Startup of the Month: Social Coin

Ivan Caballero, 41, CEO, Social Coin

I found out that I was going to be a dad and that I had to close my business all in the same afternoon. It was a Friday and I was going through emails when I received a phone call from our main client. They were filing for bankruptcy and wouldn’t be able to pay what they owed us. One hour later, when I was still struggling to absorb that information, my wife called to tell me she was pregnant. This unexpected turn of events got me thinking about what I was actually doing in life and my responsibility to the world. I thought about what we’re leaving for future generations and came to the conclusion that the world needs more kindness. That is where the idea for social coin came from—a physical coin based on a pay it forward economy.

The first coins started as an experiment with my wife and 10 university students. Each coin represents an act of kindness; when you help someone, you also give them a coin. That person, in turn, has to do something nice for someone else and pass on the coin. The idea took off and quickly became a social movement. In six months, the coins had generated more than 200,000 acts of kindness in 20 countries.

Social Coin’s mission is to make the world a better place. Our first experiment made us realize that there was a demand for a tool to help people do good. Since then, we have been working on technology to make it easier for citizens to address the most important issues in their community.

Our main product today is Citibeats, a platform developed to help governments better understand and respond to citizens’ concerns. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze any natural language data source, such as a Facebook post or tweet, by identifying keywords and hashtags in order to capture issues relating to a specific city. It then creates a graph of these concerns and displays them according to their level of importance, which helps to prioritize solutions. The technology can be applied in a lot of ways, such as informing government response after a natural disaster.

This summer we did an experiment in several Japanese cities right after an earthquake. We collected data relating to the issues citizens were experiencing. In Akita, we saw that people started to run out of food after three days, as roads were cut off. The government then took action to create storage spaces for basic supplies, such as water and rice. In Fukuoka, on the other hand, we saw that hospitals filled up quickly and needed more capacity.

We’re also developing an app for citizens called Deeds. This will evaluate the most impactful actions you can take to help your community. Once an action is performed, our system will rate the impact that you’re having and give you points that can be transformed into a cryptocurrency—more points will be assigned to issues that need to be solved urgently. Our goal is for Citibeats and Deeds to work in tandem.

The biggest challenges are almost always the same for any startup: finding the right team and adequate funding. These types of products take a very long time to develop and years can go by before they can be monetized. In my experience, entrepreneurs with a purpose or social mission are more resilient.

Learn more about Social Coin at thesocialcoin.com.