PAC Talks

Kerala is known world wide for its pristine backwaters. One of the best locations to experience this bliss is Alleppey. Pathirappaly is a coastal village in Alleppey. This village is soon going to make a mark in the global technology space.

Joy Sebastian, the founder of Techgentsia Software Technologies, hails from Pathirappaly.

Techgentsia is the Winner of India Government’s Make in India video conferencing solution challenge (updated after result announcement on 20th Aug, 2020). In the month of April 2020, Ministry had announced an innovation challenge to Indian companies / startups to develop an alternative to the global video conferencing solutions.

“I am from a fisherman family. My early education was in a government school and the first time I saw a computer was during my post graduation in computer application days. I had a tough time to complete the course. My childhood days were pathetic.” say Joy while sharing details of his early days. Joy went on fighting all odds and completed his MCA degree from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala. He then joined a company called Avaneir in Cochin. From then onwards, he has been working in the audio and video conferencing technology sector.

Joy gives complete credit of this achievement to his team. He said “the team has worked 24*7 to come out with this prototype in just one month’s time”. This 10 year old startup is based out of Cherthala and have 50 engineers working with them. They have specialized in the research and development of audio and video based conference solutions during the last decade.

“My friends pushed me to take part in this innovation challenge” says Joy. He is happy with the prototype and is confident that it is a quality product.

You can listen to the complete interview which was done using VConSol video conference solution by clicking the link: Conversation with Joy:- How the video conference industry has changed in the last 5 years with the onset of WebRTC, where we compared the features of this prototype with Zoom, spoke about his humble beginnings, journey of last 20 years in this technology space. We also spoke about their unique ways of giving back to the society – in the form of digital libraries in coastal areas to supporting a free food restaurant.

Listen to Podcast: Spotify, Apple, Google

Joy has been working in the audio and video conference space for the last 20 years. He started his own company in 2010. There was even a situation in 2015 where it was in the verge of closure. But it withstood the turbulence and now have clients across the globe. Joy gives credit to his team who have stood by him. “Except 1-2 employees no one has resigned from Techgentsia. Most of them have joined from campus and are working with me for last 10 years. ” For an IT industry startup where attrition rate is always high, Joy has been lucky to keep the team together without much churning.

He mentions the contribution made by his CTO, Ankur Deep Jaiswal. “His brain and intelligence that is coming into this product. I would say that he is one of the engineers that I see in my career, who can do anything.” added Joy.

The team has worked really hard to bring out this video conferencing solution. They have decided to continue with the project code name ‘VConSol’ as the brand name, for now. “We are getting lot of suggestions, maybe we will do a poll later to decide the new brand name.” added Joy.

The product is not available for now in the market. They have to wait for the final results. If Techgentsia progresses in to the final round then the wait will be longer as the final product will have to submitted to the government for evaluation. But in case they do not make the cut to the next round then the product will be made available for everyone at the earliest.

“We will start with invite only basis. We are a small company and have challenges regarding infrastructure. So want to scale up slowly.” says Joy about his plans to open up the product to the market.

The expectation of Joy is to have 1000 customers in one month. But after using the conferencing solution during the interview, I feel that number can be achieved in less than a day or even in few minutes.

It is a great example of a brand which perfectly fits into the Vocal for Local movement.

This definitely is a great achievement for a small startup based out of Kerala. In addition to this, I was amazed to learn about the ways in which they are giving it back to the society.

Joy along with the help of many volunteers is building the base for many more founders from his village. They have converted 13 libraries in their locality in to digital learning locations. They have provided desktops, internet and conduct mentorship at these libraries. Just before the start of Covid, they had distributed 250 tablets which has now come in handy for all the kids. “In coastal village of North Alleppey, no one will be facing a digital divide. We are trying to minimize it.” – added Joy with a pleasant smile.

The complete Techgentsia team dedicated one month of their time to develop apps and carry out relief work during Kerala flood. They were helping the people stuck in Alleppey by building apps that can be used to trace, supply of food and other materials, etc.

“We also support a palliative care unit called Snehajalakam. We help them with physical as well as mental health support.”

To top it all, they are running a free food restaurant in Pathirappily. “We are running this on sponsorship” said Joy. “Anyone who wants to sponsor during their birthdays, anniversary, etc. can feed the people through this restaurant.” There is no cashier here. It is up to the individual to donate whatever they feel like for the food consumed. This place has been a great help for people during flood as well as now with the impact of Covid.

Dr. Thomas Issac, finance minister of Kerala State is the patron in most of these voluntary projects and Joy acknowledges the support extended by him.

Joy concluded the interview by saying : “The best things happening to Techgentsia will be directly reflecting to the Society.”

I hope to see Techgentsia winning this video conferencing solution. But on the other hand, I will not be disheartened if they do not get selected. This will make sure that the product will be available for everyone to use at the earliest :).

Updated on 20th Aug, 2020: Techgentsia wins the Video Conferencing Solution Challenge. Kudos to Joy and Team Techgentsia.

Joy Sebastian: Sustainable tech startup founder, giving it back to the society in the best possible way.

SAVE to Win Games: An Indian Startup assisting global sports associations and players towards Success

“When God has plans then you tend to move towards it” says Megha Gambhir, the Co-founder and CEO of STUPA Sports Analytics.

The key to success is the execution of the plan. From dating during college days to now the Co-founders of a startup that has recently tied up with global table tennis associations like the International Table Tennis Federation and USA Table Tennis , the story of STUPA Sports Analytics is all about the passion for sports.

Megha said “I usually eat, drink and do everything with table tennis. At home we just talk about table tennis.”

She spoke in detail about how one of the fastest racquet sports in the world, table tennis became a part and parcel of her life. It was in 2018 that Megha along with Deepak Malik, the former national player and coach of Indian national table tennis team, decided to start a performance analytics company.

You can watch the complete interview here : PAC Talks with VJCV: STUPA Sports Analytics (where Megha talks about table tennis, performance analytics, importance of sports related fitness, the changing sports ecosystem and female entrepreneurship).

You can listen to the interview on Spotify, Google, Apple podcasts.

From a general science background to getting into an information technology company as part of campus placements in 2007 and then learning the nuances of the technology for almost 12 years, looks like someone had been pulling the strings together for quite some time.

