AudaciousYou: Google Maps for the Future of Work & Learning

AudaciousYou is the Google Maps for Future of Work & Learning - an AI-powered, research-backed upskilling & reskilling solution

Driven by technology, demographics, and socio-economic trends, the future of work and learning is changing rapidly. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2020, 33% of skills demanded today by employers are forecast to change. Yet, our work and education systems continue to operate based on models developed over 100 years ago.

At its core, the challenge is about a mismatch between talent and opportunity. While talent is distributed equally across geographies, communities and individuals, opportunity is not - is often to limited to a small subset of talent. Not only is this a critical societal challenge, it is also a fundamental challenge for businesses and organizations, posing as a threat to their bottom-line, productivity, and performance.

AudaciousYou’s research-backed, AI-powered solution helps people discover and develop the skills they need to land their next opportunity – be it their first job or fifth career transition. We are building the Google Maps for the Future of Work and Learning by providing people with personalized pathways to develop the skills and experiences necessary to reach their goals.

Our model uniquely brings together four ingredients, all of which are necessary to solve this incredibly complex challenge:

1. Research-backed: Our solution is developed based on a review of over 500 sources of literature on the science of Assessment, Learning, Human Development, and Work

2. Technology-powered: Our solution incorporates a modular technological platform that counterintuitively encourages candidates to focus on experiences in the real-world

3. Data-informed: Our solution is designed from big data on local job markets to provide candidates with career and learning recommendations with real-time labour market information

4. Human-centred: Our solution incorporates live coaching and peer support to help candidates define their goals and navigate the journey to achieving them

Simply put, our vision is to create a world where the outlier story of the kid from nothing becoming CEO or President becomes commonplace – to create a model that systematically allows every person, no matter their place of birth or family conditions, has the choice and the chance to go after any opportunity in the world – be that a job at McKinsey, starting a business, or becoming a social entrepreneur.

Our audacious goal is to achieve a 10x improvement for all stakeholders (candidates, employers, and providers) specifically through driving a 2.5x improvement in education and employment outcomes 2x faster and at 50% the cost. By then, we aim to be present on 5 continents powering 5,000,000 people every year.

Our vision is innovative in that it fundamentally re-imagines our current models by introducing a debt-free, degree-free, lecture-free model of skills development and opportunity matching that questions key current assumptions and opens up opportunities to segments of population normally shut out of the system. AudaciousYou is transformative in that it takes a holistic (rather than a point solution) approach to a complex challenge by having committed employers such as Deloitte, Royal Bank of Canada, and TD, as well as governments, at the table.

The integration of science, technology, data, and human experience, as core components to our solution, is unique in the future of work & learning markets. We are building the Google Maps for the Future of Work and Learning with the design framework of an experience navigator. We believe that most technology solutions approach this problem as building the Amazon or Netflix of learning - a content recommendation problem, but the reality of the issue reveals that it is much more like building the Google Maps - an experience navigation problem.

Technology is at the core of AudaciousYou’s solution. Our platform powers candidates through the end-to-end journey of discovery, development, and placement. It begins with a holistic assessment of the candidate. A Personalized Plan is then generated based on that baseline profile which then informs the learning and skills development journey of candidates through real-world challenges and supported by peers and coaches. Finally, the platform helps match candidates to opportunities best suited to their capabilities at partner employers, and is supported by our access to real-time labour market information, amplified through our machine learning algorithm.

Our organization’s top three goals over the next year are as follows:

1. Technology: Build out all the modules on the technology platform to all for end-to-end user experience management – from application to upfront assessment of readiness and skills to powering the learning and skill development journey to supporting the placement of candidates with employers.
2. Data: Develop, test, and refine AI algorithms based on both user and expert feedback to achieve and/or surpass human-level recommendation accuracy. 
3. Partnerships: Maintain existing and develop new relationships with employers, governments, and funders to scale our model.

In five years, our audacious goal is to achieve a 10x improvement for all stakeholders specifically through driving a 2.5x improvement in education and employment outcomes 2x faster and at 50% the cost. By then, we aim to be present on five continents powering 5,000,000 people every year.

Integrating technology and AI/ML at the core allows for scalability, real time feedback, and constant improvements over time. We have also worked to embed what verified research (e.g. science of learning and assessments) into the solution without sacrificing its potential for scalability.

Our solution is both flexible and accessible globally to all candidates - anyone can participate from anywhere whether they are in school, working, or somewhere in-between. The experience is virtual, can be mobile, and supported by video meetings with peers and coaches. In our first pilot, we have already had applicants from 3 different continents.

Our deployment strategy focuses on working with national / regional / local employers, governments, and civic institutions to build a 'higher resolution' map in their region and then rolling out to high-priority populations.

• Over 50% of applicants to AudaciousYou identify with diversity groups

• Over 80% of our applicants report income levels 25%-60% below the roles our employer partner hire our candidates for

• 100% of top employers in the market have validated our Skills Framework as focusing on the capabilities that matter most to success in the new economy

Our first pilot, the Future Skills Accelerator, is serving 100 candidates by providing them deep, dedicated, wrap-around supports ending with a guaranteed interview with one of our partner employers.

In the next 12 months, we aim to serve over 1,000 candidates in underserved populations looking for a career at a leading employer. In three years' time, we hope to be present in three continents serving 500,000 people annually through both consumer and enterprise offerings.

We will be serving through a combination of direct-to-consumer and B2B offerings that enable to navigate to the next stage of their journey.

Our team is fully suited across a wide range of skills and experiences, including social enterprise, innovation strategy, product development, data, policy, and research. 

Our CEO and Founder, Hamoon Ekhtiari has significant experience and expertise in the future of work and learning space as a consultant, entrepreneur, and executive.

We are supported by an Advisory Board that includes a 3-time Premier, a 2-time University President, and a leading VC among others.

We are a purpose-driven for-profit organization that generates revenue in the following ways:

1. Income Sharing: Instead of requiring candidates to pay upfront, we created a debt-free model in which they share a percentage of future income with us once they land their next opportunity.

2. Subscription: We aim to offer a paid subscription service where users are issued challenges based on their profile to help them develop the skills they need to succeed in the future.

3. SaaS: We are engaged in conversations with enterprises interested in leveraging our platform for their reskilling and upskilling programs which we would offer under a SaaS licensing agreement.

We are applying to Solve because our solution is well-suited in design and timing to leverage the Solve reward, recognition, mentorship, and advisory supports to help scale the solution globally - an area where Solve would be uniquely positioned to support us through.

We believe Solve could be a dynamic partner as we pursue an audacious goal over the next two years particularly in a space that requires operating at the intersection of markets and impact.

The most significant barrier for us is to be able to build AudaciousYou as a truly impact-first venture at scale.

We have a pretty clear and comfortable path as a business venture, with support from VCs, targeting enterprise customers, and perhaps with a thin layer of impact on top.

While that is a path many solutions take these days, our ambition is to avoid that comfortable trap. At the same time, we don't want to sacrifice the potential for scale - a trade-off many impact-led ventures face.

This is where Solve, with its networks and capabilities, can most significantly help.