Aug 6, 2018 | Season 1
The internet is great at two things: breaking down big ideas into smaller topics and matching people. Adam and Chandler ask, can we solve Global Goal – sized problems with the internet? On this episode, we find out how DoGood.io can do just that.
Episode Summary
- 7:00 The 4 Keys to Solving a Massive Problem Adam tells us how DoGood.io integrates scoping problems, staffing teams, funding and executing projects within the platform.
- 18:30 How does Blockchain fit in? Adam explains simply how the DoGood token works, how it incentivizes people to solve big problems, and how their own ICO gives value to the tokens.
- 23:00 No, You Can’t Buy Lambos from an ICO Raise Here, Adam and Chandler talk about a critical accountability gap in the ICO model. The DoGood platform addresses this problem simply.
- 31:00 | How can Blockchain forward the Global Goals? Most people think of the currency side of blockchain technology. Adam and Chandler show how much more is possible in tackling the Global Goals with blockchain, from accountability to supply chain honesty.
Listen to this episode if you’re wondering how on earth you can make a difference in a global-sized problem, and how you can use blockchain and the DoGood.io platform to do it.
Image by Hitesh Choudhary for Unsplash
Full Post
After hearing a Ted Talk about why Ted Talks are bad, DoGood founder Adam Harriss realized something powerful. There are no simple solutions to global problems. He says, “They’re presenting a solution to these problems in a 10-minute time frame. Which you can’t do. But the audience is left with a placebo.”
He started to think about how to pull solutions together in a way that addresses the complexity of these Global Goal sized problems.
“One group is not going to be able to solve these problems, and nobodyhas them tackled. In order to solve them you need a wide array of individuals, types of knowledge and funding to solve these problems.”
Listen Now to hear more.
The Ultimate People-Problem Matchmaker
Adam realized, “When I looked at what it takes to solve a problem and innovate, I found that there are several steps that the internet is perfect for solving.”
1. Scope the problem
To start to tackle a large problem, it must be simplified into manageable smaller priorities. DoGood helps participants scope the problem and break it down into its smaller components until you find the part that can be addressed by a team.
“The internet has been great at breaking things into taxonomies. That’s the bread and butter of the internet – being able to show how these things are linked.”
Image by Martin Bjork for Unsplash
DoGood asks the right questions to get to the root of the problem: what’s the root cause? How can we break it down visually?
2. Staff Against the Problems
Second, solving big problems requires a marketplace to match people and staff a team around the smaller problems. DoGood assigns people to project teams to create tangible solutions.
3. Funding
Third, teams require funding to solve problems. “We have built crowdfunding into the platform, and we’d like to partner with investor platforms as well,” says Adam.
4. Method to execute
Finally, a funded team needs a project management system and an effective strategy to find out if their solution is viable and sustainable. Based on the lean startup model, Adam recommended the following steps to go to market:
- Create an MVP (minimum viable product).
- Test your assumptions about the needs and the problem in a business model.
- Find a positive signal from your tests, and then build onto that first workable component.
- Create a business model canvas and kanban charts to create an ongoing method for execution.
Listen Now to hear more.
Image by Daria Nepriakhina for Unsplash
Accountability to Solve Problems Effectively
“We believe ICOs will be a method of fundraising that could be a huge factor in solving these [global] problems…but there needs to be transparency.”
Adam talks about the lean startup system as a great way to maintain accountability. Funders need to know two main things as a project rpgresses:
- How is the team progressing, are they succeeding?
- Should I continue to fund?
The lean startup system provides that information. It creates a feedback loop and conversation, “so that positive change can be made and money is used in an efficient manner.”
Listen Now to hear more.
Image by Rawpixel
How Does Blockchain Fit In?
There are 2 main ways Blockchain supports the golas of the DoGood platform.
1. Incentivise and Reward
First, there is an incentive system within the platform, which is a blockchain token. DoGood uses Etherium as part of the incentive system. People earn tokens by contributing to the “Wikipedia” of problems and solutions. So, if you have specialized skills you can get on the platform and get paid to explain part of a bigger problem.
DoGood assigns a value to the tokens through their ICO.
Also, curators can offer a bounty. A curator would say, “‘If you solve this problem, you will earn the pool of funds that have been set against the problem.’ Curators promote the problems and raise funds for the bounty.” The curators also get awarded with a percentage of the funds they raise.
2. Mitigate the ICO transparency problem
In ICO raises, investors need to be protected. By giving investment funds to teams in stages as they reach their goals, DoGood ensures that social and ecological problems are being solved efficiently. It works in 3 steps:
- ICOs are differentiated by being protected by an escrow system.
- Teams take 20% of the overall investment to prove their problem-solving business model, then investors can vote on whether the next round should be invested.
- If investors vote no 3 times, the remaining investment goes back to the investors and the token is returned to the cryptocurrency.
Listen Now to hear more.
Image by Icons 8 for Unsplash
How is Blockchain Applicable to the Global Goals?
Adam and Chandler list the main applications of blockchain in accomplishing the UN Global Goals:
- Creating fundraising transparency and trustworthiness
- Eliminating cheating and corruption
- Identifying reliable projects and team members
- Breaking down large goals, like “life on land” down into smaller problems and then applying blockchain technology to solve those problems.
Chandler then gives a supply chain example. Imagine “you can buy a fish and know where it came from.” Then, companies will be able to solve supply chain problems and increase sustainable practices throughout their operations.
Listen Now to hear more.
Image by Rawpixel
The DoGood Business Model
DoGood is a SASS model, or software as a service. It is free to use for anyone who wants to contribute solutions and problems, and when you want to retain IP you pay to use the platform. Also, “When you have a team, you can use the platform to manage your team with the lean startup system, use our project management system, and leverage mentorship. That’s paid.”
Adam talks about their most critical needs currently, and highlights “more people and more problem-solving.” He says DoGood’s first target to bring onto the platform are those interested in building sustainable businesses and crypto investors.
Takeaways
Chandler talks about the main takeaways with respect to the Global Goals.
1. How many problems do the Global Goals actually break down to?
There are 17 problems with more than 250 targets per problem. Each of those targets can be broken down into smaller priorities that a team could take on.
“It will take specialists in every 250 target to solve these microproblems. So, what background and unique knowledge do you have?”
2. There’s an incredible potential for accountability with DoGood and Blockchain.
Chandler asks, what becomes possible when we’re holding ICOs accountable to meet their goals, and unlocking funding as their teams hit the goals?
Listen to this podcast to find out exactly how Adam Harriss and DoGood.io have created breakthrough solutions to these questions to accomplish the UN Global Goals.
Jul 30, 2018 | Season 1
The founder of I-DEV shares how tech, microfinance, and strategy in underdeveloped countries helps mom-and-pop-shop economies thrive.
