PAC Talks

A small town in East Sussex, UK is slowly making a remarkable change in the footballing ecosystem. The first club in the world to pay equal salaries to both Men’s and Women’s teams.

“The club was formed in a local pub in Lewes, by a group of sportsmen who played cricket. They wanted to play a sport during off season and decided on football. “

In this edition of PAC Talks, Stuart Fuller, the Chairman of Lewes FC shared the details of this interesting 136 years journey , how it started, focus on Equality FC, the community ownership of the club and future plans.

You can listen to this, pre season interview, podcast here: Spotify Apple Watch here: YouTube

Lewes FC was formed on 23rd September, 1885. The local parish council allowed them to use land known as the Dripping Pan. The ground gets its name from the monks who used to live there. The football club has played there for 135 years , one year they could not play when British army used the place as a storage location.

“It was a typical English non-league club with a wooden stand and grass . It was like that till 20-30 years ago.”

Couple of local business men, who were in the construction industry, put money into the club. The team started to perform well and reached the first round of FA Cup in 2003 and played away at Stoke City FC. At that time, the team had a young ambitious manager and he took the team through the leagues. The whole town was behind the team and games had 2000-2500 spectators, one in every 7 person in the town came down to watch the games.

Unfortunately , during the global financial crisis of 2006-08, the construction industry suffered and the owners of Lewes FC also faced the heat. They could not support the club anymore. The club was promoted to the highest level of non-league football but was not able to financially support and it came down rapidly again. It was the generosity of the local people which helped the club to survive.

“In 2010, a group of 6 individuals put together a plan. The owner agreed to sell the club for 1 Pound. They took over the liabilities and decided to become the life members of the club by paying 1000 pounds each.”

This started the way to Community owned football club which was initiated on 8th July, 2010. Anybody anywhere in the world can now buy a share in Lewes FC for approx. 40 pounds a year. In the first year, a total of 800 people became the owners of the club. The owners can vote at the AGMs, select the Directors, etc.

The club website says: ‘Lewes FC is run by the people, of the people, and for the people. This is our declaration of football independence – which means you (yes YOU!) can be an owner of our club.‘

The performance of the club did not improve and were relegated to the 8th tier of English football. It was during this time in 2012-13, Lewes FC decided to focus on Women’s team. Women’s team were playing at a low level such that players were paying the club to play football. By 2014-15 the Women’s team was made part of the main club.

The club decided to share the resources between the Men’s and Women’s team. The club spend 18 months looking at how they could financially pay both teams the same amount. The club decided to pay equally the Men’s and Women’s team players. It just did not stop at pay. They get to use the same pitch, gym and other facilities.

“We were in a position to launch that in the summer of 2017, under Equality FC banner. We looked at partners who had similar values and beliefs, who’re prepared to invest time, resources or financially into the club to help us grow.”

The club got lot of media attention. But there were a set of people who believed that such an initiative will dilute the focus on the Men’s team. Interestingly, 12 months later Men’s team was promoted first time in 10 years.

Lewes FC made an application to join the second tier championship under the new structure FA put together for Women’s football. The club was successful in this and joined the first ever Women’s championship alongside Tottenham Spurs FC, Crystal Palace, Sheffield United, Aston Villa and Manchester United. Lewes FC was really excited that a small club from Sussex will get a chance to play with the big clubs.

The Women’s team did not get relegated that season and Men’s team had by then moved to the 7th division.

“We have 1700 owners now. Every person on the board is elected by the owners. Now we have some big commercial partners as well.”

Courtesy Covid, the Men’s season was severely impacted for the last two years. Women’s team could play only 2 games in front of the fans but finished 5th behind Liverpool FC, Sheffield United, Leicester City . Lewes FC Women’s team won against Leicester City 1-0 in April 2021.

The upcoming season is going to be an exciting one for Lewes FC. They have appointed a new management team for the Men’s team and will be looking for promotion. The aim for Women’s team is to play in the WSL in the next two years.

“We had around 100 applications for the manager post and when we announced Toni as our manager, people realised how serious we are about this season. Women’s team also had 4 new players joining us during Christmas who are really good – Ini Umotong, Ashworth Clifford, Mollie Rouse. They have made a huge difference and now we look like scoring going forward. We now go to games thinking we can Win this.”

