Napkin Tech

Owners of SMEs generally do not have a platform to showcase their products and services to individuals of their community and/or target market. This is highly because broadcasters have them competing with large companies for advertising space, space they cannot afford.

Napkin tech provides services, that allow SMEs to advertise their products to individuals of communities in which the businesses are found. This is achieved by allowing individuals of a community to host DVD/Blu-ray movies on Napkin tech. By doing this all individuals on Napkin tech found within that community are able to watch that movie for free, with the local entrepreneurs ads embedded into the movies hosted.

By methods of community hosting and advertising, it allows SMEs to showcase their services to their target market. This improves their chances of scaling up and solving the problems of the community, as we can systematically lower the cost of accessing markets.

According to small businesses and financing company; Guidant financial, marketing is part of the top 3 challenges as said by 2600 small business owners.

An entrepreneur who has just opened their business has to not only think about raising funds but also making people aware that their business exist. This is often a daunting task.

Advertisements are usually seen during crucial hours, hours in which people are at home and catching up with their favorite TV shows and movies. This type of ad space are already bought by larger companies, who could afford them. So,even if a small business buys TV ads these are ads shown during working and school hours, when few people are paying attention.

The same applies to the local artist who has just released new music, or the local author who just published that book they have always wanted to, but no one is aware.

International companies are able to get more exposure in communities in which their products do not cater for the area's problems but the local entrepreneur who may have solved these community problems, is on the streets handing flyers that no one reads.

The movie hosting feature is Napkin core function. When an individual buys a movie on the cloud, this person is now able to host that movie to their community, for free. The movies hosted are embedded with ads from local entrepreneurs and young talents. What happens is when any entrepreneur from an area where Napkin operates, signs up for the service, we engage with them and keep their ads in a secure database. These ads could be anything from short video clips or photographs. For market reach, the ads are shown to members of the community in which the business is located.

Movies on Napkin are DVD/Bluray movies kept on the cloud, so they can only be viewed when bought through an online payment system. When movie is bought and hosted, that particular movie appears on the feed of other Napkin users and they can watch this movie for free. Movies hosted are sent as notifications to users free movie feed, when a user signs up to Napkin they will be asked to provide the area they reside in, the same applies to the entrepreneurs. Using only this information to sort ads and send them to the right viewers. 

SMEs and individuals in low and middle income households. These are entities with products, services and/or talent to offer to people within and out of their geographical regions. These parties are often faced with the need to showcase their work to people who are not just their friends and family members.

When we research and look at the numbers, that regards the number of SMEs in the world, number of SMEs by geographical areas and number of people selling their products online or uploading their new music onto Spotify and other services. We get to understand that as the population increases and job growth does not keep up with this population growth more and more people will rely on their own skills and talents to make a living and SMEs numbers are increasing but platforms built directly for them are just not enough.

The solution uses content hosting, adapted from the idea of buying one DVD movie but sharing it with a lot of friends, we intend on using that phenomenon to build analytical models to redistribute advertising space by parties within their respective geographical regions and markets they would like to enter at a smaller cost.

The system as a whole is fragmented and divided, they are different problems in running and growing SMEs in different parts of the world. Around the world they are also differences in distributing entertainment content in that content placed at a certain price is not affordable to everyone else, given the differences in incomes. Hence piracy is high in certain parts of the world, that opportunity wasted in pirating content could be turned into an affordable way for SMEs to advertise and join the market with the rise of free trade SMEs could tap into other markets through this service.

Lets look at it this way, if there are approximately 25-30 million SMEs in developing countries and even more around the world, then these SMEs are facing a variety of problems, of which there is a direct link to the problems they facing and the location of operation. Thus a general solution based on stats have not been too effective because they are based mostly on assumptions, so most SMEs are overlooked. Furthermore when more and more individuals are turning to eCommerce for sales, we get the feel that they should be a platform to allow individuals to showcase by area.

What Napkin is trying to do is to use a universal love for somethings in life for the benefit of entrepreneurs who have limited funds.

By allowing individuals to buy a DVD movie and host it themselves, we creating a new business model. One that allows a fellow middle income individual to purchase and host a movie to his community members in exchange for small profit and allows the SMEs and young talents to showcase their ads to the community they serve in. By using individuals as a means of broadcasting, we remove the need for huge cost of advertising space made by larger broadcasters seeking larger revenues. Thus lowering the cost of accessing markets for both parties. Host by geographical area allows us to change engagement in a way that is suitable to the environment and suitable to everyone. Rather then having a one way method for everyone.

Content hosted uses an algorithm to determine who to host the movie to within that region, by hosting to a base number of people that's equivalent to the buying price of the specific content and sharing it further down to an additional number of viewers depending on the type of content they seek and the area SMEs and Self-employed want to reach. So the distribution works with location and content preference.  i.e. Viewers = buying price of content (where every dollar/unit of currency used, represents one viewer in that area) + x (where x is the estimated number of people who may be interested in the specific content). Once this is done, the movie is sent by notifications. So anyone can watch at whatever time they prefer for free.

With the above technology in place, SMEs and self employed can upload their ads, in picture, video or audio format and select which area they want to their ads to appear in and how many people should we show it to. 

