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Routific

Marc Kuo- Journey to establish smart logistics platform Routific to optimizes routes for last-mile delivery fleets

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Computer science eases our personal and professional lives with a unique approach and various applications.  It makes many things simple but in reality, computer science is as complex as it can be. In fact, many problems in computer science are complex, for example, routing. While Routific makes this problem easier. Today the firm is assisting several businesses in Route optimization. Since 2012, the founder Kuo with his unique set up Routific, offering a helping hand to many businesses to save their time and energy. Marc is also one of the pioneers who explore the route optimization algorithm. Let us see how a thesis writer of advanced route optimization plunge into entrepreneurship and turned the thesis in practical application.

About Routific

A well-known smart logistics platform Routific optimizes routes for last-mile delivery fleets. So that businesses can save up to 40% on time and fuel. Presently, Routific’s powerful and efficient proprietary algorithm that combined with a stellar user experience makes it the best routing solution for the small as well as the mid-tier market.

In 2012, Kuo set up the firm and since then it helped many businesses to thrive successfully. Today, the business of Routific grows across the continents that also has a huge impact on several other businesses in the world. It has optimized routes in 900 plus cities on the earth which is so admirable to gain such a trust in a considerably small amount of time.

The backstory of foundation

As said earlier, Kuo is well known for writing a thesis on advanced route optimization. As well, set up Routific to work in this field to help other businesses. Well, thanks to the family business which help him to understand this at a very young age. When he was a boy, he studied the tactics to run a business efficiently. This lesson stays with Marc throughout his entire life. But it turned out great when he gets the golden opportunity to use his route optimization knowledge along with his self learned tactics to take a business at the next level.

The beginning

At the starting of the 21st century like the internet was boomed, many things happened that hugely promoted computer science or we can say a rise in the IT industry. But though the logistics solutions were the same as before and one has to empty full pockets to get its benefit. Ultimately, the logistics solutions were meant for big companies only. Because it was not possible to spend that much money on small startups. Yet, these solutions were way hectic to use. While Marc wanted to change this.

He started working on it and as a first step, Kuo formed a unique team having professionals from various backgrounds. Including, award-winning authors, Microsoft engineers, Journalists, and of course entrepreneurs. In the end, he set up Routific in 2012 to offer smart, speedy, modern and yet feasible logistics solutions.

About Marc Kuo- Present CEO and Routific’s founder

A software engineer turned entrepreneur Marc, serving as the CEO of Routfic since 2015. 

Under his guidance, Routific became one of the Techstars Chicago ’15 alum. As well, acquired investors including Pallasite Ventures, Firestarter Fund, Scott Lake, and Axiom Zen.

Career

He earlier worked at Axiom Zen as a software engineer for more than two years. Axiom Zen is a well-known venture studio that also is an award-winning firm. Kuo worked in there especially in accelerating ideas from back-of-napkin to market fit. As well, he worked as an analytical consultant at Analysis Works and as an associate consultant at integrates decision system consultancy. In fact, Marc also worked in the UBS investment bank as an equity trader in the early days of his career.

Educational Background

He attended Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam for studying Masters of Informatics and Economics Operations Research in Logistics. For graduation, Kuo admitted to Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and studied a Bachelor of Informatics and Economics Artificial Intelligence, Finance, and Logistics.

Also, he went to Tsinghua University to learn intermediate Chinese. However, he completed HSK in 2008 with a level 6 degree.

Bottom Line

Routific changes the way of route optimization. Before that, businesses were using spreadsheets or the conventional pen-paper method for this purpose. But it was a huge waste of time, money and resources. As well, when it comes to manual route planning human errors are definitely there. Results in poor logistics, failure to fulfill customers’ demands on time, and ultimately lowering the growth of the business.

However, Routific changed this approach with its unique solution. Today it is assisting several businesses in Route optimization and saving their time as well as fuel and help them thrive impeccably.

Clubhouse

Journey of Clubhouse towards developing strong customer base and revenue growth!

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Project management involves a lot of planning, execution strategies, controlling the work, meeting deadlines and most importantly working together as a team. No matter what and how things are executed, but it’s success is defined by the team and its working. Now there are many tools available for project management and one such tool is Clubhouse. Let us overlook the journey of the firm to grow revenue impeccably.

