CeroUno

What is the problem that you are committed to solving?

There are 500k software developers needed in Latin America. In Mexico, for instance, there are 150k software developers needed and colleges only graduate 15k per year. From those developers, 80% aren't qualified. 

There are a lot of developers needed, there are few joining the workforce, and those who do, are poorly trained.

What is the solution you are proposing?

We are building an online coding bootcamp with live instructors for the middle class in Latin America, where students start paying 15% of their salary only after they get their first job.

How could your solution positively change the lives of people?

This solution will allow solve the technology talent gap by providing the best education for the best people regardless of their prior socioeconomic status, geography, ethnicity or gender.

There are 500k software developers needed in Latin America. In Mexico, for instance, there are 150k software developers needed and colleges only graduate 15k per year. From those developers, 80% aren't qualified.

On the hand 80% of people in Mexico don't have access to higher education due to financial constraints: they don't have assets or have access to financial instruments and banks, and this limit the social mobility opportunities that might be available.

We address this via a three-pronged approach:

1. We provide updated skills-based quality education online with live experts in the tech industry.

2. We provide Income Share Agreements so that anyone who has the talent can access this program regardless of their financial status.

3. We provide employment via our existing partnerships with our corporate clients.

Our solution is 12-week online coding bootcamps with live industry-leading instructors financed through Income Share Agreements. We have different programs such as Web Application Development, Data Science, DevOps, Cybersecurity and Digital Leadership, among others.

We focus strongly in the quality of our instructors (most of them are CTOs and Senior Developers) and in our methodology. In terms of infraestructure, we use Zoom, Slack, Google Docs and Typeform, since those technologies are mature enough on their own and replicating them wouldn't be wise. This allows us to focus our resources on the quality of the program and in better serving our students.

Our solution is mainly targeted to the emerging middle-class in Latin America. We know these needs since they are our existing customers and we have ongoing conversations with them. 

We have trained 447 developers so far in two years in Mexico, and 99 developers alone this year. From those, 20 of them have signed Income Share Agreements, and some of them come from small-sized cities of less than 500k inhabitants.

Our solution takes into account this population by providing them the education that would otherwise be only available in private institutions in a cost-effective way, and increasing its quality via live industry experts and a constantly updated skills-based program.

Job requirements and skills are changing at an accelerating pace due to technology. People left out from this industry will endure economic hardship and exclusion. This trend is worsened by the lack of quality skills-based education in technology, and lack of funding that limits educational training.

We are changing both trends by providing high-quality skills-based education in technology, and by providing a financial instrument (income share agreements) that makes education affordable and aligns our incentives to  better income outcomes.

We believe that this will improve social mobility and enlarge the emerging middle-class in the region.

Traditional universities are ill-suited to address technological change and skills-based training. Curriculum in these institutions change every 5 to 10 years, and programs last about 4 years. If you take into account this, a student that starts a software engineering major, could be behind by 15 years at the moment of graduation.

Also, the incentives are misaligned. Universities obtain their income by charging a fixed tuition regardless of the economic outcomes of any given major: an English degree and a Computer Science degree cost the same even though future income outcomes vary greatly among them.

Our solution addresses these two problems by:

1. Creating a skills-based program where instructors are leading experts in the industry. This means that our curriculum is constantly updated (2 to 4 times a year) and always aligned to industry needs.

2. Implementing Income Share Agreement financing where students pay 15 percent of their income for 36 months, which encourage us to get them the best possible job offers, and therefore training, and encourage their income growth.

1. We provide remote live instruction focusing strongly in the quality of our instructors (most of them are CTOs and Senior Developers) and in our methodology.
2. We allow students to finance their education via Income Share Agreements.
3. We use cheap tools and infrastructure readily available to keep our costs down: we use Zoom, Slack, Google Docs and Typeform, since those technologies are mature enough on their own and replicating them wouldn't be wise. This allows us to focus our resources on the quality of the program and in better serving our students.

We use Zoom Classrooms for the online instruction and group projects. We use Slack to communicate with our students and share resources. We use Google Docs to keep our course materials and share the sessions videos. We use Typeform to assess student progress and measure satisfaction. We use Github to receive students assignments.