“While I was working in EY, that was my last company and doing a project for World Bank, I decided to quit my job. I thought of taking a break and explore. This is when Deepak and myself thought of starting STUPA Sports Analytics.” Megha shared the beginnings of this Startup which has been in News recently for the right reasons.

Sports and Technology has been on an intertwined path for the past few years.

Megha mentioned the importance of using tools to capture and process the data: “The performance of the players, whether it be practice sessions, friendlies or actual matches, are captured traditionally by the coach and the players themselves in their mind. This is used as a referral point to nullify the weakness and upgrade the strengths. Now with the aid of technology, this is captured in a systematic manner.”

“We came out with the prototype in Tableau.” Megha answered while talking about the tool used by them to bring out the information in presentable format.

The current application of STUPA helps player to get data about the performance after the completion of the game. Match video has to be uploaded to the app and data mining happens at the backend to provide the required key performance indicators.

STUPA will be having a panel of experts with them to help the players. This is not going to be limited to coaching but will also cover areas like proper physical and mental match fitness, yoga, sports physiotherapy, etc.

“I presented this in the ITTF Sports Science Congress in Budapest. From then on, we have got lot of traction towards STUPA. We also got an opportunity to cover Ultimate Table Tennis – one of the biggest table tennis leagues in India.”

STUPA is now working on an Artificial Intelligence based system which will assist in capturing and sharing real time information with players as well as coaches. This will definitely be a requisite going forward for performance analytics. In addition to this, the application will be extended so that other racquet sports like badminton, tennis, squash, etc. can be analyzed using similar technology.

Human intervention is imperative. But Coaches, teams and players who use technology will have an advantage while competing.

Technology has enabled the transition of almost everything around us, right from simple messaging to the complicated cryptocurrency, all of these can be managed with our fingertips.

Sports has also seen enhancement in on field as well as off field activities. Digital fan engagement, customized messaging, health tech based apps to improve the performance and match fitness of players, etc. are some of the areas where technology has made an impact in sports.

The availability of many big data softwares is enabling to crunch data with ease. Cassandra, Hadoop, Talend, Tableau, Teradata and to the latest Snowflakes, there are enough and more choices out there in the market.

Technology & Analytics will augment the Sporting ecosystem. 

Already many of the major sporting leagues & clubs are using one or the other form of analytics software. Coaches as well as players have started to recognize that Sports Analytics is Very Essential (SAVE) to Win games.

Megha concluded the conversation by saying “My family and husband has always supported me in whatever I want to do. This has empowered me to move ahead with determination. I am happy to inspire other women around me. I hope to see more women getting into entrepreneurship by taking the confident step.”

STUPA Sports Analytics is in discussion with multiple sporting associations. They already have some of the world’s top ranked table tennis players using the tool. It is great to know that a sports technology startup from India will be assisting global association and players to succeed in their games without compromising on the security of the data.

Social Distancing, Crowd Management, Pivot – some of the words which are getting discussed now in length while talking about the resumption of personal and professional lives.

The main talking point for the resumption of personal and professional normalcy is completely dependent on ‘Social Distancing‘. How can this be ensured and make everyone feel comfortable?

Can your business effectively pivot and become relevant to the current market needs?

WaitTime , the startup which provides real time crowd movement information with the help of Artificial Intelligence, was launched around 4.5 years ago. The product was designed for use in Sports stadiums or arenas to help reduce the waiting time of spectators.

I had interviewed Zachary Klima, the founder of WaitTime, last year to capture his Startup story.

When Covid almost brought everything to stand still, one of the sectors which saw a complete shutdown was Sports.

It was “shutters down” for everything around Sports except for eGames. For a startup like WaitTime which was completely focusing on Sports, it meant zero business.

From almost out of action to the center of all action, how WaitTime timed its move to perfection?

In a conversation with Zack last week, I got to understand how WaitTime mastered the art of pivoting. By using the Crowd intelligence solution in the best possible ways to ascertain Social Distancing & there by Crowd management, WaitTime was innovative to be at the center of all action related to this.

You can watch the conversation on YouTube: PAC Talks with VJCV

You can listen to the complete interview (we spoke about how the stadiums will be when the Sporting action resumes, Olympics 2021, World Cup 2022, Retail sector, Tourism, Hotels, Conferences, etc.) : Podcast: Spotify, Google, Apple

“We were thinking about other solutions before Covid hit. But once Covid hit it definitely sped up everything. So we just expedited that process.” said Zack.

Zack also emphasized the fact on how the priority has changed at different organizations. “In the global pandemic that we are in, our product transformed from a fan experience side of the world to an operational health & safety side. So we are in this transition of “nice to have” solution to “need to have” solution.

Responding to my question of how WaitTime has developed the product for the retail segment, Zack replied “We built another algorithm. It is applicable for shopping malls, grocery stores, etc. It is an entry and exit software. It will count the people going in and going out at the same time. We will know the real time occupancy. “

In regard with the restart of sporting events, Zack added “We have been identified as the technology to help the resurgence of sports.”

This can also be a great platform to have a focused digital fan engagement.

It is nice to see a brand turning around its USP to match the market needs.

WaitTime was in the market as a solution to reduce the waiting time and now the same brand is making waves by helping Sporting arenas, retail segment, tourism, mass transit, government bodies, etc. to control the crowd movement. It is the go to solution now for crowd management. WaitTime provides crucial data which can be used to control and make people wait before entering into any premises.

One good feature about WaitTime is the anonymity of the data captured by its cameras. There is no facial recognition and anonymity of the person is maintained even while capturing the crowd intelligence data.

This startup had got associated with major sporting arenas and leagues like Sydney Cricket Ground, Melbourne Cricket Ground, NBA, NFL, US Tennis Association, etc. even before the start of Covid.

Now with crowd management being the key to bring back the normal days , I hope to see technology based solutions like WaitTime to aid government bodies, tourism boards, tourist attractions, public transportation, hotels, etc. to plan the phased reopening of premises.

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Artificial Intelligence based solutions which can provide real time information will be critical to bring back normalcy at the earliest.