WHAT IS CLUBHOUSE?

The Clubhouse has built the project management tools so that software development teams can work in the best way. It provides enjoyable project management teams that help in each stage of project management. This is more about a collaborative approach to project management. Till the date, more than 1500 companies are using Clubhouse.

CLUBHOUSE LAUNCH

The clubhouse was launched in 2016 by Kurt Schrader and Andrew Childs. The idea of Clubhouse sparked into their mind when both of them were working at Intent Media. There were a total of 150 people in that company. While doing their job, they realized that the people fight over the tools instead of working on them. That’s when they decided to build something which will ease people’s job and people will love using. They wanted to do something for making teamwork more effectively and that’s how the idea of Clubhouse emerged.

It wasn’t a one-night job. Andrew and Kurt had to spent almost 8 years for the initial phase of the product. As they were working on project development tools, they were aiming for something big and which could help them in their product building. Initially, a group of 10-30 people was able to use the tool for a project. Right before their fundraising, they already got two customers who decided to use their platform.

HOW CLUBHOUSE GATHERED THE CUSTOMER BASE?

With time, they started explaining their product to people and kept modifying as per their needs. Of course, it was necessary to satisfy customers which is the baseline of every business. They targeted some good companies so that they could grow their customer base faster. For publicizing their products and new features, they used some sites like Hacker news.

Another hack they used for publicity is they looked for the mentions of their competitors on Twitter and tried to promote their product to be used as an alternative. It was never linear progress for the Clubhouse. Someday they would get zero traction and another day a thousand. But later the customer base kept on going up and now they have more than 20000 active organizations on the platform.

HOW CLUBHOUSE GROWN ITS REVENUE

Initially, the Clubhouse was in a trial phase, what we call it beta phase. They almost had 40 customers when they decided to charge money for the service. And organizations agreed without any problem. Clubhouse onboarded many new customers and kept impressing teams with amazing features which helped them earn more revenue even faster.

The common path of revenue generation is the subscription cost to their product. It is per user, per team and per month. They have also designed small plans for the teams which have an annual subscription system.

A key principle they used to grow their business was to make customers happy. They did things like expanding the trial period if someone is taking time in making the final decision to get onboard.

MORE ABOUT FOUNDERS

Kurt Schrader and Andrew Childs founded this company with a vision. Currently, Kurt is the CEO and Andrew works as a chief design officer. Kurt works for the vision & mission-related things of the company. He holds a BSE from the University of Michigan. On the other hand, Andrew takes care of all the design and front-end related activities. He has almost 18 years of experience in this field. Andrew holds BFA in Painting from RSID.

BOTTOM LINE

Clubhouse emerged as a solution for project management teams and the idea sparked from the problems founders noticed among teams while working from another company. It’s a solid example that anyone can do a brilliant job if they focus on solving the problem than cribbing about them. Then the business model they accepted is way too unique for startups. Entrepreneurs can definitely learn from this a lot. If you keep your customers happy, your revenues are bound to go up.

Sachin Dev Duggal

Sachin Dev Duggal’s Start-Up Is Helping To Strengthen The Digital Marketing Community

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As a part of our secondary education, we might know the basics of web development, running a program, etc. But, to establish in the real-life marketplace, we need more than that. Today, the knowledge of web development, software development, app development, etc is very demanding. Because they have a very huge potential to grow in the future. The IT sector is booming and yet many individuals are just scared to put their idea in front. They think what if it is not good enough and the business fails. Well, you have the right to be in a dilemma but you cannot step out. Builder.ai is a software which through the help of its platform helps you to build a website, an app, an e-commerce platform, and many more. Sachin Dev Duggal founded the company in 2013. The company is based in London, United Kingdom. Builder.ai uses a library of reusable features which along with the implementation of AI gives your idea a shape. Through this platform, you can work more time efficiently and at a cheaper price to pay.

About Sachin Dev Duggal

Sachin is a serial entrepreneur. He went to Imperial College London and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Information Systems. To complete his master’s he went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Entrepreneurship Organization and graduated in 2011. Sachin worked at Deutsche Bank AG as an Advisor & Consultant for five years.

In 2004, he founded Nivio and served as the Chief Wizard for eight years. He also co-founded shoto in December 2012. Currently, he is the CEO of the company, Builder.ai that he founded in 2013.

