 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
Berkeley-Haas Alumni Conference, April 28, 2018
Wow! It’s always nice to be back on the Berkeley campus! I found the conference always a fun-filled day — a day to be “Students Always.”
 Berkeley-Haas Business School Although I missed Deal Lyon’s Goodbye Speech in the morning, I attended two workshops: 1) Design Thinking, and 2) Negotiation. Both offered practical insights drawing from academic learning applying to real-world situation.
Some highlights from the Design Thinking workshop:
- Design thinking involves solving problem by looking at both technology and human interaction with technology and its impact.
- It trains us to think in a non-linear fashion, where problems can be solved in many different ways.
- Design thinking is suited for products, services, and experiences that involve people.
- It focuses on the “Customer Journey Map,” that’s crucial in seeing how your product may play out with the various pain points that customers may be experiencing throughout their journey getting from point A to point B.
- The best part of the Design Thinking workshop was that we got to help Mark Zuckerberg tackled his current problem on social connectedness and data privacy.
Some highlights from Negotiation workshop:
- Present our value as a package instead of piece by piece
- A win-win negotiation requires key prep upfront and don’t leave “value” at the table due to a lack of sharing info from both sides
- Be clear and consistent in your negotiation
- Know your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) to ensure you get the most value out of any situation
Tidbits from HaasX Talk:
- Take care of yourself so you can take care of others
- Always go against the grain if you want to make changes
- In business, to be successful, it’s always about the people whom you work with, whom you serve, who you mentor, and those who mentor you.
- When you come to a dead end, think of it not as a wall, but just a steep climb
- Be a creator of radical transformation and help others rise up so you can rise up too!
I hope you enjoy the highlights that I have captured. Click here to see more Haas Insight! Please give us feedback on what you would like to hear from us!
If you are a young company running a shop on your own, without an extended team, you may find it challenging to keep up with sales and marketing adequately so you can grow and acquire more customers. Often times, I get asked by clients: “Where should I focus on our sales and marketing efforts to win and create impact to my bottom-line?” My answer is not “Well, it all depends.” It sounds too cliché. When I think of sales and marketing, here are some common-sense tips that you can consider to help you be better at what you are already doing.
1) Adopt a positive, embracing mindset. Prepare yourself with the mindset that during early stages of your company, in its first one to three years, you need to wear the sales and marketing hats at all times. More importantly, you need to understand that in every sales transaction, no matter how small or large, it requires some level of relationship building or engagement, whether you cultivate it through using social media or other traditional marketing methods.
2) Be authentic and know who you are. People want to do business with people that they can relate to. Share business and personal struggles that make you feel real, to show that you can too, help your customers live through their struggles. Think of the type of person and leader that you want to be, project that position in your customers’ minds, and consistently show those attributes that define who you are.
3) Build your network. Go to events 2 to 3 times per month to network and also acquire knowledge where you want to be seen as the expert or have passion toward. Talk to people, gain new perspectives and new ideas at times, to keep your creativity alive. Stay connected with people whom you talked to that you like or share similar interests through LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or other social media channels that they usually hang out, and follow up by sharing your insights, or engage conversations through their social media posts to deepen the relationships.
4) Earn credibility. If you are a good writer, write articles or blogs on subject of your authority. Post it on LinkedIn, Facebook, or pitch to local publication’s editorial team who may be interested in your story. Having articles published by a known publication or website can earn great credibility for your company. So you will get to have some bragging rights in your social media channels, your emails to prospects and existing customers.
5) Get involved in local community. Actively participating in your local community, blogs, or social media community groups can help you become an advocate for their cause. People may find your name mentioned in search engine results, in blog or social media posts, and accept your brand as a solid, dependable, and known entity. Find your spot light and don’t try to be the next Uber.
By implementing some of the tips above, you can rest assured that steady sales and marketing keeps you focused, yet it also gives you the flexibility to try out 1 to 2 new sales or marketing ideas once a year to keep your brand fresh and creativity alive. So you can continue to grow and thrive, and take your business to where it needs to be.
Special Note: You can access a soft copy of Access Magazine here. Printed copies will be made available early August timeframe.
Need a Yoda moment? Now you can!
As we begin a New Year welcoming 2018, you deserve to take some time off from your day-to-day activities and have those Yoda moments! So you can reflect and retool on any important aspect of your business that may need more attention: whether it’s about having a focused marketing strategy, finding the right customers, creating better social media presence, or re-designing your product for better customer experience.
Whatever your challenges may be, we can fit your individual needs into our workshops because you will get one-on-one time with us to assemble ideas, and prioritize the next right thing to do for your business and marketing, as well as getting peer-to-peer discussion for timely feedback. At the end of the sessions, you will take away with an actionable marketing plan to help you stay focused, with strategies and best practices that are essential to achieving your business and marketing goals in 2018!
When: Series 2: Kick off February 1, 2018
RSVP here no later than January 20, 2018
What:
- A 2-month business and marketing coaching series unlike any other
- Work in small group with 2 to 4 like-minded women business owners
- Get instant access to individual coaching from a high-caliber marketing expert
- Gain new perspectives from peer-to-peer discussion and timely feedback
- Do good because 1% of our sales proceed will be donated to Napa Valley Community Foundation to help Napa fire victims in rebuilding their homes and dreams!
Investment: $1,150/person for a 2-person group; $725/person for a 4-person group.
Contact jenny@jennyhuangmarketing.com for more details. RSVP here no later than January 20, 2018. A $100 deposit is required to hold you spot before group formation.
There were many wonderful content that we have curated in social media that we cannot wait to share out with you. Some are short reads and some are long, and well worth investing time to catch up. So pick you favorite and dive in!
- In general, consumers like brands who are helpful, honest, and friendly, beyond personality and being humorous.
- Wondering about how to increase Facebook audience, read more here.
- Average length of a successful video on Facebook varied from 24 seconds to 90 seconds.
- The 13 Best Photo & Video Editing Apps for Mobile
- Bonus: Snapchat Use Among Influencers Is Down 33%
Sources: Sprout Social 2017, Hubspot 2017, Social Media Examiner 2015
Hey, everyone! So thrilled about finishing up our new, YouTube video focusing on How to Get Early Adopters for Your Product.
If you are a start-up company, you would be most interested in listening to this quick talk in less than 2 minutes.
If you are an existing company, you may want to study how 3M crossed the chasm to find new markets, expanding their Post-it Notes usage in other target audience segments. 3M today is a $3.47 Billion company, so they must have done something right to get here.
Let us know what you would like to hear more!
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