Meeting Title: Uttam <> Sue-Wong Date: 2024-02-01 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:05.840 ⇒ 00:00:06.710 Uttam Kumaran: My life.
2 00:00:06.840 ⇒ 00:00:15.580 Uttam Kumaran: and I do like to consume things need to buy things. And you know Jordan will say it’s a collection of. But here’s the idea.
3 00:00:16.110 ⇒ 00:00:29.320 Uttam Kumaran: I thought, you know I live a very busy lifestyle, and I think the majority of individuals who are in their 20 s. And 30 s. Today are more sophisticated than when we when I grew up.
4 00:00:29.750 ⇒ 00:00:41.959 Uttam Kumaran: You know, when I grew up, we didn’t have all the noise that yeah, you guys have, and accessibility to various things, and in a way that you consume and want that experience which is, get it. Give it to me
5 00:00:42.190 ⇒ 00:00:54.449 Uttam Kumaran: quick and easy to drop things in. And I move on. And so this was more of a can we create an app that is functional.
6 00:00:54.540 ⇒ 00:00:56.150 Uttam Kumaran: and it serves a need
7 00:00:56.670 ⇒ 00:01:03.430 Uttam Kumaran: and and it’s it’s you know it. When I forked it out like this could get pretty complicated.
8 00:01:03.770 ⇒ 00:01:07.380 So I wanted to have an app that would
9 00:01:08.150 ⇒ 00:01:12.910 Uttam Kumaran: catalog like my closet.
10 00:01:13.320 ⇒ 00:01:26.259 Uttam Kumaran: And you know, because when I when I buy my my my club, I’ll just focus on because this can be kind of applied to different things. And you know, underneath creation care.
11 00:01:26.430 ⇒ 00:01:28.679 Uttam Kumaran: So I’ll start with the closet first.
12 00:01:29.760 ⇒ 00:01:40.290 Uttam Kumaran: And the reason being is that I seen output of where today is moving into, or it already is which is people we sell.
13 00:01:40.290 ⇒ 00:02:00.640 Uttam Kumaran: And the resell market is over a billion dollars looking to grow. No, it’s it’s actually massive, like deep up all those huge right now. And I think even the aftermarket, like luxury goods market is also way bigger than it’s ever been, like people buying secondhand
14 00:02:00.790 ⇒ 00:02:16.489 Uttam Kumaran: spot on having a
15 00:02:16.650 ⇒ 00:02:21.780 Uttam Kumaran: to go back into it. and then take the time to do the things I should do.
16 00:02:21.860 ⇒ 00:02:33.510 Uttam Kumaran: So what do I end up doing? Okay, I’ll just pack it up and get it to good will all that money reselling it on my behalf. So I wanted to have an app
17 00:02:33.930 ⇒ 00:02:47.560 Uttam Kumaran: that would go through the different touch points. So when I do decide, okay, I need to release it. It’s already there for me to push and click and connect but also use it as a reminder of what I do have.
18 00:02:48.400 ⇒ 00:02:50.850 Uttam Kumaran: so that I can build on to it.
19 00:02:51.170 ⇒ 00:02:56.619 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I wanted to have an app that I could set. Okay.
20 00:02:56.660 ⇒ 00:03:11.800 Uttam Kumaran: you know, here’s my formal. Here’s my my everyday. Here’s my athletic stuff, and then income from, you know, clothing to belts, to shoes. Accessory stuff. But I also want to focus on the higher things.
21 00:03:12.060 ⇒ 00:03:18.380 Uttam Kumaran: So I was envisioning an app that would be able to.
22 00:03:18.600 ⇒ 00:03:22.169 Uttam Kumaran: you know, just quickly snap a picture of what you have
23 00:03:22.270 ⇒ 00:03:24.530 Uttam Kumaran: and quick description inputs.
24 00:03:24.810 ⇒ 00:03:31.579 Uttam Kumaran: you know color, size, and the brand and or the maker, whatever’s on that label
25 00:03:31.960 ⇒ 00:03:53.920 Uttam Kumaran: and I mean, it’ll be great if you can, key, or you know the bar code. I think that might be too too complicated. Because one, either the retailer Lemmon, would have discontinued it, and therefore we can’t buy it again. So I wanted to eliminate those things. But then you, you know, to have a a.
26 00:03:54.490 ⇒ 00:04:05.840 Uttam Kumaran: a cause that had all those different things that you could just push in, either by style, meaning formal, athletic, or just by. Here’s all my colors.
27 00:04:05.860 ⇒ 00:04:13.679 Uttam Kumaran: Neutrals.
28 00:04:14.150 ⇒ 00:04:24.979 Uttam Kumaran: And to be able to have a library of that, because most times, and I don’t think I’m the only one. I forget what I had purchased, because I only wear it once in a while. Yeah.
29 00:04:25.260 ⇒ 00:04:42.759 Uttam Kumaran: for special occasion. Yeah. And but those special occasion items is items that we, I spend more money on. Yeah. And you know, when I had worked. I don’t know how many black suits that had blue and all that, and then and then, when I’m shopping.
30 00:04:43.390 ⇒ 00:04:58.260 Uttam Kumaran: you know, in different markets, I forget what I had, and then I end up buying more than what I need. So there’s a there’s a concept about just being more mindful of your of your spend, and also being mindful what you can add to make your wardrobe
31 00:04:58.910 ⇒ 00:04:59.900 Uttam Kumaran: grow.
32 00:05:00.560 ⇒ 00:05:11.219 and then making a decision of Oh, yeah, I have this. I’ve had it for 4 years or 5 years, or 6 years. It’s kind of brand new. I should post it to get rid of it.
33 00:05:11.960 ⇒ 00:05:24.079 Uttam Kumaran: and posting to get rid of it can all can mean multiple things. And I think there’s an opportunity here. One can be all the platforms that you know of, and I know of. and then the other is to Joni
34 00:05:25.040 ⇒ 00:05:37.579 Uttam Kumaran: and to make that an easier pathway for people to donate and you know it’s no different from that concept of got junk which we all thought about that idea.
35 00:05:38.080 ⇒ 00:05:52.809 Uttam Kumaran: and what a big business that became someone taking it away from you. So that that’s an avenue to to to go through. So I was thinking about that as an easy app access to do all those different functionality
36 00:05:52.990 ⇒ 00:05:59.320 Uttam Kumaran: and and even shoes. I was saying to Jordan, I know he collects speakers. Yeah.
37 00:05:59.890 ⇒ 00:06:09.650 Uttam Kumaran: and you know whatever you can. He’s collecting Taylor swift gear. Now, too, it looks like yes, so collections, yes.
38 00:06:09.730 ⇒ 00:06:14.860 Uttam Kumaran: and we we collect things, too, from just a memorabilia standpoint. Totally.
39 00:06:14.890 ⇒ 00:06:27.329 Uttam Kumaran: I can’t tell you where it is sometimes like we were looking for Jersey to add on to it, or Where is it? I don’t know what the I don’t know component. I wanted to add this to the full.
40 00:06:27.640 ⇒ 00:06:33.269 Uttam Kumaran: I wanted to have a tracking mechanism of some sort as well.
41 00:06:33.300 ⇒ 00:06:42.199 Uttam Kumaran: I like the idea of the air tag. I would like to have a digital air tag, meaning that
42 00:06:43.240 ⇒ 00:06:52.009 Uttam Kumaran: and it may not be it could be not fit into the clothing part. But even my digital library.
43 00:06:52.020 ⇒ 00:07:03.959 Uttam Kumaran: Now, I’m moving to jewelry. Yeah. cause I have my jewelry. I travel. and one I would like to know my inventory. I couldn’t tell you what my inventory is today, because I’ve moved around so much.
44 00:07:04.080 ⇒ 00:07:10.830 Uttam Kumaran: And and then when I packed things up to move and wrapped it all up and put in the safe. I couldn’t tell you what’s in the safe until I open it.
45 00:07:11.370 ⇒ 00:07:14.170 So I did look at that
46 00:07:14.310 ⇒ 00:07:16.150 Uttam Kumaran: experience about
47 00:07:16.850 ⇒ 00:07:22.959 Uttam Kumaran: your belongings, and it more led towards people doing it for their insurance. Yeah.
48 00:07:23.450 ⇒ 00:07:48.120 Uttam Kumaran: policies, or for like maybe a will, I think additionally, perhaps, like when you go. And again. Maybe, like I, I’ve never done this. But if you get a personal stylist, do they do like kind of an inventory audit of like what you don’t know. Yeah, I don’t think so, because unless if you had a dedicated stylist who was with you all the time, then maybe they know everything you have. But right? But I don’t think so. Okay.
49 00:07:48.130 ⇒ 00:07:53.499 Uttam Kumaran: because I know that like when I go do my shopping an email market
50 00:07:54.030 ⇒ 00:08:02.580 Uttam Kumaran: or nordstrom, unless if I’m dedicated to go back to the same, it doesn’t happen.