Why Sachin built Builder.ai?

Sachin’s vision is for the betterment of the entrepreneurial network throughout the globe. He wanted to launch software that would help people get the idea of his or her business before investing. Because it is important to witness a prototype of your product before launching it publicly. So, Sachin made it very sure taking care that no expert advice is needed and no huge capital.

Experience matters

Sachin was very well-experienced in the business world. Before founding Builder.ai, he founded two other companies. His first start-up Nivio was the world’s one of the first cloud computing company. Sachin had a very clear vision of the business world from a very young age. He was only seventeen when he worked at Deutsche Bank making him the youngest employee in the company.

Sachin’s main point of interest lied in how to bring down the price of building an app. To make it happen, he founded Builder.ai along with Saurabh Dhoot. They knew each other from the university.

The business model

The way how the platform of Builder works is very interesting. Since the software uses AI to analyze the idea of a business, the output is better where there are many users. Because, when plenty of people build a similar product, the rigorous use of the marketplace brings down the cost. Sachin also says that the prediction is 100% true.

Once you create an application in the platform of Builder, you need to buy insurance followed by other services. Otherwise, many people would just buy the application and stop using it though the platform is cheaper.

Success of Builder.ai

Sachin sold Nivio for $100 million and used it as a capital investment for Builder.ai. He didn’t spend the entire money in it. Sachin wanted to minimize the investment in turn for profitable cash flow. When they were testing the platform, many people were willing to pay with a credit card. It was just a public beta and that was unexpected.

Initially, the company has 5 members which expanded to 150 by 2018. They grew 180% of its original size within six years of launching the business. Their main offices are in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mumbai, Delhi, etc.

Piece of advice from Sachin

Sachin says that it is very important to spend money judiciously. Instead of thinking that someone is investing in your company, you should spend like it is your own money. Because one should always consider how to minimize the investment for maximum profit. And, when it comes to online platform always keep your customers engaged and updated.

Also, doing something to catch your customer’s eye is important. So, do something extra and make them come back to your service.

Pierre Betouin

Application Security Gets Better With Pierre Betouin’s Sqreen

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Cybercrime is a big threat to any online company and individual as well. The possibility of leaking information, tampering with personal details, and fraud has increased over the years. In this scenario, it is hard for common people to believe which companies or web applications can provide proper security. Because it is not a good idea to take risks when it comes to very sensitive and vulnerable issues. Similarly, it is also the responsibility of a company to provide proper safety. The security systems should be updated regularly and it should be able to provide real-time defenses. An outdated security system is as good as not having one at all. So, Pierre Betouin launched Sqreen, a security platform in 2015. The platform can be installed for any web applications and it will detect anomalies and provide an automatic response. So, a company can just buy this software instead of going through the chaos of managing its own. It can save a lot of time as well along with better experience for both parties. Sqreen is based on the San Francisco Bay Area.

About Pierre Betouin

Pierre graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2006. While he was in college, he founded Challenge-SecuriTech (a security contest) and was also a Security Researcher at EADS. In 2006, he joined SAGEM Defense and Security and left the company in the same year.

In November 2006, Pierre joined Apple as a Software Security Engineer. After two years, he became Security Engineering Manager and left the company in 2015. Currently, he is the CEO of Sqreen.

How did it start?

Pierre has more than eight years of working experience at Apple. He was part of a team working for responsible for offensive security assessment and predicting external attacks. While he was managing the team, half of the work took place in Europe and the other half in the United States. So, his time at Apple allowed him to get exposed to two different kinds of work environments.

When he decided to open his security platform, Sqreen, he had a better picture. Pierre noticed that it is easy to hire engineers in Europe. Because people are very committed to working for a company as big as Apple. But, in the U.S. the competition was very tough due to Facebook and Google. So, Pierre decided to focus on engineering and create a great product before devoting time to marketing.

Expansion and Growth

When Pierre started the company, it was located in Paris. And, the entire team worked in one office. It was just the beginning and Pierre wanted to be more specific about proper communication. In 2016, the company raised $2.3 million in the seed round. The company invested it in making secure products to fight against illegal coding practices. In 2019, Sqreen raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Greylock Partners, along with participation from Y Combinator, Alven Capital, and Point Nine. Participating in the Y Combinator was one step forward for the company to launch more realistic products.

