Agaru

1 in 10 people worldwide work in hospitality (World Travel and Tourism Council), all affected by the same issue: expertise cannot be quantified as the skills necessary are considered 'soft' and 'unmeasurable'. Without a tangible record of performance staff has limited access to better wages, promotions or upward mobility. And as COVID has shown, without staff, any enterprise is just a pile of bricks. 

Our solution is asking hospitality patrons to help us quantify the skill of the staff, creating a transportable record. 

Current approaches (like LinkedIn or Tripadvisor)  only benefit the enterprises, not the staff. Nobody cares what happens to the staff after they leave the company.  Our job is to help people help themselves by offering feedback, training, and proof of their skill. A record would mean access to loans, credits, training, promotions or new and better jobs. 

Lack of recognition of skills acquired outside academia and institutions is a major problem that transcends industries but particularly blatant in hospitality. Billions of staff everywhere face the same challenge of proving their talent beyond time spent working somewhere. Government records or industry records do not show skill level and acquired expertise. 

Our approach is simple, based on direct customer voting.

Customers vote on any customer service interaction, creating a record of the quality of the interaction. This vote is recorded on a database, and added to create a personal record. 

We provide enterprises with an aggregate of the staff performance on a daily / weekly / monthly basis to create customer satisfaction metrics.

With this record vocational aptitude can be spotted, and those lagging behind trained or monitored closely for improvement. 
The staff owns the data and can always opt out. We provide individual scores for the staff, aggregates for the companies and teams.
Customers are rewarded for their participation in feedback process. Its a win-win-win

In addition, we will share up to +80% of our profits with the participants (customers and staff) to fuel the growth and encourage fair participation in the value of the platform.

Agaru works as webapp so no need for software,  simple to use. All we need is the place and name of the customer service / hospitality staff and the rating. 

We  currently use a simple database, but we hope to integrate with distributed ledger applications, to make data easily shareable, independent third party verifiable.

We target Frontline Hospitality staff in particular, but the scope  of our project can cover anyone involved in customer service interactions, or even within organizations.  We are starting in the developing world where there is little trust on government and institutions.

 We are inspired by a famous Anthropologist researcher that lived with crack dealers in El Barrio to understand why would anyone do it. It's dangerous, pay is terrible, stressful. Turns our that they do it for one thing: Respect. Money was fine, but the respect of their peers and society is what the dealers really wanted. Isn't that what we all want?

We work closely within the industry, with our funder having been in hospitality for over 20 years now. We understand well the challenges, frustrations, and similarities of frontline hospitality work everywhere.  

We are currently developing grassroots community within the trade by offering resources and guides for staff self-education (mental health, product knowledge, sales training, etc). This has proven a popular resource with the trade. 

A tangible, third party validated record of their skill (job aptitude) means giving people the equivalent of a college education at 1/100000th of the price and in a format that is  more appropriate and accessible to everyone.
With a record we can attest of the aptitude and attitude of the person towards work, their ability to learn + adapt,  therefore future employability and income potential. While money is one proxy for respect, to have respect and recognition from others based on skill and talent is far superior for self-satisfaction. 

Ultimately we think that Meritocracy, not politics, should make the difference between rich and poor. We will bring hard working people everywhere what they deserve: Respect and dignity.  Cannot be bought or sold. It will be built by the talent and effort of the individual. We will make it tangible.

In Hospitality work the skills acquired  are considered 'unknowable and unmeasurable' by academia and the trade, yet billions of people and dollars depend on good performance. Right now everyone flies blind.

Our ethos is to have the talent of good performers be recognized and help them gain access to opportunities that are currently impossible due precisely to the lack of metrics of skill. 

Our solution is simple to use, simple to deploy, requires minimal effort from all parties and will revolutionize the trade. We can't seize the means of production but we will seize and control our data.

We have formed a solid product, it works as intended and we have had data coming in from 15 countries for hundreds of staff around the world. 
We are still looking for places willing to try out the system, but the trade is notoriously adverse to technology for the most part. 

We will launch a contest in Mexico this september, with the hopes of finding the talent of the country, starting in the Mayan Riviera. 