In this podcast, you’ll hear what the inside of an impact-investing and strategy company looks like. You’ll also hear what questions an impact investor asks to find out what problems and needs are occurring on the ground in developing countries.
Episode Summary:
- 2:10 Raising $80 Million in 45 Countries | Patricia tells us how a group of passionate bankers, investors and managers have impacted 350 companies worldwide.
- 4:35 Inspiring Success Stories | I-DEV International works with all sizes of companies, including the leading tech company in East Africa. Even so, the impact is with local family businesses as mom-and-pop shops get access to funds, apps, and metrics to run their businesses.
- 15:30 The Innovation Answer in SMS and Data | When a developing country adopts mobile money, the opportunity for innovation skyrockets. Hear how an investor thinks about building business in a mobile-first economy.
- 21:20 Get on The Ground | “You need to have somebody on the ground in that country to be abl to understand the different dynamics.”
- 30:00 On the Ground Insight: How Can We Help? “Do the people you really want to impact even have access to a phone? Let alone to the internet? And if they got access, would they actually use it?”
Photo Credit Lukas Budimaier for Unsplash
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“I-DEV International is a strategy and investment advisor focused on supporting the leading businesses in emerging markets to achieve growth, innovation and also to raise the capital they need to get to those levels. We particularly focus on Latin America and Africa.”
Photo credit: Annie Spratt for Unsplah
Where IDEV Came From
Patricia talks about the group of investment bankers, Operations, Management consulting. This group was interested in helping to build out startups in emerging markets in order to grow the economy in underdeveloped companies. With their expertise, they have been able to bring business best practices into East African and Latin American startups and companies.
“We believe that’s where a lot of innovation and push for economic development and progress comes from. If we look at developed countries, that’s where a lot of job creation happens as well.”
Patricia talks about the different groups in I-DEV and gives a breakdown of the finance and business development industry.
Group 1: Insight and Strategy
IDEV has an insight and strategy group, which focuses on consulting portfolio companies of the impacting investing sector. The insight and strategy group answers the question, “How will this business get to profitability? How will they get to their next market?” I-DEV brings a birds-eye view of the scaling process and years of business experience to companies who would otherwise make do in an environment with few resources.
Group 2: Investment Advising
I-DEV also has an investment advisory group, which focuses on helping companies raise capital. Raising capital can be an exciting experience with the help of professional consultants when a third-world country company realizes they could have access to thousands or millions.
Group 3: Innovations and Direct Investment
Finally, the innovations and direct investment group select companies that they want to hand-hold through every step of the capital raise and growth process. So far, I-DEV has helped 350 companies in 45 countries raise more than $80 million.
Photo Credit Anes Sabitovic for Unsplash
Success Stories
Patricia mentions a few larger companies IDEV has worked with and talks about working with all sizes of companies. I-DEV worked with “Green Mountain Coffee on supply chain transparency,” so that the company could implement best practices and increased sustainability from coffee farm to store shelf. She also mentions working with Grupo Bimbo, a large Latin American bakery company that owns Sara Lee, where they were“Looking at microfinance payments and the tech platform they used, to provide loans and other products to the mom and pop shops they work with.” In other words, I-DEV helps large companies support the small guys selling their products to the public.
Patricia mentions working with Google.org and the UN Foundation, and then highlights four different categories of companies that I-DEV focuses on Clean energy, agriculture and ag tech, mobile and digital technology, retail and fast moving consumer goods (hint: impact investors are looking in these industries to provide direct support).
Photo Credit Annie Spratt for Unsplash
Twigga Success
Twiga foods is a large food distribution company in East Africa. I-DEV helped them raise the largest tech seed round in East Africa in 2015. Twiga will soon be that largest grocer in Africa without opening a single grocery store. And how did they do it? With an app.
In Kenya, 86% of retail is done through mom and pop shops (an “informal market”). The store owners will spend a lot of time going to secondary markets to buy products that they then resell locally.
“Twigga has an app that allows these shop owners to order their bananas, their potatoes, and their mangoes through the app so that the company can go to the secondary markets, buy products in bulk at better rates.” They are also able to buy more in volume from the farmers at the secondary markets. The app saves time and money for the shop owners.
Photo Credit Luis Tato for afr.com
Most importantly, Patricia mentions the following impactful side outcomes to this one effective mobile solution: With the data from the app, I-DEV can find out:
- How can they scale their offering to neighboring countries
- What products consumers are buying, and the demand for those products
- The pricing and spending in each region
- Market trends and timing for introducing new products
- How to build trust in new large-scale brands
Mobile First
Kenya growing in mobile tech growth. Surprisingly, the country has better mobile coverage than California! Also, because of the popular mobile money app in Kenya, 96% of adults have mobile money. Before, “They didn’t have bank accounts and they didn’t trust brands to put their money behind.” Suddenly, tech innovation is more available in a massive way now that this adoption has happened.
Photo Credit Brandon Ong for Unsplash
Here’s the tech hack: most transactions can be done through SMS, so the digital commerce is not dependent on smartphone adoption.
“The mobile market is the access to innovation in developing countries.”
The more data that becomes available on consumer habits in developing countries, the more strategic and microfinance support can pour in. Before, developing companies were a black box for economic growth and innovation, simply from a lack of insight on the buying habits of the locals. Now, it’s possible to pull rich data on commodities and trends in the country, on market demand, prices, and habits of shop owners, so those owners can move into loans.
The companies I-DEV targets to support are the ones using that data to build a scalable business model.
“It’s often a volume play,” she says, “we’ve really seen this critical tipping point in the last few years, where… now you have companies that really from their DNA are thinking about how they can get to massive scale.”
Get on the Ground
Patricia talks about establishing trust and building partnerships to make a difference in a new area. In order to make any headway in building an economy, the tribe needs to okay a new product or service.
“When we first moved to Africa, we got a lot of pushback…Yes, every country is different and every region. But I would say, if you are sensitized to the things that commonly change, you can figure those differences out pretty quickly.”
Patricia says the biggest differentiators within markets are socioeconomic status and income, rather than cultural differences. Though Latin American and East African markets are different from each other and from western markets, there are definitely transferable concepts. Patricia says the choice to get involved in those emerging markets specifically was strategic: “We think that they can learn from each other.”
Recommended Resources and Takeaways
After hearing so much about an unfamiliar region, Chandler asks how to plug in and find resources when starting a venture in an emerging market. Patricia says, “I would recommend you go wherever you think you’re going to launch.” She also recommended reaching out to venture capital associations in those areas to find out their goals and interests. On the same note, Chandler shares a favorite quote:
“If you’re building something for me without me, it’s not for me.”
Photo Credit Frederik Trovatten for Unsplash
Takeaway 1: Solve Locally
“One of the best ways to tackle problems globally is to solve locally. I love that they work with businesses on the ground in the countries that are still in the process of developing to help them get the resources they need to scale.”
