b1gplay

Passion and Purpose

…are the tenets that define me. Little did I know in 1999, that my first paper on child labour in Uganda was a manuscript that would nurture an international development journey and ignite my deeper-rooted hunger for social impact. Beyond addressing the rights of vulnerable children, this path unleashed a commitment to effecting positive change in all aspects of my personal and professional life. 

The grit I displayed as a thirteen-year old professional basketball player in southern Italy, the wonder and amazement of a non-English speaking high-school student matriculating at the United World College in the US, and my role as husband and father, my greatest privilege and duty, is all built upon opportunity. It is this opportunity that I want to explore in others and it is the power of potential that has led me to be the proud founder of b1gplay.

Fifty percent of Sub-Saharan Africa is below 18 years of age. Children, especially girls, suffer from multi-dimensional deprivations. In Uganda, 90% of children enroll in primary school and never finish secondary school. 

b1gplay is a digital platform built to transform a social network into a global movement for talent identification and cross-continental recognition and promotion. We link under-exposed youth to coaches, recruiters and educational institutions, as well as global brands by leveraging innate athleticism. With exponential user growth, the platform will utilize crowd-generated rankings and individual metrics to display an athlete's potential. Fueled by social engagement, our solution will integrate AI to predict an athlete's rank and prospects for the relevant customer. 

With a strong focus on adolescents from under-resourced communities, b1gplay is a safe space designed to democratize talent identification and shatter inter-generational poverty traps by beginning with sport and eventually disrupt other areas like music and the arts.

Problem: School completion rates in Africa are dismal. Statistics for girls are markedly worse.

Every year 1,600,000 Ugandan children enroll in primary school. 600,000 "survive" to primary 7. An even smaller number successfully transitions to secondary school, and 150,000-200,000 complete secondary education. Girls are especially at risk. Strikingly, in Kampala less than 3 out of 10 girls complete secondary education. 

Adolescent girls lacking educational opportunities, training or employment face increased risks of negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes. In a study published by UNICEF in 2018, 8 out of 10 girls and young women living in Kampala’s urban slums felt heightened sadness for every day over a period of 2 weeks in the past year, that halted their routine activities. Amongst urban adolescent refugees, these numbers are likely even higher, often as a consequence of conflict-related trauma prior to their displacement. 

A window of opportunity: Adolescents in under-resourced settings like Uganda are in fact, highly resourceful. They possess grit, commitment and strong determination. What they lack is access to showcase their talent, and the ability to engage beyond their immediate environment.

Solution: b1gplay is a social network and a safe space aimed at encouraging young adolescents to chase their dreams of becoming the best athlete they can be, whilst staying on course to complete higher education.

Using personalized athletic portfolios (see picture below), crafted by users who define their individual metrics, upload visuals, and contribute personalized ratings, this platform will democratize talent identification by providing an interactive, globally accessible tool to facilitate dialogue between various customer segments (e.g. athletes, recruiters, coaches, institutions). 

Our unique value proposition is grounded on three core principles:

1. Facilitate talent identification and measurement;

2. Connect and unite the athletic community; and

3. Leave no athlete behind. 

This service is free for all athletes. Revenue generation is grounded on a subscription model targeting recruiters, institutions and brands. Athlete engagement is accessible to amateurs and professionals alike, and as user volume increases exponentially, the portal will enable predictive analytics to precisely match recruiters' needs.

Adolescent boys and girls from under-resourced communities face notable risks that render them vulnerable, socioeconomically, and otherwise. Their needs are multi-faceted and creative solutions are necessary to avoid perpetuating existing vulnerabilities.

b1gplay is such a solution. This novel platform lies at the nexus between technology and social impact. Users of the platform become a part of a community and social revolution, with opportunities to be linked to learning institutions based on their athletic potential. As new entrants into the diaspora, this new linkage has wide-reaching effects as they become able to provide remittances back home.

b1gplay democratizes talent identification and recruitment processes through talent identification camps hosted in refugee communities, urban slums, and within pre-existing youth clubs that are prevalent in LMIC communities. Most importantly, the b1gplay platform provides universal access and visibility to adolescents from under-resourced communities. 

