 R Community Co-Founders (Left to right): Kevin Arnold, Scott Plautz [An edited version of this article will appear in my “Business Matters” column in the Los Altos Town Crier in October]
Some of us have grown up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. That was the good old times when we knew our neighbors and what was happening around our town.
Times have changed. This sense of hyper-local connection has diminished over the years as we get more digitally connected via social media and the Internet. The irony is that despite being connected with others on social media, some of us feel lonelier than ever because we are not connected in local communities where we live, work, or play.
Making of A Game Changer
This is all going to change. R Community, a local start-up based in Los Gatos, has developed a new kind of social community platform, whereby local municipalities, organizations, businesses, and consumers can connect and experience everything local, accessible in one platform, with the ability to quickly locate relevant information in a simple directory.
R Community is led by two technology veterans and community leaders, Scott Plautz and Kevin Arnold, whose combined sales and marketing, management, UX design and engineering background is paving the way in building a great social community platform that facilitates access to connections, relevant and curated content, and affinity among local communities.
“R Community is different than other social media platforms because we truly believe that having a strong sense of community helps us thrive, leading happier and healthier lives,” said Plautz. “The platform starts from a personal level, building around your interests and preferences. It pushes feeds to you based on content and business categories that you want to hear from and interact with.”
 Building Strong Local Community
R Community delivers curated content conveniently to your phone and puts you in control of what you want to receive. It provides easy access to information from a centralized place. For example, if you like to shop with a particular vendor in town, you can select alerts on events, deals and promotions as they become available. Posts from organizations and businesses that you follow can be referenced to help you find them easily and quickly, instead of searching for them in a sea of other posts that may not be of interest to you, such as feed overloads in Facebook and Nextdoor.
“Businesses and organizations benefit from the R Community’s platform because people who want to engage with your business can find you by category, location or zip code, not limited by neighborhood boundaries such as what you may have experienced being part of Nextdoor’s private social network,” said Plautz. “People can “Like” and “Follow” your business’ profile or promotions and socially connect with the business owner or manager in a private social dialog. There are no rankings based on algorithms like those of Yelp, which are impossible to verify and often questionable. You can manage your customer experience and reputation the way you want it, without being weighed down by social discord and negative diatribes that could potentially hurt your business.”
In addition, R Community offers users greater access to an ecosystem with the inclusion of local government, chambers of commerce, libraries, recreation centers, churches, museums, etc., all contribute to the rich culture and experiences that makes each city unique.
Cities, organizations, and businesses can support each other easily and will become more interconnected as a result. According to Plautz, the net effect means everyone benefits from having more user exposure to their community’s great assets, building relationships and affinity that would result in more revenues generated for local communities, organizations and businesses.
R Community did a soft product launch in May 2019, and has plans to engage their next phase of users in Los Altos, Mountain View and other greater surrounding areas. Their app is currently available on Apple’s App Store, with a mobile friendly web interface coming this fall. For more information on R Community, visit https://r.community.
ABOUT SUMSAARA
Sumsaara is a socially-responsible company with an audacious goal in making accessory and consumer products which redefine their ordinary use, transforming them from chic, wearable items to displayable work of art at home. All their products are made by combining functionality and aesthetics, and using renewable, sustainable, and recycled materials as much as possible.
THE RESULTS:
Sumsaara was able to successfully incorporate key messages and story frame into their website and collateral materials, such as a visual brand booklet that accompanies every customer purchase. Also, they are reinforcing their key messages throughout, on flyers that they use as a displayed collateral or as distributed handouts at event showcases that they attend all over the country. Having a compelling story with key messages that resonate with their audience help them increase their brand awareness in multi-fold dimensions. As customers learn more about their intriguing story, they become inspired and make new and repeat purchases as a result.
SUMSAARA’S CHALLENGES:
Sumsaara is a young start-up in the Silicon Valley, led by a high-caliber, mother-daughter team. The company wants to develop a set of key messages that they can articulate in their story and marketing materials. They also want to communicate the dual purpose of their product, encouraging customers to maximize use of their signature product line as a wearable as well as a displayable work of art.
