It’s another insightful episode last Saturday at Vigattin Radio with co-anchors Mr. Den Macaranas and Arne Barcelo together with guest anchor Mr. Diego Jose Ramos from Ripplrz. They will be joined by esteemed guests Mr. Judah Z. Hirsh CEO-Founder of Salarium and Mr. Jatin Lalwani Chief Financial Officer of Foureyes.
Before they interviewed the guests, Mr. DJ Ramos told Vigattin Radio about Ripplrz, it is a tech-startup event where companies are looking for startups that can solve the problems on their company. The companies are the one who are pitching to the startup founders to have solutions to the problems on their company.
Later on, Mr. Judah Hirsh talk o. He discussed Salarium and told Vigattin Radio, “Salarium is a software company that provides modular tools form medium and small business and the first tool we provided is a payroll software.”
He added, “What we really specialize is the highly customizable software and we also have another firm that specializes in payroll outsourcing and we literally seen hundreds of companies with different payroll and hr outsourcing processes. So at Salarium, we developed a product that answers their needs.”
Vigattin Radio asked if what caused him to create the payroll software. He replied, “With my previous firm while we are doing payroll outsourcing for so many companies here in the Philippines. We found out that there’s a real need for a very robust software product that could assist thousands of employees.”
Mr. DJ later added that Salarium also built a technology that can be accessed by employees and employers through a mobile phone. Through it they can approve or disapprove an expense and they can also monitor the payroll in real time. He also talked about the geo-triangulation technology in which an employer can pinpoint the location of the employee.
Mr. Judah then talked, “There’s a big need for knowing the exact location of the employee because they can time-in in the morning, but how can you able to validate his time-out in the evening? He finished at five o’clock, but maybe he finished in four o’clock and he went to bars or visit some friends.”
He added, “So what we did instead was making it something that the HR needs to check the employees by logging the geo tagging where the company can draw a fence off the area where the employee must be working.”
Afterward, Mr. Jatin Lalwani talked on Vigattin Radio. He discussed on how Foureyes was created, “We started Foureyes fifteen months ago because most of the members were four-eyed. Traditionally wearing glasses is boring. You have to go to the optician have to pick an eyewear and it was a medical sort of experience then you will pay something around P5000.”
Mr. Lalwani explained if why it’s affordable, he said that they deliver the glasses for you. If one will go online they can pick a certain selection so the first thing they will do is to flip through different glasses. Upon visiting their website, www.foureyes.com, visitors can browse different styles and models of glasses and they can virtually try the glass by taking a picture of them and uploading it to the site where they can put the glasses they want on their face.
He was asked if what’s the happiest feedback they got from a costumer. He answered, “In terms of positive feedbacks, right after the typhoon in Tacloban, a month or 6 weeks after, someone actually ordered a pair there. That’s amazing and we are able to deliver and that’s a milestone for us.” He also added that in every pair of glasses that is bought, they also give a pair to some charity.
When asked if how did they do the pitching (because they won the Echelon 2014 Philippines Satellite event for startups). He told Vigattin Radio, “In pitching what you are going to do is to try and convince the people that your product is real, your team is good and what you want to achieve. It’s like speaking to any of you and making you believe that the website is doing well.”
He added, “You should also start explaining who you are your teammates, your product and what’s special with your product and also the price factor. When we present, we go for all these investors. That’s how we start a pitch.” Mr. Lalwani also talked about their charitable works in which they give a corresponding pair to World Vision in every pair that is bought.
When asked about how pitching works, guest anchor DJ Ramos of Ripplrz (an experienced facilitator of tech events) explained that based on his observation; there is a common factor that a team will win without really putting forward.
He added that enterprises look at the value of a company, the level of their service and a team should be credible and respected and validated by the industry. He ended that without these factors, a startup or a team cannot get recognitions from financial institutions or venture capitalists so they should have a good reputation.
Vigattin Radio then asked if what’s next if you have the best team. He answered, “Normally if you have the best team then you have the best idea, then how do you run now your company? What matters? On the table is how you run your company. What are the processes? How do you troubleshoot a potential problem?” He later added, “What are the guarantees for you to stay at the company? These are the finer details that happen at the back of it.”
The esteemed guests with co-anchors continued to talk on Vigattin Radio. They discussed on what’s the solution needed and how are they are going to pitch. They later answered questions from listeners. Before the show ended, they shared some parting words to the listeners, entrepreneurs and the startup community.
Mr. Judah said, “The only real thing that separates entrepreneurs and from non-entrepreneur is the risk factor and so if you want to be an entrepreneur you gotta take the risk. You gotta go out there. If you wanna play it safe, then you’re just not an entrepreneur. So that’s if you want to have a startup or want to be an entrepreneur, take the risk…”
When asked if becoming an entrepreneur is for everybody, Mr. Jatin Lalwani told Vigattin Radio, “It’s just about changing the mindset first and in few things everything is possible. You can do anything as long as you believe in yourself and tell yourself yes. Maybe there are difficult days and good days but you have to work naturally and keep on working so that one day, a successful day would coem.”
The show ended with a great applause.
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