51 00:08:02.750 ⇒ 00:08:26.970 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And and you know that shopping history goes away over years as well. So the other thing that I also, you know again, just thinking out loud. So I like, I go like I’ll shop at Nike at the Mall. They because I tag by Nike App. They haven’t a decent inventory, I think. Probably Lulu and the other main places that I buy clothing have that I’m sure Amazon
52 00:08:27.100 ⇒ 00:08:29.740 Uttam Kumaran: as that, and ultimately, I think.
53 00:08:29.990 ⇒ 00:08:32.750 Uttam Kumaran: less about the
54 00:08:33.039 ⇒ 00:08:48.590 Uttam Kumaran: items, but more about the how much you spent is all in your like. Bake account, your credit card statements right? But you’re totally right. Is that like there’s no cataloging tool right now. The things that I’ve used in the past for reselling or buying is like II bought stuff on like railed.
55 00:08:48.630 ⇒ 00:08:50.720 Uttam Kumaran: I like surfed on d-pop
56 00:08:50.930 ⇒ 00:09:04.349 Uttam Kumaran: or there’s like there’s other there’s like, go for sneakers. There’s a couple of these like resale, and then they will kind of keep track of your inventory stock. X. And then Stock XI would say, maybe has the best.
57 00:09:04.600 ⇒ 00:09:16.209 Uttam Kumaran: almost like they have. They create like almost like a financial market, right? And so you can upload all of your sneakers, and they can kind of tell you the value of your of your thing. So that’s probably the best like
58 00:09:16.340 ⇒ 00:09:31.430 Uttam Kumaran: kind of closest thing that I’ve seen the other, you know. II wonder how products like rent the runway or other current like where you’re like, almost like leasing and giving back. And they keep track of what you need. I wonder what those experiences are like? But certainly
59 00:09:31.640 ⇒ 00:09:37.760 Uttam Kumaran: there’s there’s nothing that I’ve used on that clothing, cataloging, or like personal inventory.
60 00:09:37.930 ⇒ 00:10:03.769 Uttam Kumaran: The closest thing I can think also similar to that is, maybe like the food tracking apps like my fitness power where you track what you ate. That’s maybe like closest mechanism to like, I buy this thing. I’m gonna put in my macros. So maybe there’s some like some ux similarities, some mechanism there. But definitely like I don’t. I don’t know. I would have to go on app store and look, but I’m not sure what other kind of
61 00:10:04.030 ⇒ 00:10:15.330 Uttam Kumaran: products exist out there that that help do this. But also the biggest thing I think that you’ll benefit from is having the integration with D. Pop, or wherever you’re gonna go resell this.
62 00:10:15.410 ⇒ 00:10:19.350 Uttam Kumaran: What’s the quickest way you can take your item and then go quickly. Create a listing
63 00:10:19.420 ⇒ 00:10:25.989 Uttam Kumaran: right? So it’d be interesting to see whether those guys have Apis and you can quickly do that.
64 00:10:26.470 ⇒ 00:10:50.130 Uttam Kumaran: Correct, if not, you know. Here’s this, here’s what this is, and then you open up that conversation to say we should connect. You know, there’s there’s collaboration here to to elevate the user experience, because there’s a dollars and cents to it all. You know, it’s like, okay, because you shop at all these different retailers. Here’s the connection to it. And therefore
65 00:10:50.560 ⇒ 00:11:02.689 Uttam Kumaran: you thought you’re gonna know how long you’ve had something where you didn’t even think about it before. Yes, and maybe because you you, because people are sensitive to now
66 00:11:02.740 ⇒ 00:11:15.689 Uttam Kumaran: our my stepdaughter in law like she’s, you know. She started to post things on like all over Lulu and stuff. And where does she? Where does she post? That is it, is it. Just not like, I know, it’s people using Facebook groups. Okay.
67 00:11:15.810 ⇒ 00:11:31.849 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. And she’s like, Oh, let’s just take a picture of the couch I posted. And because she cycles through her seasons, and she doesn’t want to keep her inventory. And and that was before she thought about doing it. So she thought, oh, let me just post it, you know I’ve had it for like 8 months.
68 00:11:31.880 ⇒ 00:11:34.650 Uttam Kumaran: She’s like, Oh, my God! People actually buy it! Yeah.
69 00:11:35.230 ⇒ 00:11:49.539 Uttam Kumaran: you know, it’s been warm but gently worn, and she got rid of it. And you know, Overall, she just wanted to see what the experience was like. But then even what I’d like also adult clothes, but also
70 00:11:49.880 ⇒ 00:12:09.050 Uttam Kumaran: infants, toddlers cause they’re for short span and also
71 00:12:09.060 ⇒ 00:12:21.090 Uttam Kumaran: recoup the value.
72 00:12:21.100 ⇒ 00:12:24.199 Uttam Kumaran: A general sense of like what that might be.
73 00:12:24.580 ⇒ 00:12:34.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So based on some of her items. Now she’s very, I would say, on the scale of she’s not, you know. She has a particular style, yeah.
74 00:12:34.980 ⇒ 00:12:40.960 Uttam Kumaran: and also a particular
75 00:12:41.260 ⇒ 00:12:50.559 Uttam Kumaran: like buying decision of, I’m gonna buy Federal quality stuff I’m gonna buy because I’m I’m gonna wear it and love it. Yeah, versus just buying cause. It has a little label on it.
76 00:12:50.720 ⇒ 00:12:58.880 So so with that, when she’s been transacting, it’s been ranging so something like if she had bought a little lemon
77 00:12:59.110 ⇒ 00:13:24.820 Uttam Kumaran: top, let’s say for 80, you know, she’ll get sometimes 25. So it’s a good return rid of it. Yeah, no, no, that’s yeah. And then the alternative is donating or throwing it away. Right? Well, donating let’s put it this way. I had another cousin who decided that she’s gonna be this thrift shop for? Yeah
78 00:13:24.870 ⇒ 00:13:28.300 Uttam Kumaran: to purchase and resell. Okay.
79 00:13:28.330 ⇒ 00:13:40.420 Uttam Kumaran: so she purchase. And it’s rare because you have to work at it. Yes, I’m not. I’m not working at it. I went with a biologist. but I was intrigued about what she was doing. So she went and found a
80 00:13:40.810 ⇒ 00:13:55.089 Uttam Kumaran: and she’ll look through real quick cause. She knows the cycles now when they’re bringing in new things when they’re reducing it to need to get rid of it, and most of the people working there, I mean, besides a few brands. They don’t know all the other brands
81 00:13:55.190 ⇒ 00:14:07.070 Uttam Kumaran: and designers brand new and bought it for 10. I sold it for 200,
82 00:14:07.300 ⇒ 00:14:33.600 Uttam Kumaran: you know, so, and then she’ll buy some other brands that are moving, but used. But she’ll buy it for 50 cents and sell it for 10, you know, and then, when you do a lot of that, mix it in with the other things, I guess works out for you totally. I just don’t have 5. Yeah. But the value is that just to to market wise about? You know. They always say you know your trash is someone’s treasure.
83 00:14:34.470 ⇒ 00:14:56.589 Uttam Kumaran: and so the marketing pitch there would be, you know, keep moving. And now I think the the entire local community is more conscientious about sustainability. Yeah, I think there’s a huge angle for that. I think both the sustainability. And again, I think so many people are becoming a lot more open to purchasing
84 00:14:56.590 ⇒ 00:15:06.079 Uttam Kumaran: secondhand clothing than I’ve ever seen before. I think thrift, shopping and stuff has always kind of been there, but especially in my generation
85 00:15:06.110 ⇒ 00:15:31.889 Uttam Kumaran: like II go to thrift store all the time I love it. Cause again, you find like one or 2 things that are like really cool things so cheap. But now it’s becoming a huge thing where it’s like, I think that, taking advantage of, like the nostalgia being able to get pieces that are like out of like. They’re no longer being made all that stuff. And again, that’s more of a messaging thing. There’s nothing about the product that was very different. It’s just the culture now, I think, is a lot more open to
86 00:15:32.390 ⇒ 00:15:56.340 Uttam Kumaran: that doing things like that where pre previously you’d be like, I’m not gonna wear some someone that wore this, and you’d be Hi easily. II wear that for sure. And so I think there’s totally an angle to take advantage. I think the only things that are tough. And again, this is this would just be having to improve on the product is one, the cataloging aspect. So let’s say you do have like maybe 250 distinct things.
87 00:15:56.470 ⇒ 00:16:05.480 Uttam Kumaran: How long does that take for you to get into the app? So that’d be one kind of product problem to figure out like. how do we streamline that?
