Most employees working in retail leave their jobs because there is no clear path for them to advance.

There are 15 million people employed in US retail.

Low wage retail workers are the largest segment of US employment and yet the least invested in. They feel it takes too long to get promoted and are starving for career development opportunities.

Most career development tools today are not effective:

1. “One size fits all” model
   There is no one-size-fits-all development program that works for all people. In fact, there is very little evidence on what works and what doesn't.
2.  Influenced by subjectivity 
   Managers inadvertently exclude some employees by focusing on others who are more outspoken and visible. 
3. Not available to use outside of the workplace
   Retail is in the top 3 industries employing millennials. More than 74% of millennials feel that new technology makes their lives easier.
4. Are employer driven, focused on tracking and regulations
   Existing Training and Development processes and systems are not about employee growth but rather about compliance and about tracking employee activity to meet regulations.

It is not sustainable for retailers to accept high turnover rates

• 66% of employers that are hiring have open positions for which they say they cannot find qualified candidates.

• The national average cost incurred on extended job vacancies is almost  $1 million.

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With madeBOS, employees bridge the requirement gap to get the job or promotion. 

madeBOS empowers employees to proactively manage their career development by focusing on the competencies needed for advancement:

• Showing real career opportunities available aligned with Companies' strategic growth goals.

• Creating an individualized plan to reach these opportunities.

• Exposing development plan and activity with mentors and other company influencers.

madeBOS adds transparency to the career development process and makes each user accountable to their own progress.

• madeBOS replaces and automates the antiquated Individual Development Plan process.

• Employees do not have to wait for their managers to deliver scheduled reviews that could take months to a year.

• Employees engage daily towards their growth plan progress.   

madeBOS provides valuable insights and predictive analytics into the talent on hand. 

• Driving future sales conversations directly aligned to the talent they have.

• Better allocation of learning and development resources.
• Edge to quickly aligning workforce to desirable skill sets.

madeBOS differentiates the company from competitors.

• Investing in employee's development has a positive impact on loyalty. 
• Providing internal career pathing reduces external job search.
• Demonstrating commitment to helping employees advance in their careers attracts better external candidates.

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How it Works

For the Employee:

Naomi, a Walmart employee wants to develop into a better paying job. In 4 simple steps Naomi is empowered to manage a realistic and attainable career development plan that unlocks her highest potential without having to leave her current employer.

For Naomi’s Employer: 

1. Identify, anticipate, optimize and meet Naomi’s (and other employees’) personal career plans and progression activity central to the execution of business strategy.
2. Align Naomi's high performance and potential to roles that fit skills developed over time and that meet her short term and long term career goal.
3. Better allocate learning & development resources addressing where Naomi needs the most support.
4.  Align manager and employee career pathing expectations.
5. Empower managers and company leaders to recognize and reward Naomi and other employees' development throughout the year.

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Traction

Product Development

Within 3 months of raising 216% of our goal in the first Republic round, we successfully launched on time, and on budget our MVP: the alpha version of the madeBOS platform.

• We partnered with Tangelo, a venture studio and innovation lab in Palo Alto, California that executes digital transformations and develops deep technology platforms (for startups, midsize companies and corporations like Intel, Intuit, Facebook, and Google) to design and built the initial madeBOS platform. Here is what they said about us:

“We are thrilled to have Martha Hernandez as one of Tangelo’s partners. Her presence and drive matches our values and she embodies hard work and high standards through her work. Martha is a trailblazer in her field and we are proud to be supporting her company’s growth” said Antonio Altamirano, CEO of Tangelo, Inc.

• We tested our proprietary algorithm using 2,600+ employee records and 1,600+ positions/job descriptions.