Our solution:

Objective Feedback of performance → build skill
Rewarded customer participation → engagement
Rewarded staff participation → engagement and ownership
Claim attestation  → trusted digital reputation
Objective feedback → beyond work politics
Digital ID --> Open possibilities to access other services online 
Recognition of skill →loyalty and lowered turnover Tangible record of skill → Long term opportunities for staff

Better customer service leads to better economic development and tourism returns

All this adds to a win-win-win scenario and better customer satisfaction

Our service will both change the market and enable broader positive impact.

Our solution holistically approaches SDGs 1, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 16

SDG Goals targeted applicable:
#1 No poverty; allowing measurable merit and effort to help people help themselves
#8 Decent work and economic growth; by giving agency to staff, access to better paying jobs
#9 Industry innovation and infrastructure; by creating the means for this record to exist and be shared
#10 Reduce inequalities; by allowing talent to be recognized beyond politics at work
#11 Sustainable cities and communities; by rewarding positive contribution and effort in society
#16 Peace, justice and strong institutions; by rewarding good work, empowering staff, and allowing self development of individuals, that will have in their best interest to contribute positively to society. 

Our solution right now works as a webapp and a basic database. However with  distributed ledgers (like blockchain) everyone participating can have a record and proof of the claims that others have of them or with them. 

This could be checked regardless of any economic, social or educational barriers with the right democratic access to the platform.
In addition participants will be rewarde for their participation with tokens or some kind of cryptocurrency everytime they participate. With the right structure in place contributing to the platform will mean micropayments for the staff and patrons, which can be life changing. As the value of the platform increases so will the value of the tokens held by the participants. 

We are currently in chats with a cryptocurrency provider to use their platform as backbone to our system, we have a great use case and they have the tech.

Reputation and validation of skills is as old as humankind. We are making digital the work that guilds used to have, validating the skills of staff via their direct customers. With this we are creating a record that acts as a third party validator, an alternative to governments and institutions.

For this we need a tech solution that is robust and secure.
EigenTrust is already in use by Celo cryptocurrency, offering a low tech and yet powerful way to validate connections and the claims of a person based on their phone contacts (which remain on site and not shared).

https://celo.org/papers/whitep...

Celo is currently used by thousands of users in Africa and developing nations. We believe that their protocol or something similar will be the solution we need, so we are seeking partnerships with providers like them. 

We will use a blockchain network to validate the relationships of staff and enterprises, digital ID for the staff, vouch for the staff talent, and have their record be an alternative to credit scores that currently fail to account employability and existing skill. 

But most important, network effect will be in play, as more participate and tell others, the value of the platform increases for all participants. With enough mass, we will change the trade and perhaps other jobs. 

We believe that the benefits vastly will outweigh the risks. 

A “nowcast” (preliminary estimate) for 2020, incorporating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, projects that an additional 88 million to 115 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty, bringing the total to between 703 and 729 million.

 “The new poor” probably will:   Be more urban than the chronic poor. Be more engaged in informal services and manufacturing and less in agriculture. Live in congested urban settings and work in the sectors most affected by lockdowns and mobility restrictions.

Middle-income countries such as India and Nigeria will be significantly affected; middle-income countries may be home to 82% of the new poor.(World Bank 2020)

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview

With a record of time, place and person we can create  businesses  and access to opportunities based on employment ability. Imagine giving someone without an 'official' address access to  loans, mortgages or capital for investment for SMEs. This is a real game changer for which there is tremendous need in developing nations, which compromise 80% of the world. 

Security concerns are valid but with the right setup (blockchain ledgers) and use of digital ID (smartphones being increasingly available even to the poorest) we should have a solid system that can stand hacking and minimize downtime. 

An ethical risks is downvoting others but that is beyond the capabilities of our system. We believe that our system will force humans to be more gracious towards each other. And there are no current alternatives to the problems we address. 