Takeaway 2: Ensure Access
“Also, I-DEV’s model challenges those of us with super tech-focused companies to say, ‘okay great you want to tackle poverty… but do the people you really want to impact even have access to a phone? Let alone on the internet? And if they got access, would they actually use it? Why or why not?’”
Takeaway 3: Get Clear on Your Impact
“This is the Global Goals Project so we talk a lot about tech. It all comes down to the impact and the difference that you want to make.”
Jul 23, 2018 | Season 1
The founder of HyperCubes describes how to solve complex global problems with tech and build a disruptive company with satellites.
Can one person make a difference in the UN Global Goals with exponential technology? In this episode, the founder of Hypercubes says yes.
Episode Summary
- 2:00 Planet Diagnosis Data | Hypercubes uses cutting-edge satellite, sensor and AI technology to take daily chemical analysis snapshots of the earth.
- 4:45 Late Bloomer to Hyperspectral Technologist | Brian Lim shares with us each step of his journey to become a space entrepreneur: “I was throwing realistic out the window. So, I picked being a space entrepreneur.”
- 12:00 You Can’t Miss the Boat | Brian and Chandler then talk shop about exponential tech. “The way I would describe it is riding the wave.”
- 19:10 3 Keys to a Killer Satellite | In the satellites HyperCubes builds, there is the satelite piece, the sensor piece, and AI component.
- 28:15 Valuable Data | With companies gathering massive amounts of data from their satellites, information to support sustainability is available to the marketplace.
- 33:00 Space Industry Insider | “First, in the space industry space, no one can hear you scream.”
- 39:00 Life Hacks to Leverage Community | After an inside look at the space industry (33:00), Brian encourages listeners that big problems can be solved with 2 ingredients: a large community and the technology already available. “If you can get 5 minutes out of 10,000 people, you can find out anything you need to know to get something done.”
Full Post
Planet Diagnosis Data
Hypercubes uses cutting-edge satellites, sensors and AI technologies to take global snapshots of the earth and its daily chemical analysis. Each captured pixel includes the chemical data of that part of the earth. The satellite gathers data on everything from plant species to chemical poisoning in the environment, and the AI data analysis can provide unheard of data: whether a farm requires more fertilizer, the stage of a wheat field harvest, the likelihood of a bridge corroding and breaking, and even the chemical analysis of mines to see iron on the right and gold on the left.
Most importantly, this means that HyperCube can tell which companies are cleaning up the environment like they promised. Incredibly, this data-rich device is less than twenty pounds and has similar dimensions to a shoebox. A $1.5 million shoebox.
Late Bloomer to Hyperspectral Technologist
After hearing about Hypercubes, Chandler wants to know “How did you get here?
“I’m a late bloomer.”
Brian got his degree at 28 but grew bored of the industry after just 18 months. He decided to strike out on his own and build a business. Brian was “bright eyed and bushy tailed, wondering, how do I start a business?” To answer that question, Brian joined Fishburners, a nonprofit coworking space for startups in Australia. During the interview, they asked him if he would help with upkeep in the space. “Sure I’ll take out the garbage. Can you teach me how to build a business? I kept the internet running and they taught me about a business”
While at Fishburners, Brian began a laundry list of ideas and companies and started creating. “I figured out how to measure creativity in one’s brain – it’s from the corpus callosum. When you’re being creative it lights up.” But getting a device the size of an MRI machine into a cellphone was a little beyond his expertise, and more hauling work than it was worth. “There was no elevator in my building.”
Scrap it All, Let’s Do Space
Brian experimented with 14-15 ideas and tried 10 companies. After several unsuccessful attempts, he assessed the situation.
“They all suck. I decided I’m going to give a go to anything I want to do. I’m throwing realistic out the window. So, I picked being a space entrepreneur.”
This happened in a conversation over beers at first. When asked, “What do you want to do, Brian? I drank the beer, slammed it on the table, and said, ‘Space.’ And then the whole room cracked up.” He thought it was the alcohol talking, but “low and behold, I did get started.” Brian attended the International Space University in Australia.
“I started Launchbox first, taught kids in school how to build a satellite… I left that company and went into Delta V Space Hub.” Delta V Space Hub is a space startup ecosystem started by several entrepreneurs pooling their resources and creating a coworking location. Brian also became a TedX organizer. “ I just did a whole bunch of crazy stuff.”
Image by Donald Gianetti @wizwow via Unsplash
The Launching Question
Eventually, Brian asked a professor at the International Space University the right question to find his next step. “Yeah we can do plant species detection from space- its called hyperspectral, but don’t worry about it it’s too hard for you.” Hyperspectral is the technology that allows chemical analysis at a distance, and the same technology that Brian would embed into satellites and launch into space.
Brian dove into creating a company around this technology shortly after. He joined Singularity University in 2014, a Silicon Valley hub for projects using exponential technology for impact.
“Why do you use exponential technology, and what are you looking to use it for?”
“I’m a geek. I love my toys and I love my tech… [Since] all this stuff is going so bloody fast, where do you go from here? I realized the immense capabilities, and the way i would describe it is riding the wave.”
According to Brian, You can create the wave or ride the wave.
Pros and Cons of Riding the Wave
“Exponential tech allows me to rapidly go places i couldn’t go before, and demonstrate things that were considered impossible even 2-3 years ago. They are like foundations: They take the longest time to build and the most work, but they create the tallest skyscrapers”
Though exponential technology is hard to stay on top of all the time, it matters to continually ask questions to find out what’s possible.
Opportunities are evolving. Computing power is doubling every 18 months. With research and intention to solve a specific problem,
“You’re never going to have to worry about missing the boat.”
A Menu of Innovation
Brian lists several eye-opening technological advances:
- Bandwidth doubling every 30 months
- The human genome can be mapped for less than $1000
- 3D printers are printing parts for nuclear reactors and aircraft.
- Phone plugins to detect radiation
- Advances in nanotechnology
- Cryptology has passed its tipping point and is here to stay
- Advances in AI
- Power prices dropping and performance increasing
Brian points out, “You’re using exponential tech when you build a website and build an app.” It isn’t so expensive when you start with existing technology, or “ride the wave.” But, “When you try to predict the future, it gets expensive.” Predicting or creating the wave is where large teams, massive amounts of research, and millions of dollars come into play.
Image by @spendude via Unsplash
3 Keys to a Killer Satellite
19:10 – In the satellites HyperCubes builds, there is the satelite piece, the sensor piece, and AI component. Fortunately, building a satellite is dropping in price, and even launching satellites is more affordable “Thanks to elon musk.” Certain people recently claimed “We’ll never have a re-usable rocket! Now, there’s dead silence. China is building reusable rockets. Everyone’s getting in.” In other words,
“We don’t bet against Elon anymore.”
- A Satellite Brian shares, “If you know how to asemble a phone, you know how to assemble a satellite. Sensors used to take up the size of an entire room, and now they are the size of a grain of sand.”