88 00:16:05.540 ⇒ 00:16:21.130 Uttam Kumaran: And then the second thing is, how do you quickly go from inventory to like selling it on a platform. I would say, on that sense partnering with either d pop or whatever to go. Make that sale grailed
89 00:16:21.280 ⇒ 00:16:33.649 Uttam Kumaran: is like a huge angle, because the one thing I’ll advise is like don’t get into like payment processing and all that. But if you’re the conduit for that demand for them, they will totally pick up the phone.
90 00:16:33.750 ⇒ 00:16:36.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then the last thing is thinking about
91 00:16:36.530 ⇒ 00:16:51.659 Uttam Kumaran: like, how do you make money on this like? What is your pricing and and messaging, and all that? But I would say the the product, without looking at any of the existing products on the market, apart from just the stuff that I know, I mean, II think certainly.
92 00:16:51.830 ⇒ 00:16:53.030 Uttam Kumaran: There’s like
93 00:16:53.200 ⇒ 00:17:00.529 Uttam Kumaran: I could see this actually working, as even in your limited network I think you already described many people who probably would have just leverage that
94 00:17:00.680 ⇒ 00:17:17.709 Uttam Kumaran: but like certainly in mine as well, I think there’s a lot of people that would use something like that even just to manage their inventory, let alone get a sense of like. Oh, I’d set up. Having to donate this, let me just quickly make a listing on Dpop, or quickly make a listing on Grail, and like a few clicks.
95 00:17:18.250 ⇒ 00:17:34.870 Uttam Kumaran: Correct. Yes, and that is I think that is the optimal experience. So for sure, no transactions from the dollar app standpoint, you know I’m a true believer also that and and this is in the pricing strategy. Is that
96 00:17:34.910 ⇒ 00:17:42.749 Uttam Kumaran: a lot of the apps, my my pet peeve with apps, and I understand the tearing
97 00:17:42.930 ⇒ 00:17:59.000 Uttam Kumaran: because we should be upping the experience and pay more. But then, as a user, I find it to be so annoying. It’s so annoying. It’s the worst. Give me what you want and not be done with it. Because, you know, like, okay, I want it in color different now, and you’d be more do another subscription.
98 00:17:59.040 ⇒ 00:18:25.600 Uttam Kumaran: And and II don’t want to do that because the data breaches all that stuff like I’ve been. I’ve been a a victim of it, where all the sudden get all these apple charges. I’m like, what is that for? And because it’s only 99 cents a dollar you forget to lose. Look at it. Not a big ticket item, but when you add it, it’s like $700, and so so from an app standpoint.
99 00:18:25.710 ⇒ 00:18:37.790 Uttam Kumaran: you know, when I was looking at, when you’re when you go in and dive in to see this is viable, and it’s worth your time. I mean, I looked at. There’s so many things from organizing that people had out there.
100 00:18:37.850 ⇒ 00:18:46.180 Uttam Kumaran: but it led towards insurance policies, and it ranged from, you know, 2, 99 to 9, 99, you know, to get that app.
101 00:18:46.240 ⇒ 00:18:49.789 And the way I look at it is that
102 00:18:50.010 ⇒ 00:19:06.209 Uttam Kumaran: you know the cost to both, of course, dictates where it can be, because you want some levels of margins that makes the business viable. And then once you publish it in the marketplace, you really can’t go back. Can’t say, Oh, 1, 99, or now we need to do 9 doesn’t work like that.
103 00:19:06.300 ⇒ 00:19:08.780 I’m not here to out
104 00:19:09.010 ⇒ 00:19:11.320 Uttam Kumaran: price the app
105 00:19:11.550 ⇒ 00:19:14.420 Uttam Kumaran: if I had an app. That was, you know.
106 00:19:14.560 ⇒ 00:19:15.920 Uttam Kumaran: easy entry
107 00:19:16.130 ⇒ 00:19:22.519 Uttam Kumaran: between the I’ll just throw a little because I’m done the math on this, because I don’t know what the cost is going to be.
108 00:19:22.560 ⇒ 00:19:26.469 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s say it was (499) 599-9999
109 00:19:26.590 ⇒ 00:19:36.670 Uttam Kumaran: that. You don’t have to think about. Oh, that’s kind of expensive, because I look at as if you had the 399,499, and you’re able to touch a million people. Yes.
110 00:19:36.970 ⇒ 00:20:02.920 Uttam Kumaran: that’s a lot of money. Yeah. And again, if someone told me is like, if you double your rate, you can get less people right? So it’s I would say you should. You should think about in that sense. And exactly. If you want to keep pricing really simple, it’s easy to make this like a one time annual fee or a monthly fee to access, and you get you get everything, and then you get a 7 day free trial or a 14 day free trial. A lot of the apps that I use that I pay for are on that model where they know they’re strong apps.
111 00:20:02.920 ⇒ 00:20:18.530 Uttam Kumaran: and the product is so good that they’re like, just try it. And it’s a one time thing. There’s we only have 2 tiers we have. We have like our trial, and then we have paid. There’s nothing in between. But you’re totally right. Is that like increasing the price later is, gonna be much more of a challenge than decreasing it.
112 00:20:18.660 ⇒ 00:20:25.520 Uttam Kumaran: And II don’t know if you’re if you’re giving people back hundreds of dollars or giving the opportunity to get them back.
113 00:20:25.550 ⇒ 00:20:42.949 Uttam Kumaran: I think 599 or $5 is like a really small fee for that. Right? So yeah, I mean, just think, just think about the model, because I’m so guilty because I’ve been a member for so long. When they told me how long I’ve been a member.
114 00:20:43.130 ⇒ 00:20:56.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, exactly. Okay. I feel like I graduated. I’m like an adult. Now, I got my own card
115 00:20:56.530 ⇒ 00:20:59.089 Uttam Kumaran: and irrational irrationalized it.
116 00:20:59.120 ⇒ 00:21:09.240 Uttam Kumaran: Well, I’ll be spending that, anyway, because I get to check back at the end of the year to rebate something, you know, cause it keeps you tied into it. So
117 00:21:09.670 ⇒ 00:21:28.449 Uttam Kumaran: you know, because we’re not doing a transaction. We’re showing savings. We’re showing it to a better experience. We’re showing about sustainability. You know, that could be layered on later. It’s just trying to give this experience one. It’s a usability function. Someone will always try it once, I believe.
118 00:21:28.530 ⇒ 00:21:40.659 Uttam Kumaran: and then, if that experience is is is a good one. Then, you know, it’s like, Okay, it’s functional. It’s usable. That’s why I think this being linked on from experience standpoint.
119 00:21:40.750 ⇒ 00:21:43.619 Uttam Kumaran: an Api, and how that field makes sense
120 00:21:43.720 ⇒ 00:21:47.519 Uttam Kumaran: and making it an easy workflow.
121 00:21:47.840 ⇒ 00:22:01.939 Uttam Kumaran: Now I know we always have to deal with bandwidth in regards like you said, you know. At what point. Do you say, Whoa! This is way. Too many things. But I don’t think you’re going to be cataloging every single thing. You know. You’re not cataloging all that stuff?
122 00:22:02.360 ⇒ 00:22:09.550 Uttam Kumaran: But just to strategically pick what’s going to be the low hanging fruit that everyone could
123 00:22:09.580 ⇒ 00:22:11.329 Uttam Kumaran: relate to.
124 00:22:11.800 ⇒ 00:22:23.620 Uttam Kumaran: and and so with that you know. How do we take the experience today, such as the marketplace, wash, mark all these things
125 00:22:23.680 ⇒ 00:22:31.889 Uttam Kumaran: and start to give people an idea about one just knowing what you have.
126 00:22:32.640 ⇒ 00:22:35.339 Uttam Kumaran: and for all the good reasons why you should know what you have.
127 00:22:36.140 ⇒ 00:22:42.819 Uttam Kumaran: and then to give them, you know, insights into what that next
128 00:22:43.330 ⇒ 00:22:46.380 Uttam Kumaran: sense of value would be for them to have it.
129 00:22:47.580 ⇒ 00:22:54.739 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And and then it’s to make a decision cause. This can really get out of hand in regards to. I can go through every room
130 00:22:54.950 ⇒ 00:23:00.309 Uttam Kumaran: and and get out of hand. But who’s the target? I’m targeting? Right? Yes.
131 00:23:00.580 ⇒ 00:23:02.980 Uttam Kumaran: you know I’m not
132 00:23:03.310 ⇒ 00:23:11.120 Uttam Kumaran: targeting the hoarders that fly every thing. Yeah, and every yeah, I want to target individuals who are savvy
133 00:23:11.440 ⇒ 00:23:14.550 Uttam Kumaran: who are conscientious about what they buy
134 00:23:15.350 ⇒ 00:23:22.630 Uttam Kumaran: and and so that individual, I think, could be one in the same. Because I’ll take
135 00:23:25.400 ⇒ 00:23:30.900 Uttam Kumaran: Katherine, for example, because Young started a family very brand conscious.