” Whatever we do, we want to be the biggest or the revolutionary ones causing a new movement. We want to be seen as exemplary on the biggest stage. For us that means fighting for Equality in sports, equalize the prize money.”

The Women’s team are currently semi professional and is like part time players. Many of the players are studying, some are working in the sports industry. They train 3 days a week in the evening time. Next season they are moving to daytime training, from 9 am to 11:30 am on all 5 days.

Due to Brexit, it has become difficult to bring players from overseas. So that is an added challenge for Lewes FC.

The Lewes FC Women’s team is on a euphoric journey. It was a dream come true for the club and all the players when they got the opportunity to play against Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs, etc.

” Exciting times ahead for the club. The history is important for us, at the same time we are focused on the future”

It is great to see the way in which club management and players have raised to the occasion. They have played two super leagues teams and were defeated by just slender margin, lost to Arsenal 0-2 and the current WSL champions Chelsea 0-1.

The Women’s team added 3-4 new players last season and they have made an impact. With some good 2-3 new signings more, I think Lewes FC can move up in the league.

“We are not intimidated or overwhelmed by the big names. It is just another game for us.”

Before the start of the the new season, Lewes FC has appointed a new GM for the Women’s team. The club has also announced a new CEO.

When players, teams and clubs across the globe are fighting to get a parity in regard with pay , here is a club from a small town in Sussex who are breaking even the playing field.

It is not going to be easy. The thought process have to go a seesaw change. This will never happen unless brands, commercials, media, clubs, associations and finally spectators give due recognition to Men’s and Women’s football teams.

FIFA recently published the first ever analysis of the Elite Women’s football landscape. The report said – “Boosting the development and growth of women’s football – on and off the pitch – is a key commitment and top priority for FIFA.” Hope it will help to make an impact not just at the Elite level but also at the grass root , non-league and semi professional level.

For now , Lewes FC have got 1733 owners from 36 countries and they hope to become the club with the highest number of owners. With the revolutionary thought and a focused approach, Lewes FC is definitely going to attain many firsts in the coming years.

It was great talking to Stuart Fuller and understanding the amazing work done at the club. When people come together there is nothing that cannot be achieved.

For now , it is the pre season games, preparation and the beginning of a new season for Lewes FC.

If you want to be become an owner of Lewes FC click here.

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WhatsApp, started 12 years ago, is a quintessential part of everyone’s daily life.

From good morning messages to jokes to important office discussions – all of them pretty much happen via WhatsApp.

There are numerous businesses out there who are managing sales, customer engagement and other interactions with the help of WhatsApp.

It was not long back that WhatsApp started this feature of WhatsApp business. But it has been a great feature and businesses have tried to make the best use of it in the last 3 years.

But it becomes really a tough task when as a business you start receiving all the communications related to Sales, Marketing, Customer support, other queries, etc. on WhatsApp. How to manage with one number or maybe with couple of numbers ?

In the Startup world, there are two things which determine the success. 1. the idea and 2. the timing. Yes, luck does play a part provided the above 2 parts fits in well.

Arjun V Paul from Kollam, Kerala the Co Founder and CEO of Zoko has come out with a solution for the Brands.

“It all started by helping my mom. My mom and friend’s wife had a home based business selling women’s fashion apparels on facebook. That time I had left my job in Switzerland and was back in India. I was wondering what to do next. ”

We had around 200k followers on their Facebook page. It was Aromal, friend of mine from school, the tech guy I reached out and started working on an API to solve the issues.

You can listen to the chat with Co Founder & CEO of Zoko, Arjun V Paul:-

It was really homecoming for me as I got the opportunity to interview Arjun, who was my batch mate at TKMCE. From practicing dance moves at his house, dancing together on the stage during engineering days to interviewing him now, it has indeed come full circle.

“Later when WhatsApp came out with their business API, we had already done some work on this segment and where prepared. So the timing was perfect for us and we could not have done this 3 years before. “

So we started by solving problems and ended up starting a company, Zoko.