• Activities
  • Skills-based training in technology taught by live industry experts online.
  • Income Share Financing where students pay 15 percent of their income for 36 months.
  • Job placement assistance to accelerate integration to the labor force.
• Outputs
  • Students gain skills in software development
  • Students are able to afford and join the program
  • Students join the tech industry within 6 months of graduation
• Short Term Outcomes
  • Graduates are prepared to get a job in the tech industry
  • Graduates are able to payback their education in an affordable way
  • Graduates are employed in high-quality fulfilling jobs in the tech industry
• Long Term
  • Graduates are increasing diversity and pathways to non-traditional tech background in the industry.
  • The income share agreement financing model becomes the standard in education financing
  • Graduates become role-models for other students in their similar situation and their friends and families.

1. Students that we currently serve per year: 250
2. Students that we will serve this year: 500
3. Students that we will serve in five years: 5,000

1. Immediate Goals: during this year is to scale our Income Share Agreement model and be able to secure funding to keep funding this financial mechanism. We expect to double our student body and prepare our organization to serve other countries.
2. Next 5-Year Goals: we expect to train at least 5,000 students per year, to operate in all major countries in the United States and Latin America (Colombia, Perú, Argentina, Brazil), and reduce the existing talent gap in the tech industry in the region.

1. Lack of understanding of the Income Share Agreement model. 
2. Legal barriers in different countries.
3. Scaling

1. We plan to overcome this by increasing awareness of the benefits of the model sharing success stories with students and companies, and creating partnerships with existing public education institutions.
2. We plan to develop local teams that will adapt the ISA contracts to local legislation. We also aim to be able to create education-related bonds to raise funding and increase the impact of the program throughout the region.
3. We plan to create more recorded content as support materials, structure our methodology in manuals, create a support center with Teaching Assistants to address student questions and offer mini campuses in street malls for a blended learning experience.

There are 5 permanent staff members, and a network of 120 instructors that work with us on a per-need basis.

Jorge Téllez, Founder and CEO

Jorge has experience in the accelerated learning industry in the United States and Mexico. He has created 3 successful programs from scratch, worked with over 70 companies and trained over 900 students in technology based skills both in Mexico and the United States. As Director fo Growth and Operations at the Turing School, he took it from zero to 200 student capacity and USD$6 million in revenue in two years. He was a founding member of the CIRR, the Council in Integrity in Results Reporting, which became the standard in evaluating results in the industry.

Before his experience in the accelerated learning industry, Jorge worked in International Development, where he put together public-private partnerships to launch social development initiatives to mitigate disasters, combat human-trafficking, and promote democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

We work with over 70 corporate clients to accelerate the onboarding of their new talent, and upskill their existing talent on an ongoing basis. We also have partnerships with local governments (Hidalgo), public technical schools (CBTIS and CONALEP) and private universities (Tec de Monterrey, UDEM).

Our business model:

1. Currently, our LTV for our customers is $1400 and our CAC is $100.
2. We expect to increase the LTV via our Income Share Agreement model where students pay 15 percent of their income for 36 months.
3. We also plan to implement corporate subscription for employers.

1. Keep increasing our bookings
2. Sell our bookings at a discount price
3. Raise VC funding and debt to finance our operations expansion

We are applying because:

1. We would like to partner with the MIT.
2. We would lie to improve our model and obtain help to scale it further to impact more people.
3. We would like to use the media exposure to obtain partnerships, board members and funding opportunities.

1. Financial institutions that provide student financing
2. Financial institutions that allow student debt securitization
3. Graduate schools of education
4. Learning Management Systems provider
5. Slack, Zoom and Google (to obtain licenses at reduced prices)
6. Local workforce training offices and community colleges

We are currently providing training for people in Venezuela in Data Science, and we would to increase our efforts addressing Venezuelan and other displaced populations in Latin America. Having a dedicated grant to do so will allow us to improve recruitment and have dedicated staff to help them integrate faster to the local tech-related industries throughout the region.

We are currently providing scholarships to women and moms to create economic opportunities in the tech sector. We believe that the tech industry provide opportunities for moms to reintegrate the labor market and provide technical role-models for girls who want to become engineers. This grant would allow us to improve recruitment of women (and moms in particular) and have dedicated staff to accelerate their integration to the labor market.

All our programs are designed to address the needs of the industry. We currently train hundreds of students a year to keep them relevant in the industry and increase the pool of technical talent in the region. We believe that the tech industry is one of our best chances to improve social mobility and economic resilience, and create opportunities for underrepresented populations, such as immigrants, people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ communities.