In the absence of a fully functional platform, b1gplay has already made positive impacts on the lives of young athletes across continents. Through manual cross-posting of individual b1gplay profiles on existing social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, five b1gplay ambassadors have already received scholarship offers to complete high-school or university.

Pervasive gender discrimination and harmful social norms prevent vulnerable children and adolescents, especially girls from under-resourced communities to reach their full potential. Sadly, in Uganda, the average adolescent girl completes only 4 years of formal education.

b1gplay leverages global and local efforts to support adolescents, and young men and women from marginalized communities to attain quality learning opportunities by bridging the gap between innate athleticism and access.

b1gplay provides an interactive platform founded upon healthy community interactions to link users to educational opportunities based on athletic potential. Digital learning remains a core component for all users. 

b1gplay is the boldest idea of many. My wife refers to me as an “idea man” and recounts occasions when I created intriguing vegetable inspired food mosaics on colorful plates that our daughters devoured. Always the point guard on the basketball court, I’ve read countless player mismatches to capitalize on opponents’ weaknesses.

b1gplay was born from my natural instinct to see the forest beyond the trees. Under-inspired by traditional development initiatives, in 2016, I began scribbling user-interface designs on paper to strategically connect the dots of the African youth bulge, the digital revolution and a link for young, talented and unexposed basketball players I trained with. Though many were engaged in social media, none used this as a vehicle for promotion of their talent to create access and identify opportunities.

I realized with a supportive and encouraging fan-club comprised mainly of family and close friends that I could tap into my broad network of fellow players, coaches, and recruiters who I have interacted with over three decades playing in the US, Europe, Africa and South-East Asia. In doing so, I aim to unlock the growth potential of talented youth.

For millions of children from under-privileged communities, isolation and limited access to quality education represent insurmountable hindrances to personal growth, and the root cause at the heart of inter-generational poverty transmission.

The devastating fact about these social dynamics is that children and adolescents in under-resourced settings are extremely resourceful. They possess grit, commitment and determination. What they lack is a platform to showcase their talent, and an ability to engage beyond their immediate environment.

With nearly two decades of experience in international development, I have witnessed firsthand the injustice of privilege by virtue of where one is born. Most importantly, as a father of three talented young women and promising swimmers, I am reminded daily of the need and importance to feed their curiosities, build their confidence, and fuel their ambition.

At b1gplay, we build a bridge of exposure that fosters personal growth and delivers a gift of hope, harnessed on the vision that potential and talent should have a greater role in the formula for success and achievement.

As a global citizen with professional development experience while resident in Africa and Asia, I have a unique perspective of engagement with high-level Ministry of Finance policy dialogues that culminated with evenings where I played professional basketball games with the same youth that were targets of such a discourse. I have personal experience witnessing how lack of access limits opportunities for highly talented players that if recognized on an international stage, could play basketball and stay on course to complete secondary or tertiary education.

b1gplay’s journey begins with a basketball prototype as a minimum viable product because it is what I know best. I have developed a vast network of fellow players, coaches, recruiters and fans that are strewn worldwide and form the basis of the community platform that lies at the core of b1gplay, a transformative initiative that meets several aspects of the sustainable development goals.

As a UWC alumni, I have assembled teams and strengthened pre-existing committees in each country I have lived in to send underprivileged students, including refugee students, with great potential to pursue and complete IB education worldwide. I know how to bring the best out of individuals that aim toward a common goal and by capitalizing on technology and innovation we will begin with basketball, move to other sports and eventually take opportunity by storm and democratize talent identification that yields a continuum of success that impacts individuals and their communities.

In 2016, I started scribbling on napkins, then paper and eventually met a young computer engineering student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where I live, who inspired me to believe that he could help me build the prototype I needed to enable me to pitch this idea to any Silicon Valley contacts that would listen. 

On our family’s shoe string budget for b1gplay, I remained fixed on the prototype, and its related technology not having any clue what Python or R even meant, and obsessed with the idea that creating an interface would solve my planned trajectory for b1gplay. Working with more experienced software engineers and emptying our pockets, I didn’t quite understand why we weren’t making quicker progress. And then it dawned on me that what was missing was greater business acumen to move forward. 

I began to learn about Lean Canvas and developed a deeper understanding of our customer segments and beneficiaries. Through countless emails and telephone discussions, that remained unanswered, I found Symph and developed a partnership with this organization that would help b1gplay develop the necessary innovative tools, with improved business positioning.  

