Fyllan - FILL IN

Fyllan's entire purpose is to help underrepresented communities thrive through tech. We have seen first-hand how black owned businesses can't compete with large corporate chains due to lack of technology. Major chains have the deep pockets needed purchase SAAS products which are a huge benefit to businesses. Our solution is to provide this tech, free of charge, to small businesses so they have the same advantages. Our platform can be implemented in every service based small business to help increase their margins and in turn, profits. If our platform was utilized by all BIPOC owned small businesses, it would keep the money within the neighborhoods they serve and allow their communities to flourish.

Lack of innovative, advanced, time-saving, money-generating tech. Minority owned businesses don't have the access or financial capital to acquire these tech solutions. This is the problem we're solving.

We are in an era where technology plays a significant role in running a business. Everything from scheduling apps, to POS systems, to CRM's...etc. are not only significant, but crucial in running a successful business nowadays. In order to compete / survive, business owners need to implement as many of these third-party services & applications to help run their businesses as possible. Not only do many of these services save hours and hours of time, many of them actually help generate additional income.

The problem is that only the large, corporate backed chain businesses can actually afford these solutions. Minority owned businesses are already working on such thin margins, there is not even a thought in investing in some of these solutions. The playing field is not level and we intend to change that.

Fyllan is a platform that allows small businesses to monetize time through dynamic pricing. We introduce the concept of pre paying for goods or services with the variable of time.

Businesses now will have the control to request a minimum spend on their goods or services based on time. Restaurants can require a pre payment minimum spend of $50 per person when making a reservation during “peak” time. Alternatively, they can offer discounts or promotions when reserving during “off-peak” times.

This is all configured in the host app and is extremely versatile. Owners can set their pricing for specific days and times on a static schedule. Or they can change the pricing in real-time if they choose.

With our double-sided marketplace, we allow customers to also monetize their time on the guest app. If the $50 minimum spend the restaurant requires doesn’t meet the customers value, they can choose a different time and rate that meets their value requirements. This creates a win-win.

These are app based platforms and don’t require businesses to change any existing services or procedures they have previously implemented.

We use the example of restaurants but this is created for all small businesses across many industries.

We at Fyllan are all minorities and have in one way or another experienced racism. Whether it be on the playground as children or professionally as adults, we know first-hand the challenges minorities have in America. We also love and support our communities of color. We value the importance of supporting our local "mom-and-pop" businesses in our neighborhoods where we live. So it only makes sense that our mission is to help this population that has given so much to our communities of color. This is our target population and is vast in hundreds of cities across the country.

When the Starbucks opened across the street from our local coffee shop owned and run by employees who live in our neighborhood, we heard the concerns from the owner. Aside from being a powerhouse, Starbucks had order-ahead technology, NFC POS systems and other technological advances they couldn't complete with. The local coffee shop owner explained how they had looked into these options but the pricing was just something they couldn't afford. This was a common concern in many small businesses we spoke with.

When discussing options to solve this problem, we knew that we wanted to provide a service free of charge and we wanted to provide something that would directly increase their profits. Studies show that when local owned businesses thrive, those communities they service also prosper by keeping the money in their neighborhoods. While it is known that the majority of money generated from large corporate chain stores, leaves the community. This is how and why we developed the Fyllan platform.

Our solution directly aligns with the Challenge of Antiracist Technology in the US in a number of ways;

The Problem - The communities of color that we are servicing, lack the technology to advance racial equity and access economic opportunity their white counterparts have access to. This is the direct problem Fyllan is solving.

The Solution - The Challenge asks solutions to be based around technology which ours does. Our solution includes 2 apps and very advanced programming behind the scenes.

Target Population - We are targeting BIPOC business owners in the US.

Although we have deployed this solution as a test in NYC restaurants, we are very much still building and testing the service. We have working apps that are on the Apple app store and have successfully tested our service with a number of restaurants. We are in the process of updating the UI for our apps.

Our solution introduces some pretty novel ideas;

• Pre-paying: We didn't invent pre-paying for goods or services but for many of the industries we're serving, it's never been done.
• Dynamic Pricing: Similarly, dynamic pricing exists in the hospitality industry but never been done in the industries we're targeting.

These are super novel ideas we are implementing within the small businesses we're servicing, but the real innovation is in our business model. Offering our platform with these novel ideas mentioned above in itself is revolutionary but where our model differs from any other SAAS product out there is the fact that we provide it free. Instead of charging the businesses a fee to use our platform, we charge the customer a small fee to use the service.