SOLUTION:
We assisted Sumsaara in developing their story frame and message set, coupled with guidance in defining their positioning and product differentiation. Sumsaara now has a story and message framework from which they can apply to their marketing assets and generate excitement and awareness building among their customers.
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ProTip: Ask us about how to elevate your marketing assets, with storytelling straight from the heart, generating more incremental awareness for your brand!
For all start-up companies, product innovation is the lifeline in keeping their products relevant in the space that they want to own and be recognized. Innovation triggers often are problems that we have experienced ourselves, or what we’ve seen that others are experiencing.
Innovation does not develop in a vacumm, and the ideas developed needs to be tested and validated in order for your product to gain trust and momentum at its early stage.
We’ve designed our product innovation educational moments around three start-ups whom we interviewed at the City of Mt. View’s Technology Innovation Showcase. The impromptu conversations with the Founders of these companies shed lights on innovative aspects of their solutions.
Check out our YouTube clip and let us know what you think!
(Photo from left to right): Geoff Seyon (Co-Founder and Chief AI Officer), Clare Lee (Product Manager), Afsana Akhter (Co-Founder and CEO), and Janhavi Singhal (Customers Advocate)
(Note: An edited version is now published in the Los Altos Town Crier’s “Business Matters” section as part of my regular tech/start-up/marketing column)
This article is part two of a two-part series focusing on AI. I had the opportunity to interview Afsana Akhter, Co-Founder and CEO of SkinIQ – an AI-powered platform that helps people manage their skin conditions, starting with Acne, with future plans to include other skin conditions such as Eczema, Psoriasis, Melanoma, and more.
Afsana studied engineering at MIT and has worked in the technology and digital health industries for the past twenty years, garnering a track record in leading young companies, getting them off the ground to achieving product-market fit – a pivotal point where a start-up becomes relevant and satisfies a strong market demand.
Skincare is a $3 Billion market in the US, where 80 Million people have Acne problems, and another 43 Million people live with either Eczema or Psoriasis; yet less than 2% of Americans see a dermatologist.
Afsana believes that her company is leading change by giving consumers critical knowledge, tools, and support from the convenience of their smartphone, to self-manage their skin condition. “SkinIQ uses the phone’s camera and AI to first help people understand what type of Acne they have, then recommends over-the-counter (OTC) medications and offers personalized guidance to resolve their Acne problems,” Afsana said.
In scenarios where the Acne is severe, users should seek their doctor’s guidance for care. SkinIQ also leverages telehealth to bring people in contact with a doctor and appropriate medications.
Afsana’s passion in solving skincare problems comes from her own experience in managing Acne and Eczema over several years. “Even with guidance from doctors and strong prescription medications, my Acne and Eczema problems were not fully resolved. I struggled to find remedies that would work for me, and the side effects were very unpleasant,” Afsana said. “Because of my personal experience, I saw an immediate need for consumers to access better information on how to take care of their skin issues, enhanced with knowledge on OTC products or alternative methods, and personalized guidance – all of which have worked well for people like me. Giving users a satisfying experience in taking care of their skin through an affordable and accessible tool is what SkinIQ is striving for.”
 (Photo courtesy of SkinIQ, Inc.)
Breakthrough in Skincare Management
85% of teenagers and young adults experience some form of Acne, and they are increasingly seeking online and mobile-based guidance. SkinIQ is a suitable, real-time solution providing our mobile users with immediate access to information and help them solve their Acne problems quickly and easily, all in a matter of a few seconds.
“The continuous, self-help skincare guidance from SkinIQ could help our users save money and hassle, instead of seeking expensive solutions from dermatologists only when the problem becomes severe,” Afsana said. “We hope to provide consumers with self-management and education so they can see improvements over a period of days or within a few weeks.”
SkinCare believes their solution is more effective when compared to others because their product is mobile-based, platform-driven, and provides skincare guidance beyond Acne. Consumers benefit from taking care of their skin not just by using medication, but also from guidance on food and lifestyle changes.