- Super Sensors HyperCubes uses passive sensors in their satellites to capture data. The sensor gets its data by reflecting sunlight. “The data output is insane. My first propotype I was playing with put out 400 megabytes per second. That’s like 40 game of thrones episodes being streamed at the same time. In high def.” Hyperspectral may be the ultimate answer to all passive sensors, Brian claims.
- Artificial Intelligence How do humans handle that volume of data? With advanced AI. Brian laments, “I’m not concerned about the increase in AI. I am concerned about the decrease of Human Intelligence.”
Business Models
The satellite industry grows more and more accessible each year. Where it used to take thousands of people and billions of dollars to launch a satellite, now it only takes hundreds of people and millions of dollars.
For example, NASA created Phonesat to test the ease of building and launching a satellite. “They took an old android phone and made some changes, and then threw it into space and it worked.”
Now, “there are 3000 active satellites in space, half a million in crap that we’ve left up there” (27:00) and before too long, exponential technology companies like OneWeb will make information accessibility a global phenomenon. “Anyone anywhere anytime anyplace can check their tinder.”
NASA image via Unsplash
Space Industry Insider
With companies gathering massive amounts of data from their satellites, information to support sustainability is available to the marketplace.
“Companies are taking pictures and using sensors so you can see deforestation, in order to accumulate that data over time and add accountability. It’s The biggest integrity question – you said you wont pollute the river, why is the river still purple?”
Brian then shares the steps to launch a satellite into orbit:
- Register your satellite with the country of origin
- Organize with the UN what rate of frequency you’ll be using
- Get a “Big ass rocket.”
On the topic of getting into the space industry, Brian gives listeners a fair warning. “First, in space, no one can hear you scream.” It’s funny, and it applies to the space industry. When you’re a new entrepreneur in the space industry, no one “hears you scream.” No one understands. Those operating an established project doubt entrepreneurship, and other entrepreneurs don’t understand what you’re working on.
Industry Specs
The space industry will be $50 trillion industry by 2050. Brian lists a few sectors of the industry that are growing rapidly:
- Launching satellites – rocket builders.
- Satellite builders
- Communications to gather data
- Space tourism – 7 people per year
- Space mining
“An asteroid coming in the next 5 years coming into the Earth’s orbit, with $100 trillion of precious metals on it. Whoever can plant the flag on it will have a good business. And please, entrepreneurs, don’t point the asteroid to earth and cause another dinosaur age extinction. We don’t need that.”
Image by @spacex via Unsplash
How to Build an Exponential Company
Chandler asks, “what patterns do you look for when you’re starting a company?”
“I look for the biggest problems to solve. If you start from the source and work your way up, you will find a problem that will suit you. I always study big, complex problems.
Technology’s up front investment cost. If you ride the wave, the stuff is already cheap. If you want to make the wave, that’s the expense. To get around the wave, buidling community is key. The thing that creates exponential sales is a community.
The internet has given the ability to create communities rapidly around topics of value of interest to our ethics, goals, morals and values. If you can get enough people in one place you can draw any problem and an answer and a solution will be provided. Building a community of people allows you to leverage the world.
If you can get 5 minutes out of 10,000 people, you can find out anything you need to know to get something done. When you have that, all you have to do is present the answer that makes sense to them, and you will find an answer.”
Takeaways
- How is this going to impact your business?
- Can you use this data to grow your business?
- Are you prepared to shift your practices or business model when this data hits the marketplace?
The formula to create your own exponential tech company is only two things: gathering a tribe of people to ask questions and discover the problem, then choosing a technology to solve the problem.
You can get to work on it right now.
Email Brian at b@takingover.world for questions and new ideas.
Jul 16, 2018 | Season 1
In this episode, Jalen Gildersleeve talks about MindHak’s revolutionary mental health and emotional development support technology, and how to use AI for good.
Episode Summary
- 2:00 This Bot Knows How You Feel | Learn how the MindHak app can learn your emotional patterns and beliefs to provide tailored content and resources to support your emotional maturity.
- 6:00 Self-Compassion and the Global Goals | Learn the 3 tenants of self-compassion and how having all 3 contributes to the UN Global Goals.
- 16:45 What’s Up with the Business Model? | Jalen talks about the three phases of their business model, and how they will collect enough human emotional data to power their algorithm correctly.
- 26:30 Creating an Exponential Technology from Scratch | Jalen has 2 key recommendations. Get mentors, and get your ideas on paper.
Full Post
“MindHak is a mobile app that helps everyone get access to mental health resources. We help people learn self-compassion, emotional maturity (which is emotional intelligence with integrity), and emotional resilience using AI technology.”
MindHak uses a chat box to help people interact with the technology, and then the tech analyses what the person says and provides resources that apply to them.
“The way cognitive behavior therapy works is that they would just recondition the way you think about a scenario… the way we plan on using the technology is that we use AI to have you realize that you’re reacting based on a presupposition or a cognitive bias.”
MindHak can create a scenario that includes your presupposition, to help you recondition the cognitive bias and not react to scenarios like in the future.
AI Accuracy Via Chat
The bot you chat with learns your emotional habits and learns when it’s assessments are accurate or not. You can rate the bot’s response, so it can provide you with the most personalized content.
“We’ve taken the world’s leading research from Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and UC Berkley… and we’ve realized you can moderate your behaviors to become better.”
People don’t know they can get support, and they don’t know how to access those resources.
“We’ve tried to create the ideal support system cybernetically.”
The 3 Tenets of Self-Compassion
- Self-kindness versus self-judgment: the first step to a healthy EQ.
- Common humanity versus isolation: how good of a teacher have you had to learn how to suffer?
- Emotional resilience: how to deal with suffering powerfully, and turn it into strength
“It comes from a lot of personal experience. I’m from one of the slummiest towns in the country. Everbody knows about Flynt. It doesn’t have water. But that doesn’t reduce my IQ. It has given me so much strength.”
Jalen talks about the way the Global Goals have unified people to solve big problems that he sees are totally possible to solve. He mentions goal number 16 as his target goal (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions). Jalen sees emotional violence as the core problem of any physical violence.
He also talks about goal number three, which involves mental health issues. “One in five people suffer from depression globally. We’ve made great strides in terms of technology, but in terms of humanity we’ve got a ways to go.”
AI and Neural Networks
The computer has a learning curve. When you gauge how accurate each response was on the 1-10 scale, the machine learning corrects your algorithm to know what you need more and more accurately.
“Our app helps you understand what morally is aligned for yourself. We provide resources to you, but we can’t tell you how to process those resources. It’s like having a best friend with a lot of resources.”
“I designed it for myself originally, selfishly, because I couldn’t afford a psychologist.”
Public Benefit Corporation
MindHak is about to enter their Beta app launch and just incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). The PBC incorporation allows for more transparency as a company and visibility as a research source.