• We invited madeBOS investors from our first campaign to experience the madeBOS platform. Here are some initial reactions:

“I was very impressed with the madeBOS MVP because it definitely benefits employees like myself who desire access to higher opportunity but lack the knowledge on the steps needed to grow. I loved how easy it is to use and also its versatility; any employee and any business will benefit. I’m proud to be an investor.” -Jazmani Cortez, Draught Beer Technician & madeBOS Investor

“Great job, this is excellent! The lay out is pleasant to the eye. madeBOS is easy to navigate through and super informative. Now I know the difference between being talented and being skilled and that no matter what, if I follow the madeBOS plan, I can always build my skills to reach my highest potential.” -Miriam Girotti, Hairstylist/Master Color Expert & madeBOS Investor

Team Growth

Juventino Mejia Jr. left Apple, Inc. to join madeBOS! 

We are thrilled to have recruited an expert in data curation and content recommendation, a natural fit to madeBOS’ core career pathing methodology. Having an invested Co-Founder and CTO with a well rounded background in full stack development, multi platform app development (iOS/tvOS, Android, Web) account management and team leadership has positioned madeBOS to have faster and more strategic growth.

“This is a game changer” says madeBOS advisor Daniel Sonsino, HR Talent Management expert and Guia Founder. “Martha and Juventino have solved a problem for multiple industries as we see the unemployment rate dropping to 4.1%. Both companies and individual employees alike will benefit from this incredible technology that is thoughtfully designed and artfully created. Leveraging madeBOS inside an organization will increase employee engagement and commitment, improve retention, and demonstrate that you truly value your people. Employees will value the personalized approach to driving their own career aspirations, while connecting to a company they already value. When Martha showed me her idea I was intrigued, when I saw the actual platform, I was amazed,” states Daniel Sonsino, Founder, Guia Human Resources Consulting and madeBOS advisor and investor.

Business Development

Within days of MVP launch we began scheduling demos with key entry level, low wage employers (including leaders in the service industry) and influencer organizations that include the following:

Companies

Potential Strategic Influencers

Our Formula

The madeBOS “formula” is based on 10+ years of experience giving people individualized plans to grow and develop professionally. Below are some recent stories of those who attest the formula has proven to work.

“I couldn't understand why after receiving my master’s degree I spent over 6 months unemployed failing close to a dozen interviews. madeBOS inspired self-confidence and incited a drive to accomplish what I hadn't thought I could, it gave me a tangible plan that I was easily able to follow – and it worked!”

"I was in a role where I was not utilizing my natural strengths and abilities. madeBOS recognized this and realigned my focus to a role that would allow me to use my talents. It showed me what I was capable of and gave me a plan to get there.”

"As a manager I was pretty content. However, madeBOS showed me I was capable of more and put a plan in place to earn my Bachelor’s Degree! In addition to my education plan, I was able to learn more about myself and what I did really well in my career and be able to focus on those strengths immediately."

"But more than that, it helped me build a pathway to my goals and ultimately success. The madeBOS formula sets plans and drives users to execute them step by step effectively. “

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People Operations Executives are excited about madeBOS.

“madeBOS is creating user driven career paths to alleviate the confusion for people seeking advancement”
–Angela Mills-Dixon, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Executive Director, HR, The Save Mart Companies

"I am encouraged with the forward thinking of madeBOS, and how it aligns with ABRA’s Corporate immediate goal of becoming the Employer of choice.The concept of customizing this product, with our specific needs further piques our interest. We are establishing a focus group, to dial in on our priorities of how this product could best serve our needs, and look forward to more interaction toward our partnership with madeBOS."
–Greg Peeters, Regional VP at ABRA Auto Body & Glass

Business Model

madeBOS will draw revenue from two sources:

Business users:

Individual users:

Downloading the app for the general public is free, however, unlocking next level of app usability charges the independent user a small $2.99 annual fee.

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Market

The retail industry (Grocery Stores, General Merchandise Stores, Specialty Stores, Non-Store Retailers-by mail, catalog or online- and Restaurants)  is expected to experience significant growth.

• The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics projects that employment in the retail industry overall will grow by about 12 percent; an additional 1.8 million jobs.

• Retail salespeople are the second-fastest growing occupation.

• The number of cashiers and retail salespeople is projected to increase by over one million by 2020.