“The future looks bright for SkinIQ. We’ll have the opportunity to engage with B2B customer segments, where there are Health Plans who seek to engage more effectively with their younger members, with retail pharmacies who want to expand their digital channels to connect with consumers, as well as eCommerce companies who strive to be more consultative in their online sales experiences,” Afsana said.
SkinIQ is currently in Beta and has seen very promising early adoption. They look forward to launching later this year.
For more information on SkinIQ, visit Skiniqinc.com
“Crowdservice’s vision is to put a personal assistant into everyone’s pocket”
Founder Michael Duran
[Note: An edited version of this blog appeared in the Business Matters [Tech/Marketing/StartUp] column in the Los Altos Town Crier — a locally owned weekly newspaper, offering in-depth, local news relevant to the affluent communities of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills with a total weekly circulation of 16,500.]
Living in Silicon Valley can make us feel like we are constantly driving in the fast lane, with little time to slow down and enjoy life. Between work and life demands, and tending to daily routine chores that take up most of our time, we all feel the pain of time poverty.
An Idea is Born
The frustrations of time management and a growing desire to delegate routine chores without having to hire a full-time assistant have led Michael Duran, a busy Physician and single dad, to found Crowdservice.
Crowdservice is Duran’s local startup whose vision is to put a personal assistant into everyone’s pocket, by making use of mobile technology to build a platform that elegantly taps into the power of the Crowd to find, sort, and vette workers to help busy people, while allowing greater flexibility and earning power to workers who are bidding on jobs requested.
In a perfect world, Crowdservice acts like a personal assistant who can take care of all the traditional and non-traditional chores that a personal assistant could do and more, depending on the skill set of select workers.
“The platform has been optimized to automate most things, making it safe, affordable, extremely easy and quick to use. Listing a job takes less than 30 seconds. Users get help ranging from grocery shopping and pet sitting, handyman and mobile mechanics, to small jobs such as “pick up my dry clean” or “fetch me a cup of Starbucks’ coffee” can be done via the app,” Duran said.
“This efficiency lets our fees to be the lowest around, which makes even little jobs – like bring me a coffee – practical and affordable in Crowdservice,” he said.
Duran believes that Crowdservice is unique among gig-work platforms, where workers of all types can get on board, using it to help them find jobs in their communities, such as, picking up work between gigs, lending a hand when they have pockets of free time, or even using it to test a hobby that they may want to turn into a real profession.
 “TaskRabbit only supports certain jobs, only works in certain cities, sets prices and charges its workers 20-30% for the privilege of working for them,” Duran said. “Crowdservice lets workers set their own prices, subject to what people want to pay – just like workers have done for thousands of years. It works everywhere today, and we only take 9% to operate, that’s two-thirds less than what others would take.”
“There are no hidden fees, and you don’t have to jump through hoops to register. We just need a name and an email address to get you started,” he said. “There’s no charge to list a job, or to bid on one. We want to give our users unlimited usage of our platform anywhere in the U.S., and our commission is less than 10%.”
“Takl is a little more flexible in job types; they also take up to 30% and set prices, leaving workers dissatisfied with their lack of autonomy and less monies in their pockets,” Duran said.
Crowdservice also handles charity jobs, so Bidders can feel good that they can help out the elderly or handicapped for free while earning “Karma Points.”
Save Time, Don’t Let Time Control You
Outsourcing to Crowdservice not only saves you time, pockets of free time that you’ll get back can be used wisely for sacred moments that bring you happiness, or focusing on important things to get ahead in your life journeys.
“Research has shown that there is something satisfying about simplifying and organizing your life. When you are free from chore clutters, even a 15-minute break could improve your mood, in the midst of a long day,” Duran said.
Crowdservice was launched nationwide in December 2018, with Silicon Valley and the Bay Area being its first focus market. “The Bay Area has the right culture for us; people here are more “on the go” and tech savvy than anywhere in the country,” according to Duran. The app is currently available for download on both Apple iTune and Google Play stores.
“With scale, it will act like an “alter ego,” sitting on your shoulder and waiting for your command. Tell it a mental list of things to do, and it delegates them. That’s where we’re headed,” Duran said.