136 00:23:31.290 ⇒ 00:23:42.009 Uttam Kumaran: and would pay more for a good brand and good material. Good stuff. Yeah. And so she has adapted the same thinking to her when she had children.
137 00:23:43.780 ⇒ 00:23:47.249 Uttam Kumaran: So now you have a stroller that’s at, you know, $3,000. Yeah.
138 00:23:47.280 ⇒ 00:23:50.719 Uttam Kumaran: while your cake rose up and then get rid of that stroller.
139 00:23:50.740 ⇒ 00:24:00.230 Uttam Kumaran: So where do you post that stuff? And and how do you get rid of that thing, you know? And so there’s different ways to do it to make it value. Make it make sense.
140 00:24:00.290 ⇒ 00:24:03.540 Uttam Kumaran: You know, we’ve all bought. And you guys have
141 00:24:03.650 ⇒ 00:24:18.169 Uttam Kumaran: my shoes. Nice belts. Yeah. you know. And then for the ladies, we have scarves who have all these other things. and we were once or twice, and you totally forgot what color it was and where it is, where you put it? Yeah. And so for those items before I forget.
142 00:24:18.530 ⇒ 00:24:28.000 Uttam Kumaran: When I was talking about jewelry inventory, I also wanted to add a an added component to it is
143 00:24:28.100 ⇒ 00:24:30.639 Uttam Kumaran: to to that tracking
144 00:24:30.740 ⇒ 00:24:31.780 Uttam Kumaran: compulsive.
145 00:24:31.970 ⇒ 00:24:38.840 Uttam Kumaran: So I wanted to see. Get your idea, because II think this is something that would be really nice to have.
146 00:24:39.440 ⇒ 00:24:43.480 I want to have a digital
147 00:24:44.150 ⇒ 00:24:47.500 Uttam Kumaran: air tag, meaning that I know it’s digital.
148 00:24:47.680 ⇒ 00:25:02.280 Uttam Kumaran: But I wanted to. Could you create something where? Okay, I’m taking an inventory of my diamond ring. or this is always on. So let’s say my diamond earrings, or my pearls, or whatever is valuable to me.
149 00:25:02.830 ⇒ 00:25:04.250 Uttam Kumaran: And
150 00:25:04.520 ⇒ 00:25:09.850 Uttam Kumaran: but I wanna take that picture, create A, a unique Q or code.
151 00:25:10.330 ⇒ 00:25:14.249 Uttam Kumaran: so that I want to put it with my my earring. Yeah.
152 00:25:15.130 ⇒ 00:25:33.649 Uttam Kumaran: And I know I can embed it inside that jewelry, but I always would have like a pouch, or I wanna be able to to change habit, which is always keep it in this pouch. Here’s the code that goes with it. But but that code is now connected to your devices. So you can ping it.
153 00:25:33.960 ⇒ 00:25:34.850 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
154 00:25:35.930 ⇒ 00:25:42.819 Uttam Kumaran: that makes sense. Yeah. So I think the close. So the closest thing that
155 00:25:43.060 ⇒ 00:25:57.070 Uttam Kumaran: So the closest thing that that’s like that, I would say, is like, is like almost like an air tag where you put an air tag in with something, and then you’re able to have an app that just says like it’s over here, and it makes little noise. Maybe
156 00:25:57.220 ⇒ 00:26:09.050 Uttam Kumaran: there’s there’s also a lot of aftermarket products that aren’t as expensive as air tags that I’m sure are like probably 5 or 10 bucks where you can just say, like, Here’s a tag for this. I’m gonna sync it. There’s a link. And like that
157 00:26:09.060 ⇒ 00:26:36.199 Uttam Kumaran: goes and sits there. We would have to see that, I would say. The biggest problem is like anything. Hardware is like a challenge and have it, and then have, like an inventory almost, or you could scan and know exactly where something is. Yes.
158 00:26:36.200 ⇒ 00:26:40.740 cause you know how the stores is, particularly Drury.
159 00:26:40.830 ⇒ 00:26:47.909 Uttam Kumaran: any jewelry you had, no matter how expensive it is from any big brands. It’s in a plastic bag. Yeah.
160 00:26:47.940 ⇒ 00:26:51.319 Uttam Kumaran: And so, and then it has a QR code within.
161 00:26:51.390 ⇒ 00:26:57.579 Uttam Kumaran: like, I want that same concept to reside with this particular jury that I have
162 00:26:57.820 ⇒ 00:27:01.600 because when I travel I find I put in my jewelry pouch.
163 00:27:02.090 ⇒ 00:27:07.709 Uttam Kumaran: and I just tossed it in there. But this is creating habits of, you know. Put it in the
164 00:27:08.080 ⇒ 00:27:11.709 Uttam Kumaran: that. You just print it out. Yeah of health. Would you just print it out
165 00:27:11.890 ⇒ 00:27:24.290 Uttam Kumaran: and stick it in your bag and just creating that habit because I found that when I’m in and out hotels, or when, wherever you’re traveling to.
166 00:27:24.490 ⇒ 00:27:27.579 Uttam Kumaran: and sometimes you leave the hotel room, or you leave wherever you might.
167 00:27:27.640 ⇒ 00:27:31.290 Uttam Kumaran: Where is it at
168 00:27:31.380 ⇒ 00:27:35.890 Uttam Kumaran: because I’ve been like. I misplace my
169 00:27:36.010 ⇒ 00:27:39.669 Uttam Kumaran: like Tiffany’s pearls this and that.
170 00:27:40.070 ⇒ 00:27:42.690 Uttam Kumaran: because I was in and out so quickly
171 00:27:43.300 ⇒ 00:28:00.220 Uttam Kumaran: I could not find it. It took me 6 months to find it just wedged itself somewhere in like, yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. I’m no wonder whether it is like, yeah, how we would allow people to print that out easily. Or even if there’s something that you can send them physically. And that’s again another product that you can think about offering
172 00:28:01.550 ⇒ 00:28:24.649 Uttam Kumaran: So I wanna solve for that cause. I think that is important and meaningful to have. You can do it with so many things. It’s just like, you know, that inventory catalog something you really want to know all the time where it’s at in your closet, such as your great collectible tiger woods is, whatever it’s like. Where is that we could even start with just like as you do inventory, you get a picture of it.
173 00:28:24.670 ⇒ 00:28:27.489 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Way, when you look it up again, you have
174 00:28:27.560 ⇒ 00:28:50.309 Uttam Kumaran: way. Better? Context of, like, okay? Oh, yeah. I took a picture. It was like right over here and then and then again, the better we can get about getting more data, which is like, when did you use it last? I’m putting this on. Okay, let me, just, I’m putting this on today putting this on today. Putting this on today. This is the outfit. Now, you get better sense of those sort of like things over time and tracking. So I think there’s definitely a lot
175 00:28:50.310 ⇒ 00:29:05.880 Uttam Kumaran: of like evolution. You could definitely do the couple of things that I would suggest one is, and this is what I would say. Whatever I kind of look at apps like this. And again, I led product teams on the like app development side, and like web apps.
176 00:29:05.930 ⇒ 00:29:10.620 Uttam Kumaran: One thing is, don’t don’t put any hands on keyboard until you get it designed.
177 00:29:10.760 ⇒ 00:29:19.039 Uttam Kumaran: The designing something like this and designing the few key flows that you need. Key flows, meaning one. You want someone to sign up and log in
178 00:29:19.250 ⇒ 00:29:22.529 Uttam Kumaran: second, is you want someone to be able to catalog
179 00:29:22.830 ⇒ 00:29:37.589 Uttam Kumaran: their items. The closet, the third, maybe they you want to have integrations to go resell right? And then the fourth, that we can look to do is something around tracking or taking pictures.
180 00:29:37.610 ⇒ 00:29:53.760 Uttam Kumaran: And then the fifth thing is everything around the messaging, right copy marketing, any sort of collateral. You need all of that you could actually generate without developing a single thing. So that would be my number one suggestion. I work with a lot of people that
181 00:29:53.760 ⇒ 00:30:21.919 Uttam Kumaran: we’ll take ideas like this. It can be like, okay, I need to go build it and just start everything. You can get this design design. Every single flow in a prototype and figma, which is like just like a tool for so much cheaper than it would cost to go get this engineer and having it in the in the Figma, where you see a prototype is going to tell you innately a lot of what we can’t gather from this conversation which is like you’re actually gonna be able to go click
182 00:30:21.920 ⇒ 00:30:38.830 Uttam Kumaran: through and see the flows and get it. Understanding like, is this good enough right to build. So that’d be my number. One suggestion is to first focus on getting a couple of these screens designed. Think of like a couple of these flows. Let’s go end to end on these flows and have it designed.