Key Facts, FAO: “Each year, the world loses or squanders a third of the food it produces. This means that somewhere between planting seeds in fields and providing nourishment to the world’s 7 billion people, approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food with a value of more than US$1 trillion is lost or wasted. “

“Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations  is urging that countries do their best to keep trade flowing and food supply chains alive and increase agricultural output during the international health crisis.”

At a time, when countries are struggling to cope up with the pandemic, it is annoying to see that on one side Farmers are struggling to sell their produce & on the other side lot of people have to spent days without food.

Food Waste has been a crucial area that needs serious investment & find solutions to reduce the food wastage across the globe.

It was indeed heartening to see a Startup based in Norway helping organizations to manage / reduce the Food Waste.

In this edition of PAC Talks with VJCV, I spoke to Charlotte Aschim, Co Founder & CEO of TotalCtrl, Norway.

TotalCtrl is one of Europe’s leading company in the Food Waste Management sector. TotalCtrl is providing software / technology solutions to prevent as well as reduce the Food Waste.

Watch the interview : YouTube Channel: PAC Talks with VJCV : Charlotte Aschim, Co Founder & CEO, TotalCtrl

Listen to the interview: Podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Google (57 minutes)

You can also read the complete interview here :-

VJCV: How is TotalCtrl helping the clients during these unprecedented times ?

Charlotte: We are helping them save a lot of time & money. We were able to help farmers setup market places, help them to move from offline to online. Lot of them have seen the potential of Digital and have started using our services. It is been interesting to see how we adapted to the change.

VJCV: Can you talk about your professional journey which started from Burger King & now again back to the Food Sector ?

Charlotte: I started working when I was 12 years old & have lot of varied experience working in different sectors. I have worked at Burger King, worked as a Real Estate consultant, and many other sectors. Building bridges in 3D, flying Drones, etc. was the last few things I did before starting TotalCtrl.

But we (my co founder & myself) started TotalCtrl with our own experience of working in a grocery store. I was the lock manager there & my co founder was the manager. During that time, we spent a lot of time walking around the aisles looking for products which were about to expire / expired & ended up with lot of food which was wasted. This food was not given out to charity. It was just wasted. Since we spent a lot of time in that , it was the trigger for us to think about starting TotalCtrl. We were waiting for the right time to get into the Food Waste Management sector. So 2.5 year ago, With the United Nations focus on this along with the Sustainability Development Goals , we thought that it is time to get going. I learned how to code, we built a prototype & sent it to different retailers & one of them became our customer. This was the start of my entrepreneurial journey.

VJCV: What are the products / solutions available at TotalCtrl?

Charlotte: We are a Software company. We have solutions available for Grocery Stores, Food Banks, Restaurants& Municipalities. We are helping our customers to save time. Instead of manually checking the inventory / stock in Grocery Store which are about to expire, we help in automating it. It also helps to give the indicators to move such products to market place / reduce the price & try to sell it instead of getting wasted. For Restaurants, they have multiple storages. It is an extremely traditional industry. We help them to save around 85% of food waste & save lot of time & money. So we help in making a huge impact in our customers’ profits as well as the planet & people in general.

VJCV: Where do you fit into in regard with the Food Value Chain ?

Charlotte: We are currently working with Consumer facing businesses. Everybody who needs to have a control of their inventory in digital way are our potential customers. Food banks also use our services.

VJCV: How do you help the Food Banks?

Charlotte: We make sure that they get food faster in & faster out. By automating the process, Food banks are able to get the food from Suppliers faster . Supplier sends the food & is automatically updated in our system. Once the food is in , food banks have real time inventory details. We have an interface for charities as well. So they can see what food is available in the food bank. The charities can register from their phone & can manage it as a self service. So it reduces the time that is required to be spend at the Food Banks & minimizes the contact with other people.

Before Covid crisis, 1/3rd of the food produced in the World was getting wasted. Now during Covid crisis, even more food is getting wasted. Farmers are not able to sell it to the restaurants / hotels. So they are lacking a sales channel to sell their produce. Now we need multiple Food Banks to take these food. This emphasizes on the requirement of digitizing the food value chain , make it sustainable & in turn reducing the wastage of food.

VJCV: Farmers are finding it difficult to sell their produce during Covid crisis. How does TotalCtrl help them ?

Charlotte: We are helping them to get on the online Sales Channel & help them to sell direct to consumers. We have created Market places and farmers can add information as per the regulations for each country & consumer can just buy from them. We also suggest to have the pick up point on the farm / near to the farm as farmer would like to reduce his transportation cost. In most of the cases, farmer wants to have most of the cash as they have already lost lot of money. So they want to any additional fees. Lot of farmers are not digital & not good at marketing themselves. We are helping them market themselves & make the neighborhood understand that they can buy from them next year also.

Currently we have started in Norway, will do the testing & later launch in globally.

Consumer facing inventory solution is available for customers from across the globe.

VJCV: In regard with Restaurants, How is TotalCtrl helping them during Covid crisis ?

Charlotte: We see different statistics & see that around 50% may shut down. But we foresee there will be lot of startups in restaurant industry. We will be able to help them cut cost & manage inventory. This gives them more time to focus on the business of selling the food. It is going to be more & more important to become digital.

There are some restaurants where they inventory but not operational & vice versa. We provided our plaform & got both types of these restaurants on our system & are helping them sell to the required people. We have a school in Norway which is now running a kitchen. So they are now purchasing the products from restaurants. It is like a collaboration between different systems & companies. So we get the restaurant on our platform & they update the inventory details. It is a way of redistribution of food which otherwise would have gone wasted.

VJCV: How are you able to help the restaurants / grocery stores to get their Sales Forecasting as well as Pricing Strategy correct ?

Charlotte: This (TotalCtrl) gives them more power. They are able to see when things are going to expire. So this give indicators for them to take actions like reducing the price / move the product to market place, etc.

VJCV: TotalCtrl is a one stop solution – you help in Marketing material as well?

Charlotte : In a grocery store, they spend a lot of time creating & printing marketing manuals / leaflets. We provide that on our platform where they can complete this in just 3 clicks.

VJCV: You have partnered with Artificial Intelligence based company Halla in Los Angeles. What are the plans ?