For more information, visit www.crowdserviceinc.com/downloads
Source: Time for Happiness, Harvard Business Review, Jan 2019
 Computer science engineers Siva Nattamai, left, and Pavan Kumar aim to advance Telehealth technology through Cocoon Cam, their Mountain View-based startup. Cocoon Cam’s smart baby monitor uses artificial intelligence to track the vital signs and sleeping patterns of infants and toddlers. [Note: This blog also appeared as my featured column in the Los Altos Town Crier’s business section, a local weekly newspaper catering to affluent communities in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills areas. Total circulation of 16,500.]
Artificial intelligence has helped us navigate our computer searches for work, school and leisure time. It also serves as the basis for efforts in making cars, trucks and drones fully autonomous. What AI can do in aiding what humans cannot do in enhancing various aspects of our lives is fascinating.
I have been amazed with AI in the past few weeks, learning about its history, understanding its current capabilities and where it’s going. To further my perspective on how AI is applied in real life, I recently interviewed employees at two local startup companies that are leveraging AI to transform their respective markets. Their work has motivated me to present this column as one in a two-part series focusing on AI.
AI: Then and Now
Computer scientist John McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1956. AI existed long before we knew of its application in robots, chatbots or code bots. It was widely adopted in the oil and gas industry in the form of industrial automation using smart sensors. For example, Shell has developed Smart Fields, which monitor oil and gas wells located in challenging areas, installing thousands of sensors on its equipment.
Today, the meaning of AI has evolved to signify mimicry of human intelligence or behaviors. AI has transitioned from intelligent machines that are coded with rules and can perform specific tasks to more self-aware machines that use advanced machine learning to learn from past experiences. This includes cognitive intelligence such as recognizing human behaviors and emotions, enabling intelligent machines to interact more naturally with humans.
Breakthrough in Telehealth
AI is no stranger to Cocoon Cam, a Mountain View startup founded by Pavan Kumar and Siva Nattamai. Both are accomplished computer science engineers with track records in their field. Cocoon Cam aims to democratize access to vital signs and health insights using its software platform that combines computer vision and AI to turn any camera into a remote health and vital sign monitor. The company’s first product is a smart baby monitor that can track a baby’s breathing patterns and sleep health for infants and toddlers up to 3 years old. It can even alert parents when their baby is beginning to wake up, has fallen asleep or is crying.
“Cocoon Cam is unique because it’s a completely noninvasive solution, requiring no connected wires or wearables, that parents can feel safe and confident in using to get a full view on their baby’s vitals 24/7, simply by reading passive data collected from a video feed of the baby’s monitor,” Kumar said.
The company has a goal to build a baseline of a baby’s health and predict any anomalies in the baby’s health patterns as time progresses. A scenario shared by Nattamai: When a baby is sick, the parents want to know if the medication given is helping. In future releases, parents will be able to see that the medication is working, and that the baby’s breathing rate has been brought back to its normal range.
“We believe that longitudinal, continuous remote health monitoring is more effective in early diagnosis because the onset of most illnesses leads to a patient’s vital sign changes, such as breathing, temperature or heart rates,” Kumar said. “Having reliable, historical data and using AI to analyze the data … (means) doctors can have a more holistic view of their patient’s health, and can make decisions in advocating for better care.”
Launched just over a year ago, the team at Cocoon Cam continues to advance its product closer to their vision of Telehealth – a system for managing health care via telecommunications technologies – making it widely accessible and affordable. Cocoon Cam also plans to offer subscription services to parents who wish to access their baby’s historical vital sign data and share it with their pediatricians for effective, managed care.
For more information on Cocoon Cam, visit cocooncam.com.
I’ve heard from clients who are newbies to social media about the challenge of doing posting on a consistent basis. I feel their pain because as a marketer, I have started with posting rituals that I thought I could follow, based on the pace and rhythms of my work week. Not to anyone’s surprise, when you are busy with work and have a long to-do list, my posting consistency fails to meet the standards.