“It’s like a new age nonprofit.” Jalen laughs.
Three Phases To Upgrade Planet Consciousness
Jalen breaks down the business model into 3 phases.
- Help 10,000 people: First, we’ll help 10,000 people in halfway houses, foster homes and homeless shelters. Those people are more volatile in their experience of trauma and emotional expression, so MindHak can create solid data on human emotional patterns.
- One-for-One: After that, MindHak will be able to implement a one-for-one model, where people who can pay for the app will provide access to someone who needs emotional support but cannot pay for it.
- Preventative measures: Then, MindHak will take a more preventative stand with HR companies and corporations.
“We plan on raising the consciousness of the planet. Once you learn emotional intelligence, you can receive knowledge from anywhere because you’re more open.”
The app will initially be $25 for life for the first 10,000 people, and that will include a whole suite of apps and tools that MindHak will continue to build over time.
They also plan to host business workshops to provide authentically preventative mental health support for their employees.
“We need to focus more on how to help technology help people.”
How to Create Exponential Tech from Scratch
Jalen recommends two things strongly.
- Find a team of members. People will want to help you, so be humble about it. Your idea is not about you. Make sure it’s an idea you truly believe in that you’re not willing to give up overnight. “I have five advisors.”
- Do great documentation for your app. Create an executive summary, wireframe or business model to poise yourself to get the right resources. “Get as much as you can on paper,” Jalen says.
Takeaways
- The power of EQ in the Global Goals. The goal is not to make perfect people, but to make more resilient people who can react to challenges powerful.
- Machine learning isn’t scary! Machine learning is a powerful tool to forward human development, and it’s pretty simple to understand after hearing Jalen talk about it.
Jul 9, 2018 | Season 1
After starting social impact work at 16 years old, Nelli Garton has valuable insight on the value of social good ventures. In this episode, we’ll hear her speak on the social impact investment platform she started to address the problems she saw.
Episode Summary
In this Episode We Cover:
- 2:00 Nelli’s background and story into becoming an impact investor.
- 11:15 Learn about the transition into building out the impact measurement company, Tablecloth.io.
- 15:15 How the basics of the technology work behind the scenes of Tablecloth.io.
- 23:00 The current stage of business that Tablecloth.io is in and what’s next as they scale.
- 27:00 Understand the mindset as they looked at the decision of whether or not to bring in investors.
- 29:30 How they see Tablecloth.io participating in the Global Goals.
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Nelli and her team were awarded 10 million dollars to build an academic center, where she studied how philanthropy and social impact companies interact. After she moved to San Diego, she began studying the struggling communities that nonprofits focused the most efforts. She noticed the lack of infrastructure and resources posed deeper problems than nonprofits could solve.
Nelli began teaching people how to invest rather than donate and give grants. She wanted to create a conversation between investors and philanthropists, to see how money moved through San Diego.
Measuring Impact
Nelli has a PhD in impact measurement, and she’s passionate about using philanthropic and investment resources responsibly. Nelli noticed a few key points to avoid wasting investment dollars:
- We need to measure who participates in impact fundraise campaigns and how much they contribute
- We need to have “process evaluation measures” to answer: did we use the resources effectively?
- We need to measure what kind of change occurred, and how much change occurred.
The world of raising funds or donations for impact projects can be a shared ecosystem, from Nelli’s perspective. In order to build that ecosystem she committed to find best practices and common needs between both parties.
Tablecloth.io
Tablecloth.io helps companies capture impact measurement information and use it to improve their ROI. If data doesn’t change your direction or decision making, then what’s the point of gathering it?
“We like to say, we don’t write a final report, because it’s never done. We want everyone to be able to be an evaluator, to understand the impact of what they’re doing.”
What the Tablecloth.io community is seeing is, “Wow there are way more organizations addressing the problem I’m solving than I realized.” So, these organizations start to meet and join forces to solve the social and ecological problems they’re committed to impact.
Qualitative Storytelling Data
“Data without context is just noise.” Nelli says.
the Tablecloth.io platform allows users to collect quantitative and qualitative data:
- Quantitative data: The numbers, percentages, and growth metrics
- Quantitative data: Videos of an incident, on-the-ground photos, and the context of the Qualitative data.
This way, users can see which numbers are relevant to their growth and which types of data they should focus on.
The Platform and Business Model
The platform has 2 sides: the technology and the consulting services.
The product is a SAAS based model with 3 components:
- Data collection tools like surveys, software data scraping
- Data dashboards to visualize the data
- Group creation for conversations around certain kinds of data, to create engagement.
Tablecloth is a functioning product with several clients using their consulting service. Their clients are early adopters who are beta testing their software. The company is moving from beta phase to launch phase now and has used investment sparingly.
“We’ve thought a lot about who are the right investors for our company,” Nelli says.
The company values their direction and goals over the profit they could make with the wrong investor. The best fitting investors for Tablecloth are impact investors with a portfolio of companies, where the portfolio is comprised of companies working toward the same impact goals.
Addressing the Global Goals
Nelli and Chandler talk about how nonprofits have played into the Global Goals, and how Tablecloth.io can forward the goals.
In San Diego alone, thousands of nonprofits start up every year. “Couldn’t we just collaborate more?” Chandler says. With data, companies and nonprofits can track and measure where resources should be allocated and who is making the most progress. Collaboration to do what works becomes much more efficient than a new nonprofit for each angle of a problem.
Takeaways
- You can start anywhere. Nelli’s started when she was 16, and followed her curiosity!
- Measuring impact is not easy – but it’s critical. How do we measure tough and sensitive topics accurately and holistically?
- If you have a business, how are you measuring your impact?
- As an impact investor, how is your investment actually performing against your goals and the company’s goals?
Jul 2, 2018 | Season 1
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Summary
In this episode we cover:
- The story of how Keoke and the team at Participant. Life got started in the Wheelchair industry and what they’re set out to solve.
- The current status of the wheelchair industry.
- Understand the basics of how the Participant business model works and their plan to scale.
- A 101 on 3D Printing, the benefits of building a company using 3D printing, and an overview of how the cost structure works.
- A high-level look at where Participant is now with their business and what’s next.
- Quick collaboration on brainstorming what it will take to fully support all 70 million with those without wheelchairs.
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“Participant is about participation for people with disabilities. We believe everyone everywhere can have the assistive products they need to participate in society.” Koeke says.
The company will be the first B Corporation medical device company, with their innovative social impact business model around 3D printing medical devices.
The vision of the company is for the 70 million people who need a wheelchair can get what they need. Since wheelchairs are expensive, the supply and demand has been non-existent in emerging markets. Once a government subsidizes medical devices, an emerging market country can shift their access to medical devices dramatically.