Initially our plan is to focus on retailers pained by turnover and are value aligned, however, other major industries such as technology, health care, hospitality, service, manufacturing, claim they also suffer a talent gap and face significant turnover issues.  

Competition

Our biggest differentiators

• We are mobile.

• We provide flexible, actionable and attainable plans.

• We integrate external resources in the plan.
  

• We act independently but collaboratively with Talent Management and Learning and Development Systems.

• We meet employees where they are at in their development process.
  
  

Major Competitor Flaws

• Web-employer site based.

• Focus on internal learning resources limiting potential employee creativity regarding their growth.

• Provide one-size-fits-all solutions or resources that are not user driven or user adaptive.

• Honor traditional tactics where managers access information through the software solution but they have to deliver and collect data manually, opening for subjectivity to take part in the process.

Growth strategies

1. Direct sales to companies.

2. Strategic partnerships with:

   1. Job aggregators and social recruiting platforms

   2. Talent acquisition and talent management platforms

   3. Learning and development solutions

   4. Educational Institutions

3. Word of mouth

Use of funds

We are raising to continue our development and growth. We need to expand key features and develop a go to market sales strategy plan and team. People are our greatest asset, and as such we are looking to create an environment that will attract the best talent.

Timeline

The madeBOS v.1 product was launched in November, 2017. Currently we are talking to enterprises considering piloting our technology and will select 3 that best fit our deployment strategy. 

Team and Story

My name is Martha Hernández and I love helping people reach their full potential. 

As a Talent Acquisition executive with over 10 years of experience, I learned that the talent gap problem is too big to fix one company at a time and thus decided to build a scalable, global solution to address the real talent problem; lack of automation to facilitate more effective internal mobility and thus higher engagement and performance. 

I am excited about combining my experience in sales, talent strategy, selection methodology, technical product sourcing, business requirements understanding, systems integration, implementation and compliance plus what I love most, selecting, developing and managing highly effective teams.

Growing up I struggled to navigate Oakland public schools. I made it to and through Occidental College thanks to the TRIO program, Upward Bound, completed the Mills College Institute for Civic Leadership Program, graduated from prestigious leadership development programs such as Coro Fellow Program in Public Affairs and ML4T (Management Leadership for Tomorrow) even though all odds were against me. 

I didn’t even speak English but when my mentor, Romeo Garcia said to me, “if you stick to the plan, you will have a career”, I understood and believed him. 

It took one mentor to believe in me and show me whom I could become. Since then, every day I make sure to stick to the plan. madeBOS is a representation of my journey's success; having an inspirational vision of my future, having a plan, sticking to that plan and meeting mentors to help reach it. 

My name is Juventino Mejía Jr, and I am passionate about solving real world problems through technology.

I am an Electrical Engineering & Computer Science graduate from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and a former Apple engineer with 10+ years of development and management experience across a diverse set of industries and platforms. Early November I decided to leave Apple and join madeBOS because I am committed to solving a very common problem that I experienced first-hand early in my career. Luckily, I was able to successfully navigate my career path thanks to Martha’s methodology, the underlying vision of what would become madeBOS.

I come from humble beginnings and although I went to MIT, initially, I did not have the social capital to facilitate unlocking my highest potential. Today, I get to make significant local and global change so that people lacking resources, vision, exposure or simply motivation are empowered to be the best they can be.

Our team

Like the founder, the madeBOS team members and advisors also have amazing stories to tell and can relate to our target demographic. Together, we are experts in software and mobile development, talent management, talent engagement, business strategy, workforce development, operations, finance, development, marketing and analytics. 

Our advisors

Our advisors are supporting madeBOS because they understand the problem enterprises face and because they believe that our solution can position us to be the first to actually solve the growing talent challenges.

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Join us

We are thrilled about madeBOS’ impact in people’s prosperity and the fast progress we have made. With your investment today you help us create economic mobility for entry level workers in retail and adjacent sectors and at the same time support employers in retaining and developing talent. Thanks to industry experts such as the madeBOS team and advisors we are positioned to successfully lead in this market.

Bet bold for opportunity and become a madeBOS! Thank you in advance for your investment!