Planet Earthlings : Empowering Young People to Change the World.

Here is an insightful and candid conversation - an eChai with Greg, Founder, Planet Earthlings.

Tell us more about your team. And brief profiles of founders also.

I'm a solo founder and I've been working on this incarnation of my dream project for two and a half years now. During that time I've worked long hours dedicated only to Planet Earthlings with assistance from full-time interns, part-time paid people doing key tasks and volunteers. Here's a brief founder profile:

Greg Acuna has an unusual combination of business and creative experience writing, directing and producing media projects, managing complex ventures for major companies and is a serial entrepreneur. He has a degree in political science from University of Southern California and a Masters degree in playwriting from San Francisco State University. He has written/directed one feature film, co-written two other produced features, been a script doctor on several projects, directed an animation/live-action TV pilot as well as plays for the theatre. He has also been a consultant for Paramount Pictures, Exchange Cubed, Arthur Anderson, CNA and others. In business he specializes in assisting companies with strategy including putting difficult IT projects back on track.

How did you come up with the idea of Planet Earthlings?

Over 20 years ago I had the idea that bring young people together to learn through cooperation and collaboration could empower them educationally, but also change the way they look at the world having significant impact on both local and global issues.

What problem are you solving?

We are working on two large problems one with immediate impact and the other a long term goal. By creating an engaging and entertaining educational platform based on cooperation and collaboration we will create an empowering education experience affecting a wide range of young people, but especially those lacking access to high quality education. In the long run we want to breakdown barriers by creating a global community of youth learning by helping each other and creating together as well as encouraging them to create real impact in their local communities.

How does it work?

A player will come to the Planet Earthlings website or download the app/game. They will signup, create an 3d alien avatar, assemble their spaceship and start on their own planet which will server as their home base. Using their spaceship they will navigate to theme based galaxies, solar systems and planets. The multiplayer experience will allow users to study together helping each other as well as access a global pool of tutors from our marketplace including both paid and volunteer assistance. The platform can be used in schools for both class experiences and to augment staff with online teachers.

A big part of the experience will be offline challenges which encourage players to do things in the real world both individually and as part of their communities. This can lead to both a wider range of experiences and the ability to empower young people to make a real impact in the world.

What is your target market?

We plan on targeting both the Indian and US markets.

What is your competitive advantage?

We differentiate ourselves here by creating a engaging social experience with overarching and indepth gameplay. Besides that the ability to study together means we can offer online multi-user tutoring not yet offered on other platforms. Besides that we believe by putting an educational experience inside a game we can compete with pure entertainment sites and capture market share due to parents looking for a more wholesome and empowering experience for their children.

How much time did it take you from conceptualization of Planet Earthlings to actually launching it in the market?

Planet Earthlings is based on an earlier TV project called Earthlings which failed back in 2008 due in part to the global financial crisis. In 2015 I returned to the project taking the basic concept and adapting it for educational gaming. We ran into a variety of different challenge though the initial stages of the project. After a year of working on the design we pivoted to a printed card game and then mobile games while starting work on the bigger virtual world. It took about 18 months from starting this part of the project until our first "product" was released.

What is your technology stack?

We're developing in Unity3d concentrating on releasing on Android, iOS, WebGL and PC/Mac.

How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies?

As part of the rollout in India we plan on creating ways to encourage both individuals and schools to connect with NRI family and friends in the US. This will lead to a "School Connect" program where schools will adopt each other leading to higher rates of adoption and publicity.

What is the revenue model of Planet Earthlings?

There are various options for revenues from the platform:

1) Tutor Marketplace - create a system where tutors both inside India and abroad can work with multiple students simultaneously where we can deal with payments and take a small percentage.

2) In World Mini-Games to Mobile games - we plan on taking educational mini-games on different subjects which can be played "in world" and release premium versions for Android and iOS. This has the advantage of offering mobile learning experiences and cross promotion from the mobile games to the virtual world and back.

3) Organization Partners - we hope to work with different organizations/companies to build specific types of educational experiences. For example we might work with a Game Engine company to create a Game Development Planet where players will be able to learn how to develop games, create games with their friends and share them on the platform. Revenue streams can range from planet leases to sharing of any revenue streams created on the partner planet.

What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?

Our goals are empowering young people with fun and powerful educational experiences as well as making the world more peaceful by breaking down artificial barriers.

What sort of support and feedback are you looking for from the community?

We're looking for help spreading the word as we release our first mobile game "Acting Kindly" which will be out very soon on Android and then on iOS as soon as we can. We will be looking for young people and schools to test the first prototype of the Planet Earthlings virtual world which we will begin showing by the end of this month.

You can also download Planet Earthlings app n make the world more kinder :-)

Play Store: https://goo.gl/QzNwa4

App Store: https://goo.gl/7TiJqQ

Acting Kindly Promo: http://www.planetearthlings.org/acting-kindly-video/

(On YouTube: https://youtu.be/kny3oq8-4SA)

Save Da Aliens Promo: http://www.planetearthlings.org/save-da-aliens/ 

YUVA Unstoppable Plays Acting Kindly: http://www.planetearthlings.org/videos/yuva-unstoppable-play-acting-kindly/ 

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You can also ask questions to Greg about Planet Earthlings and his entrepreneurial journey.