Currently, Sqreen provides an Application Security Management Platform to the companies. Some of the companies that use the product of Sqreen are ZipRecruiter, Le Monde, BlaBlaCar, etc. Apart from the in-house employees of the company, Sqreen also shows interest in hiring freelancers. And, Pierre also said that hiring freelancers doesn’t mean treating them differently. They are equally part of the company and get the same information as everyone.

The U.S. is the main market

From opening an office in Paris, it gradually expanded to the U.S. to get feedback. And, according to Pierre, the U.S. in the main focus now. He thinks that the engineers, the customers, and the marketplace is very energetic in America. So, it is easier to get feedback on any new product very easily and quickly. An energetic team is very important in making a great company.

Implementation of Machine Learning

It is important to bring the applications of machine learning in cybersecurity due to the volatile cyber-threats. It not only helps Sqreen to prevent potential cybercrime but also analyzes emerging technologies, enhances the capability of data analytics, and estimates the degree of potential failure. ML also includes the concept of AI and deep learning that was slowly introduced in the platform of Sqreen.

Intuit

How does Intuit explore the business in America with unique acquisition strategies

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The financial calculations are complex and need to perform appropriately. We can do such calculations or statistics manually, but being a human, chances of mistakes are there. While in business, the financial part is as important as production or service. Thus, if some flaws occur in the economics of that business, it will affect the business anonymously. Therefore, businesses rely on financial software and lessen the errors in it. In the world, there are many companies that develop such software. U.S.A based firm Intuit Inc. is one of the Software Companies that especially develop and sell financial software to accountants, small businesses, and individuals too. It is set up by two entrepreneurs Scott Cook and T. Proulx in 1983. With affordable service and acquisition strategy founders grew the business in the region of America. As per the recent data, Intuit has collected over 95% revenue from just America. Obviously, it is not easy to dominant any sector, but Intuit proved that if strategies are right anything is possible.    

How does Intuit Make it possible?

It’s a very common fact, the success of any business depends on the base of foundation and strategies to explore the business. After setting Intuit in 1983, founders build Quicken, the first product of the company. That time, Microsoft also launched Microsoft Money to compete Quicken. But Intuit changed the game with its next move. Intuit offered a rebate coupon of 15 US dollars; one can redeem this code on Intuit’s software purchase. In fact, no software company had offered such coupons in history. Thus, Intuit attracted many retailers and it won the trust of retailers and marked its beginning as financial software providers.

However, Microsoft was in competition mode with Intuit since the firm launched Quicken. So in return, Intuit started QuickBooks, a web-based product and solution. As well, focus on its other product TurboTax. Thereafter, the company went public in 1993 as well, changed the strategies to become dominant in this sector.

Further exploration of Intuit with an Acquisition strategy

The company acquired San Diego based Software Company called Chipsoft that primarily was a developer of tax-preparation software. After that, the market capitalization of Intuit raised noticeably. It crossed the line of 2 Billion Us dollars. Around this time, Intuit invested in many other financial software firms including Excite, Lacerete, etc. Intuit jumped into an online bill payment service after becoming a partner with CheckFree. Moreover, Intuit continued this strategy to build a stronger network in America. Recently, in 2020, the firm showed interest to acquire Credit Karma.

Backstory of foundation

The story starts with the idea of two entrepreneurs Scott and Tom. Scott cook realized that personal computers are very powerful. Also, he knew the fact that paper-pen based accounting can be replaced using a computer-based algorithm. With this idea, he started searching for a programmer to convert this idea into reality and that’s how he met Tom Proulx. After that, in 1983 they set up Intuit as a small company in Palo Alto in California.

The person behind Intuit’s foundation- Scott David Cook

He is the founder of Intuit Inc as well, Scott is serving as director of the company since 1983. Also, he served as chairman of the firm for five years (1993-1998) and also served as a CEO (1983-1994). Apart from that, he is Protect & Gamble and eBay’s director.

Scott attended the University of Southern California to graduating in economics and mathematics. Furthermore, he pursued an MBA from Harvard Business School.

What services are offered by Intuit?