Charlotte: We were looking to get into the US market. So Halla will help us in that process. We are planning to enter US by 2022. This partnership will also help Grocery Stores in selling what is available / what is going to expire.

We are planning to scale our consumer solutions. We are launching an App. This (for now in Norway) will help consumers to get control over what they have at home & get notifications. It will also give recipes automatically generated considering the products available at home.

VJCV: UN has been talking about Sustainability Development Goals. So how do you help companies / organizations to achieve the SDGs?

Charlotte: Since we are dealing with Food Waste we are directly part of the UN SDG Goals. We are also part of ‘End Hunger’, etc. All our partners are connected to this. We are able to be the provider of a kind of network of different system that help businesses to keep to their KPIs. Businesses have KPIs like Food Waste reduction, calculating CO2 emissions, cost reduction, digitalization, etc. It is going to be more important to be Sustainable.

Sustainability also means Profitability as well. So leveraging on knowing what future will be : more local, more digital, more sustainable & going & creating solutions for that.

VJCV: Using TotalCtrl , can companies track Carbon emissions ?

Charlotte: We are going to combine our solution with Carbon emission calculations. We have to make sure that it is the most reliable way of measuring it. Food is one of the key emitters of CO2. Food gets converted in to Methane which is poisonous & when we waste food it is hard on the planet.

VJCV: You have receive accolades & people are looking up to TotalCtrl as a solution provider. So how do you see that ?

Charlotte: It is an honour to see the accolades. We wanted to build credibility in everything we did & it has helped us. One of the things which is great for us is that lot of people are applying for our jobs. We are the leading technology in Food Waste Management. We have been called as Speakers in different platforms. It is good to have that arena for creating awareness. This (Food Waste) is a huge problem which need more awareness. We want to help companies who want to come in to this sector. We know that we are good but we need more solutions / companies like us to come in to this.

VJCV: You have recruited people at Senior Management level from other industries / fields ? How do you plan those recruitments ?

Charlotte: We understood at the start itself that we need people who are expert in their fields. My co founder & myself had realized our weakness & wanted to recruit people who can help us in getting things right. This helps us to understand the different scenarios. We have been lucky enough that there are lot of good people around us. They see the potential of the company & they want to be part of this journey.

VJCV: Are you self funded / have investors on board?

Charlotte: We started off as a self funded Startup. Though we wanted to keep investors at bay but we understood that to expand we required investment. So now we have investors , some who came in as strategic investors as well as angel investors.

VJCV: How important is to understand your Weaknesses and get people on board according to that ?

Charlotte: It is very important from the start. Startup is running a business in different stages & it kind of changes every year. So to understand our weakness & getting the right people on board is critical.

Running a startup has lot of ups & downs & is like a roller coaster journey. So people who are okay to be part of this journey & are ready to learn are always welcome to work with us.

VJCV: You have employees from different nationalities ? Is there any specific reason to that ?

Charlotte: Initially I did not care about anything like gender / age / any of those kinds. We wanted people who are ready to work & learn. So somehow we ended up with people from different nationalities. But we have realised in the last one year that it gives us different perspectives & enables us to understand things from varied view points . It also has challenges like everyone will have different values / cultural differences, etc. We need to adjust to get going. So combining those thoughts helps us in getting the things together & scaling the company.

VJCV: Across the business ecosystem, one of the key topics is Women Entrepreneurship. Your co founder & yourself fit into this bill. How do you both decide to work together & how are you coping up with each other for the last 2.5 years ?

Charlotte : We are best friends. So that helps. She is more into Marketing, HR , etc. & I am into the technology, business side of it. So being two extremes somewhat works in a positive way.

We had challenges as female tech founders till we were noticed as the upcoming startup. Being female founder is more of an advantage. I being a female carrying a tattoo, blue colored hair, etc. helps me stand apart.

VJCV: When and why did you get your hair colored blue ?

Charlotte: I wanted to have some unique identity. I went for a music festival in US which was before the launch of the Startup & I colored my hair blue. So I thought of continuing the hair style as it was matching my eye color & helped me stand apart from others. The way Steve Jobs had his unique turtle neck T shirts.

VJCV: How are you coping in regard with your financials now?

Charlotte: We managed to get a round of funding just before Covid. So with the money that we have now, it is sufficient to manage for another one year. In addition to that we have more applications lined up for investment. Also new product solutions should help us get sufficient revenues.

VJCV: What are the future plans of TotalCtrl?

Charlotte: Take out the World :). The plan is to scale our Solutions. Make the most of this situation, provide technology and make more holistic solutions. Make sure we can prevent food waste & make the value chain more Sustainable.

Retail Solution are available for use in 155 countries.

We are launching the Consumer solution also for Norway for now. The plan is to connect with more partners who are recipe providers / data providers. So we are looking to get the right partners on board to expand to new countries.

TotalCtrl Solution is ranked as one of the world’s most innovative by Retail Insider

TotalCtrl named as one of Europe’s most inspiring food waste change-makers by the European Food Waste Innovation Network.

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Food Waste Management will have a key role post Covid 19. This will be critical in making sure that the food is made available to everyone without much challenges.

Technology will have a substantial role in ensuring the Sustainability of the Value Chain. Hope to see many Startups like TotalCtrl to be part of the Food Waste Management initiatives.

PAC Talks with VJCV : Food Tech : Charlotte Aschim, Co Founder & CEO, TotalCtrl

“I talked to a guy who told me that Telecom is a cool thing where money can be made even while you are asleep & that triggered my entry into telecom” says Dave Erickson, Founder & CEO of FreeConferenceCall.com.

It is a busy time for Conference Call companies now. Government organizations, Corporates, Families, Friends – everyone is looking for options to be ‘connected’. Work from Home is the new go to mantra.

The timing to interview Dave Erickson could not have been any better. I got the opportunity to talk to Dave Erickson when the whole world is looking at all possible options to stay connected. In this interview (done via FreeConferenceCall.com), Dave shared the history of the company as well as conferencing call options available on FreeConferenceCall.com, their future plans, etc. He also shared his message to the Startups out there who might be struggling to get going in the current global ‘stand still’ situation.

(You can also listen to the detailed Interview on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.)

VJCV: What were you doing before starting FreeConferenceCall.com ?

