, advisors, MIT’s resources, and further partnerships upon winning the challenge. Here are our goals within the first 5 years:

• Have 50.000.000 unique users and partner with 250,000 businesses
• Develop a fully functional organization focusing on legal, marketing, and technology
• Fully develop BEMIZU’s web and mobile application based on market’ feedbacks
• Develop and offer BEMIZU’s analysis software, JITs
• Build strong partnership with local business and … skillshare
• Support BEMIZU’s workforce with access to education, insurance, and other benefits
• Promote BEMIZU as a brand of “Let you be you”­ TM
• Reach $20M in revenue with BEMIZU Ads and JITs 

Financial: Please check our Funding section.

Legal:

• Labor law.
• BEMIZU will be moving toward working with staffing agency. We will need more legal assistant regarding regulations.
• Insurance. How to negotiate for insurance by using collective power from workers.

Financial: Please check our Funding section.

Legal:

- Work with lawyers before we partner with any other organizations or entities. 

- As for insurance, BEMIZU will support financially worker representative to consult with a legal representative in order to negotiate insurance deals for workers within specific area and industry. 

Statistics are preferred to be local based on our intended market.

Service workers statistics:

• Number of service workers broken down by ethnicity, genders, industries, wages, and work hour
• Their average and median household income
• Family size with dependent members
• Percentage of them being covered with insurances either by their employers and/or their own policies
• How many are looking to pursuit a career within the current industries they are working in?
• How many are working in order to pursuit different careers? i.e.: how many are attending higher education? Arts?

Small business statistics:

• Number of small business in the industry? 1-5 and 5-20 employees
• How long have they been in business?
• Who and how many of them are minority-owned? Broken down by ethnicity
• Percentage of workers based on genders and ethnicity working for these businesses
• Estimated revenues in 2020 and in 2019

For-profit, B-Corp

Hoa Le-Ngoc 

Hoa had experience working as student counselor and restaurant managers in Seattle. She observed the daily struggle of a small business that need a constant labor force to support the business, yet it does not have enough resources to retain experienced workers. Instead of spending time on improving overall performance, Hoa had to spend time on recruiting and training new workers. That is how Hoa came up with the idea of BEMIZU – an on-demand workforce for small business requiring physical labor. 

Ken Bergmann – Technical Officer 

Ken is an accomplished technologist and innovator who loves music and helping others engage. With a background in top-tier consulting corporations such as Accenture, Capgemini, and Microsoft Consulting Services, he can leverage extensive experience and contacts across many industries.

Bastian Le-Ngoc – General Manager

Bastian has experience working with freelancers in high pace environment. He works as freelance coordinator for Telelanguage and RealTime Fantasy Sports, Inc. (RTS). His role is to recruit and match freelancers, either an interpreter or a reporter, to work at a specific appointment or a game. Each appointment or game can be anywhere between 1 to 6 hours. A freelancer can have 1-3 appointments or games per day. With these experiences, Bastian will be crucial to BEMIZU’s freelancer ‘s support program. 

Besides that each one of BEMIZU's leaders has his/her own unique experience and skills contributing to our vision, they have a humble-and-ready to learn mindset which are crucial to the success of any startups. 

- Real Time Sportscast: provides live data on multiple sports from across the globe by leveraging its network of Part-time Reporters. 

We recruit freelancers across the U.S. and provide resources for reports to deliver high quality live statistic. 

- Telelanguage: 

We take orders from hospitals in Portland, OR area and match available interpreters to appointments. 

Fee-for-service:

JITs: a resource management software, free to qualified business (less than 10 employees, younger than 2-year-old, minority-owned, etc.), JITs will be marketed as a resource management software and be sold to other business.

For a premium JITs, BEMIZU will set up a one-day visit with a AR engineer who will capture a 360-degree photograph with AR to look at the work place and instructions from a manager on how to work behind the scenes at their establishment. With that information available, potential workers will be able to come in with the several days worth of training. That reduces repetition in training time for managers and increase workers’ productivity on day one.

Private-nonprofit partnership:

Once BEMIZU has a stable workforce within a local market, we will be able to support and represent workers to negotiate for better benefits with insurance brokers. All available policies and other work-related benefits will be offered via BEMIZU’s platform with a discounted price which an individual would not be able to acquire otherwise.

This does not only support our workers’ rights, but it is also a strategy to enhance their commitment to BEMIZU and their work performance.

Entrepreneur support model:

BEMIZU’s brand is the brand of workers’ rights and for communities. Our partner businesses will not only be supplied with our superior workforce, but also be recognized as a social conscious business by our partnership. In other words, we are their brand management, while taking care of their hirings and other HR needs. 

BEMIZU has personal fund from its founders at $90.000 for BEMIZU's main application development. 

Cenacle Research India Private Limited will be contributing and developing their current Restaurant Analytics to BEMIZU's JITs.

We need to raise $100,200 on top of our $105,000 investment. 

Funds would be preferred in grant and service credits (marketing, server, cloud computing). We also consider equity. 

Technical Development: $188,200 including $178,000 for labor and $10,200 for related services (servers, etc.)

Marketing: $88.200 (Promotions will start 1.5 months, March, before our platforms is ready.) 

Equipment: $6,000

Legal: $5,000

Total: 199,200

• Workforce development board: WDB with its nationwide services supporting workers learn skills for better advancement and matching them to employers’ demands. BEMIZU will work closely with WDB to provide information needed to our users to navigate WDB’s resources efficiently. BEMIZU would also analyze historical data with WDB’s permission to learn market trends in the service industries to make informed decisions.
• New profit, The Morgridge Family Foundation: We are excited to have the opportunities to learn from NP and MFF’s seasoned coaches in order to understand market’s needs. BEMIZU also look forward to being in their ecosystems working and engaging with other social entrepreneurs, policy makers, philanthropist, and national and local stakeholders to elevate the quality of lives of low-income workers. 

We need supports most in the following areas legal/regulation, exposure, and social advisors.

Firstly, we need help understanding existing laws regarding related industries. Though we are looking to provide what is best for our users, we would like to do so without stepping over legal boundary. We need help when it comes to work safety, other relationship management expertise, and taking legal precautions measures.

Secondly, marketing is another important area that we can work on with external help. Our branding goal is to make BEMIZU a “collectible” badge for small business to show their stakeholders that they are a social conscious establishment. Though we have general plans to get there, we need help on executing them in detail.

Thirdly, as we are expanding, we would want to learn more about the community/ market we enter as to know how and which resources we can provide for their development.

- Skillshare: They are the leading website in providing educational materials to artist and entrepreneurs who are learning skills to work for themselves. BEMIZU and Skillshare can cooperate to share  service industries such as latte art, serving, basic machinery operations, and small business management.