AsAble.com, empowering startups

Giang Biscan: Hi there, it’s Giang Biscan from AsAble.com, a website to empower startup entrepreneurs. Today I have with me Edward Dekeratry from Vokle. Edward, how are you?

Edward Dekeratry: I’m good. How are you?

Giang Biscan: I’m good. What’s Vokle?

Edward Dekeratry: Vokle is an online town-hall platform where any hosts can basically broadcast their audio and video to a virtual auditorium of viewers and they can actually take live video calls or text questions from anyone in the audience. And the entire platform can actually be embedded in any site, just like an youtube video with a single line of code. And that’s basically what Vokle is.

Giang Biscan: OK, so it’s a little bit more interactive than, say, Skype, or some other broadcasting platform.

Edward Dekeratry: Right, absolutely. So for some perspectives, Skype is basically more of a one on one for the most parts. You may have some other products that are conference calls. They approach the internet more like an internet telephone. And if there is an internet telephone, we are more like a townhall. Something closer maybe… you know there are other platforms out there that can basically stream out their audio and videos, to a virtual auditorium, you know and there’s like ustream or Justin.tv, with live stream.

What we do is we basically said what I that host can not only broadcast but can take video from audience to have an engage dialog. And we took that one step further and say what if they can have multiple co-hosts, to have several to many streams going out and take video calls from the audience, all while being able to be embedded on third party sites.

Giang Biscan: So is this a technology that you guys develop in-house or did you outsource?

Edward Dekeratry: Yes, so we actually built this all in house. So, the way the company started was that my partner Robert and I, Robert came up with the idea, started to put the project together, and he asked me to put the team together with the initial financing. After raising the seed round, we went out started to look for local team engineers that we thought that were interested in changing the future in the way people interact in the near future online. And we did it all in-house.

Giang Biscan: So to run the site now, in term of technology, is there a large infrastructure cost for you?

Edward Dekeratry: So it’s interesting that ever since thanksfully literally to YouTube we’v seen the cost for video archiving and streaming go down substantially as far as by cost per Giang Biscant. Most of people think if there is a large amount of bandwidth. The answer is Yes and No, obviously it’s a major portion of what we do, but the costs aren’t excessively high. They are manageable as far as pulling a good amount of advertising and other revenue streams to offset that.

Giang Biscan: So you mentioned that you had a seed round and you recently got close some more funding, right? Is that 2 separate rounds?

Edward Dekeratry: So yes, the seed round allowed us to pay the initial engineering, to build the prototype and to the current product that we have. That was our seed round, just to take an idea proving that we can build something with value. Now what we’ve done is we’ve taken a small angel round that we are about to close right now to push us towards some key revenue models that we are building out and some essential features that will lead us into the following round, the VC round.

Giang Biscan: And when are you looking at raising the VC round?

Edward Dekeratry: We are looking at the time frame pretty rough right now, I’d say we are looking at about 6 to 9 months.

Giang Biscan: So I assume that there are some specific milestones, what are you trying to achieve by then?

Edward Dekeratry: Yeah, we’ve got a lot of our publishers actually doing the recording themselves, as far as the video, the recording functionality. So that’s something that we are very excited to be finishing up right now. So it’s just finishing that up. Milestone is definitely recording. Also looking at the changing as couple of things as far as the flow as far as changing the ways that help promoting the events online. We are also looking few key revenue models that we are thinking that are key to help monetize the site.

Giang Biscan: So what’s your current revenue model and what are you looking to change it to?

Edward Dekeratry: So right now our current revenue model is basically we would be bringing in revenue from video advertisement. So it’s like a video roll, each viewer comes into the room will see and the host every 30mins will have another video roll. Much like Hulu where you have the video advertisement plays. So that’s what we are currently doing for the revenue model. As far as the other revenue model, it’s still kinda in the work. There is nothing too specific about how we are going to go about it but we do have a couple of options that we are exploring.

Giang Biscan: So I noticed you guys got into the finalist list of Vator competition where you mentioned about ticketed events as one of the revenue model. Is that still something that you are considering?

Edward Dekeratry: It’s something we are exploring as far as how we may be able to integrate that into the types of events that we are doing. So we still look closely into that as well as some other models that may work better.

Giang Biscan: And you guys went on private beta for a long time before launch, right? Almost 2 years, is that correct?

Edward Dekeratry: Yes so we were on private beta for over a year and half. And we’ve been building the prototype for quite a while. Trying to sort out the concept. And we actually present the concept at the Demo conference in March of ’09. We got good feedback for some of our early clients and early adopters. And we went on with that private beta through ’09 until we release the platform in December.

Giang Biscan: And what’s the decision, why did you choose to do a private beta instead of public? Is going to Demo one of the factor in choosing private beta?

Edward Dekeratry: Yeah so the purpose behind doing private beta because we wanted to have a control environment where we knew who the publishers were and we were working closely with them. So they were broadcasting out to the virtual auditoriums. So we were working closely with them so we can see behind the scene what happened at the high level when a high traffic comes in. It was kinda a private public beta in the sense that anybody in the public participate in the event, they can video call in, they can ask a question, they can text chat. But not everyone can be the host on a Vokle event at that time.