So I thought I will throw out my calendar and follow a generic trend when most social media postings are getting traffic, and see where it takes me.
Thanks to Makitmana.com’s blog, they provided posting time suggestions that I have put together onto an excel spreadsheet, where I can pre-schedule or post live at designated times. I will follow this process and review detailed analytics later to see if this approach would improve results that I am already getting.
 A generic social media posting schedule to help you be more productive in your day! Once I find some posting ritual that I can nail down, I would probably look into trying some social media management tool to simplify the process even further.
I am hoping that we can get into the groove of doing productive social media posting, and finding the experience less of a chore:)!
Happy posting! Share with us your experience if you have followed this blog and tried it out!
Source: www.makeitmana.com, Jan 2019
In this hyper-connected world, social media plays an important role in influencing us on where and how we are spending our time on a daily basis. Given that there are many social media channels to choose from — LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube and Reddit, among others – they all are screaming for our time. How can one make peace with social media, yet feel productive in our daily lives?
Interestingly enough, when I search for statistics on how much average daily time per day Americans spent on selected social media network, among Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram alone, it’s drawing close to 2 hours in total. If some of us are on all of these social media channels, this could easily add up to 6 hours on average per day. When do we get to work, eat, sleep, and have a little “me” or “family” time? I may be having a knee-jerk reaction to the statistics shown, thinking some of us could be on a slippery slope to real-time social deprivation with friends, families, and people we care about.
Drawing from my own experiences, staying sane with social media while still feeling productive in your day takes disciplines. Developing rituals will also help make your social media experience enjoyable. To round out my thoughts on how to make productive use of social media, I’ve interviewed a social media veteran1. Together, we’ve developed the following guideposts.
1) Set meaningful goals on social media usage to build your social capital. If you own a business, you would want to use social media to build your brand image and make positive promotion of your reputation, so others who follow will learn of your thought leadership and develop trust of you as a brand. If you are using it at a personal level, it’s still important to project the right image of you as a person. Set objectives for each medium that you will be actively engaging with. For example, LinkedIn is a popular B2B social media channel. It’s great for building networks, relationships, and thought leadership; build relationships first, business second works well in this channel. Instagram, on the other hand, is less formal, where you could display your personality in creative ways to help you sell or position who you are. Ones who do it well seem to blend their creativity with a bit of business/social savvy to their posts/stories to make them enticing for their followers.
2) Find your social media tribes. With a rich list of social media channels available, choosing ones that you are comfortable in hanging out with and investing time in are important. Channels where you hang out are likely going to be where your potential customers/employers may be hanging out. Pick your tribes and stay active in those communities by sharing and commenting on each other’s posts. Overtime, people will get to know you. Next time, when you have a favor to ask, they would more likely respond to your inquiries quickly.
3) Set up rituals when you are spending time on social media. I’ve read that Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, that he likes to get on social media in the morning so he can catch up with his friends, share and reciprocate news to his tribes. Best times could vary by channel because of the different audiences and how they use it. Here’s a resource link that highlights some best times by channel, worth a read! And don’t worry if you miss a posting time, don’t beat yourself up. You can try the next opportunity and get your rhythms in place. Pretty soon, posting to social media will be a cinch!
4) Share your post with a purpose to engage your audience and your brand. When you do a post, think of people giving you a piece of their valuable time to read it. So think of content and format that will engage your audience, be it a short video, a quote, a short analysis of an article, or fun emojis, they all convey what you want to communicate in formal, personable, playful, compassionate, or altruistic ways. Let your post be your voice, and use the right tone in each medium so people will get to like the energy that exudes from your post, and get to “Like” you even more?!
5) Build disciplines on social media usage and be mindful of over-sharing. We are all humans. Our emotions and behaviors are all wired differently. Don’t fall into the trap of using social media as the only outlet to resolve conflicts or bigger problems that could have been done in more productive ways by using off-line means. Over-sharing or over-expressing could cause fatigue from your followers, and they may just tune out on your posts. When you are sharing on social media, be the best version of yourself, be uplifting and inspiring in your own ways, because people will find the positive in you attractive and memorable!