Arjun and his co-founder of Zoko, Aromal build this platform at the start of 2018. In the last 3 years, they have added steady set of customers and the word of mouth has helped them grow. This gave them the confidence to apply for the renowned startup accelerator program Y Combinator. Customers do not have to move out of WhatsApp. All interactions related to Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, etc. can happen on WhatsApp, courtesy Zoko.

Zoko has been inducted into the YC 21 batch, got an investment of 1.4 Mn USD (10.2 Cr INR) and is part of the elite set of 353 startups which got selected this year. There are 43 startups from India this year and Zoko is one of them.

Y Combinator moto is to make something that people will want or use. So by keeping things simple, Zoko could show that customers are using their startup to enhance their businesses.

Arjun completed his schooling from Trinity Lyceum and Infant Jesus before joining TKM College of Engineering to study Civil Engineering. He passed out in 2003 and moved to the United States of America to complete his MS from University of Florida. Arjun worked in the Civil engineering sector for almost 13-14 years. It was then he decided to take a break and try something different.

Arjun applied to INSEAD and on a funny note, mentioned that he was not sure why he got selected. For Arjun, the startup bug caught him while doing his program in INSEAD. It was here he had the opportunity to meet lot of experienced people and got to think about a startup journey.

Zoko started as a bootstrapped startup. Once the platform was built they reached out to investors.

“We had two offers from investing groups. One was a proper VC who wanted a higher equity and another was small group of Angels from Kerala – Vinod & Anas , all engineers – who have been silently and efficiently investing in startups across Kerala, going out of their way to help startups here. They made us an offer for lesser amount of money for a lower stake, that was enough for us.”

It helped them to move from a 2 member team to 8 members. Currently this is the team managing the show.

The focus for Zoko is going to be Small and medium enterprises. The pricing model also looks affordable for SME clients as it starts from 1500 INR / 25 USD for interacting with 500 customers.

Zoko has completed their investment rounds just before getting their confirmation from Y Combinator. The current list of investors in addition to Hurun India, Y Combintor include Binny Bansal backed 021 Capital and angel investor Ryan Hoover.

Arjun also explained about the requisites and reasons why startups get selected to YC. You can listen to the above interview to learn more about that.

It looks like Zoko will help in bridging the gap for numerous brands to reach out to customers via WhatsApp.

“If chat is the channel you want to do business on then you would come to Zoko. We will work on WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Apple iMessage and any chat platform, people will be able to message and we will be the default platform.”

Another important point mentioned by Arjun is about WhatsApp and the discussion happening aroung Signal. But as per the cohort retention , 90% of people who have downloaded WhatsApp are still using WhatsApp. This is a very high number and hence for now WhatsApp is going to be the key messaging platform for millions of users.

While talking about Startup ecosystem, Arjun added “I have set aside few hours every week to help or share knowledge with people who are planning to get in to startups. They can reach out to me and I will be happy to help them.”

Arjun keeps talking about failure and how it is important as a founder he keeps pushing himself to make sure that Zoko will be a successful Startup. He said “At the end of the day, it is all about solving customer problems.”

Hope to see Zoko scaling up and reaching greater heights in the coming years. Zoko has a great potential to become the Shopify for WhatsApp.

____________________________

This is a gist of how Zoko works:-

Listen to the interview on podcast: Spotify, Apple, Google

“Happiness is the only Selfish motive”

The story started two decades ago, 1999-2000, when Anoop and Rekha who were studying in the same college were discussing about a future together. Both had a common thought about the life ahead of them. They agreed on doing something to make the society better , not big things but something in our capacity and yes, they finally achieved in becoming the ‘Arm of Joy’.

This gets even more interesting when I realized that Anoop, in 2008, retired from his professional career at the age of 28.

At a time when people will be building their careers, Anoop wrote an email to the Managing Director of Malayala Manorama where he was working, Mr. Mamman Mathew. Anoop mentioned it as a retirement letter and not a resignation.

“When people want to do some social work, we do not stop them” replied Mr. Mathew to his email.

Anoop had decided that he will not take a professional career path post this stint with Malayala Manorama. Anoop went back to Calicut and decided to follow his passion.