So everyone can participate and have the Vokle experience, but at the same time, we were private in a sense that we would only select the hosts that are testing out. So we wanted to make sure, we didn’t have too many events, we just want to have the specific case studies that we can learn from and figure out what need to change, what happened here, this is what we can do there. So I would call that a private-public beta.

Giang Biscan: That makes sense then, you have a smaller group where you can get direct feedback. So what did you learn through that period, and how did your product and technology change from that period?

Edward Dekeratry: So we started realizing that some of the flow of how you call in and ask questions and taking questions, and we started to see that a natural process formed where we were thinking “OK…” so even something simple as copy to the location of the buttons. Or something more elaborated like maybe an additional feature that we haven’t thought of like “umm this may help simplify the process”.

Giang Biscan: What are you doing now in term of your marketing effort to drive in the traffic, the users?

Edward Dekeratry: The most important thing to us is that we work with the most compelling speakers on the platform, as far as you know, educators that we think are educational at their core, but there is also a fun and entertainment opportunity there. So whether it’s a musician or an author that we think that can have the opportunity to engage with the audience back and forth. So we just focus on individuals that we think we would like to see or have the opportunity to talk to in the real world that we may never have the opportunity to do so, based on their travel schedule or location. And based on the positive experience that they have with us, we kinda see the effect of words of mouth recommendations that have the further outreach that brings additional publishers and speakers to the platform. That’s primarily what we are doing right now. ,

Giang Biscan: So you are reaching these people individually and these are influencers that you are selecting?

Edward Dekeratry: Correct, so that’s one way that we are going. And the other way is we are trying to figure out how we can help our community that are forming reaching out to people that they are interested in. So they can say “Hey, I want to see you on Vokle.com”, so we are building that type of tools that help them bring the people they like to see to the platform.

Giang Biscan: How did you meet Robert, your co-founder?

Edward Dekeratry: Good question. So we actually met at a transfer session. We actually both transferred into USC film school here in Los Angeles. That actually was the first time I met him. He was there, very creative talented guy. Very interested in business and physically directing side of projects other than more just the producing side. It was a natural chemistry that formed between us. It was like “Hey I like to tally up the financing and team, you like to watch the vision and culture and the final products. So it was a very natural synergy between us.

Giang Biscan: How many people do you have right now?
Edward Dekeratry: We currently have 5.

Giang Biscan: So how did you bring in other people?
Edward Dekeratry: So the important thing for me in a startup is not necessarily the label who is hiring. The important thing for me is are you bringing in the team someone that they can excel in something that they are doing and most importantly do you get along with them. And can you guys collaborate on things together, right? The way that we went about it was… and it goes for anyone in a startup, is that you’ve got to try to go grass root with it. You can’t just say “hey, mum or dad, do you know anybody that is studying coding?” or go to your facebook and goes “hmm, which one of my friends graduate from the engineering school.

The best thing to go about it is doing a little bit of research on what you want to do, as far as the technology you want to use and need for your company. What do you need, like do you need css, or do you need C++, or do you need ruby, or do you need java, or whatever maybe. And then what we did is we went through all the local universities here in Los Angeles area. We’ve got the course list and we went through every single computer science or computer engineering course that we are looking for. We find out who the professors were that were teaching those classes.

And then we set up meetings with those professors. Basically “hey, we are a startup, we’ve got funding, who are your best students, we would love to have them because we have really cool projects and we would love to work with them.” And that’s how we went about finding the original people.

Giang Biscan: Wow, it seems like you did a lot of homework in the effort of building this team. How long did you spend on that?

Edward Dekeratry: I did that over the course of the summer actually. At the point, we weren’t in the process of coding, we were more focused on the individuals that are going to be with us. So I dedicated a good portion of time and we spent a couple of weeks, we had our meetings set up and we were meeting different individuals. And once we find a couple of key individuals that were willing to go out with you and start building then you were on a good track because they can help you from that point on and to help you find other people. So it’s a very pragmatic approach in building a team.

Giang Biscan: And you guys are out a lot right? I noticed you are at a lot of networking events.

Edward Dekeratry: Yeah, the way that works is… and that is a really good point. Originally when we were in private beta, I didn’t get out very much, but I do want to do is I want to find… I wanted to be closer to the tech scene here in Los Angeles. So that’s what I did, I started to go out and meet individuals because there is a ton of people out there doing really cool stuff.

And it doesn’t matter what your products are, you never know what may be a synergy later and working together and who they may know that you can help them and how they can help you. So it’s really important to get out. It also gives you a perspective on what you’re doing. You know when you’re inside your bubble, building your company, always important to go out and say, hey what do you think of this. And then get the outside perspectives. And then you can do the same for what they are doing.

Giang Biscan: You have done basically twice the fund raising activities. What did you do? How did you raise the money, especially it seems that it’s your first time raising money, right?