183 00:30:38.830 ⇒ 00:31:00.450 Uttam Kumaran: I have a really wonderful designer that I would totally love to introduce you to that. She’s really capable of handling something like this and work she was leading design at flow code. So she has a really good friend of mine. She just actually started her own sort of design studio. But that would be. My suggestion is to design the flows for the Ios app.
184 00:31:00.450 ⇒ 00:31:09.759 Uttam Kumaran: Take a month or take a few weeks and say, these are the 5 flows that we want to go after and lock those down before any sort of development work.
185 00:31:11.600 ⇒ 00:31:15.830 Uttam Kumaran: And then. And in the meantime, as that’s getting developed, you can also begin to think about.
186 00:31:17.080 ⇒ 00:31:35.919 Uttam Kumaran: you know, the messaging around the app, they’ll look and feel. That’s all stuff that any designer that you’re gonna go work work with is gonna ask about, and then kind of thinking about everything around pricing and that sort of stuff. But before anything, my number one suggestion is to get it designed to get a prototype done.
187 00:31:36.100 ⇒ 00:31:48.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I’m not familiar with that. After this I’ll send you. I’ll send you a little thing about about that. The general gist is that
188 00:31:48.860 ⇒ 00:32:14.840 Uttam Kumaran: these days? There’s there’s there’s a really good application, called sigma. What you can do is you can design, and pretty much any design flows. Have it clickable. So you can actually then also go to anybody in your network and show them. Here’s like a clickable. There’s couple of flows. Of course, it’s not like live data, but you can get almost like probably 60 or 70% of the feel. And then you can make a decision whether it’s worth doing and that would be my number one suggestion to to not only get.
189 00:32:15.170 ⇒ 00:32:24.000 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll look and feel like what the app could look like, but get that honestly, probably within a month or less, you could probably get a couple of screens done.
190 00:32:24.250 ⇒ 00:32:35.770 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, it’s funny how like you took what I what I just did just to flow it out, cause I had to see it flow out, you know, cause I went to my Powerpoint and did, okay, here’s my flow.
191 00:32:35.960 ⇒ 00:32:58.370 Uttam Kumaran: I’m I’m gonna what you’re what you’re gonna see? Think about it’s gonna blow your mind, cause it’s it’s really quite powerful. But again, I think again, my product pad, and as like a product developer. I’m like you before investing in, you know, again, being really conscious of budget before investing any money into this and engineering time is the most expensive cost center this whole thing.
192 00:32:58.370 ⇒ 00:33:17.229 Uttam Kumaran: Everything should be laid out. You don’t want to give any engineers any room for creativity. If you wanna leave that to the designers. And then, if everything’s flowed out, it’s really, really, you can get a much accurate pricing on the engineering side of how long it’s gonna take. If you go to a development firm and they’re like, I wanna design this app.
193 00:33:17.250 ⇒ 00:33:19.929 Uttam Kumaran: And here’s like everything we’ve talked about.
194 00:33:20.130 ⇒ 00:33:30.649 Uttam Kumaran: They’re gonna arrange you. They’re just gonna they’re just gonna say, cool. Well, we’ll also do the design. We’ll also do everything. We’re gonna design 50 different features. And we’re all gonna be buggy and broken
195 00:33:30.660 ⇒ 00:33:35.970 Uttam Kumaran: my, my, my again. My suggestion is to really design well out, and figma
196 00:33:36.100 ⇒ 00:33:55.860 Uttam Kumaran: 4 or 5 flows where you can go through the entire thing you can require figma prototype, and then in a month you’ll be able to at least have something that’s like touchable, and then you can again, through that whole process, you would add coloring, copy generally get a sense of what the end product is going to be without any coding or development involved.
197 00:34:02.270 ⇒ 00:34:15.059 Uttam Kumaran: So, anyway, the designers now have a lot more tools to get them closer to almost being a like developer where they can pretty much get it.
198 00:34:15.060 ⇒ 00:34:39.770 Uttam Kumaran: But the nice thing is. And again, as someone that also develop a lot of products. I can’t. I don’t want to give the green light to engineering where that’s where the most like mistakes happen is the most expensive, and it’s the toughest to do. I want everything figured out before then, and the designers you can. They can really get it done a lot. You don’t want them to do any of that. You just want to say.
199 00:34:39.770 ⇒ 00:34:44.159 here’s the colors. Here’s the design. Here’s the layout. Here are the different spacings.
200 00:34:44.159 ⇒ 00:35:02.370 Uttam Kumaran: margins, everything. These are the screens. And here’s the authentication flow. And then also again, this this will be also thinking about. Okay, we want them to get an email after we want them to have other external integrations. The other, the other. Only the other. One thing that I wanted to mention is
201 00:35:02.700 ⇒ 00:35:12.739 Uttam Kumaran: thinking about how you can make this app more, have like a higher virality. Meaning, how do you make this something that people want to share, whether it’s
202 00:35:13.040 ⇒ 00:35:23.929 Uttam Kumaran: something like a screenshot of what you have in your inventory like, how do you make different parts of the application easy to share with other people. So again, other people can install it and and use it.
203 00:35:23.970 ⇒ 00:35:29.110 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll leave that to you to kind of think about. But that’s the number one thing that’s gonna be
204 00:35:29.180 ⇒ 00:35:43.180 Uttam Kumaran: a better bang for your buck than spending money on Ios store ads is gonna be adding pro internal product virality stuff where you could share it like, share it to 5 people to get referrals or send a screen, send a send like A,
205 00:35:43.350 ⇒ 00:35:56.040 Uttam Kumaran: your inventory and review type screenshot. Those sorts of things are where you can get really creative and are gonna help. Really lower your your customer. Acquisition cost part of the product. So
206 00:35:57.860 ⇒ 00:36:03.489 Uttam Kumaran: that that’d be my suggestion is you you mentioned, you know, the certainly, the sustainability aspect.
207 00:36:03.560 ⇒ 00:36:06.990 Uttam Kumaran: and definitely think about something for virality. And then
208 00:36:07.080 ⇒ 00:36:10.830 Uttam Kumaran: again, I think you’re you’re really spot on on your
209 00:36:10.960 ⇒ 00:36:32.790 Uttam Kumaran: your customer base. It’s to continue to make that as narrow as possible. You mentioned, like brand conscious? You know, people that are purchasing these items and are typically donating them. How do you create messaging towards them where it’s like, hey, you may we can we? We can get you 30 back on all your items, or we could save you like 10 HA week on
210 00:36:32.910 ⇒ 00:36:43.179 Uttam Kumaran: where all your stuff is. Those are these things? Ha! Res really resonated with me in this conversation. So I think that’s all like really, really awesome. And continuing to just like, make that super narrow out.
211 00:36:43.390 ⇒ 00:36:45.069 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Yeah, correct.
212 00:36:45.820 ⇒ 00:36:51.570 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m not crazy in my thinking, I like it. I think.
213 00:36:51.880 ⇒ 00:37:03.049 Uttam Kumaran: I wanna go look at what after this, like what d pop and Posh mark have within their applications? But the nice thing is, I think you can get this built like.
214 00:37:03.630 ⇒ 00:37:11.800 Uttam Kumaran: Honestly, if you don’t have any of the like inventory management, if you don’t have a lot of the pricing and like a marketplace for stuff. I don’t think this is too bad
215 00:37:11.820 ⇒ 00:37:18.029 Uttam Kumaran: to build, I think. But again, my suggestion is, I think you can get a pretty good figma Mockup.
216 00:37:18.170 ⇒ 00:37:40.579 Uttam Kumaran: And again. I’m I’m happy to introduce you to my friend Ivana, who I think you’ll love and she has a lot of connections into fashion as well, but I think to get this design, and for you to see it will give you a lot more confidence, or the other way about, like whether it’s worth taking it on.
217 00:37:40.740 ⇒ 00:37:44.160 Uttam Kumaran: Ivana’s into the design. And and
218 00:37:44.260 ⇒ 00:37:48.770 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I’ll I’ll even send you her. her
219 00:37:49.370 ⇒ 00:37:53.390 Uttam Kumaran: like website right now. She’s yeah, I mean.
220 00:37:53.430 ⇒ 00:38:09.169 Uttam Kumaran: cannot have better things to say about her. She’s one of my good friends, but also is working for a number of different firms, doing design and design agency related work. She’s really young. She worked with me a flow code and again give you context of flow code.
221 00:38:09.500 ⇒ 00:38:11.359 We worked with like
222 00:38:11.720 ⇒ 00:38:17.840 Uttam Kumaran: every single major brand in New York, pretty much from like the Mta to the Mba to
223 00:38:18.930 ⇒ 00:38:19.780 Like
224 00:38:20.250 ⇒ 00:38:24.440 Uttam Kumaran: so many like Veronica, beer, like all types of different, like
225 00:38:24.760 ⇒ 00:38:33.359 Uttam Kumaran: like shopping and movies and everything. So she has a really really good understanding of the messaging and look and feel. And I’m telling you like.