Koeke’s Background
Koeke’s Grandmother was disabled for most of her life as a result of a mistreated fracture when she was young. He noticed how cumbersome her environment was, and not at all conducive to wheelchair access. After observing her struggle, his brain went to work. “I have a knack for design and thinking about how to make systems better.”
Once he got into 3D printing, Koeke realized he could solve some of the problems he saw his Grandmother facing. 3D printers could print assistive devices to make better quality wheelchairs available to more people.
The Business Model
Participant sells high-end wheelchairs to western markets that fit in the trunk of a car and are durable. They do not price the wheelchairs based on Medicare suggestions, they choose the price based on their costs. And, since they sell direct to the market rather than through a medical device provider, they can make the wheelchairs more affordable.
The wheelchairs sold to emerging markets sell for about half of the price of US-sold products. Local NGOs subsidize the devices and then governments begin to catch on. Once governments are subsidizing medical device purchases, Participant has broken into the new market.
Infrastructure
Though Participant does sell directly to the consumer in the U.S., they do not sell directly to consumers in emerging markets. Parents require training for how to use and maintain the wheelchairs. Selling to NGOs and government organizations in these markets allows them to distribute and train families.
With 3D printing, Participant can now:
- Save time on manufacturing
- Print in small batches, rather than manufacturing large wholesale batches
- Print small batches for introductory demand in new markets
- Use top materials for wheelchairs that are produced quickly
- Complexity and customization is not a problem with 3D printing, whereas manufacturing limits custom styles and options.
- Reduce cost for production: $30 million investment to build a manufacturing plant vs several hundred thousand to build a 3D printing hub.
How Participant will Grow
Medical device companies don’t typically raise investment, so Participant has a plan B. After launching a crowdfunding campaign in a new market, Participant can presell product and sell enough to get the attention of local governments.
That way, even if governments do not buy in, the cost of entering emerging markets is subsidized by selling to higher priced markets. If the governments and nonprofits do buy in, then Participant can set up pilot projects to build trust in the country.
Takeaways
- The power of 3D printing. Participant can produce this equipment at 30% of the cost of regular wheelchair production!
- If you have a product-based company, are you prepared to be disrupted by 3D printing?
- The role of governments and NGOs in entering an emerging market. Participant is taking multiple setup steps to earn the trust of governments and NGOs, and also to prove the value of their product.
- New ways to measure KPI’s for an impact company: The participant team measures the number of additional days a person can participate in society by using their products.
Global Goals:
Jun 25, 2018 | Season 1
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Patrick Kronfli has his 10,000 hours creating successful global movements around the world. In the last six years, Unify has created movements involving 10 million people over 15,000 cities, in over 150 countries.
Unify has completed events impacting multiple Global Goals, and now they are building a tech platform to allow other people to start movements. Listen in to find out how you can join a movement or start one on your own.
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Episode Summary
In this episode we cover:
- The story of how Unify was created and how it lead to their tech platform to inspire the world to create or join a movement.
- Learn about how their tech platform, RISE, works along with the business model behind it.
- Global Sisterhood Movement – Every new moon, thousands of soulful women in 80+ countries gather in Sister Circles to connect to their truths, empower one another, and catalyze the transformation and progress of our world
- Global Goal 5 – Gender Equality
- World Peace Day – World Peace & Prayer day has been a unifying moment for indigenous traditions since 1997. UNIFY has coordinated and supported indigenous nations uniting at sacred sites around the planet, leading up to a global synchronized ceremony.
- Global Goal 16 – The industry of Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
- A high-level look at where RISE is now with their business and what’s next.
Full Episode
What is Rise?
Rise is a certified B Corporation in San Fransisco and Austin Texas. The training offers tools to show people how to host their own movements and events.
Patrick started in the field of movements by following his passions. He had started a solar energy business but was restless to work on a project he was more passionate about, so he started exploring his options. After talking to friends in Austin, they decided to organize a meditation at the Austin state capital, and as they hosted meditations people started coming.
After the second event with 800 people, other cities started catching on. 7 cities hosted meditation flash mobs the following month, and then 18 cities after that. The movement grew to 250 cities after 8 months, and then when the occupy movement happened 150 more cities joined in just 2 more months. This meditation movement became a nonprofit called Unify.org.
Now, anyone can log on to Rise platform to organize people and campaigns in 17,000 cities.
The Science of a Movement
Here’s what it takes:
- cvv Passion and inspiration. The leader has to care about it.
- Other people have to care about it too. “A movement is just a movement of energy, its a wave of passion that moves through a group of people.”
- Dedication to follow through
- A true movement is an inspiration to create something new that makes everything before it obsolete, like Buckminister Fuller said. So a movement doesn’t need to be resisting or removing anything, it must be creating something.
- A movement requires organization: communication, infrastructure, and systems to help ideas and people organize. Technology, PDFs, communication platforms, and team leaders are important.
- A movement must have clear goals and outcomes.
The point is to get people together to share one voice around an idea. For some, the goal is to change legislation by the power of one voice, some movements have a goal of a shared emotional and values-driven experience.
How Rise Works
Right now, Rise is building several movements themselves on their platform. Once those movements have been built on the tech, the platform will open for regular uses to search movements and participate, or create their own movements. All the marketing tools are available through the rise platform: a landing page with photos and a video, and actions that everyone can take to participate in the movement. Each movement page shows a map of events to show how and where to participate in these movements. Movement organizers in other cities can collaborate around the same movement with sub-location pages and an interactive map.
“So, if you don’t like what’s going on with client change, you’re now responsible to do something because you can start a movement on this platform. Rise puts people into action. Let’s stop talking about it, and let’s start acting about it.” Chandler says.
Each movement that the Rise platform hosts has a free option to participate, and then to deeply engage and receive training to lead in your area, the platform costs $19 per month.
Why Movements?
“This is something that naturally happens for me rather than what I chose. That’s important – follow whatever you’re inspired by and take the very next action toward what inspires you. When we started the meditations, we didn’t know it would grow. We did what we were curious and passionate about, and it became a movement. A movement is just a term for a group of people with a common passion coming together to do it together. So, it has to start from passion.”
Patrick says he loves change and growing his own boundaries, so it’s natural for him to want to grow impact messages and participation to as many people as he can.
On the Rise platform currently, there is a global Sisterhood movement that allows women to embody their femininity and encourage each other. This group empowers the Global Goal around gender equality. There’s another movement coming out about peace, which is a 100 million person synchronized meditation movement. “Because developing inner peace is the way to create peace in the world,” Patrick says. Global Goal 16 is Peace, Justice and Reduced Violence Everywhere.
“I feel that human beings are growing into the belief that if we take care of ourselves and the people around us, and start to understand that innovation will create enough resources for everyone. The problem is that we have so much tension, anger, and frustration inside of us, and that’s why it expresses in unhappy lives and global conflicts.”