Dave: I am a high school graduate & I do not have any university degree. I have made concrete curbing gutter machines, done finance and different type of things. I talked to a guy who told me that Telecom is a cool thing where money can be made even while you are asleep & that triggered my entry into telecom.

VJCV: You even thought of coming out with your own Newspaper?

Dave: That was long time ago, as a kid. It says a lot about who I am; I was able to, at a very early age, start mowing lawns & gardening for neighbors. I always did things that I wanted to do. I wanted to get in to telecom & as a bootstrapped guy it was difficult to get into this sector. FreeConferenceCall created the Self Service Conference Call. Now FreeConferenceCall.com is running faster & better than many of the other companies out there.

VJCV: How did you decide on the name of the company and when did you pick up the domain ?

Dave: During that time (2001) Screen sharing and Video Conferencing was a new field & making in roads. So when I came up with the idea of Conference Call, I wanted to see if people will take this service. People started using it but they did not know about the brand. So I needed to come up with a name and then I thought why couldn’t I call it as ‘FreeConferenceCall.com’. I picked up the domain for 10$ (USD) on 26th Oct, 2001.

VJCV: For the initial 3 years, you were the only employee at FreeConferenceCall.com. How did you manage all the work?

Dave: I did not have the money to pay people. I built everything myself & arranged deals where I managed to use somebody’s infrastructure. Close to 900 days I was managing everything. I even answered all the Customer Care calls 24/7. It was the desire to do it. Lot of people called & learnt to use Conference Call from me. They used to call and tell me the cool things that they were doing with this & how I am part of their collaborative efforts. Mary K Cosmetics used our services & managed to move from being a neighborhood business to nation wide business.

VJCV: When and how did you start generating revenue ?

Dave: It was 1st April, 2004. I was looking for a phone company which can host my conferencing bridges. I had approx. 6 million conferencing minutes at that time. I found a company in Iowa. They paid me somewhere in the mid of May, 2004. They paid me early because they were so happy with the volume. They had 200 lines in total and we added 2024 lines there (almost 10 times their size).

VJCV: Is FreeConferenceCall.com absolutely free to use for Consumer ? There is an option of payment which I saw on your website, what exactly is it all about ?

Dave: It is absolutely free. We have been able to make money from other things which are part of the telecom economics. I had to keep this free for everyone. I reached out to customers and gave an option for customers to pay what they felt is fare for the usage. This was to make sure that others who cannot afford to make any payments still use our Services. The response to this was amazing. 1000s of customers paid and also picked up other value added services. We use this to help Students and Charity organizations to use Conference Call.

VJCV: Is internet mandatory to use FreeConferenceCall.com?

Dave: Customer can connect via Voice on our App, via video conferencing, data conferencing or you can just be on telephone. You can just dial in to the conference line from a regular telephone and be part of the conversation.

VJCV: How do you make sure that the calls are secured & privacy of the user is maintained ?

Dave: There are different layers of security. On a telephone system, once everyone dials in, you can take a roll call & check the participants who are connected to the call. Once the required people are connected on the bridge then the call can be locked. It is the most secured scenario. The Access code is not a security code, it is given out to people to connect to the conference. In regard with the backend information, FreeConferenceCall is a private company. We have not sold any data to any information to any company ever. We do not use information to sell other services as well. I do not like it when my information is sold / used. As long as I am the CEO of the company it will remain like that :). Privacy is sort of moving target. I do not think anyone say that they are completely 100% locked down.

VJCV: What is the call duration possible on a call ? How many people can be on a call simultaneously ?

Dave: Conference call can go on for 6 hours. Whenever a new member joins the call then the call duration will get extended to another 6 hours.There are court cases where in we have seen the calls going on for 8 hours also. 1000 people can be on a call at the same time. We see Direct Selling people connecting to 700-800 people & also Prayer calls see 1000 people getting connected at the same time.

VJCV: How are you managing the current demand because of the unprecedented situations ?

Dave: We have seen great demand from across the globe especially Turkey, Iran, Iraq & India. In India we have seen usage going up by some 1000%. We have a different Culture & do not work / operate like a typical corporate. Employees here can work anywhere & get paid lot more. But they love it here. They sometimes make me feel an inadequate leader. They just went full time now without being asked, this is their network & they take it personal, which is beautiful. I have a great team. It is super rewarding for them. We are happy with the network we have built. It could be bigger & we are trying to double the size of it.

VJCV: There was a time when you did not want more customers to use your services ?

Dave: It was in 2005. The company kept growing and I did not have the money to buy the equipments as fast it was growing. I stopped all marketing but it still kept growing. But now the market situations have changed & things are lot better now. We specialize in telecom piece and it is the most difficult piece to scale.

VJCV: What is the USP on FreeConferenceCall.com compared to others like Zoom, UberConference, Google Hangouts, Ring Central, etc. ?

Dave: We are community supported . Our users help other users to get connected. We are always free. We do not do 30 days free / 60 days free. It is lifetime free in FreeConferenceCall.com.

VJCV: The hold tune you have been using from the beginning is Sunshine Soul by the New York Ensemble. It is in a way a great song during this current pandemic when people are looking at ways to get some Sunshine.

Dave: All our souls need some Sunshine during quarantine

VJCV: You have a special line running during Christmas called the Santa’s hot line. How many kids call Santa using this service?

Dave: My brother thought it will be a good idea to have a mail form – Santa line. We got a pretty good Santa voice after couple of trials. Around 7-8 million kids call in every year to leave the message. It is a regular toll number. A text is sent to the number from which the call is made and the kids recorded message to Santa is sent back.

VJCV: What is next coming up at FreeConferenceCall.com ?

Dave: Typically Conference Calls were made from offices. Now things have changed. People are working from home. So we are going to look into video display options. We are also looking to launch a Smart phone as well with the suite of products at FreeConferenceCall.com. This is to make it easier for customers to use our services from across the globe. It will have a US number linked to the App.

VJCV: How are you personally coping up with the current situation – Working from Home ?

Dave: I have to go to office twice a week for one hour each as I some signatures have to be done. I feel that I get more time at home as the impromptu meetings do not take place at home. It is more scheduled now and hence more time. So I am enjoying this Work from Home.