We understand this is a novel approach and will require some education, but we know it is the future. Customers will understand that there is a value directly related to their time. Currently, no one hesitates when they see airfare or hotel rooms dynamically priced based on day of the week or time of year and Fyllan is the catalyst to introduce this concept to other industries. Our roadmap is vast and we expect to dramatically change the market with our solutions.

Currently, over 300 users and over 30 businesses.

In five years, we hope to be serving over 50,000 businesses and over 25 million users.

Since we are in the beginning stages, the current measurable indicators come in the form of the conversations we're having with black business owners. The excitement and interest in our platform when we explain it to them.

Future measurable indicators of course will be the number of businesses who are 1) using our platform and 2) increasing their margins. It's not enough to see that 80% of small businesses in a certain area are using our platform, we want to know that they are also maximizing their profits through the app. Part of our service is to make sure they are utilizing the technology the best of it's ability.

Full time - Elias Li

6 Part-time staff

• Al Okyne
• Stephanie Lau
• Soon Van
• Henry Paulino
• Steven Hoober
• Jayme Markus

As mentioned earlier, our entire team consists of minorities. We have first-hand experience in the problem we are solving. We are passionate about solving the problem and truly believe in Fyllan.

This is not our first business for any of us but it is different. Previously, we were all (separately) involved with businesses who's priority was to make profit - which is very normal. But with Fyllan, our approach has always been, "how do we make our world a better place?". And this has guided all the decisions we've made and our roadmap to change the world.

Our leadership team being diverse, equal and inclusive was somewhat created by happenstance. Just like any business, as we grew, we tried fill roles with the most qualified candidates - regardless of their backgrounds. Through trial and error, we found that the team that is ultimately in place today is made up of the same people we are building our platform for. And this is why it works.

In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that the people who are the most passionate about what we are building come from the communities we are building it for. We certainly didn't intend to exclude non-minorities from our team, it just so happened that our Asian, Black and Women candidates' values were more in line with what we are trying to build at Fyllan.

So our future approach to expanding our team will build on what we learned. Seeking out candidates who are BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Women and other underrepresented groups over an impressive resume.

To be quite honest, we have looked at other grant options but MIT's Solve solution is the only one who's benefits are more than funding. YES, we'd absolutely love a grant but we feel that there is more value in being a part of a community of social impact leaders.

If we were so honored to be selected, the grant would help move things ahead at a much faster pace. Specifically, complete the development of our new platform. Secondly, we'd immerse ourselves in the 9-month program and help strengthen our business through your support. 

We would love to work with community leaders and thought leaders to reach the communities of color around the country to get this platform into the communities that could benefit the most.

We would love to work with other groups who are passionate about helping communities of color build a more equitable future by leveraging technology. 

This is a very complex problem and will require many stakeholders and resources. We would love to work with social impact investors, technology leaders who can help with advice on how best to leverage software development to solve this problem and data scientists that can help us model the solution to truly leverage time as the main asset to be dynamically priced.

Partnering with Solve Members would be beneficial to bounce ideas off each other and again, just be part of the community of social impact businesses.

MIT is a great resource in terms of technology and business school graduates. We would love to work with faculty and students who can help us shape the future where technology can bring forth true income equality. 

Our solution is 100% for the advancement of economic opportunity in communities. Fyllan will be implemented in minority owned small businesses across the US to help those businesses and their communities. HP can be a great technology partner with their expertise to help all local communities with their hardware needs.

Having additional resources will help us develop our platform and cloud infrastructure. Getting HP as a partner will help us with recruitment of developers and engineers.

Our platform solution will use a AI algorithm that will automatically determine the best price for time slots based on historic usage, current demand, local weather conditions, and other factors. This algorithm will help determine the optimal price for time slots. This dynamic price can be used for ALL and help communities of color where they can gain higher margins. By leveraging this platform, we can close the income inequality gap.

We can use the resources to attract and hire better data scientist to help us develop this AI algorithm. We're looking to leverage data science to benefit society as a whole and not to hoard data for our own uses. By following the concept of Economics of Mutuality, we believe that all stakeholders to a company should have a mutual benefit in regards to their relationship with the company. Having an AI algorithm that works for both the small businesses and users is critical. Intention is very much at the base of what we're trying to accomplish. Our mission is to leverage technology and make it available to everyone in order to benefit all of society to be able to monetize their time and close that income inequality gap.