People to People
The interaction aspect of movement building makes the most difference, from Patrick’s perspective. That human interaction is the one thing humans crave, and to come together around a common goal provides connection that the world has been waiting for.
Currently, Rise is building 3 different movements and building their team.
Takeaways
- How movements work – a group of passionate people following their inspiration.
- Now they’re helping others accomplish the same impact they accomplished.
- Teaching other people how to lead can grow as exponentially as a new technology.
- Patrick challenges us to solve a problem, get people involved, start taking actions together and THEN look for a platform to grow it.
Jun 15, 2018 | Season 1
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HeroX allows people to get involved with global projects, and allows groups to crowdsource problem solving around their projects and organizations. This means anyone can tackle a challenge they care about, no matter their skill set.
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Podcast Summary
In this episode we cover:
- How the HeroX platform works and why crowdsourcing is so powerful to solve critical challenges.
- Examples of crowdsourcing from the invention of the modern cue ball to Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project.
- Lego’s crowdsourcing platform
- The three different kinds of talent to consider when bringing on people to help solve your company’s challenges.
- A high-level look at the HeroX business model and current projects he’s focused on to scale users.
How you can bring a challenge idea to HeroX and get help with funding to get a challenge live to tackle the Global Goals.
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“After I built 3 businesses I realized how boring it was to build typical businesses. I wanted to ‘lose sight of land’ while building a business. I met Peter Diamonds, the founder of X Prize, and we decided to build a tech platform that he had been incubating.”
Just like making videos and getting visibility was hard before YouTube, the HeroX platform is making Global Goals projects accessible to anyone.
Crowd 2.0
The crowd can do anything. “So, should we call it crowdsourcing? Crowdfunding? Crowd strategies are hiding in plain sight, like we see on Twitter,” Patrick says. When Elon Musk put out his idea for the Hyperloop, over 600 startups started to take on the idea and build it. Now, he runs a contest every year on his test track. He offers a reward for the fasted pod on his mini-hyperloop, and through awarding prizes he’s able to leverage the crowd to innovate transportation.
The longitude prize was offered in 1740, where the king offered a prize for someone to create accurate timekeeping. Q-balls used to be made out of ivory, but the year billiards became a popular game was the year a billiards company awarded a prize to create a synthetic !-ball. Canning was invented when Napoleon awarded a prize to the person who could solve his troop’s food preservation platform.
Nowadays, companies like Lego and Frito-Lay crowdsource what products they will put out next. “It’s hidden in plain sight,” Patrick repeats.
Crowd Sourced Models
Once you find a small crowd interested in a topic, you can ask for feedback in a gamified way. For example, Boeing has gamified the creation of automated sky taxis to fly people around without drivers. They decided to source ideas for their technical problem solving from the crowd, and they have recruited over 600 teams. So 600 pedestrian teams are getting mentorship and participation in Boeing.
NASA uses our service repeatedly to solve some of their less technical problems. They’ve learned the power of the crowd in solving problems creatively rather than through the typical specialists and rocket scientists who look at problems in a very certain way. Now National Geographic is rebooting their brand to Nat Geo, to serve millennials and update their brand. They’re discovering what the next generation of National Geographic will be by asking the crowd what they want from the publication.
The Business Model
Historically, this has been an expensive consulting model. HeroX democratizes crowd-sourced ideas. So, the model of our platform is a pay for success model. HeroX takes a percentage fee on the projects that are successfully funded.
The platform also includes a service team that users can pay to help with design and marketing. “Our goal is to be a platform that is completely self-serving.”
Replacing UpWork?
There are three forms of labor, Christian says.
- Employees: Your long term value engines.
- Freelancers: A managed resource. This works well when you know what you need.
- Self-Managed Resource: HeroX offers solutions for the hiring issue, “I know the problem but I don’t know the solution.” This is nonlinear problem solving, and it’s great to outsource to the crowd.
“Our platform has an 86% success rate, which is pretty good considering people are posting ideas that they don’t know how to solve,” Christian says.
HeroX tracks each challenge and helps the ones that are not getting the attention they need.
How Will HeroX Grow?
Last year 14 million dollars of projects came on the platform, and HeroX intends to grow that number exponentially. This usage occurred with no marketing, just with a bootstrapped lean model. Once they start their marketing initiative and reaching out through their network, they will grow to their next phase.
And of course, the team is posting the problem of growing the platform onto their own platform, to get innovative options for expanding their reach and services.
The Global Goalscv
HeroX has an embedding ability so that you can embed your challenge on your website, and call it anything. It’s your challenge. This means you can use the platform to leverage the crowd for anything – including projects that address the Global Goals. When logging on to the platform, you can search and choose promising projects that you’re passionate and offer ideas, support, sponsorships, and funding.
Many of the prizes offered are brand-backed funding because brands want to associate with successful and innovative ideas.
HeroX is also partnered with several crowdfunding platforms, so projects can get funding based on success. “You get your money back if we’re not successful or if we don’t make an impact.”
Takeaways
- Bringing on talent can look like asking the crowd what to do next.
- Test the platform with your next business challenge!
- Reach out to Christian on Twitter @ChristianGC
Jun 15, 2018 | Season 1
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Sandeep is an Angel Impact investor who currently consults MongoDB to manage their databases and invest in promising projects. In this episode, find out what it takes to invest in technology companies to make a difference. And if you’re a social impact entrepreneur, listen in to hear what technology investors are looking for.
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Episode Summary
In this episode we cover:
- The story of how Sandeep became an angel impact investor.
- The mindset shift into investing into socially driven companies and his background in investing.
- Companies he is currently invested in and which Global Goals they cover.
- ECOR Global – The Responsible Consumption Company that Sandeep works with.
- Cascadian Farms – Local Farms Creating Organic Products, Sandeep works with them as well.
- How impact investing will play a part of the global goals.
- The case for how blockchain can revolutionize the way we will consume products in the future.
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Sandeep started investing through stock trading. He started at the Ernst and Young office consulting financial institutions to optimize their technology costs. He traveled a lot, and after 3 years he realized it wasn’t worth it to be away from his family that much.
Sandeep learned to love impact investing after giving to charities and realizing he didn’t know what impact his funds were making. With proven technology or promising technology companies, Sandeep can give to projects he cares about and also track and mentor the companies he invests in.
The Cool Companies Sandeep Invests In
“I actively scope out companies like Cascadian Farms. They have a really cool program where they are incentivizing children to plant flowers and grow the bee population.
…I don’t wait for entrepreneurs who are looking for help and capital. Everyone needs help, and everyone wants to grow.”
Sandeep talks about a company his wife is working on, too. Their company sources ethically grown tea leaves. This tea company is unique because they produce teas like Chai that don’t have the chemicals that most manufactured teas contain.
Sandeep says he doesn’t know very many social entrepreneurs, and the values-basis of his investing choice gives him the freedom to work with all kinds of companies. “Anyone that has children and are involved with their children, they are more likely to meet people that are doing good things for society.”