The ethos of my IB education as part of the UWC movement instilled values in me to work towards elevating humanity though the force of education. Privileged to work and live in multiple cultures, I have founded and led the work of several UWC national committees.

Unlike Malawi and Lao PDR, in Uganda I was asked to lead an already established committee with cemented habits. A significant challenge stood upon me as I opted to risk the status quo and challenge selection procedures mostly limited to Uganda’s elite education institutions and shift candidate nominations to broaden the talent pool to more corners of the country, seeking potential over performance and privilege. We worked tirelessly together to simplify the application submission process and design a broad reaching strategy aimed at empowering candidates and placing them in the driving seat.

Disrupting the UWC machine in Uganda was no easy task, but it paid off handsomely. Over five years, our number of applicants exceeded our wildest expectations, our work was applauded by the UWC movement, and our programme has grown from awarding four to five scholarships per year to an unprecedented sixteen, including an annual scholarship now dedicated to refugee children.

In early 2020 b1gplay signed a partnership agreement with Symph (https://www.symph.co/) who led the development of our sprints plan. 

At the heart of our partnership with Symph rests our passion for social justice. Our professional experience has allowed us to witness firsthand the injustice of privilege by virtue of where one is born. We share a common vision that potential and talent should have a greater role in the formula for success and achievement. 

N.B. b1gplay is envisaged as a hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit, but COVID-19 related delays have interrupted our registration.

b1gplay is one of a kind and unites various customer segments into one ecosystem. Traditional recruitment mechanisms are dominated by sports governing associations like the NCAA, or NAIA. Their talent pool is limited. 

The existing market is grounded on: (i) “traditional” recruitment characterized by US based high school student-athletes; (ii) profit-driven enterprises; and (iii) social impact groups. Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) focuses on universal placement alone, with limited interactions post-matriculation. Development groups like Giants of Africa or GrassRootSoccer, prioritize social impact through community engagement with little focus on the individual and future growth potential. Profit-driven enterprises such as SportsRecruits, Sport Unleash, Sports Thread, Gloria, or Kinduct, host profiles through tools harnessed on either user metrics or community engagement, but not both.

b1gplay is a social movement grounded upon a user’s development potential. Centered on a digital platform, b1gplay is designed to facilitate communal engagement in support of individual development and broader social impact.

b1gplay democratizes talent identification and uses communities to rate athletes' potential, not performance, a subtle distinction, but an important one. Western metrics measure performance building on years of grooming not traditionally availed to the under-resourced athlete who displays incredible prowess, despite a lack of exposure. To elaborate, the game of basketball in Africa and many other under-exposed areas is far more fluid and unstructured, thereby requiring a different approach that is more malleable with adaptable assessment criteria that more effectively identifies talent.

b1gplay is unique. We tap potential and create the link to access.

Background: Deeply rooted gender biases and discrimination have been shown to prevent children from under-resourced communities, especially girls to grow to their full potential. In Uganda, gender biases at school, compounded with harmful social norms have resulted in only 6 out of 100 girls who enroll in primary school reaching upper secondary education. Most alarmingly, on average, adolescent girls in Uganda complete only 4 years of formal education. 

Seizing the moment: The population of children on the African continent is projected to double in the blink of an eye. Dilapidated social services are being rebuilt, while national systems to deliver basic services continue to be strengthened to keep up with the growing population demand.

Changing lives: b1gplay stands for opportunities and valuing innate athletic ability to overcome socio-economic barriers to success. The vision goes far beyond individual development of basketball players, swimmers, or footballers. Capitalizing on innate athletic ability and the provision of universal visibility and access, b1gplay sets in motion a domino effect to provide greater access to educational opportunities. 

Key linkages: Users create individual profiles. Fans contribute to talent identification. Recruiters access a global menu of talent and via predictive analytics identify their “all-stars.”

Re-shaping social engagement: b1gplay aspires to foster a more empowered, educated workforce with a view to foster equitable socio-economic engagement, protection and inclusion. More athletes translate into more graduates, and more lawyers, doctors and teachers to help re-build, strengthen and revive wounded national systems weighing down on young men and women's hopes and aspirations. 