VJCV: You are also the CEO of CarrierX.com. Can you share some details about CarrierX.com ?

Dave: Carriers have been serving customers for years. They look at serving the end users. I think Carriers need to learn to serve the applications that serve the end users. CarrierX is set up for serving the applications. The administrator should be able to control everything, right up to the tandem switch. It has to be super agile.

VJCV: You started in 2001 and still maintaining this as a bootstrapped Startup. Someone like you who has been managing a Startup for last 19 years & also have experienced sub prime crisis/recession, what is your message to the startups who might be currently struggling due to the un foreseen market scenarios ?

Dave: I tell my employees that in trouble and in good times, ‘I can’t wait to see what happens next‘. If you are someone struggling with a Startup then you should know that things not happening cannot be the reason for not being prepared. It is all about what is going to happen. When opportunity presents itself , you cannot be flat footed. You should be ready for the next thing and make it in to Sunshine.

VJCV: In the last week, FreeConferenceCall has got some unwanted attention. I could see on Twitter people talking about Jared Kushner using FreeConferenceCall services. You would like to share your thoughts on that ?

Dave: As I shared in the beginning about privacy, FreeConferenceCall is very secured. Government has been using our services since way long, in FBI take outs / police take outs, in subpoenas, government agencies, etc. We are approved for use in Government agencies. There is a way to use FreeConferenceCall which makes it really secure.

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FreeConferenceCall.com ,from its humble beginnings in 2001, has now become one of the top Conference Call service providers in the globe.

A high school graduate, one idea, 10$ domain and now the lifeline for millions to stay connected.

This is yet another great story about people who have shown that Passion, Attitude and Curiosity can take you to places.

Dave Erickson on PAC Talks with VJCV

(Listen to much detailed conversation. Podcasts available on Apple as well as Spotify)

(As a user , I felt FreeConferenceCall.com is not that user friendly when compared to other services available. But it is a great option and has the following advantages 1. you can have long conversations (6 hours) 2. 1000 people can connect at the same time 3. Internet is not mandatory (phone line will be charged for the call).

I interviewed Abhigya Anand on 30th March, 2020 amidst the steady increase of Covid19 cases across the globe. The interview was done as part of PAC Talk with VJCV. Interviews of people ( in this case – young kid) showing the World that Passion, Attitude & Curiosity can take you to places.

Abhigya Anand, the prodigy kid, 7 months ago predicted about the Global turmoil. He had shared the prediction on his youtube channel Conscience.

The links to this Abhigya’s interview (for the podcast audio & youtube channel) is shared below. The below article has some content which is not part of the audio / video & vice versa.

YouTube Link to this Interview

Listen to the Apple Podcast here

YouTube Link to Abhigya’s Prediction Video

Abhigya (with the naughtiness of a 14 year old kid) said ” I play cricket & various games like chess & hand tennis. We also play with the cows & their calves in our house” during the interview. He spoke about his 1st prediction, the current prediction of global turmoil & his future prediction as well.

VJCV: So how have you been in the last one week or so, when people started realising that a kid from India had predicted about the current global situation 7 months ago?

Abhigya: From time to time various people have proved Astrology true. This time I feel Astrology is getting the deserved importance. This time I feel is the turning point & people will start understanding the energies of the planets & how they are getting associated with the conditions in the modern world. The planets still have their influence.

VJCV: How old are you?

Abhigya: I am now 14 years old.

VJCV: How many laguages do you speak ?

Abhigya: 6 – Tamil, Sindhi, Sanskrit, English, Hindi & Kannada

VJCV: Can you please share the details of your certifications / educational courses completed by you?

Abhigya: (Abhigya is home schooled)

Sanskrit – Sahitya from Karnataka Samskrit University ( age 11).

Pravesha from Surasarswathi Sabha ( Equivalent to Master’s in Sanskrit age 11)

PGDAM ( Post Graduation Diploma in Ayurvedic Microbiology at age 10 )

Jyotisha Visharada (  Master in Astrology at age 11 )

BVS ( Bachelors in Vaastu Shaastra at age 12)

VJCV: Tell me about your daily routine?

Abhigya: We get up at 4:30 am , finish the morning routine activities by 5:30 am, we do pooja of God & chant various mantras. We worship Lord Ramachandra, Lord Krishna, Lord Lakshmi Narsimha & also Lord Shiva always. Every single moment we respect & regard all the influencers of this Universe in the morning. We have our breakfast at 8:30 am, lunch at 12:30 pm & dinner at 4:30 pm. We go to bed by 7:30 pm.

VJCV: Are there any specific Sthothrams you recite on a daily basis ?

Abhigya: On a daily basis I recite Venkatsha Suprabhatam, Bhagavad Gita ( 1 chapter every day), Narasimha Kavacham & Navgraha Mantra. On a weekly basis: I recite ‘Shiva Thandava Stotram’ on Mondays, Hanuman Chalisa & Skanda Shashti Kavacham on Tuesdays, Vishnu Sahsra Namah, Saraswati & Hayagriva Stotram on Wednesdays, Vishnu Sahsra Namah on Thursdays, Ayigiri Nandhini & Lalitha Sahsranama on Fridays, Shani Pooja on Saturdays & Aditya Hridayam on Sundays.

VJCV: Coming to the current prediction, How do you keep track of the Planetary motion on a regular basis?

Abhigya: I examine the different verses of Samhitas especially the Brihat Samhita by Varahamihira. I look at the different Omens explained by the Sages. These are not to be taken lightly. These are reflections of Global Karma. There are 3 types of phenomenas : Terrestrial, Stellar & Planetary. Terrestrial phenomena includes the floods , earth quakes, etc. But my major part of my prediction is based on Stellar & Planetary phenomenas & I use 3D , Virtual Reality animations including telescopic views of the Planets.

VJCV: Which was your 1st Prediction?

Abhigya: It was somewhere in 2018 where I had predicted that there will be a global recession in the coming future. This was dual prediction: 1. Considering the astronomical conjunction & 2. based on the Science of the market, the debt piled up. I was focusing the Financial aspect of the World at that point in time.

VJCV: When did you realize about the current prediction ?

Abhigya: I realised about this around Feb 2019. I predicted the worsening relationships of US & Iran. During that period when I was researching I got these insights.