Content distribution algorithms takes into account the area of the movie host and area of choice of the SMEs and brings the two together. Wherein ads are embedded onto the content type only if the areas are a match.

To keep prices low but reach high, we also using big data in order to determine who is more likely to buy and host certain genres of content verses who is not.

On several platforms, we are notified each time something big occurs. Example on twitter we are notified with tweets from people you following. On Napkin you get free content based on whether the buyer and viewer are based in a certain geographical area, so in this case the people living around you are notified and every buy results into a host. The purchasing of content can be made possible courtesy of partnerships with payment services such as Google pay and paytm.

1. According to various media houses, the number one reason for piracy is cost, people do not want to pay for the content they consume. This links both the film distributors who lose billions of dollars annually and the viewers/pirates who want to consume the content but cannot pay for it.

• It is evident that if content is given to the public for free, then there is little need for piracy. But in that case the film industry are not making anything. So we have to make both parties happy.
• We do know that the film industry makes millions of dollars in DVD/Blu-ray sales around the world annually, so there are people who can and are willing to pay for content.
• Lastly, people in general are looking to make a little extra money on the side.
• Bring in Napkin's movie hosting, allowing individuals to purchase and host content online. So, those who can pay for content do and we keep them satisfied by ensuring that they make a small profit. The film industry has a new way of keeping track of sales and increases revenue they've been losing through royalties, ensuring we build trust of selling their content. This brings traffic.

2. There are millions of SMEs around the world including in places like Sub-Saharan Africa. And we seeing an increase in self employed individuals, this means that advertising space is set to reduce and price increase.

• Napkin's host by individuals removes the need for large profits, a common practice by other big services, as individuals (host) do not have to pay for operating cost or any other form of cost. 
• This helps keep advertising cost low. As mentioned above, the traffic Napkin could drive due to the popularity of entertainment and opportunity of making extra profit, together with host by location ensures that SMEs and freelancers in operational areas are not overlooked.

3. According to Cisco, the internet will add 1.4 billion users by 2022. Hence there'll be a rise in e-commerce and freelancing, needing easier ways to advertise their work.

Currently none, prototype stage.

In any given marginalized market, there are a number of internet users this number is diverse and consists of different proportions of high, middle and low income households. However, there is a connection between marginalized markets and piracy rates, a report from the institute for information law pointed out, that countries with lower GNI per capita naturally have higher piracy rates. We also see that countries with low GNI per capita have a large number of SMEs struggling with financing and accessing the markets. For example, India has an approximated 42.5 million registered and unregistered SMEs, India also has around 483 million internet users, India produces about 2200 movies a year and India is also among the top 10 pirating countries. This means that a great deal of content revenue is lost in India because consumers are more comfortable with free stuff, while all this is going on SMEs in the country are either struggling to access the market or are paying the same prices as already established SMEs in developed areas. Our approach is to compensate for the two, using the technology and business model we want to turn that common phenomena into a new platform for SMEs to access their markets by geographical area and for less the price. We believe that if we turn the tables from file sharing to hosting we can include many more different SMEs in marginalized areas like, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil and Kenya.

First years is all about building trust with both the entertainment industry and the SMEs we serve. Getting to know the problem in such a way that initial product launch and future product launch are designed to suit their needs together with those of the film industry. The plan is to experiment in India, as India is ideal for Napkin's model. With many internet users, many SMEs and also many low-income households but also many movie releases a year, with an estimated 2000 movie releases a year, the film industry is rising but the SMEs sector remains low and broken. Using such data Napkin could make it ideal for both sectors to see an increase in economic growth. The same applies with Nigeria. Napkin will put most of its focus in these two markets.

In the coming years, we are set to release another product,           communal-connect, that'll make it easier for pupils to participate in promotion of local businesses and local artist and make it easier for freelancers using data collected from different areas that Napkin serves and partnerships with freelancing websites. The goal is to impact three sectors at once through innovation, SMEs, freelancing and film industry. Using the strategy of releasing Napkin first to grow user base and make it easier for SMEs to market themselves, we can then release a more complicated product like communal-connect to close the gap in skills shortages and job availability, in a way that we see an increase in SMEs growth.

1.There's an understanding that obtaining legal licenses to distribute content from content distributors could be an issue, given that a number of people will be consuming that content for free.

2.A lot of people, our target population, are already used to pirating content as file sharing services are accessible plus they can pirate movies without having to view ads. This a huge challenge in turning things around.

3.Financing is a big issue, in order to operate and grow funding should be adequate, but right here in South Africa funding is quite limited and with COVID-19 causing havoc it will be difficult to grow a company under current circumstances. In order to serve all kinds of households Napkin must be available on products that are mostly used by the respective kinds of households, this is costly.

1.Looking at the current market there are reasons to believe that content distributors do not have a direct way of determining who is paying for content and at what price. The rise of streaming services means that people are paying roughly ten dollars a month for access to around 2000 movies and TV shows. By actual means is that people are actually paying around 0.004 dollars a month per content. This means that value of a single content decreases by over 1.5k folds in a few months. Meanwhile content providers cannot turn to DVD again as their are considered expensive by the majority and results to piracy. With the use of our approach we can make up for that value lost with direct sales from Napkin plus royalties due back to them, all based on optimal and cost effective formulas by geographical area. On the grounds that their content does not lose value or money, we can get them to sign licensing agreements.

