Yasa Sourcing
This project also has a Changeshop where you can read more about its latest progress.
Go to Changeshop: Yasa Sourcing.
Yasa empowers women globally by connecting companies with procurement needs to qualified women-owned businesses with supplier capabilities.
Sobre ti
Sobre ti
Nombre
Yating
Apellido
Yu
URL en Twitter
URL en Facebook
Sobre tu organización
Nombre de la organización
Yasa Sourcing
Sitio web de la organización
País de la organización
Estados Unidos
Países en donde este proyecto está creando impacto social
Estados Unidos, CA, Alameda, Alameda County
Edad del/la innovador/a
18-34
Género del/la innovador/a
Femenino
Tu organización es
Empresa
¿Cuánto tiempo ha estado operando la organización?
Menos de un año
La información que brindes aquí será usada para llenar las partes de tu perfil que hayan sido dejadas en blanco, como intereses, organización, y sitio web. Ninguna información de contacto será hecha pública. Por favor desmarca esta casilla si no deseas que esto suceda..
Innovación
Nombre de tu iniciativa
Yasa Sourcing
Selecciona la fase que describa mejor el momento en el que se encuentra tu emprendimiento
Idea (estás listo para lanzarla)
¿Cuánto tiempo se lleva poniendo en práctica tu iniciativa?
Sigue en fase conceptual, pero se espera que se lance pronto.
La necesidad: ¿Cuál es el problema que tratas de solucionar?
Women-owned businesses (WBEs) represent 29% of US businesses and employ 8M people. Yet less than 4% of corporate and government contracts are awarded to WBEs. Companies and the US government recognize this market failure and have committed to sourcing billions of dollars from WBEs. However, procurement officers, the decision-makers of business contracts, still rely on their established networks for referrals or time-consuming trade shows. At best, they pay for access to static business listings which do not lend credibility or visibility to top-performing minority suppliers. Thus, while many organizations endeavor to support women entrepreneurs, there is nothing in the marketplace to efficiently match procurement officers with qualified WBEs for greater economic equality and inclusion.
La solución: ¿Cuál es tu solución? Sé específico.
Yasa Sourcing (Yasa), a social enterprise, revolutionizes procurement practices by connecting companies to qualified WBEs. We address a market failure that not only causes unintended economic discrimination towards qualified WBEs but also results in inefficient supplier networks. By bringing proven social networking technology to procurement, an underserved but critical business function, we equip decision-makers to take action.
By subscribing to the Yasa Sourcing community, WBEs can share relevant data (i.e. industry codes, location, sales, etc.) and strengthen their credibility by sharing content and soliciting independent reviews from past and current customers. Procuring companies now have the opportunity to easily diversify their supplier network, reach top-performing WBEs, post requests for proposals (RFPs), and enable WBEs to bid independently or collaboratively to meet supplier criteria and capacity requirements.
El Modelo: Muéstranos a través de un ejemplo específico cómo tu solución hace una diferencia, incluye tus actividades primarias
To illustrate how Yasa works, meet Julia. She worked in public relations for many years and decided to start her own PR agency in 2010. Currently, her new business comes through referrals so she has had slow growth and seems to hear about business opportunities after the contracts have been awarded. Concurrently, Sam, a procurement officer is trying to meet his supplier diversity targets, so instead of only considering his traditional business partners, he wants to consider qualified WBEs. He just missed the annual WBE trade show so a colleague recommended using Yasa Sourcing, a new procurement tech start-up. Within minutes of registering and putting in his requirements, he finds the top PR agencies in his area and easily connects with Julia’s company to include in his upcoming RFP.
Yasa Sourcing has a multi-sided business model; WBEs pay a modest fee for membership and procuring companies are charged competitively benchmarked subscription fees for access to Yasa’s dynamic platform. With our model, we are first building a critical mass of procurement officers to draw in WBEs and create a new sourcing solution. To do this, we are launching a Chicago pilot where we offer customized business matchmaking services, in addition to access to aggregated business profiles of the top regional WBEs. These officers will establish profiles and post RFPs with the growing WBE community for greater inclusion and supplier diversity. With an emerging customer base and minimum viable product, we will then refine our user-centric platform to grow our network and increase WBE engagement.
El mercado: ¿Quiénes son tus pares y competidores? Identifica a otros que también estén trabajando para dar respuesta a las necesidades que tú abordas y en qué te diferencias de ellos. ¿Cuáles son los desafíos que estos jugadores podrían representar para tu éxito o crecimiento?
Our competitors - WBE certification bodies and supplier databases - are narrowly focused on serving one side. WBENC, the largest certification body, offers a matching service. Per our interviews, this service is limited to corporate partners and has not been effective. Austin-Tetra, a for-profit competitor, is a database that includes WBEs. However, Austin-Tetra doesn’t provide any performance data, search technology, and may lose relevance as it was acquired by Equifax, whose focus is gathering credit info, not creating sourcing solutions. Procurement officers also use referrals and trade shows to identify suppliers, but such methods are weak substitutes as they are inefficient in time and cost. Only Yasa brings together both WBEs and procurement officers to transform business sourcing.