226 00:38:33.860 ⇒ 00:38:51.659 Uttam Kumaran: III used to. Never II worked, I work with engineers. She was one of the first designers that I work with, and it so feels so magical when you could just explain stuff to someone they’re like, cool. Let me take that. They mock it up. And you’re like, Oh, my God, that looks amazing like if I feel like, even after one call with there, you’ll pretty much get that same sense. So
227 00:38:51.830 ⇒ 00:38:55.649 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, yeah, that’d be great. Because the other things, you know, we.
228 00:38:55.700 ⇒ 00:39:05.820 Uttam Kumaran: my friends at different like income brackets. Is this still good time for you? Yup, I think I still I’m good. Let me just double check
229 00:39:07.300 ⇒ 00:39:11.419 Uttam Kumaran: counterfeit. Yeah, I’m good. I have something at the half hour.
230 00:39:11.570 ⇒ 00:39:21.709 Uttam Kumaran: Okay? Well, let me. I can talk more about that as I flush things out because there’s income brackets, too. You know, there’s individuals who have
231 00:39:22.620 ⇒ 00:39:32.630 Uttam Kumaran: a good amount of wealth, and we know what they’re buying, and we know what they have and in which work we don’t. I? You know I have. My my friends is on top of mine in her closet.
232 00:39:32.640 ⇒ 00:39:50.320 Uttam Kumaran: But I’ll talk to her like, what did she do with her things? And most often you know that segment or demographics is holding on to their items. Cause it’s, you know. was expensive. It’s valuable, but they’re keeping it that they keep adding to it. But at some point there is a release of that as well. Yeah.
233 00:39:50.730 ⇒ 00:39:59.350 Uttam Kumaran: You know, because when I live in Florida, there’s a there’s a retire free community, some point the transition
234 00:39:59.390 ⇒ 00:40:16.280 Uttam Kumaran: because it’s just like, Okay, why, you hold on to all this stuff and finding the cash versus holding onto it as people are downsizing their foot where they’re living as well. So lots of those things is just trying to identify what are the key and who’s the target? Because this is not intended for everyone?
235 00:40:16.360 ⇒ 00:40:28.780 Uttam Kumaran: But yet there is, you know, at some point you wanna hit the ones that’s gonna be successful. That’s easy to use, and then adapt this to other things. Yeah. You know, since we’re into sports
236 00:40:29.110 ⇒ 00:40:40.689 Uttam Kumaran: with our work and education. But let me stick on the sports side. You know we have in the hockey world, and, like all others, people are collecting.
237 00:40:40.690 ⇒ 00:41:00.090 Uttam Kumaran: and people have their man caves or their whatever fan cave you wanna call it. And there’s lots of stuff in there that they’ve spent so much time buying and all that and that to me is a a collectors, everything. And so gosh! To log something that’s of value, because that will hit the the mail population
238 00:41:00.160 ⇒ 00:41:09.569 Uttam Kumaran: more so. I would think of being very usable. Valuable. Yes, for that demographic, so I don’t want to lose on that
239 00:41:09.710 ⇒ 00:41:20.400 Uttam Kumaran: opportunity to, as that market continues to grow. So that’s one thing and the the other one. If I made transition now to another project.
240 00:41:20.760 ⇒ 00:41:23.690 Uttam Kumaran: We’re looking at doing
241 00:41:23.810 ⇒ 00:41:37.609 Uttam Kumaran: you know, a memorabilia component, because the 30 year celebrations coming up for Staphon. So you know, to cure we’ll take care of curing the image
242 00:41:37.650 ⇒ 00:41:44.409 Uttam Kumaran: for him, and then with the call from how he rose, and to put that into a frame.
243 00:41:44.810 ⇒ 00:41:58.009 Uttam Kumaran: and I thought wouldn’t be cool like, how can I elevate this experience? Because, you know, the this particular situation? The call was super important, tied to to to what? The score was.
244 00:41:58.720 ⇒ 00:42:06.710 Uttam Kumaran: Do you think I, is there anything out there that can be created that gives. Okay, here’s a frame.
245 00:42:07.110 ⇒ 00:42:09.809 Uttam Kumaran: But here’s the call that you just
246 00:42:09.830 ⇒ 00:42:11.430 Uttam Kumaran: access.
247 00:42:11.560 ⇒ 00:42:16.319 Uttam Kumaran: you know, so that when you’re
248 00:42:16.490 ⇒ 00:42:27.339 Uttam Kumaran: everyone should be, if they were proud of having it. Everything is all together. Instead of talking about it. You just, you know, push something or access something on that picture frame to have experience.
249 00:42:27.910 ⇒ 00:42:31.640 Uttam Kumaran: So give me a sense. Can you give me a little bit more context in terms of
250 00:42:31.790 ⇒ 00:42:43.230 Uttam Kumaran: so yeah, this is like a, it’s like a physical you’re talking about like a physical frame, but like a physical memorabilia, physical, collectible. And then, yeah, and then the idea is something that happens where there’s like an online attached
251 00:42:43.670 ⇒ 00:42:52.420 Uttam Kumaran: experience. Umhm, yeah. Cause I’m trying to stay away from anything. Device hard, you know, hardware on it
252 00:42:52.460 ⇒ 00:42:55.660 Uttam Kumaran: because it just gets too pumpsome. I think.
253 00:42:55.720 ⇒ 00:43:03.870 Uttam Kumaran: Because there’s also audio recording. Yeah, so is there something that I could do to connect to like if you bought this
254 00:43:03.980 ⇒ 00:43:07.000 Uttam Kumaran: picture with this call on it.
255 00:43:07.190 ⇒ 00:43:20.749 Uttam Kumaran: This is how you access it. Now, II also lean towards well, do people want to access it like right then and there? Yes, it can cause. You can pull it up online anywhere. But if you just wanted to be a part of it
256 00:43:21.070 ⇒ 00:43:31.179 Uttam Kumaran: without being hardware. Yes. So I mean the the first thing that comes to mind. And again, this market has gone a lot of like Flack. But it’s kind of what happened with like nfts.
257 00:43:31.300 ⇒ 00:43:49.009 Uttam Kumaran: and the whole idea around these sorts of nfts. It’s like, it’s a digital representation of your limited edition collectible. Right? So if you were to say, there’s 500 of those available. You want some ability to authenticate that, hey? From the person that listed this, this is a genuine one of 500,
258 00:43:49.060 ⇒ 00:44:00.210 Uttam Kumaran: right? It’s very similar to any sort of collectible markets, and there’s a couple of different companies that I’m happy to chat with some people on my end who are kind of in that sort of market about who does the best that kind of collectibles, and
259 00:44:00.250 ⇒ 00:44:11.330 Uttam Kumaran: the ability to kind of verify that like you have one of 50, and that may come with access or other assets, or and you can kind of build like almost a list of people that have that there are some
260 00:44:11.640 ⇒ 00:44:39.760 Uttam Kumaran: methods of enabling that. And I will say that’s the number one way of doing things like that. Where, for example, a lot of people. Now you buy like an art piece, you now get the digital equivalent of that which may come with just the actual assets. But also you you can may ha be able to verify that, for in person events, online events, that you are the owner of that asset, and then that can also be exchanged. So there’s some. I’m not super knowledgeable about the mechanism, but there are some
261 00:44:39.820 ⇒ 00:45:00.810 Uttam Kumaran: things online, some some technologies that got unlocked in the last few years that allow for that that are related to like kind of this, like collectible online offline sort of like market. We did a lot again, we did a lot of that work at flow code as well, because a lot of people would buy these offline products and then have a QR code. Our branded QR code to go to the online equivalent
262 00:45:01.100 ⇒ 00:45:12.100 Uttam Kumaran: or to go to your verification screen. And so there’s definitely something that a lot of companies are doing and like baseball cards and like rookie cards. Things like that.
263 00:45:12.260 ⇒ 00:45:13.160 Uttam Kumaran: Hmm!
264 00:45:13.480 ⇒ 00:45:19.789 Uttam Kumaran: So maybe something I can. I can dig up and send a couple of links over
265 00:45:19.810 ⇒ 00:45:22.760 Uttam Kumaran: and then
266 00:45:26.270 ⇒ 00:45:39.539 Uttam Kumaran: books and translations. And I shift. Yeah. one of our other business line businesses that we go into schools in in doesn’t matter which schools, but the ones that we go into are in Brooklyn, Bronx, and
267 00:45:39.560 ⇒ 00:45:47.730 Uttam Kumaran: and you know, tough communities and multi-cultural and etc. So yes, language.