Basically, the company develops and sells financial software to businesses, accountants, and persons. This software includes tax-preparation software, accounting, and other financial software. TurboTax and QuickBooks are the two most popular products in the company. The first one deals with tax preparation and the second is suitable for accounting programs of small businesses.

Current products

Other than TurboTax and QuickBooks online, the company has enabled a web-based financial service called Mint.com. As well, ProConnect, EasyAcct, etc products are active to provide tax solutions. The firm also started Credit Karma to access credit scores and monitoring.

Awards and recognition

The subsidiaries of intuit known as Intuit Canada was listed as one of Alberta’s Top Employers in 2008. Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald announced this award. Recently, Intuit ranked at 11 numbers in the Fortune List of the Top 100 Companies to Work For in 2020.

Skrill

How Skrill remained the most popular E-wallet even after going through a chain of acquisition

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How easy it has become to transfer money with a single click? Today, there are many platforms for money transfer using the internet as the technology is growing and people are preferring to go cashless after so many digital campaigns that are running worldwide. Therefore, E-wallet has become a thing now. This is a recent revolution because of the easy and smooth transaction process. When the 21st century started, there was nothing like electronic money transfer. In the year 2001, Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann founded the first electronic money license MoneyBookers, which eventually named Skrill by. Let’s know more about this journey.

From MoneyBookers to Skrill

Moneybookers were established in the United Kingdom by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann in 2001. They gained an electronic money license from the Financial Services Authority, the first one in history. It had almost 2 million registered users in the first year as it gained popularity among users and they started trusting the company. 

Later, the founders sold their company Investcorp in 2007 for £105 million. After 2 years, it was on sale for £365 million. Then is 2011, it was announced that it will be rebranded, and its name changed to Skrill by new business owners. The rebranding was going by 2013. The company started growing faster as the number of users was increasing from all ranges of businesses. Merchants started adapting this transfer methodology. Large businesses like Facebook, eBay, and Skype also started using this service for purchases. Later, it was acquired by Australian prepaid payment giant Paysafecard in February 2013. In August of the same year, CVC Capital partners purchased the Skrill for €600 million.

Acquisition by Optimal Payments

New Jersey Division of gaming enforcement aka NJDGE approved Skrill as the only wallet for internet gambling. This happened in 2014. Soon in 2015, Optimal Payments which the parent company of Skrill’s competitor Neteller officially sent an acquisition proposal of €1.1 billion to Skill Group. As per the reports, the third quarter of 2015 approved the proposal. Skrill group acquired Ukash, a UK based competitor of Paysafecard in April 2015.

Well, Skrill is the most popular E-wallet as it has gone the number of acquisitions. It shows how much demand it had and still has. Its customers are in 200 countries and offer them the use of over 100 payment options and 40 currencies. Skrill is involved in Gambling, eCommerce, Forex trading and Crypto Exchange.  

Glimpse to Founder’s life

The Skrill had a journey of its own and so do the founders. They founded this e-wallet together but they had different paths once they sold it. Let’s have a look at their journey.

Benjamin Kullmann

He holds an LLB from the University of London. He has worked for the Skrill group from 2001 to 2013. He also contributed as a managing director having responsibility for portfolio management. With time, he turned into a non-executive board member to the growth of the business to over 30 million customers and over Euro 200 million in outstanding e-money float. He is a member of the investment council of mutual fund management firm Meritum Capital Managers GmbH in Frankfurt since 2011. 

Currently, he is associated with Spinoza Capital, which he co-founded. He has several high-level positions which made it easy for him to co-found companies and climb the business ladder.

Daniel Klein

Daniel Klein is a serial tech entrepreneur and investor. He cofounded Skrill with Benjamin and soon after they sold their business, he got busy with launching his one. He is currently the CEO of European mobile point-of-sales company SumUp which allows small merchants to accept card payments in 13 countries, including the UK, Germany, and Brazil. 

Bottom Line

Daniel and Benjamin cofounded MoneyBookers and got a huge response from customers because of the unique and easy service they were providing to their customers. They have proven a point that, if you ease your customer, your business is going to go up. Though Skrill went through a chain of acquisition, it remained one of the most popular E-wallets of all the time. New founders did not change Skrill’s name again so that they could retain the huge customer base the company already has.