VJCV: What was your reaction when you understood about such a dangerous situation ?

Abhigya: I was Startled. The prediction that I made could have been done 100 or 1000 years back as well. The Planetary positions can be predicted. I only found out about this by June, July 2019. I uploaded the video in Aug 2019. It was very normal situation across the globe at that time, so people did not realize the seriousness.

VJCV: How long does it take to research on such topics ?

Abhigya: It takes time and need to dedicate time on a daily basis. But I enjoy analyzing the planets & is fun for me. But when it becomes negative then you can feel the negativity around us.

VJCV: Can you explain / talk about the vibrations that can be created by chanting OM & how it helps in keeping the negativity away?

Abhigya: OM is a wonderful vibration & it is created from the origin of the Universe. Whenever negativity is around us then we can utter OM & it helps in rejuvenating the human being, releases the good hormones of the body & also oxytocin & other good chemicals. It also calms down the body & is good for yoga.

VJCV: 7 months ago when you released the video predicting the severe danger to the world, you had also released a video in which you spoke about the remedies like at least one day of non violence, people from all different religions praying to their respective Gods,etc. to reduce the impact. Do you feel that if those remedies were done then the impact of this Virus could have been reduced ?

Abhigya: Vegetarianism is one of main and most wonderful things to do. If we do not want such pandemics in the future then we should stand up for Ahimsa, not harming animals & fellow humans, not harming Mother Earth (use eco friendly products). This does not mean that I am against Humanity but it means that Humanity needs to understand the values of Life & also of fellow creatures as well.

VJCV: You have shared that 31st March and 1st April are going to be the most dangerous days & that the situation can worsen during this period. Can you explain that and the precautions that needs to be taken ?

Abhigya: This particular time people should take lot of care. People should take Immunity boosters that I have shared in my other videos. Elderly people should be very careful. Moon is conjunct with ascending node and allows a quick dispersal of droplets. Rahu (180 degree ascending node) will make the disease spread widely during this period. Do not lock yourself up. Make sure that you get enough Sunlight within the household premises. I have suggested herbal remedies also in my video.

VJCV: Is there anything else that can be done to reduce the spread of the Virus now?

Abhigya: If People take a pledge to stop doing harm to Mother Nature, Mother Cow & Mother Earth, this world will be relieved of most of the sufferings. You also need to follow the Social Distancing but it will help only for now. But for future , building our immunity is very important. Immunity is the basic thing and make sure it is not degenerated. World needs to develop more Immunity.

VJCV: Do you foresee a similar situation coming up in the next few months?

Abhigya: Yes, I foresee that and I will be sharing the details of that on my YouTube Channel shortly.

VJCV: Considering that you have already learned & achieved a lot for your age – including this prediction, What is your aspiration?

Abhigya: I want to help Humanity with all Vedic Sciences. Vedic Sciences see everything. Sarvam Drishtam, Sarvam Jnatham & it is encoded. It is the duty of every human to protect people. Do not torture animals and do eco friendly things to protect Mother Nature.

VJCV: How do your parents support you in all your learnings ?

Abhigya: My parents help to get me the right books, give outlook of things happening in the world in different perspectives.

VJCV: You are the Tutor & Mentor for your sister Abhideya – who is the next upcoming star. How do you do that?

Abhigya: We both are really naughty :). We study for a short while. We study whatever we like. I try teaching her Vastu Sashtra, Astrology. She likes the technical side of both of them. It all depends on how you maintain the interest of the Student . If the student does not have interest then you can move mountains but you cannot teach. Student will learn if they have interest even if you do not teach. Eklavya learned all complete archery better than Arjuna without the help of any teacher. Modern education is lacking in generating that interest.

Abhigya ended the interview by Chanting few Slokas. The same can be viewed / listened by visiting this link.

Link to Abhigya’s Herbal Remedies (to keep the virus at bay during this pandemic):

Link to one of Abhigya’s Swacha Shareer Campaign Talk Video (he has spoken in detail about this in the PAC Talk interview):

“The World Needs to develop More Immunity” – this is the key message shared by Abhigya.

Abhigya’s YouTube Channel

Stay Safe, Stay Home, Stay Healthy. Hope we soon see things getting better and a reduction in the impact of Corona Virus / Covid19.

©ConscienceAbhigya ©Vijaykrishnacv

“It was 2010 & eCommerce looked very easy , especially drop shipping. So we thought of selling neck ties. But soon we had 1000 neck ties piled up in my living room and we were struggling to sell them. It was the moment of shame for me.” – said Vivien Garnes.

From Moment of Shame to Moment of Reckoning, Vivien along with his friends turned around this failure in to Success. He cracked the code to the new trending I in Marketing : The Influencer.

The Co – founder and Co – CEO of NYC based startup Upfluence, one of the leading influencer marketing platforms, Vivien Garnes shared details about his journey – from sleepless nights selling neck ties to becoming the founder of a company which is helping Brands to market their products. Upfluence is pioneering quite a lot: from AI-assisted influencer suggestions and fake follower detection to language recognition technology.

VJCV: What was the trigger to start Upfluence ?

VG: In 2010, my friend Kevin and I started an eCommerce company. The product we chose to sell was Neck Ties and assumed that it will be easy. But we struggled to sell those neck ties even after using adwords / adsense, etc. So we tried shipping products to bloggers, getting them to write reviews. These review would generate traffic and conversions. That’s when we realized that Influencer Marketing was a thing, but that it was a tedious process with little to no transparency. So that’s how the idea behind Upfluence sprouted.

VJCV: What is Influencer Marketing (from a layman’s perspective) ?

VG: Marketing is all about putting your product into the market. Most Marketing channels market products directly to their Consumer / Target Audience. Influencer Marketing help the brands to market their product via a proxy. This proxy is a Social Media user with some followers / influence. The key differentiator is that usually brands control large amount of their communication / their copy. Here Brands surrender that control to the Influencers & that has been very good. The influencers know their audience & they reshape the message to engage with the audience. The result of that is incredible engagement created by Influencer Marketing.

VJCV: How did the Upfluence platform look like in the initial years and how has it changed over the years?