Edward Dekeratry: Yes, it’s my first time raising money, and the way that we go about… once again, a very different approach… so we basically found an attorneys hat we knew that either family or friends, and they have clients that are in the technology space. And we would get some face time with them, pitching the product or idea and ask “do you have any clients that may be interested in this?”. And they would hook us up to some meetings and those people would know some other people. And that would lead to more meetings and meetings and meetings.

And eventually we started to boil it down to like what we did with the engineers and down to who fit what the deal that is on the table, OK this guy understands the vision but this is the deal here, or this guy understands better… we started to weight different options. This was of course before the economic slump that happened in 2008 and that was basically how we went about it.

Giang Biscan: What about all the events that you went on, I noticed that you went to Tech Coast Angels where you pitched at, you went to Demo, or Vator, were they helpful?

Edward Dekeratry: Were they helpful? That’s a great question. If there is one thing I would say to be careful is you have to always be careful of venues or events that you think that there is a great opportunity to meet individuals and that. You’re only going to get as much out of it as you put in. So it doesn’t matter if you’re going to be presenting, or if you’re going to be attending, or it may be even a local mixer at a local restaurant or a local meetup. You’ll only going to get as much as you put in.

So if you really want to meet with some people, you follow up with them, you see the contacts and see if you can help them, and how they can help you, and you figure your way out. That can get you somewhere. If you just go somewhere and expect something to happen, and you will learn a lesson, and whether you pay for it, and general for an event, you have to pay, right, some type of fee for the entrance or ticket. So I would say to be careful where you spend your money because the internet is making it easier and easier for you to market at a lower cost but there is nothing that can beat real world interactions.

Giang Biscan: The face to face.

Edward Dekeratry: Face to face.

Giang Biscan: So far what is the biggest obstacle for you?

Edward Dekeratry: The biggest obstacle is probably… Umm… there have been a lot of obstacles. I think that goes for any startup. I think the biggest obstacle for me, and this is a personal one, is trying to find the right lense. So everybody is talking about the startup life, right, which is you guys get together, you work all the time, and the obstacle for me is where is that work life separation. Is there a separation, and what I came to realize for me is like there is no work-life separation. Everything is revolving around work, one way or another. It just happens organically.

So if you have never done a startup before and you want to a startup, you have to be willing to sacrifice absolutely everything. And like you said we have doing this for 2 years, raising this current round of early angel financing. You have to be willing to give it your all because for the 90% of the companies that are out there that fail, it’s just because you got to want it. So the obstacle for me was I thought that there maybe some type of separation… I enjoy everything I do, does it always have to be involved around work? Yes. I mean we are having this conversation at 9pm on a Sunday. And I appreciate you making it at 9pm but that’s the way it is. You know.

Giang Biscan: Right. Do you always know, do you ever have any doubt about this idea? Did you start out this way or did it change over some period before you get to this idea?

Edward Dekeratry: Oh yeah, it definitely changed. If you have a look at what we presented at Demo, that was kinda a prototype. We knew the sort of the direction that we wanted to go. But we didn’t get into until we get the outside perspectives from individuals, in this case it was Demo and some of our early adopters. That outside perspectives that say “well, they don’t see the value in this but they see the value in this”, and we were thinking about doing this but they like this more, so we started to change, and then kinda head to that direction you know. You can’t necessarily control the ship but you can definitely steer it in a certain direction. You can lightly change the direction of where you wanted it to go, and that can have a lot of influences. It wasn’t absolutely solidified when we went on this journey, but we kinda found our place.

Giang Biscan: That’s great. Thank you. I really appreciate that you come on today, like you said it’s 9pm on a Sunday night. So for the last question, what about the biggest lesson learned?

Edward Dekeratry: Biggest lesson learned? How about a big lesson learned? There are a lot of lessons learned, biggest I’m not sure. A big lesson learned is there is never going to be many people, doesn’t matter how brilliant your idea, how amazing your marketing strategy, there will never going to be as many people as you think, that are interested. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Even if you land the cover of the LA Times, and you can go “Oh my god, that’s crazy”, you can’t expect that to have a real impact necessarily, so it’s kinda interesting because you see everybody talks about media online and get picked up by the media but it just doesn’t have… it has a tail effect but doesn’t have a crazy impact, so you can’t expect that changes the world over night. You’ve got to continue working, don’t let it have your hope up so high, to the end of the day then it’s like “Oh man, I wished that was it”. Don’t let it holds you back. I think that’s important.

Giang Biscan: So I guessed it’s like you said it, you have to want it badly to keep going with it.

Edward Dekeratry: You’ve got to keep going with it because what happens is you’re going to have this incredible thing happens and it’s a roller coaster. Startup is a roller coaster. You have some really high-high, and you’ve got some really low low, but at the end of the day you’ve got to want it and you’ve got to realize there is no separation and you’ve got to be all in. The founders and the early team is the company and the company is the team. And that becomes the community that uses the product. And all becomes one. And the separation line becomes blurred.

Giang Biscan: Thank you so much. Really appreciate that.

Edward Dekeratry: Absolutely.