Exponential Tech and The Global Goals
“There’s so much due diligence that has to go into any company, exponential companies included,” Sandeep says. For example, in a study of Prius vs BMW environmental impact, it turned out that the amount of sulfur and noxious gases produced by Prius batteries outweighed the gases produced by making an entire BMW. “So, we have to be careful about misinformation,” Sandeep says.
Though we may think our iPad saves trees, it takes a deeper look to see whether the rubber on the wires and the glass production is actually worse than the environment than paper.
In food production, BHT is a chemical used to preserve food. It’s banned all over the world except in the US. BHT causes ADD, and we don’t even know about it. We’re more aware of food sourcing though, Sandeep says, since people rarely think about where their computer comes from.
Impact Investing and Accomplishing the Global Goals by 2030
“It takes one bad president or prime minister to mess it all up,” he says. Something like the Paris Accord can reduce motivation to make ethical business decisions instead of ROI-based decisions.
The other element besides legislation is consumer preferences. Once consumer demand moves toward responsible production, the market will shift. Currently, people don’t think twice about where their iPhone screen is produced, or the labor laws around outsourced technology production.
Companies can be incentivized with fines for poor production standards, which some companies are taking on. But if the economic drivers don’t believe in global warming, then the industry will continue to steamroll the environment.
Increasingly, sustainable products and technologies are outsourcing to Europe because the leadership there believes wholeheartedly in Global Warming.
“If Amazon came up with the Amazon Standard of Environmentalism with a blockchain and their own currency, they could compel every industry globally to source their materials ethically. I’m hoping I can get to the right people over time and start influencing them to make the world a better place.”
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Takeaways
- The challenge to inquire about the sourcing and operations of companies you might invest in. Look at the entire supply chain. What is best for the planet?
- How can technology like Blockchain enable us to increase production standards? Step up your transparency game now, before blockchain adoption forces transparency ahead of your company.
Jun 15, 2018 | Season 1
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Shiv Shukla started as an undergrad volunteering at an opioid recovery clinic, where he discovered that opioid addictions came from chronic pain. Since then, Shiv has taken on Global Goal #3, Good Health and Well-Being.
He developed a technology that addresses pain with non-invasive magnetic pulses. In this episode, find out how the technology works, and what it’s taking for this breakthrough MedTech company to become widely available for impact.
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In this episode we cover:
- How the NeuraLace Medical device works and how it’s different than any other solution tackling chronic pain.
- Chronic pain affects 1 in 3 Americans and is severely under-treated.
- The data behind the industry of chronic pain and the opioid epidemic.
- Global Goal #3.5
- A high-level look at the NeuraLace business model and current projects he’s focused on to raise capital.
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There are 27 million people in America who deal with moderate to severe chronic pain and have run out of options. Chronic pain is pain that lasts more than three months, where the pain persists when the tissues have already healed. NeuraLace Medical addresses nerve pain patients who are told that they have no options for their pain. These patients become addicted to opioids or become suicidal.
NeuraLace uses magnetic stimulation. When a magnet turns on and off very quickly, you can create a nerve response. Pain is a lack of nerve signal. So when magnets create the signal in the place of the nerve, inflammation and hypersensitivity decrease. The technology tricks the body to forget the pain. Anywhere in your body where you can feel a light touch can be helped by NeuraLace.
“Millions of patients are waking up with pain they think they have to live with for the rest of their life. Every light touch feels like a blowtorch. Then we treat the patients receive their care, they are blown away. They’re dancing. The more I saw that radical quality of life change, and their family’s reaction, I imagine how much time they have now and I know I have to do this,” Shiv says.
About Pain
Any pain level above a level 3 is the kind that affects your mood and keeps you at home away from people. No one wants to hear you complain, Shiv says, so you isolate and try to care for yourself.
In the pain industry, big Pharma companies are disbanding their sales forces because of the opioid epidemic. They’ve made the most money, but the reality of a 50% chance of addiction to opioids has taken its toll.
Instead of the doctors making decisions about patient’s well being and options, they listen to sales reps. In the 70s, sales reps promised that opioids were not very addictive. Shiv says that’s scary because the sales reps were not trained by physicians, they were trained by businesses that have KPI’s.
“More than 600,000 physicians are licensed to prescribe pain medications. So, it’s not a problem we can solve overnight.”
The Business Model
NeuraLace is not in revenue yet because they are not FDA approved. But, Shiv explains that the easiest way to get people off of opioids is to give them a better option. Here are some of the benefits of NeuraLace:
- Dramatically less side effects than opioids, or no side effects
- The therapy is not addictive
- Patients can receive treatment at the frequency of a haircut and have very little pain in between
- Patients become productive members of society
The first major hurdle for a medical device company is getting regulatory approval. The next is the gap between getting FDA approval to getting insurance backing and payment. Shiv’s team is starting to do beta sites and creating relationships with hospitals.
“We’ve been able to work with the VA, and veterans are the reason we’ve gotten this far. They’re honest and they won’t put up with options that don’t work.” The other place that NeuraLace is starting is with people who have been injured on job sites because they tend to be covered more readily by insurance.
Payments
Currently, treatment will be $275 for each session. The goal is for treatments to be subsidized by insurance.
“My goal is to be able to do treatment for a patient for a year for less than $4k. And at that point, insurance companies will pay attention because they will be able to spend a dollar and save nine.”
Shiv talks about roadblocks like scheduling efficiency. Right now, NeuraLace only gets about 4 hours of access per day because of scheduling conflicts. “That’s not something I had considered!” Shiv says.
Their goal for accessibility is to be in every major city in North America so that patients can go in to get their treatment wherever they are.
Growth Stage
Shiv says he was raising 2 million, but his advisors said that check size was too small. He heard that from 7 investors and then went back to his board. If an investor has a 150 million dollar fund, they want a 300 million dollar return. They can’t get that return on a 2 million dollar investment. Shiv thought about what the company needed to get to their next milestone, but now he’s thinking about what investors are looking for.
Now, they’re asking for 5 million. The block they face now is that the number of institutional investors in MedTech has significantly declined. There is a lot of fear. NeuraLace is doing something brand new, so the apparent risk to physicians and investors seems unsafe.
“Every time I have to explain this technology to physicians and investors, it blows my mind. They are the thought leaders. I just have data!”
For NeuraLace it’s a constant conversation of answering questions and fulfilling due diligence.
“The biggest thing we need help on right now is getting insurance company data on their cost for chronic pain patients’ over a year. But the companies don’t want to give us this data,” Shiv says.
Takeaways
- Neuralace is tackling big pharma and has to deal with insurance agencies – this is a complex industry! Just to make a difference in a patient’s quality of life, there is so much red tape.
- If you’re interested in getting involved, you can email Shiv@neuralacemedical.coml;