Building nations: Recruited athletes become socio-economically empowered. Their lives, their immediate families’ lives and their communities are re-shaped, as demonstrated by the picture below displaying the growth and relevance of remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries.

Success story: Claire is b1gplay’s first global ambassador. Identified at a basketball camp in Northern Uganda as a teenager, she was noticed for her agility, and within a few years she received a basketball scholarship to attend university in the US. Thereafter, Claire played professionally in Europe and was recently accepted for a Master’s degree in Biotechnology.

Using manual techniques, we have activated 761 users worldwide (see map below). Of these, nearly 200 profiles have been generated and nearly half are young women. 

By utilizing existing social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, we featured just over forty profiles, and are thrilled to announce that five b1gplay ambassadors have already received scholarship offers to complete high-school or university. Let us pause for a minute, and reflect on what our 12 percent success rate means for the one and a half million Ugandan children who cyclically drop out of school before completing secondary education. Lacking financial means or solid social support networks to stay in the system, b1gplay will bridge a portion of these young athletes to external opportunities.

As we continue developing, and prepare to launch the b1gplay platform, we anticipate exponential growth in numbers. Our five-year projections for impact are captured in the figure below.

Following our current trajectory, one year after going to market with no less than 50,000 profiled users, we anticipate 5,000 scholarship offers with 3000 targeted at the girl athlete. Driven by platform enhancements, sports diversification and a bold move to identify talent beyond the world of sports, to integrate arts and music, as an example, we project over 10,000,000 actively engaged users and no less than 700,000 direct young women beneficiaries by 2024.

Within one year, b1gplay aims to move beyond its current manual manipulations to successfully link athletes to opportunities. We aim to complete development of a minimum viable product, transition quickly to beta testing, and ultimately launch a fully functioning platform that will fuel b1gplay’s social movement. Our magic is comprised of a uniquely interactive community of players, coaches and recruiters, fans, and the media, with all parts, equally accountable for promoting and democratizing talent identification.

During year one, critical systems will be instituted. While the digital technology is being built, a vital focus will include initiatives that maintain a safe social space for young men and women, with online learning and social protection assurances for those transitioning to their new opportunities. Equally important will be nurturing of the marketing segment to foster continued uptake of users.

The b1gplay five-year goal is ambitious and revolutionary. We begin with basketball recruitment because it is what we know best. Rapidly, this democratization of talent will transfer to other sports and quickly spread to arts and music with a bold objective to link talented musicians to placements like The Juilliard School. By 2025, the b1gplay logo will be a synonym for talent and opportunity for millions of ambitious young men and women, many of whom will become drivers of change in their respective communities.

Financial. Lack of financial resources has impeded our ability to move through planned sprints to finalize our digital platform. To date, b1gplay has completed only a subset of consecutive sprint packages that are aimed at yielding a robust product. Completing additional sprints in Year 1 will yield an active platform that will support development of a novel marketplace grounded on social empowerment. These sprints include fulfillment of a comprehensive marketing strategy to enhance community participation. Staffing the marketing segment of b1gplay with a strategist who will lead a full team aimed at increasing user engagement will require additional financial inputs. As we proceed beyond year 1, our financial projections propose that in the face of linear revenue growth across three different types of marketplace subscription models, there will be greater balance between required seed funds and self-generated financial inputs.

Technical. From a technical perspective, b1gplay must move beyond our initial standing with a lean development team. In order to meet the key milestones for machine learning and AI inputs that will enhance our solution’s capabilities, several fully-fledged engineers, are needed. Identifying and then employing the right skill sets are essential to our success.

Legal and cultural. The placement of student athletes, especially young  men and women in brand new environments requires strong regulatory oversight to ensure that critical protection frameworks are in place. This is an immediate need and cannot be under-emphasized as an urgent priority and a potential barrier. Refining these measures over time will be essential.

Some barriers for b1gplay, mentioned above, can be overcome with diligent research and attention to the various customers and their needs to predict what is essential for growth. Other barriers, however, like the current COVID-19 pandemic, are grossly unpredictable. The impact of limited inter-continental travel must be met creatively as our digital platform matures and adapts to our post-COVID existence. Ultimately, all barriers will be met by welcoming curated experts and cultivating this community to support alignment to the prioritized growth areas. It is the spirt of partnership and magic of collaboration that will allow us to overcome both anticipated and unpredictable barriers.