“My passion is to travel, write, read, organize many things and social activities. To pursue all these, I decided to quit and follow my heart”

“It all started with the birthday of our son, Madhavan. We asked our friends, family and colleagues to send us books for the birthday party. We set up a library in Calicut with the books received by us. I decided to quit from Manorama right after this occasion. ” mentioned Anoop.

“It was not easy for people to digest my decision.” added Anoop. Indeed, a person retiring at the age of 28 definitely would have got many eye brows raised around him.

After moving to Calicut, he went on a two years journey to capture the Kerala Yuvajanothsavam event and published an encyclopedia of this yearly event, which is the platform for students to showcase their talent. It got him lot of accolades from media. This gave a confidence to the people around him and they realized that his plan is not to sit idle.

In 2015, he along with his spouse Rekha decided to start Arm Of Joy, a NGO focused in cultivating Smiles around. In the last 6 years, Arm of Joy has been the reason for 300+ occasions and thousands of Smiles in Calicut.

An interview spreading Smiles: You can watch the interview of Anoop on YouTube where he talks about all these in detail or listen to podcast channels mentioned below.

Podcast in Spotify, Apple, Google: PAC Talks with VJCV

My wife is earning for my family. She is a lawyer and a trademark attorney.

“It was not my dream alone. It was an easy decision when both of us were thinking in the same line.” said Anoop about the the thought of starting Arm Of Joy.

It is interesting to note that ARM is abbreviation of their names Anoop, Rekha & Madhavan.

“We never go for fund raising. We do not have staff, no office. But from first month itself we got contributions and received around 10 lakhs INR in the first year. The kind of activities we do, is to make people happy. Whatever they need , we take them for excursions, movie, dinner in luxury restaurant,. Something that can boost their self esteem. We do not go for sponsoring food and all.”

“It is like match the following. We regularly visit orphanages and old age homes in the city. Whenever people come up with a budget then we try to match the requirements. We have been focusing on setting up basic infra at these places. Constructed a football turf in an orphanage, a park, etc. – things for exploring Joy. ” explained Anoop about the process.

On one such visit to Mahila Mandiram, we found paintings all over the walls of this place. After enquiring they understood that it was done by a lady who was from Bangladesh. She was trapped by a sex traffic mafia and brought here.

“I was literally stunned. A lady who has gone through such turmoil has done beautiful paintings”

‘She handed over a book full of poems and short stories written by her in Bangla. I wanted to do something to boost her self esteem. With the help of my friend, Indu in Bangladesh, she got it translated to English and then I translated the poems & stories to Malayalam. My friend Anupama who is a journalist helped in translating the poems and I translated the stories. We published this as a book. She was good with her painting as well. I gifted her a lot of canvas and paintings. We organised painting exhibition of her paintings and all the paintings were sold. The proceeds were handed over to her. Both these events was noticed by many people. This had positive as well as negative effects. Finally Bangladesh embassy reached out and helped this lady as well as other ladies who were from Bangladesh who were stuck here.’ Anoop spoke about one of the major project carried out by Arm Of Joy.

“We consider charity is not a positive word. We were looking for another word which will convey our thought and decided Joy.

Doing things for others is not Charity, but sheer JOY” – adds Anoop talking about the motto of Arm Of Joy.

The sponsors are their friends / friends of friends and people who have heard about Arm Of Joy, who donate during occasion like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, any special achievement at work place and also as remembrance during the death anniversaries of near and dear ones.

A quick look at the different types of work carried out by Arm of Joy will bring a Smile in the face of the reader as well. The occasions vary from recharging the cable connections of old age homes, newspaper / magazine subscriptions , taking them to movies, lunch at a luxurious restaurant (which helps in enhancing their self esteem), building football turfs to building smart connected rooms with audio visual facilities for orphanage and many more.

The Gateway (Taj) hotel extended a hearty welcome for girls from these houses and also helped by giving high discounts, arranged a talk session, etc. Anoop added that there are many corporates like Tata who are happy to help us.