VG: We started off as a Market place for bloggers. Like an Uber platform. It worked well for us from the influencer side. On the advertiser side , the market was not ready. There was liquidity problem at both the sides. After the initial one year, we focused on the becoming the technology based ‘agency’. From 2014 to 2016, we worked on the technology and in the meanwhile got directly in contact with influencers as well as clients. It helped us understand the market needs from both perspectives. Eventually we changed our platform to SaaS (Software as a Service) based model & have been doing that ever since for the last 3 years. The platform includes tools for influencer identification, recruitment, campaign management, reporting, and payment.

VJCV: How did you sustain from 2012 to 2016 (RoI) ?

VG: It is one of our key DNAs to keep ourselves capital efficient. We were very conscious about our spends. We ensured that every investment made by us is scalable and profitable. We did not want to burn money to accelerate the growth. Our focus was to reach profitability at the earliest.

VJCV: MarTech space is changing drastically. Do you think this is just the start of things to come ?

VG: Unlike most industries which are centuries old (or even millennium old for beer for examples) the MarTech/AdTech industry is just 20 year olds. It went through so many revolutions already (search, display, cloud, retargeting, programmatic, automation, etc.). At the end of the day, marketing is about standing out from the crowd. Technology helps you do that at scale. That’s not going anywhere in my humble opinion.

VJCV: There is lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and particularly Chat Bots. Does that help the Influencer Marketing space ?

VG: All three of them help in automation. This help in streamlining lot of things. AI & ML enable in batch processing. ML is more organic as well. The more data fed to the system, it gives more conclusions and you can expect the consequences. With Chat bots, in Influencer Marketing, some attempts made have not been successful. We do not buy media space, banners, etc. It is a creative collaboration with people. So brands have to talk to people & there is always a human to human conversation to connect with people as part of Influencer Marketing.

VJCV: How do you use technology to discover the influencers ?

VG: The challenge/pain for brands is to identify the influencers. Text data is searchable but that is only a fraction about the Influencer . Technologies like AI & ML help us in analyzing each Influencer in detail. For example, just with imagery information we can infer several parameters like gender, ethnicity, and lot more. So this combined with other available information gives a great level of understanding and actionable points for the clients to pick Influencers as per the required domain / demographics, etc.. So they spend less time in finding influencers and focus on creativity & the human interaction.

VJCV: As highlighted by you , Chatbots have their limitations. Do you foresee a future where Influencers with Chatbots as their replicas will be accepted by Brands ?

VG: For any sort of marketing activity, two points are key – 1. Trust and 2. Scale. Influencer Marketing is a combination of Scale and Trust. Bots does have potential and hope to see brands using them. But that being said, for any sort of successful campaign there needs to be creativity and I do not believe that it can be completely automated.

VJCV: How does Upfluence make sure that the Influencer is trustworthy ?

VG: There are millions of influencers out there in the market. Even if it is a niche segment or geography, we still have sufficient amount of Influencers. With great power comes great responsibility. It is our responsibility to safeguard our clients. In addition to that it is critical for us to provide them with the right tools to analyze and do fraud detection and protection. At the end of the day it is all about Conversions. So you cannot fake and industry is moving towards a better transparent space.

VJCV: The whole market place has changed drastically. Do you feel that Social Media has helped the Influencer Marketing community ?

VG: Yes, inarguably. This space is a cyclical. 10 years back it was bloggers, now it is Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. It has definitely helped to scale the influencer marketing model. It is super easy to open an account in Facebook or Instagram compared to starting a blog page. It is good to have new Social networks come up year after year as some of them have huge traction. It is also good that some of them do not belong to Facebook & that keeps the market place competitive.

VJCV: How do you recommend Influencers to your clients from newer platforms like say TikTok?

VG: If the client is active and has Influencers in any of the existing networks like Instagram then I recommend them to continue using them to test the water in newer platforms like TikTok (provided they have presence in this network). The reason being they know the brand and TikTok as well. It will be a good way to test. Once the test is done and client understands the platform, engagement rates, etc. then they can try using this engagement to use Influencers who are active only on TikTok.

VJCV: How has been the journey so far ?

VG: It’s been exhilarating, challenging, exhausting, rewarding. Much like most entrepreneurial journeys I’d imagine. It has been 8 years now and we are one of the leading influencer marketing platforms. The landscape is moving really fast. We had hardships but there was enough success to keep going & we cherish them.

Upfluence has VC funding backed by the French web entrepreneurs’ fund ISAI.

Vivien added “We want to keep investing in the product/technology, keep growing our people (and our headcount), move upmarket.”

The Influencers are changing the marketing landscape. This is the era of Short Stories. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok – it is all about sharing the stories.

Right from having the morning coffee at Starbucks to the evening party at the club, it has all become part of the ‘Connected’ community. The competition among brands across genres is to be part of these moments and the stories. The more a brand manages to be part of this storyboard, higher is the brand recall value, reach and ultimately the Conversion. To Crack this Code : Brands (and nowadays even politicians) are looking up to Influencer Marketing and Influencers for Success.

Vivien Garnes believes in the quote “Success is moving from one failure to another without losing the enthusiasm” and I completely agree with him. It is a journey and the key here is to not lose the zeal. Focus on the Passion, Attitude and Curiosity & keep yourself motivated to achieve higher goals.

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This interview is part of the PAC Talks with VJCV series.

Listen to this interview:

“India in a Bottle” – Wall Street Journal’s description of SomruS.

Listen to this candid conversation with Mr. Pankaj Garg, the founder and CEO of Somrus. Pankaj aka PK shares his life story of 35 years which for now is encapsulated in a bottle of cream liqueur.

Pankaj Garg was in Ireland to explore the opportunities to expand the footprint of Somrus from the US market to other parts of the globe. In an impromptu interview with me, Pankaj spoke about their current flavors, future plans, investments and the idea behind the launch of this special brand.

You can find more about the brand on their webpage SomruS

Pankaj Garg is a walking encyclopedia of the Cream Liqueur Industry. He talks about all the brands in the globe in this conversation.

Music Credit: The amazing Indian Music Band : Anand Bhaskar Collective. You can hear their songs by visiting ABC

PS: There will be some background noise during the interview as it was recorded inside a restaurant.