2. A content host will not see ads in the particular content he/she just bought and hosted. Our algorithms are specifically designed so that a large number of people are included but also so that individuals see some monetary returns and a chance at exposure.

3.The finance can be dealt with by networking and reaching out. Of which can be done, especially with seed funds and a private launch we can use the numbers and service approval to try and win more investors, both locally or abroad. 

Full-time : Maher Muk'mar.

I've lived in South Africa for the most part of my life. During this time I've had several ideas I wanted to implement from a young age, but none of these ever came to life because they never was any platform that focused on the upbringing of ideas. If there ever was such an opportunity, which is rare, then the competition would come with conditions like you have to be a South African citizen (which I'm not) to compete. This was disappointing, but it really showed me that they are several other factors in life exclude entrepreneurs from actually scaling their solutions.

I am a first year math and computer science student. During my gap year (2019) I began teaching myself how to code by reading pdfs and using windows notepad. That year I spent a lot of time upgrading my ideas in a way that ultimately meets the needs of not just entrepreneurs and business owners but also young talents I see around me trying to get people's attention and access networking, networking has always been a problem to me too.

I have always loved solving problems or at least giving it a try. In 2017 I was selected as one of six biotechnology ambassadors to represent the local science center, Sci-Bono (one of South Africa's most popular science centers), for the 2017 World Biotech Tour sponsored by Biogen inc. During this year long competition I developed discipline, presentation skills and improving my methods of thinking and researching.

Napkin obtains content from producers or distributors (mostly through partnerships, that doesn't require us to pay for the content) and keeps it on the platform for users to purchase. When users purchase content that money goes back to the content producers. Content hosted has three-four, two minute SMEs and self-employed ad slots wherein advertising revenue is distributed between the individual, content providers and Napkin.

In a case where Napkin pays for content before moving to the platform, content providers royalties are reduced.

Raising funds and using the model described above, we can reach sustainability in the long term.

We find solve a really formidable and enriching community with access to networks, experts and funding. Becoming a part of Solve allows us to really see where we lacking and how we can improve our model. The task of distributing content is a legal journey that it could take years before we even begin operating, that's if we are not a part of an environment of leaders and experts. That barrier in accessing and networking with others could be removed or made easier withe the help of Solve and it's partners. We could map out solutions faster. The broker partnerships within Solve MIT will be beneficial to the scaling of the project, with these partnerships and advise can we see our solution from a different perspective and take into consideration the technical advice we get. Together with the grant funding and media exposure can we really start growing our solution.

Talent recruitment and solution technology come hand in hand, as with better ways to recruit people with different expertise in computer science, TV and advertising can we really use those expertise to improve our technology and business model continuously, making sure that the needs of the SMEs owners and producers are met and products released are easy to use.

The type of people that join the board of any company play a crucial role not only in its future but it's mission and, so it is important to have people that understand the problem you trying to solve, the method you using to solve it and most importantly what it takes to effectively solve that problem in the long run. The type of people you have on the board ensures the company doesn't lose it's mission.

MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, this initiative could add value to this solution, given that it works with a variety of undergraduate students in the fields of technology and entrepreneurship. A partnership with this initiative or similar initiatives will allow Napkin to draw from the particular experiences of young people from different places of the world on the difficulties of starting a business or the ease of starting a business in their environments and the difficulty of getting content at lower prices. We can not only draw from what they've learnt but also draw from common practices making sure we implement ways of solving these problems, it helps us build a culture of caring for the future and caring for inclusive growth.

Particular organizations from different countries, for example Guidant Financial in America and Fincheck in South Africa, organizations that work closely with the financing of SMEs this also includes crowdfunding platforms, like kiva and kickstarter that are used by SMEs and individuals to finance their businesses or self employment ventures. Knowing this information we can better match the content hosted by individuals in different communities with the ads of SMEs in these areas or intended areas of reach.

Napkin Tech should be considered for this prize because the solution proposed works to bring the popularity of one industry (Entertainment) to provide another (SMEs) with cheaper and convenient ways of advertising by region. The strategy allows a popular movie from another country/place to play a role in the advertising success of an unknown small business in any particular community without tempering with the revenue growth of the movie. In this way providing a more inclusive entrepreneurship environment giving SMEs an opportunity to grow and provide jobs.

The GM prize includes both prize money and an opportunity to visit their headquarters and meet engineers. Napkin Tech will use the prize money to move out of the prototype stage and into the piloting stage, this money will be used to improve the product and attract investors to the project. In order to move out of the prototype stage we will need two extra computer engineers and better software. Visiting GM headquarters will allow me to ask the engineers and business persons at HQ several questions, we will use this opportunity as a mentoring opportunity to fill in the gaps I have about scaling a business.

If chosen for the prize, I would also use the opportunity to try and convince some GM engineers to ditch GM and join Napkin Tech, it's worth a shot.