While answering to the question ‘Why are you taking them to a luxury restaurant and not using that money to provide food for 4-5 days?’ – Anoop said “This helps in building their self esteem and confidence”

“Whenever we plan something, there will be people to join hands”

Gokulam FC players came down to inaugurate the football turf. The turf was built for Free Birds children. During Covid, the turf turned out to be a great place for them to keep themselves active.

The list goes on – taking photographs for Aadhar cards, providing cupboard, Mirrors, tooth brush stand, providing mic stand, washing machine, toys and toys shelf, utensils and tiffin carriers, table fans, perfumes, under garments – Gifting a small set of things for the ladies at DD Home, a rehabilitation centre for leprosy patients abandoned by relatives, building poultry farm, taking them to picnics, circus, etc.

It also includes taking them to movies like Maheshinte prathikaram, Uyire, Finals, Lion King, Action Hero Biju, etc. I am sure that even the actors of these movies will be happy when they hear about this cause.

Currently there are 951 event expenses updated on the website of Arm Of Joy. This includes the bank statement, statement of expenses for each occasion in detail and complete transparency is maintained in all the activities.

Arm Of Joy is focused in bringing smiles to many people in Calicut. Anoop and Rekha have no plans to expand to other cities as they are the only ones who are taking up all the work. It is amazing to see how a lovely thought can help lots of people. Kudos to Anoop and Rekha.

I hope to see many such Arm Of Joy getting started in other cities across the globe. There are many people like Anoop and Rekha who have walked this path and it has indeed been an extended arm of joy for many in distress.

A great example of following your heart and passion. This one with a noble thought of spreading JOY.

More about Arm Of Joy: http://www.armofjoy.org/aboutus.php

Anoop also got an entry into the Limca Book of Records in 2013. He wrote & directed a short film ‘Switch Off’, which used only gadgets (no actors, no dialogues).

“If your child sleeps better, you do too!” says this startup from Ecuador.

Daniela Vega & Francisco Corneja , the couple from South America launched StoryBook App in the mid of 2018.

I am delighted to bring out on PAC Talks, this startup story from Ecuador. In an interesting conversation with Francisco, he shared about the idea which is now an App that is improving the physical and emotional health of thousands of children worldwide.

“It was Daniela’s idea. Daniela Vega is my co-founder , my wife and we are a couple doing this venture. It is 100% her idea“ said Francisco during the interview.

You can watch the complete interview here:

Listen to the Podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google podcasts.

Daniela Vega found the technique of massage combined with story telling and music to be an effective way to put their kids to sleep and develop a good bonding. So they felt that this can help other parents and kids as well.

“Most of the families find this App useful in reducing the time taken for putting their kids to sleep. But then there are varied set of users. There was this family in Spain. Their kid hardly used to sleep for 1-2 hr a day, as his brain was not releasing Melatonin. The parents had a horrible time and finally after using Story Book App , they managed to get him sleep through out the night. Parents whose children have ADHD, autism, etc. have also appreciated Story Book. In addition to this, there are kids who do not allow even their parents to touch them. They managed to hug their child for the first time , courtesy our App” added Francisco speaking about the different user experiences.

“We created this App without knowing even a single line of Coding” added Francisco. The couple quit their jobs to get fully involved in this venture. They hired as well as partnered with developers to bring out the idea in to life.

StoryBook is now 2.5 years old Startup and is been used by parents / kids in more than 150 countries.

Francisco adds ‘Story Book is the only App in the world which brings together infant massaging techniques, story and music. For many reasons it is not recommended to have screen time before going to bed. So this is an App, parents will use and kids will listen.”

Simple but powerful app.

“The massage techniques used in this App are inspired by Shantala massage, Indian massage for babies. We are taking this mainstream through Story Book. Ultimately, it is not how well you do the technique but it is to show the physical love and affection to your kids, that creates a stronger bonding. So it is about enjoying and having fun with kids.” says Francisco while answering if any expertise is required for performing the massage.

“Who doesn’t enjoy a massage?” asks Francisco with a smile. Indeed it helps to relax.

Massage also aid in producing oxytocin hormone, the hormone of love and happiness, and it reduces the stress hormone – cortisol. Melatonin, the hormone that helps to fall asleep, will also be released during this activity.