On marketing, we will aggressively seek an employee base that is understanding of our transformative mission in order to position b1gplay as a vibrant space. We aim to bring together traditionally fragmented customer segments into a heterogeneous marketplace through emphatic efforts to increase our user base of athletes by leveraging strategic global hot spots, based on our existing networks while developing partnerships beyond the world of sports. These include protection and social assistance services that will support users in a non-traditional digital manner. Such an approach will fuel user engagement, while quantifying and documenting value addition to recruiting institutions and customers at large. The latter focus on client satisfaction is expected to yield sustained growth in both our customer base of recruiting institutions and revenue streams.

Partnerships and strategic engagement play a central role in b1gplay's mission to unite customer segments, in an otherwise fragmented marketplace. In this regard, we continue to seek like-minded partners to foster our vision and provide children and adolescents with a global stage to promote innate talent, on a foundation of equity, with a view to support future generations to grow to their full potential.  

The picture above provides a snapshot of existing partnerships that include an array of academies that promote youth development through athletics, as well as national federations such as FUBA (Federation of Uganda Basketball Association). We value a healthy mix of heterogeneous partners. b1gplay brings together North America and Africa based organizations, with vastly different institutional architectures and a broad spectrum of operational approaches, that yields a truly global perspective in the interpretation of the problem we aspire to solve.  At this juncture, we wish to highlight, in particular, our partnership with the Peace Champs Initiative. Following the war in South Sudan, Uganda became home to over one million South Sudanese refugees. Over time, b1gplay has supported the Peace Champs Initiative to organize the "Play4Peace" tournament, a momentous occasion where South Sudanese young adolescents come together, and play together, in the name of peace.

Our business model is anchored on a premise that young athletes, especially girls in developing markets are not easily identifiable to schools and recruiters who lack insights into these talented clients. b1gplay unites customer segments that co-exist in a fragmented market. The recruitment industry remains fractured, ignoring asymmetries in information from these under-explored markets. In Africa numerous skilled athletes are left behind.  No digital platform enables user athletes, media, fans and agents to engage as one community to foster promotion for broader exposure of student-athletes.

b1gplay’s value proposition is harnessed upon a virtual marketplace that links talented users to global sports recruitment. By optimizing ratings that are user-centric and community driven, profile creation with static and video uploads will be visible to coaches and recruiters. With the exponential growth of users, predictive analytics will enable identification of premiere talent, of greatest value to the corporate customer segment.

Academic institutions in the USA deliver 3.5bn USD in athletic scholarships annually with average investments near $300,000 USD on recruitment, alone. Exceptions such as the University of Kentucky are reported to invest close to 50,000 USD monthly.  Successful recruitment of a top player yields substantial financial gains with some players generating over six million US dollars annually.

b1gplay is an unprecedented investment opportunity. Recruiting institutions access a global talent pool. Simultaneously, young athletes are provided with an interactive tool in a safe space, complete with digital-learning possibilities and ultimately a stage, and a conduit toward educational opportunities capitalizing on innate athletic ability.

The Elevate Prize provides an excellent opportunity to unlock the potential of b1gplay's revenue stream, which is contingent on the development of a functioning platform. Full platform development will take between four to six months. We will continuously test and validate our primary assumptions that our business model optimizes engagement with all customer segments. Initial seed investment for platform development will be supplemented within six months of active operation by revenues from subscription models, without ever charging the primary user, the student athlete.

Mindful of the interconnection between fixed and variable costs, b1gplay will record net profits by twelve months. Fixed costs are primarily associated with platform development and management. Variable costs are expected to vary in lieu of sales and marketing operations aimed at deepening the customer base (i.e. recruiting institutions and brands), as well as targeted events to promote our user base (i.e. athletes) through camps, tournaments, or exhibition games.  

The figure above provides a conservative financial projection factoring in 100,000 USD seed funding in the face of linear revenue growth across three different types of marketplace subscription models: Individual, institutional, and brand sponsorship. This broad spectrum of services was carefully crafted to cater for a wide variety of customers, including agents, coaches and recruiters working in isolation or on behalf of established institutions. We anticipate visible interest from high flying brands committed to support and pioneer talent identification efforts on the basis of corporate strategies to grow market appropriation and penetration, as well as corporate responsibility.

