Panzofi

New generations are used to social networks and the way they communicate. A social network focused on education may solve the following problems:

• Low completion rate of courses or educational resources.
• Lack of personalized content and educational content with more engagement.
• High costs of creating educational.

 The solution is a free collaborative learning network:

• The completion rate will improve if the content is entertaining and participation is promoted among users by creating and interacting with the community.
• Through AI, users can access to personalized content due to the interaction between the community.
• Costs can decrease if the community contributes to each other and works collaboratively to share knowledge.

Panzofi will change lives in Latam, due to the high social media's penetration, to the limited education access and the educational habits. Panzofi seeks a more friendly and inclusive learning without language, topic, educational level or age barriers.

Nowadays, there is not a consolidated education platform that works like a social network for Spanish speakers with the following benefits:  

• Free. 
• 100% inclusive. 
• Allows active collaboration. 
• Instead of entertaining, it helps to educate.

In the world there are 130 million Spanish-speaking people who are able to learn due to age and access to the internet (source: Platzi). However, not everyone has access to a quality education, there is no culture of learning autonomously and there is no personalized educational content (based on region, community, background and capabilities).

According to Hoot-suite's 'Digital report 2020'. Latin America has a high penetration in social networks. However, communities are mostly using them for entertainment, but not for learning.

In addition, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are having a low completion rate, they do not have personalized content and it is very expensive to create quality content.

The platform is a Marketplace that allows interaction between two markets (educational content creators and educational content consumers). Through certain features and rules within the platform, people will be able to learn any topic faster, and find personalized content according to their interactions, behavior and participation (machine learning). Communities will be able to learn in a better way.

The platform has two main sections, the theoretical content and the practical content. The theoretical content can be uploaded by a teacher or an expert on a topic. The practical content can be uploaded by anyone to share experiences and more knowledge, refuting and complementing the theoretical content seen. In both, various formats can be integrated (video, text, audio or infographics). Thus, the community can interact to create a sense of belonging and be more active.

The platform is initially a Web App, but in the future it would also be a mobile application. The web app is using micro services in AWS and is developed in Django and React. 

For more information go to the following link : How does Panzofi work?

The solution is the bridge of two markets: 

1. People who are creating educational content either for economic reasons, to promote their own services, to offer courses, to obtain reputation or to contribute to the community. 
2. People who are looking for educational content on the internet for free.

The platform can be used by teachers, professionals in any area, students, universities, colleges, businesses and government institutions to create educational content. On the other hand, it can be used by any citizen interested in learning something new or reinforcing knowledge and teaching what they know about a certain topic (Empirically / Professionally). They have the possibility of moving as an apprentice and creator if they wish. They only need internet connection and a device. 

Panzofi wants to support those creators of educational content, having into account that many of these are overshadowed by digital entertainment trends. Therefore, we are interviewing online educational creators from different digital platforms to address their needs and to improve the App's features to create more value and new services.

Finally, to help those people who want to learn something new, but they must consult different pages, enroll in different courses and pay subscriptions to access the content.

We are creating an innovative way to teach and learn online with a new social network focus on education. Taking into account that in Latam there is a gap in education's quality in some regions, however some communities that have basic resources are using social networks or are connected through internet. The solution attends to promote inclusive education without restrictions, supporting educational content creators with higher reputationand an exclusive plattform, where the social component will be critical to learn collaboratively. It is a new way to connect those communities and support each other.

The Platform is the second version we have developed. The web app is functional and stable. The last months we were focused on getting partnerships and content creators. We have received positive feedback from users and educational content creators.

Today, we have more than 70 short courses on a variety of topics, more than 100 registered users (20 correspond to content creators and the others to people interested in consuming the Web App) and 5,000 monthly visitors from Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Peru and Ecuador mainly. We are growing 10% on average the last 3 months. One of the content creators has 2 million subscribers in YouTube, another creator has more than 200,000 followers in TikTok, and other creators are consolidating their work and communities on different platforms.

In addition, we are starting to create our own content to encourage community to participate and interact with the platform.

Technology is crucial to give access none stop to education, where the only thing that is needed is a device and the internet. As users, new generations have seen the power of social media to connect and entertain people. These benefits and advantages can be replicated in an education platform if the characteristics of the platform are used to learn and teach in a better way.

Due to Big Data and Machine Learning, education can be personalized. As social networks show the most appropriate content for each user. Panzofi in a long term is aiming the same result, but for an education approach.

As we are starting, some content creators are skeptical or don't upload content easily. The platform would solve these problems as soon as we can have the 'Network effect'. Where more content creators will attract more users and the opposite. With massive content the community will be more engage and collaborate each other.