Getting the name of the brand is one of the key factors in the startup journey. Francisco admitted that though he had the complex matrix on his mind but it was easy to finalize the name. Story Book is a widely used word and easily connects with the users.

He added that ‘When you search Play Store or App Store , chances are that you will find us first on the list.’ Story Book has more than 500k downloads in Play Store.

Currently English, Spanish and Portuguese languages are supported by Story Book. They are planning to add 2 more languages by mid of 2021 & additional 4-5 languages next year as well. Though the majority of the users are Spanish speaking but in the last few months there has been a shift to US English.

55% of users have kids 3 years or younger & the rest of 45% range from 4 to 12 years.

While speaking about retaining the users, he mentioned that for higher age group, the kids are the ones asking their parents to use the App. But for the parents to actually understand the benefits , he suggests them to use this for at least 10 days.

The App has an option of free trial, free limited content, monthly and annual paid subscription.

Story Book, which started as a bootstrapped startup, got their first external investment from Jaison Calacanis, founder of Launch. Jaison has assisted Story Book by getting few more investors to put their money on this parenting tech solution.

Francisco, while taking about the immediate plans, emphasized on adding more features and stories to Story Book App. There are plans to look at gamification as well as getting some renowned celebrities to do the voice over for the stories.

They have plans to grow into a 300 Mn community in the coming years.

At a time when parents are WFH and kids are having higher screen time, Apps like Story Book definitely help in many ways including the reduction in screen time and developing a higher bonding.

It is amazing to see couples like Daniela and Francisco, taking decision to quit their jobs, go through the hardships of startup ecosystem and finally climbing the success ladder.

“We prepare for everything in life, for work, for a college, you prepare for everything but you do not prepare to be a Parent. In that if you are a parent, you will know that it is the single most important task .” – a simple but important fact shared by Francisco.

You can read more about Story Book App here.

Ganesh Pai, the founder of Dontmemorise.com, said ” I always wanted to teach. I quit my corporate job in 2012 and was working part time for Tutor Vista teaching Maths online. That is when this idea struck me. I thought of starting something on my own.”

It was Ganesh’s dad who inspired him to dream big.

During an evening walk with his dad, Ganesh shared the thought process of starting something on his own.

“He asked me to come with him on an early morning walk the next day to have the ‘talk’. I shared my thought of teaching at least 100+ students. But my dad said No for this and asked me ‘why just 100, why not a million students?’. added Ganesh.

This was the tipping point for Ganesh to get going with Dontmemorise.com. This startup based out of Thane, Maharashtra, India began its operations in 2014. Ganesh said ” the initial 2-3 years were similar to a toddler running around and exploring stuffs. It is in the last 3 years that our learning curve has gone up drastically.”

You can also listen to this interview on Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts.

When we hear about the leading edutech companies in India, it is a rare sight to find the name of dontmemorise.com in that list. Ganesh in this interview shares his thoughts about PR and whether money should be invested in PR or let the work do the talking for them.

In this case, definitely work has done the talking for them. YouTube has acknowledged the quality content brought out by Dontmemorise.com. YouTube and Google has invested in this startup. This shows that this online education platform has got the attention of global leaders.

They recently came with a module to help teachers understand the basics of YouTube and Google Classroom. YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki, appreciated this effort of Dontmemorise.

Recently Dontmemorise.com decided to move to a paid subscription from a free for all model. The cost of yearly subscription is approximately 3000 INR. For the users who had already subscribed to this online platform were given a 90% discount on this pricing. Many edutech platforms in India charge an average of 40,000-50,000 INR every year. Ganesh, during this interview , explained the reasons as to why Dontmemorise.com is able to come out with such a low subscription fees.

The YouTube channel of Dontmemorise.com has 1.39 Million subscribers as of today. The daily views garnered by them is 250,000. So by the time complete watching this 45 minutes interview of Ganesh, Dontmemorise.com YouTube channel would have got additional 10,000 views.

The journey which was started to teach 1 million students has been achieved. Now Ganesh has set his dream of teaching 1 billion students. He says “Growth is slow, Future is bright”.

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Watch the interview here:

You can listen to the podcast here:-

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