Currently we serve a select group of people from 3 continents

by next wear we hope to be helping 2,000 people in Mexico

in 5 years we hope to be the international standard, serving 1Billion people around the world

With this record enterprises can get better customer feedback and manage staff better; staff can have access to opportunities beyond politics, age, gender or seniority at work; customers are rewarded and benefit for their participation.  We believe this is a win-win-win and the way of the future.
 
The future:
Our platform will open opportunities that were simply not possible before; by having a record of skill staff can prove their talent and have a measure of feedback that doesn't exist now. By having proof of employability this can open doors to loans, credit, further training or better jobs.

SDG Goals targeted applicable:
#1 No poverty; allowing measurable merit and effort to help people help themselves
#8 Decent work and economic growth; by giving agency to staff, access to better paying jobs
#9 Industry innovation and infrastructure; by creating the means for this record to exist and be shared
#10 Reduce inequalities; by allowing talent to be recognized beyond politics at work
#11 Sustainable cities and communities; by rewarding positive contribution and effort in society
#16 Peace, justice and strong institutions; by rewarding good work, empowering staff, and allowing self development of individuals, that will have in their best interest to contribute positively to society. 

Our metrics will be:

• engaged (registered)  staff on platform
• votes received for staff (registered or not
• number of interactions of data with third parties
• number of certifications issued for staff
• rewards issues to staff and participating patrons
• number of contributing patrons to platform
• Number of active users of platform 
• Amounts disbursed to participants 

Full time: 1

Part time: 3

Advisors: 15

Our founder's background is in Anthropology. At U of Toronto he learned about a famous researcher that lived with crack dealers in El Barrio to understand why anyone would do it. It's dangerous, pay is terrible, stressful. Turns out that they do it for one thing: Respect. Money was fine, but the respect of their peers and society is what the dealers really wanted.
So what if we could offer people a way to show they are someone and that they are good at something in a more meaningful and positive way? That got our founder thinking.

Combined with 20 years experience in hospitality he realized that Hospitality staff face many of the same challenges that those crack dealers face: lack of recognition and tangible proof of valuable skills. 
He came to realize that the best way to help people is to help them help themselves, and one way is offering them a tangible record of their abilities, something that is considered 'intangible and unmeasurable' as far as hospitality work goes. His personal experience of hiring people and finding a job helped him further cement the vision. 

Our consultants have been invaluable in shaping the project, and we believe we are just early, but right about what we are doing. 

Our platform celebrates  and rewards talent regardless of gender orientation. What we provide goes beyond bias, and jobs can be more accessible based on talent, not biases that may be very entrenched. By having a record, applicants will be pre-qualified for jobs, reducing onboarding times and effort for enterprises, and makes candidate selection based on talent over anything else. 

Our system will work also to help young women and girls develop a sense of value and worth, developed at work, and made tangible. To have proof of positive effort and contribution to community or workplace is a very valuable tool that can change and shape for the better the efforts of any individual anywhere

One of the most frustrating parts of starting all over again is being able to demonstrate vocational ability without local credentials or attestations. We can use our system to create a record before the person has to move countries or jobs, as the value of soft skills can transfer easily to other industries. 

We can work to develop an integration that will give refugees dignity and a new lease on life when integrating into a new society, as good hospitality skills are  welcome anywhere you may go. 

With a record of employment ability, even starting from scratch in a new place, a person can quickly build up a resume that is better, simpler and more powerful than the current alternatives, opening doors for further training, raises, loans or other unimaginable perks.

We cannot afford reaching to all over the trade within LATAM and CB. With a little help we can bring our solution where it will make a major difference. 

We require mentorship, networking connections with experts and key industry leaders, and other activities to help incubate, scale, or accelerate our solution across Latin America and the Caribbean.

We are, however, skeptical on the uptake of the project by established institutions, as it is a revolutionary take on institutions and governments.

We need reach to find all of the staff of hospitality enterprises across LATAM and the Caribbean. We cannot do that alone, would be prohibitively expensive. 
Ideally access to media or existing networks could provide the roadway for us to offer our solution 

Anyone in the social impact space, focused in Hospitality would be ideal. 

We are open and will work with anyone willing to truly empower staff, not just lip service.