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Jayshri

Jayshri is an Electronics Engineer, but her passion towards writing made her to be in this field. Apart from content writing, she loves reading, writing and surfing on various topics. In her free time, she likes to watch TV series and news. Sherlock Holmes is her all time favorite show. Jayshri loves cooking various Indian-western dishes.

Routific

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

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

About Routific

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

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

The backstory of foundation

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

The beginning

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

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

About Marc Kuo- Present CEO and Routific’s founder

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

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

Career

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

Educational Background

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

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

Bottom Line

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

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

Clubhouse

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

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

WHAT IS CLUBHOUSE?

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

CLUBHOUSE LAUNCH

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

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

HOW CLUBHOUSE GATHERED THE CUSTOMER BASE?

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

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

HOW CLUBHOUSE GROWN ITS REVENUE

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

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

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

MORE ABOUT FOUNDERS

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

BOTTOM LINE

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

tracing

Google to update Android phones with COVID-19 contact tracing System using Google Play- Two Tech giants Apple and Google’s initiative to assist in the fight against Coronavirus Pandemic

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Highlights

Apple and Google to work together and will develop a contact tracing tool related to COVID-19 tracking.

This COVID-19 Tracking System then will be available on Android phones by Google play service. But these updates will only available on android phones that use newer android versions starting from Android 6.0, Marshmallow, and other higher versions.

The first phase will be Bluetooth contact tracking which is an outline from next month.

Every industry, every individual is doing their best to fight the situation that arises due to deadly coronavirus. China, South Korea, Italy, and now America became the hotspot of the corona. The world economy is witnessing a downside. As well, the whole world is in lockdown mode. No doubt, the world is under the fear of coronavirus, yet many are working to ease the condition due to this global pandemic. Recently, two tech giants, Google and Apple take the initiative and announced to work together to help the health sector and government against COVID-19 fight.  Both firms announced that they started working on contact tracing technology that claimed to be helpful in the fight against COVID-19. While developing the technology the user privacy will be on top priority and all protections related to this are provided.

Google to update Android Phones For COVID-19 Tracing system

Now, Google gave confirmation regarding updating Android phones with the COVID-19 Tracing system. Google has collaborated with Apple to develop the COVID-19 Tracing System. As per the reports, Google to launch these updates on Android phones directly through Google Play. The company not only rolls out the updates but also will ensure that more android users will use it. However, these updates will be available on Android 6.0 and Marshmallow or above in the initial phase.

Today, after Google announced that Google Play will be used for this purpose. Thus, android users are relieved as Google Play is a feasible system available for getting software updates in a timely manner.

The update system will apply to both phases of Bluetooth Contact Tracing

As per the reports, these update systems will apply to both phases of the Bluetooth Contact Tracing Framework. The initial API rollout framework is due next month and the later stage is related to APIs. However, the second stage will arrive in the upcoming months.

Android Phones in China and Huawei phones could not update their system with COVID-19 Tracing S/M

Most of the android versions can update their systems with COVID-19 Tracing, but nothing is the same in the case of Android phones in China. Also, the Huawei Phone models that sold after the imposition of restriction by the US will boycott from these updates. Because after the US banned Huawei, its phones could not use Google Play, Youtube, and other services of Google.

However, for phones like Xiaomi and other Chinese manufactured phones, or we can say the government of China can decide whether to use this s/m or not that will be the framework by Google. As a matter of fact, this strategy is not new for Google. In 2019, Google used the same kind of strategy for its Project Mainline updates.

It’s a great initiative announced by Google in collaborating with Apple to work on contact tracing technology that claimed to be helpful in the fight against COVID-19. Hopefully, these updates would help to government and health officials in this global Coronavirus pandemic.

Intuit

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

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

How does Intuit Make it possible?

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

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

Further exploration of Intuit with an Acquisition strategy

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

Backstory of foundation

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

The person behind Intuit’s foundation- Scott David Cook

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

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

What services are offered by Intuit?