No existing funding on record. The b1gplay adventure is only just
getting started.

Having manually developed and validated our proof of concept, b1gplay stands at a critical juncture in our journey to provide a unique vehicle for young athletes to showcase their talent, and capitalize on innate athletic ability in search for better education opportunities.

In addition to this funding opportunity, we are leveraging our regional and global networks to identify additional platforms from like-minded organizations who believe in our potential to drive social change.

In terms of product development, the sky is our limit. A carefully crafted series of consecutive sprint packages are expected to yield a robust, scalable product. At a bare minimum, we have estimated that three consecutive sprint efforts at a cost of 30,000-40,000 USD each would be sufficient to develop a mature product to boldly penetrate existing recruitment networks, thereby re-defining customer and beneficiary engagement in a novel marketplace grounded on social empowerment and the democratization of talent identification. 

Such efforts are expected to be complemented by a host of corollary grant investments to monitor and document the social success stories of our young athletes. We will seek additional grants from our partners wishing to host on-line learning content with an engaged audience of young men and women. We anticipate that our future corporate strategic partnerships will leverage CSR funds.

The lion's share of our projected 2020 cost structure is grounded on platform development and management which will cost $120,000. Building on the sprint structure outlined previously, 2020 will also entail a bold marketing strategy for promotion of our efforts to grow and foster community participation and engagement. This will cost $60,000 USD. 

A vibrant b1gplay community embodies the essence of our success. And showcasing b1gplay's value proposition with a communication strategy that documents each success story through the eyes of our young athletes will cost $30,000 USD. These costs are in addition to our planned bold and targeted marketing efforts alluded to previously which are expected to provide solid foundations to grow the customer base and our revenue stream.  Notably, in 2020 we also aspire to initiate and foster strategic partnerships aimed at ensuring a smooth and safe transition to higher education opportunities. Innovative, visionary organizations such as Maarifasasa will play a significant role in generating digital learning content for our athletes awaiting their opportunity. For the content we aim to pay for, we anticipate spending $35,000 USD. Our annual costs for 2020 will be $245,000.

Financial barrier. The Elevate Prize would enable b1gplay to complete its final sprint and lay the foundation for our prototype MVP, an interactive platform hosting athletes, with profiles and metrics that have been previously maintained on simple spreadsheets. Hiring a full-time software developer will ensure we enter beta testing by the close of 2020. Once the MVP is live, our business model will need revisiting to ensure the right priorities are in place. b1gplay will require a marketing strategist to build a marketing team mandated to boost community engagement and nurture a viable customer base. Simultaneously, a social protection strategy will be crafted with related staff embedded in this nascent organization to leverage exposure and support young athletes along the continuum of recruitment to placement while fostering cultural integration and development of new opportunities for exposure of untapped athletic talent. This transformative model requires broadminded financing that acknowledges the spark that will yield a glowing flame of potential not just for featured athletes but for all talented individuals who only require a bridge of exposure to opportunity.

While b1gplay has developed numerous partners to date, they are largely
representative of the supply side of our prototype. Engagement with partners
from our proposed customer segment, including individuals, institutions or
brands would allow us to craft more meaningful solutions that are not only
viable but sustainable in a changing ecosystem. At this stage in our
development, we would be most appreciative of an element core to the Solve community. Tapping into your breadth of advisors will validate our vision and enrich our product.

As a solution at prototype phase, access to funding has been a challenge for us at b1gplay. Our mission and motivation are founded upon a desire to positively transform communities. Access to capital whose basis is anchored upon social impact is our desire. As such, pitching our idea to partners such as the Nike Foundation to assess partnership potential would be exhilarating. Girl Effect, for instance, the initiative developed by the Nike Foundation represents a natural fit for b1gplay. Together, through our proposed platform, we aspire to change deeply rooted social dynamics and harmful gender norms by creating a movement to empower the athlete to access opportunities for learning and growth. Through the Solve network, an introduction to Maria Eitel would be a great leap forward in identifying like-minded individuals, organizations and potential partners to see our vision through.