Impacto social
Esta presentación se trata de
Qué tipo de solución/es brinda tu iniciativa para ayudar a emprendedores emergentes y pequeñas empresas a crecer y prosperar en comunidades marginadas? (seleccionar las opciones aplicables.)
Acceso a tecnologia, Acceso a oportunidades económicas.
¿Cuál ha sido el impacto de la solución hasta la fecha?
Women entrepreneurs still face three key challenges: access to finance, mentorship and networks. While many organizations are addressing the first two challenges, we are fully committed to the third: networks. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. With Yasa, we lower the barrier to connecting with new, credible WBE partners outside current networks.
We have fielded dozens of interviews with corporate procurement professionals and WBEs to garner their feedback and support. Later this summer we will launch our beta site which will allow partners all over Chicago to begin connecting with each other. Through our research, we have not only met with people who are highly committed to supplier diversity, but we have also engaged in conversations with companies that seek a simple, effective tool. We aim to be the catalyst of new business contracts which help double the estimated $3 trillion in sales by WBEs in the next 10 years (Center for Women's Business Research).
¿Cuál es tu impacto proyectado para los próximos 1-3 años?
Yasa Sourcing’s social impact is directly aligned with its business growth. Our mission is to create a more inclusive, competitive business environment for WBEs. Therefore, we will measure the volume of contracts between WBEs and corporate clients. Our dashboard will track member engagement through metrics such as the number of members, connections, and visits. We will also track RFPs posted in our network and awarded contracts. We will survey our corporate customers annually to gauge changes in diversity spend and our WBEs to monitor increases in revenues and employment.
After launching in Chicago, we will expand to other metropolitan hubs reaching 200 corporate clients and 5,000 WBE members in the next three years.
Las iniciativas ganadoras presentan un plan fuerte de cómo van a alcanzar y realizar un seguimiento del crecimiento. Identifica tus metas a seis meses para el crecimiento de tu impacto
Raise sufficient working capital (estimated $20K) to realize our vision this year
Identifica tres grandes tareas que tendrás que completar para llegar a las metas de seis meses.
Tarea 1
Finish development on a minimal viable product for customer feedback, prove our unit economics and build credibility for Yasa
Tarea 2
Finalize a vested group of procurement partners and advisors committed to helping us rapidly refine our product offerings
Tarea 3
Continue applying to business incubators and social enterprise grants and connecting with angel investors
¡Ahora piensa en grande! Identifica tu meta de impacto a 12 meses.
Secure partnerships with WBEs and sourcing associations to scale our two-sided platform
Identifica tres grandes tareas que tendrás que completar para llegar a tu meta de impacto a 12 meses
Tarea 1
Drive aggressive sales and marketing plan to increase awareness of Yasa
Tarea 2
Acquiring technology expertise to further refine our platform and service offerings
Tarea 3
Raise the necessary working capital to take Yasa Sourcing to scale
Historia de la fundación: Queremos saber acerca del momento en el que hiciste "¡Ajá!". Comparte la historia de dónde y cuándo el/los fundador(es) vio (vieron) el potencial de esta solución para cambiar el mundo.
We met our first month of business school and quickly found that we had a shared passion. As women and daughters, we have been given immense resources and support to succeed. We believe in the multiplier effect of women and the reinvestment that occurs when women earn more. For Sarah, the story is even more personal as she grew up in Saudi Arabia and witnessed the social, political and economic oppression of women. In 2011, we developed our own independent study researching women entrepreneurs in emerging markets. After many interviews ranging from Walmart to a Nigerian retailer, we realized the social business opportunity in procurement. It became obvious that although women entrepreneurs need continued support, the less glamorous yet critical decision-makers, procurement officers, were not being served. Each procurement decision along the value chain, not just the last customer sale, was missing the opportunity to consider women suppliers and, when totaled, is a tremendous force.
Sostenibilidad
Cuéntanos sobre tus alianzas.
We will form partnerships with procurement and WBE associations to drive awareness of Yasa. ISM, the largest sourcing association, is a reputable advocate for supplier diversity amongst procurement officers. WBE associations (e.g. NAWBO and WBENC) also have extensive reach with over 10K members. We will focus on alliances with the Chicago regional partners of these associations to build our credibility and then expand our geographic presence. We also anticipate connecting with organizations which mentor WBEs to strengthen performance and address any weaknesses from customer feedback.
Por favor, pon en claro las necesidades u ofertas que hayas mencionado anteriormente y/o sugiere categorías de apoyo que no están especificadas en la lista
Having recently graduated from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, we have built a highly diverse and talented network. We can connect our peers to leading academic researchers, classmates that work across regions and geographies and an alumni network of influential global leaders and industry experts. We also have broad international experience to contribute as well.
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