To highlight, Panzofi proposes the diversification of formats, theoretical and practical content in one place, interaction of community members (Creators and learners) on education issues in any branch. A learning and teaching method where the focus of acquiring knowledge is prioritized, over entertainment dynamics without a focus on the development of skills and contribution to the society.

We are using the best practices for software development. The architect is based on multi services in Amazon cloud services (AWS). We are using React for the front-end and for the next stages in the road map we want to create mobiles app. On the back-end we are using Django focusing on python big data  and AI capabilities. 

The multi services will allow us to escalate faster on demand. 

Coursera has services on Amazon.

Platzi and Crehana last year gained more funds. 

Domestika is also growing. 

The companies described previously are developing their apps through different cloud providers and technologies. 

We are using platforms that have the highest standards such as Amazon, where some kind of risk can be presented against hacker attacks or in terms of development; However, We can reduce these risks with methodologies or software development that protects these vulnerabilities, as well as support with cloud storage services to reinforce security protocols.

In the same way, risk will be reduced by forming an experienced development team and finally, by constantly informing us about the best practices in the market.

Panzofi has near of 130 million potentials users in LATAM. Currently, in the last months it has obtained a number of registered users of more than 100 people (20 content creators and others as consumers) and 5,000 people interested in the stored content (Web traffic).

In one year, Panzofi plans to obtain 500 registered users and 20,000 interested people who browse and consume the platform and its contents (Web traffic). While in the next 5 years, it is expected to expand the community to 2,500 registered users and 100,000 in the flow of people who visit, navigate and interact with the educational content of Panzofi.

Some of the main goals for the next year are: 

• Implement improvements to the platform focused on functionalities for Education
• Obtain 5,000 registered users and 200,000 interested people who browse and consume the platform and its contents (Web traffic)
• Expand the content creators allies (Institutions, independent educational creators) 
• Obtain financing resources
• Generate content on demand and business services.
• Expand the recognition and use of the Panzofi community to more markets in LATAM countries.
• Increase the Panzofi team members to continue improving the service (backend and frontend developers, support staff, AWS specialist, graphic designer, marketing specialist, etc.).

For the next five years:

• Expand the community to 400,500 registered users and 2,000,000 in the flow of people who visit, navigate and interact.
• Launch new functionalities or update and improve existing functionalities and continue to improve the stability of the platform
• Build alliances with more institutions and creators of entertaining educational content.
• Expand the financing resources obtained.
• Expand the recognition and use of the Panzofi community to more markets, now in central America and Spain.
• Reinforce the skills and knowledge of the team and acquire better tools and workspaces.

To achieve these goals will be determined by the work of the team members who carry out different functions promoting the platform, its functionalities and the importance of consolidating a teaching and learning community for Spanish-speakers with free access and entertaining content. In addition, the growth opportunities offered by different organizations and training, financing and growth spaces for entrepreneurs.

Through statistics offered by the different platforms and/or digital tools used, such as: Facebook Ads and Google Analytics, as well as constant conversations with potential users (content creators, institutions and consumers).

We are using KPIs as registered users, bounce rate, traffic, average time in courses, how many content creators, costs vrs revenue, Customer acquisition, revenue generated for traffic, among others.

• 2 full time staff - founder and growth leader.
• 2 part time staff - Visual designer and digital marketing manager.
• 2 mentors.

The people who are part of the team is diverse, with previous knowledge in different areas that contribute to the construction of solutions for Panzofi, such as: systems engineering and experience in offering technology services for companies and multinationals; creative and design skills for brand building and recognition, as well as constantly testing international negotiation skills. In addition to the above, people in constant training and acquisition of new skills and learning about EdTech and Startups topics.

The inclusion of members who contribute significantly to Panzofi's proposal from different areas of knowledge, level of experience in the labor field and teamwork dynamics, with interests in acquiring new skills and constantly learning, without restriction of age (+18), culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, level of experience, educational background, etc.

The Tprize will give us visibility and publicity so that more citizens from different countries use the platform. The recognition that the award has would help us gain momentum in the market and also with allies (Content creators and users).

In addition, the award would help us to consolidate the development team and not have limitations when hiring qualified people, but who require an equivalent salary.

• We need to get more recognition, as well as support of experts in educational field as MIT. 
• We need to iterative the app so we can get more value to our users. 
• We need to attract more content creators and with the MIT recognition, it will help us.

• Universities in Latin America.
• Government entities that want to support entrepreneurship and that see value in it.
• Education companies that are experts in education and that use the platform as a bridge to connect with potential clients.