I hope my collective thoughts and perspectives shed some lights on building a healthy social capital for you and your business. How productive social media is in your life depends on your objectives, how you use it, what you find helpful for yourself and to others.
Happy posting, tweeting, sharing, commenting and liking!
Sources:
- Social media insights from Oscar Garcia, Founder and Empowerment Officer at Aspira, a community relations, workforce development and training firm based in Mountain View, CA.
- Curatti.com, 7 Ways that Social Media is Affecting Us Positively, December 2018.
- statistica.com, Average daily time spent on selected social networks by users in the U.S. from 2014-2019, December 2018.
Over the holidays, we’ve tried to dapple with video tools to help us create engaging content that encourages more viewers, getting people to dig in and enjoy the content that we’ve shared. We have been amazed by the results of the Christmas video that we’ve created, which earned over 80+ organic views thus far.
Here is a sampling of our clips on YouTube:
- Season’s Greetings 2018
- How to Find Your Own SpotLight
The process was easy, just follow these 7 simple steps:
- Figure out your storyboard
- Find a video creation tool that works for your style, budget, and ease of use
- Gather photos, short videos, social media posts as creative to help tell your story
- Access the video tool, choose your theme, and upload your images
- Add music to create mood
- Produce and download videos to share in various social media channels
- Enjoy audience engagement of your piece!
Lastly, write a blog about what you’ve learned and repeat the process using a different storyboard and make another great production!
And Don’t Forget to have fun while you are doing it!
I’ve worked with many clients in different industries. Some needs help in developing services, while some in developing products.
The most challenging part in developing a product is finding people with the right skills to make or produce it for you, at reasonable prices that you can afford, and allow you to mark-up and sell at a good margin. Whether the product is software, hardware, or a physical piece such as a luxury, wooden-furniture based on custom design, each has its set of challenges.
Recently, I spoke with a client whose business wishes to have wooden-furniture made in the U.S. He has been having a hard time finding manufacturer who can produce his product at reasonable costs, so that he can offer it to his customers at attractive prices.
After doing some research, I’ve learned why wooden-furniture making does not make economic sense to be produced in the U.S. A lot of the wood-work skills have been transferred to offshores since the 1990’s, where countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines have gained grounds because of the low-skill, high labor-intensive product that they think they can compete in.
This article says it all and it’s well worth a read. While US wooden furniture makers retain part of the production here in the U.S., it’s still sad that we no longer see products that are 100% made in the U.S. In the case of furniture, parts of the furniture are being built outside of the U.S., where US workers put on finished touches such as custom upholstery on the furniture the way customers want them.
Although my client is experiencing some difficulties in finding furniture manufacturer who can make his product in the U.S., he wants to offer some sage advice for new comers:
1) Think of your manufacturing and cost trade-offs by having it done here in the US vs. overseas
2) Be more hands-on with your sourcing supplier. Develop and build relationship with the local sourcing agent and the manufacturer will help you get your products sooner than later.
3) Make sure you ask for sample of their work especially if your product is tangible, where touch, feel and comfort are important.
4) Plan to extend your product development time from the “normal” throughput, and multiple that by 2 or 3 times for final delivery
5) If you have another source of income, have reserve ready so you can live through the waiting period while your product is being developed.
If you would like to pursue having products made overseas, check out export.gov, Department of Commerce’s website, and look for the country where you can find the skills to develop your product. Download a copy of the Country Commercial Guide so you know how connect with people who do business there. Find your local sourcing agent through your connection with local businesses who might be making something similar to yours, and not as a direct competitor. Hopefully, you can re-engineer the process, and find the right manufacturers to help you produce your product.
We hope that by writing this blog, we are elevating some of the struggles that small businesses or entrepreneurs are encountering with respect to wanting products made in the US, and for economic reasons, cannot accomplish that goal due to the challenges mentioned here. We also hope this blog would inspire conversations on how to address this problem instead of solving it in the round-about way.
Sources: 1) American Products International, June 2018
2) https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-05-02/north-carolina-s-fight-keep-its-foothold-furniture
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