268 00:45:48.640 ⇒ 00:45:55.550 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s a simple program that we do. But and we also have a book tied to it. And we’re going to do book series
269 00:45:55.580 ⇒ 00:46:19.420 Uttam Kumaran: and more on the social emotional support side. So so the kids can talk about what bullying and all that stuff means to them. But we’ve also noticed that. You know, books are in English. I know we get book translated Spanish for sure. But I wanted to be more in line with where technology is today, I mean, there’s audio books. I’ll get you wrong if you go to that. But when you’re there with them in the classroom
270 00:46:19.670 ⇒ 00:46:30.030 Uttam Kumaran: I wanted to see, it was a viable work. Flow. You know. This is the word that we’re talking about, just so that you know, I have
271 00:46:30.080 ⇒ 00:46:35.589 Uttam Kumaran: maybe 5 6 students per class that’s just like, you know, don’t speak any English.
272 00:46:35.810 ⇒ 00:46:40.620 Uttam Kumaran: Is there a mechanism to make it that experience
273 00:46:40.720 ⇒ 00:46:49.250 Uttam Kumaran: to? For you know, inclusive with those who are participating to at least know that. You know they’re not
274 00:46:49.300 ⇒ 00:46:50.410 Uttam Kumaran: just
275 00:46:50.630 ⇒ 00:46:58.989 Uttam Kumaran: sitting there. But they’re involved, but not involved, because they can’t understand what’s happening. Yeah. So the thing, the biggest thing that’s happening in sort of like
276 00:46:59.210 ⇒ 00:47:13.839 Uttam Kumaran: translation and like language translation is a lot of what’s happening in AI. So basically, what’s what’s now available is you can take any sort of recording a conversation, for example, this conversation, and pretty quickly you can get
277 00:47:13.860 ⇒ 00:47:27.660 Uttam Kumaran: the translated with like colloquial language translation into any language right previously you would need someone to come and listen to this, transcribe it, or do the dub. They not only can
278 00:47:27.840 ⇒ 00:47:37.769 Uttam Kumaran: replicate your voice, but they can actually do your voice in another language. The thing I would say is, it’s you can’t. It’s it’s really difficult to do that
279 00:47:37.940 ⇒ 00:47:39.260 Uttam Kumaran: live.
280 00:47:39.530 ⇒ 00:47:51.499 Uttam Kumaran: There’s probably a way to to do like almost like you speak, and then it it just immediately says it also. But certainly, if you were to record like a seminar, or like a
281 00:47:51.580 ⇒ 00:47:56.380 Uttam Kumaran: fireside chat or something, and then you wanted to play that, and then.
282 00:47:56.590 ⇒ 00:48:01.719 Uttam Kumaran: like, do the translation for dirt cheap. It’s now 100 possible
283 00:48:01.920 ⇒ 00:48:09.610 Uttam Kumaran: to do that sort of dubbing and translation with no humans necessary. Umhm. so that that would be like the
284 00:48:09.910 ⇒ 00:48:19.389 Uttam Kumaran: alternative is like, if you have a recording or you have something, and you’re just like, I want to scale this to Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese.
285 00:48:19.530 ⇒ 00:48:23.380 Uttam Kumaran: and and then also have in English, and then be able to create those
286 00:48:23.510 ⇒ 00:48:27.000 Uttam Kumaran: assets. You can do that now online, with no
287 00:48:27.120 ⇒ 00:48:30.440 Uttam Kumaran: no need for a translator and no need. Yeah, for that to take
288 00:48:30.600 ⇒ 00:48:33.209 Uttam Kumaran: more than like, I don’t know. Probably a few hours.
289 00:48:33.260 ⇒ 00:48:56.769 Uttam Kumaran: I have. We’ll have to again dig it up, get the link for you, but I will send you an example. There, there’s a the new. The reason this this product kind of went viral recently, is the new Prime Minister of Argentina, Argentina. He’s like this guy, Javier. Malay is like this kind of eccentric guy. He was giving a speech at the UN. And he was giving this speech in in Spanish.
290 00:48:56.800 ⇒ 00:49:08.589 Uttam Kumaran: and they the company that does this dubbing immediately released it, his own voice, and in English. and like super viral. And so there’s a couple of companies that do this. I’ll I’ll share them with you.
291 00:49:08.630 ⇒ 00:49:13.420 Uttam Kumaran: They’re the perfect people to now again. They, I think they charge a pretty make
292 00:49:13.470 ⇒ 00:49:26.609 Uttam Kumaran: marginal fee like it’s just a Saas product to go and upload anything, and they’ll just do the translation subtitling and the dub in your voice. It may be we have to think a little bit creatively, do anything live.
293 00:49:26.710 ⇒ 00:49:34.079 Uttam Kumaran: It’s probably possible, but it will require some more thinking, but anything where you already have a recording super. Easy to get that translated.
294 00:49:34.170 ⇒ 00:49:48.220 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, yeah, I was. That might be a good stepping stone, because before we go into the the class, perhaps, that those assets would be released. Yeah, you know, to school and and to the those who were participating
295 00:49:48.600 ⇒ 00:50:06.610 Uttam Kumaran: meeting, so that they can have a you know, head start going through it. And yeah, live pretty awesome, too. Something new and different. Yeah. I again, I wonder, like the typical translation methods live is you have someone else listening, and then they translate or it’s like you stop, they say something, and then you go back and forth.
296 00:50:06.920 ⇒ 00:50:14.009 Uttam Kumaran: There may be some way to do that more creatively. Using some sort of AI or
297 00:50:14.380 ⇒ 00:50:35.839 Uttam Kumaran: again, I don’t know. Maybe having them like, listen to a headset while you’re talking, and it’s like translating that, I think has to be more creative. But again, if you have assets the one thing I think, that these technologies really help with now is making it so much cheaper to do that translation and do really really great translations where it maintains the tone and and inflection your voice
298 00:50:36.040 ⇒ 00:50:38.349 Uttam Kumaran: and then can also do subtitles.
299 00:50:38.540 ⇒ 00:50:51.189 Uttam Kumaran: For again, really, really cheap where you don’t need a translator, you don’t need someone to go do that transcription. So maybe that’s again, as you mentioned, like a good stepping stone. I’m happy to send that software over again. I’ve just been looking at a couple
300 00:50:51.200 ⇒ 00:51:19.789 Uttam Kumaran: cause. That’s just like what II spent a lot of time reading about for clients, so I’ll I’ll send a couple of those over again, I think, to be able to actually produce all those assets across, you know, maybe the top 50 languages, and then just have. So maybe while you’re doing it.
301 00:51:19.790 ⇒ 00:51:32.469 Uttam Kumaran: folks can watch in their native language. or just some sort of like collaborative thing. Yeah, that’s really great, you know. I think that’s the one thing when I saw some of these technologies in the last few months. But I’m like, Wow.
302 00:51:32.550 ⇒ 00:51:46.200 Uttam Kumaran: you could really translate a lot of what we do in English, I think, to any language. Now, the nice thing is, these folks are doing it for languages that it’s really hard to get translators from, for you know, and it would be expensive. Yeah. So I’ll share some of those for sure.
303 00:51:46.500 ⇒ 00:52:02.659 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, that’d be awesome. Yeah, you know. How many years have I been? When we first thought about artificial intelligence? That was when that’s why. So 25 years ago, I remember sitting with our agency, and they were pitching this because they’re like
304 00:52:02.700 ⇒ 00:52:19.450 Uttam Kumaran: people believe it’s coming. And we talked about. And of course the budget was crazy to do it and and so we never did it. And then, years later, they came back again and did the cause. I was in the dental space, they said. Just imagine your equipment.
305 00:52:19.450 ⇒ 00:52:39.980 Uttam Kumaran: You could show your equipment in a dental room. Give them an idea of this and that like, oh, that’s not gonna work with these things, you know, in my industry that is like the future is here. It’s just not like widely distributed, you know. That’s what I hear a lot about. And so a lot of these tools
306 00:52:39.980 ⇒ 00:52:50.279 Uttam Kumaran: are totally available. I think it’s just finding they, it’s tools that are available. They just define the used case. And I think this is like a perfect example, even in even in the the
307 00:52:50.540 ⇒ 00:53:19.020 Uttam Kumaran: cataloging idea, there’s a bunch of opportunities to use like, for example. I just I have. I have bought a bunch of plants from my apartment, and I wanna like track them. So I installed like this app that helped you take a picture of the plant, and then it tells you like, how long, how much the water and stuff like that. And that’s a perfect way of using some of the computer vision to just say, like, Take a picture of your clothing. Item, the least things we could do is get the type of clothing the color, and then, better yet, if we see a brand or something, maybe we can get the brand
308 00:53:19.420 ⇒ 00:53:25.069 Uttam Kumaran: and look like any anything about that. And so those are, I think, really great ways of layering on
309 00:53:25.310 ⇒ 00:53:32.049 Uttam Kumaran: making, starting with an experience. It’s like bare bones. You take a picture, you fill out the forms for an average piece of clothing that takes
310 00:53:32.200 ⇒ 00:53:58.739 Uttam Kumaran: maybe 30 s. How do we get that at 5 s? Then that’s the engineering of like, let’s whittle down, you know. Correct? Yeah, correct. And then the best thing is, if you slap AI on it, maybe you can sell it for a bunch of money. So you know, II think it’s enticing enough for for it to be recognized as yes, that has multi fold functionality
311 00:53:58.830 ⇒ 00:54:13.719 Uttam Kumaran: and does have a return on investment. Yes, for everyone who is involved in that whole flow. Yeah. And again, I think, what you mentioned about hey? You. Maybe for this market, you maybe will gather 20 to 30% of the value of some of these items.