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

Current products

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

Awards and recognition

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

Skrill

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

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

From MoneyBookers to Skrill

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

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

Acquisition by Optimal Payments

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

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

Glimpse to Founder’s life

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

Benjamin Kullmann

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

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

Daniel Klein

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

Bottom Line

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

ProPay

ProPay Ultimate Payment Processing Platform for small to billion-dollar companies

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No matter what the size of any business is, money exchange is a part of it, though it can be manually or electronically. While choosing the medium for money exchange, any business searches for a platform that is reliable and easy to use.  When it comes to money, special care is needed. Thus, it is very obvious to rely on such a payment processing platform whose service feels safe. When any industry searches for money exchange setups, it demands some other factors. Such as flexibility, and versatility of the platform, and at most the robust process is considered.  In such a case, ProPay is a perfect platform that enables end-to-end payment solutions for all kinds of businesses. ProPay is active in this field for a long time and since then it is providing a service in the money exchange domain, that is easier, secure, and affordable.

About ProPay

It is an Orem-based financial firm, headquartered in Lehi, and belongs to TSYS as its fully own subsidiary. The firm is providing efficient payment solutions since 1997. Transfer of money, M-commerce, E-commerce, online payments, direct selling solutions, and reliability are main service areas covered by ProPay. Moreover, it is eminent in the payment business as one of the leading payment processors that provide services to various businesses. Regardless of size and type of business. That means, whether it is a billion-dollar firm, or any small organization, or small home-based business, ProPay meets the requirements of all of them.

A unique financial platform ProPay is based on its core values that are mostly related to promoting small size businesses by assisting them with robust payment processing.  As well, ProPay uses innovative technologies to improve the service as well as for risk management.

History

In 1997, ProPay is set up and in 3 years the firm started its first online virtual terminal. The company started Master Card, debit card program manager, and processor in 2003. Thereafter, in 2005, it launched a platform called SplitPay. ProPay shifts the focus on secure payment processing and adapted end-to-end encrypted processing. Later on, the firm enabled it’s best-known platform ProtectPay and ProFac.

Best platforms of ProtectPay- ProtectPay and ProFac Express

ProtectPay and ProFac Express are well-known platforms of ProPay. In fact, ProPay is one of the payment solution providers that provide ProtectPay. This platform offers software integrators, SaaS providers, and payment facilitators. Additionally, it comes with all other necessary tools for payment processing implementation.

While other platforms called ProFac Express to assist in underwriting, instant boarding, and processing solutions. No doubt, ProPay has vast experience in the financial industry that becomes helpful to provide more secure payment solutions for clients. ProPay is one of the firms that help them succeed with innovative payment processing solutions.

Awards and Achievements

Since its foundations, ProPay is rising continually along with helping other businesses to succeed. Today, ProPay’s name is taken as one of the trustworthy payment processors globally. The firm has also been honored with several awards that raised the bar of the company in the financial industry. In 2013, ProPay was recognized as Top Online Payment Service Provider. 2009 and 2010 was a memorable year for the company as it received several awards in these years. ProPay awarded as Electronic Transactions Association’s ISO of the Year, Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S., and ETA ISO of the Year in 2010. While in 2009, it named in 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America, Stoel Rives Utah Innovation Award winner, and awarded as Utah Genius Award.

In 2003, it honored as Direct Selling Association Partner of the Year.

The person behind ProPay’s revenue escalating policies- Gary Goodrich

Gary Goodrich steps into the shoes of ProPay’s CEO in 2000. ProPay was well-known for its strong products but several other factors lead to a shaky future of the company. In the year 2000, the company was facing problems related to high costs and little cash for its newly launched online merchant account. It leads to low revenue generation. After Gary became CEO of the company, he implemented the best policies for the company and put the ProPay on secure financial footing.

Under his policies, the company successfully acquired many private investors that raised the investment of the company. Also, he acted on all measures to increase the revenue generation of ProPay. In just two years, the firm became profitable and strengthens the value of the company in the financial industry.

Bottom Line

ProPay is adapting all required changes and improving the service with an innovative approach and the company is making progress. Presently, ProPay is reconnoitering the services to many other sectors. It is now offering the payment processing solution to accounting offices, small medicals, and other professional offices. The financial firm, ProPay is also admired for its fine work culture