312 00:54:13.730 ⇒ 00:54:22.050 Uttam Kumaran: That’s a lot, you know. And I think people are much more open to not only doing that, but people are doing that without any understanding of what they can get.
313 00:54:22.330 ⇒ 00:54:40.300 Uttam Kumaran: And if you can provide that for them. I think that’s amazing. And again, as you get the demand side for that resale market, anyone on the other side who needs that demand is gonna pick up the phone. So I think a lot of partnership opportunities and things you could do. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. II quickly
314 00:54:40.940 ⇒ 00:54:48.510 Uttam Kumaran: like to look at where the industry dollars and cents are trends are going. And again, once I do get to that.
315 00:54:48.730 ⇒ 00:55:08.580 Uttam Kumaran: you know, it is absolutely crazy with what the dollar amount is. And just I mean Plato’s closet. For goodness sakes! When I came online, I remember, like who’s gonna go shop there and then all of a sudden my daughter was saying, oh, we go there. We wanted to pick something, you know, quick and easy. I’ll like costumes, which is another thing, you know. And and there’s just so many
316 00:55:08.620 ⇒ 00:55:18.669 Uttam Kumaran: things. You can slice this in a different way. Yeah, you know, you can also do the 82 rule, you can do a 7 30 rule of who you’re going, you know, towards to appeal to that market.
317 00:55:18.720 ⇒ 00:55:31.689 Uttam Kumaran: And things just have lots of links. You just need to. I would like to take a look at a few and say, Is this flyable and and then test pilot it, and, you know.
318 00:55:31.830 ⇒ 00:55:36.630 Uttam Kumaran: have a social media craze about it. Yeah.
319 00:55:36.900 ⇒ 00:55:38.799 Uttam Kumaran: awesome. Alright. So
320 00:55:39.440 ⇒ 00:55:44.150 yeah. So if you could just think about what we talk
321 00:55:46.230 ⇒ 00:55:48.160 Uttam Kumaran: to Belle Moore
322 00:55:48.410 ⇒ 00:56:03.350 and and say, you know, here’s the way to from your standpoint we can work together to to attack it, and you know, give me a quote, etc. For time, that you know, cause I know everything takes time to do.
323 00:56:03.350 ⇒ 00:56:19.510 Uttam Kumaran: and your time, etc., is valuable, just like all of ours. But the opportunities are there, and you never know if it goes up. I’m sure that there’s arrangements that we can all share in the goodness of what we do. No, I really appreciate again. Thank you so much for that time. I love, I love this conversation. I’m I
324 00:56:19.640 ⇒ 00:56:32.749 Uttam Kumaran: as I thought, as I finally, in the last few years, like made more money. I’m spending more on like clothing, and I think a lot about I think a lot about, especially after I worked a lot of designers a lot of my life. Now I think about colors and clothing and
325 00:56:32.820 ⇒ 00:56:41.190 Uttam Kumaran: I think there’s a huge market, especially given like how fast trends are moving and the impact of like Tiktok shop. Tamu, like all these
326 00:56:41.390 ⇒ 00:57:04.130 Uttam Kumaran: things, and kind of like seeing that like a lot of people like, I think Jen Alpha is going back to Malls, and like some people, are not going to want like. There’s all these changes happening, especially in in clothing, and I think a lot of the trends that you mentioned are like super viable for a product like this. And I think again, the best route that I’m gonna propose is I’m gonna talk to Yvonne hopefully today
327 00:57:04.130 ⇒ 00:57:15.849 Uttam Kumaran: and mentioned that you know, there’s an opportunity here, and we can kind of put together a little bit of a scope of hey? If we took the next 4 weeks and these 5 flows, what are the conference we can get to that. We can get a prototype for this
328 00:57:15.950 ⇒ 00:57:41.170 Uttam Kumaran: and then on the other 2, on the other 2 ideas, the collectibles. I’ll send you a couple of links to, and I’ll I’ll talk to one of my friends who works in that nft space about who are the best providers for maybe this sort of like online arrangement. And then on the last idea, I’ll send you some of the interesting translation things that one is is really brand new. So we’ll, we could see what we could do there. So
329 00:57:41.170 ⇒ 00:58:09.219 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, but yeah, I would love to try it, because we have school contracts. And so, you know, to add in this extra layer and give an added value, would be tremendous, because you know what we do is that we always say we can touch a few lives in our classroom that gives these kids confidence. And then integrate with larger group, which is really hard today. And you know, going to school in fourth, fifth, sixth grades.
330 00:58:09.220 ⇒ 00:58:17.640 Uttam Kumaran: That would be just fantastic. And I think that’s cool. Yeah, okay, great. So I have 3 things, a couple of things to get back to you with. So I’ll send hopefully an email
331 00:58:17.680 ⇒ 00:58:32.090 Uttam Kumaran: today, or maybe early tomorrow. And then we can, I guess. Go ahead.
332 00:58:32.980 ⇒ 00:58:34.280 Uttam Kumaran: It’s been like
333 00:58:37.380 ⇒ 00:58:50.679 Uttam Kumaran: I’m happy to, you know. I’m happy to sense. I’ll hopefully try to get something to you. I have some meetings until this afternoon. and then I wanna give Ivana and some of my friends in like the nft sort of world a call
334 00:58:51.270 ⇒ 00:58:54.090 Uttam Kumaran: but I think we should try and hop back
335 00:58:54.380 ⇒ 00:58:57.080 Uttam Kumaran: on the phone next week.
336 00:58:57.340 ⇒ 00:59:03.340 Uttam Kumaran: if not. like Monday. I have time. or Monday or Tuesday.
337 00:59:07.450 ⇒ 00:59:15.239 Uttam Kumaran: Monday or Tuesday. What does your let’s go for Tuesday and Monday to be one of those foggy days.
338 00:59:16.060 ⇒ 00:59:19.500 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Tuesday.
339 00:59:19.600 ⇒ 00:59:25.700 Uttam Kumaran: honestly, what? At what time is it right now? Yeah. Tuesday at 11. Eastern would be perfect
340 00:59:26.120 ⇒ 00:59:28.269 Uttam Kumaran: perfect. Let’s do that.
341 00:59:29.650 ⇒ 00:59:32.000 Uttam Kumaran: and I can send. I can send that meeting over
342 00:59:32.380 ⇒ 00:59:34.850 Uttam Kumaran: Supervisor.
343 00:59:46.940 ⇒ 00:59:48.680 Uttam Kumaran: But and we’re home.
344 00:59:54.070 ⇒ 01:00:03.629 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, II have like 4 different calendars I’m like managing for like it’s it’s a nightmare. But I found a new calendar app that’s like really been helpful. I can see everything on one screen.
345 01:00:03.780 ⇒ 01:00:06.539 Uttam Kumaran: It’s been great. I yeah. It’s
346 01:00:06.600 ⇒ 01:00:08.079 Uttam Kumaran: tells me a lot.
347 01:00:08.150 ⇒ 01:00:29.609 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I don’t. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t.
348 01:00:29.990 ⇒ 01:00:36.200 Uttam Kumaran: It’s for iphone and for your Mac, but it’s just like a way better than Google Calendar.
349 01:00:36.470 ⇒ 01:00:52.849 Uttam Kumaran: and like you could tag stuff. And for me. I work with a lot of clients. So II want to start to measure like where my time is going like, how much is going to sales. How much is going to client work? How much is going to like company planning operation stuff? So it’s helping lot with that. So.
350 01:00:53.390 ⇒ 01:01:00.889 Uttam Kumaran: oh, very good. Yeah, I’ll look into that because I everyone needs a little organization, all of our calendars on different
351 01:01:01.170 ⇒ 01:01:09.340 devices. Yeah, good. Okay. Well, I appreciate the time. So I will. I’ll get back to you on a bunch of things, and then look forward to talking again on Tuesday
352 01:01:09.890 ⇒ 01:01:13.620 Uttam Kumaran: super. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Bye.
353 01:01:14.340 ⇒ 01:01:15.010 Uttam Kumaran: bye.
354 01:05:06.250 ⇒ 01:05:06.950 Uttam Kumaran: thank you.