Your Tech Story

Founder

Holden-logo

James Alexander Holden – The founder of Holden which later on rises as a brand of Australia for Australians

Leave a Comment / Founder, Tech Story / By

During the era, when every single person in Australia was trying the luck in goldfields, some entrepreneurs grab this chance to do something new. James Alexander Holden is one of the businessmen who uses this opportunity and sets up Holden automobile. The South Australian company which shaped Australia in so many ways for a long time. Initially, it established as a saddle maker in the middle of the 19th century. As well, it rises as a brand of Australia for Australians.

However, by the end of the decade, the production of Holden boomed like nothing. Over 50 lakhs Holden’s were produced at this time, marking the name in the automobile industry.

Glimpse to founders life- James Alexander Holden

He was born on 1 April 1835 in Walsall. His father, Edward Holden was a well-reputed merchant in the business of hardware. James’ mother Elizabeth died when he was young. Thereafter, the relationship of father-son degraded resulting in enmity between them. In 1851, James’s father died and named the property to the stepmother and older brother of James.

James Alexander Holden
Image Source – motoring.com.au

Beginning of New life

After James’ father passed away, he decided to go to his mother’s home. Therefore, he flew to America, where he stayed at his mother’s sister. He spent some time there, learned new things, and again decided to go back to Australia. James Holden started living in South Australia, it was a newly formed colony at that time. During this period, more than half the population in South Australia was trying luck in goldfields.

Holden also tried luck in this field but he changed his focus on importing ironmongery with the help of his cousin Edwin Thomas Smith.

 Establishing J. A. Holden & Co

He set the business J. A. Holden & Co back in 1856. It was related to selling saddles, which are especially either locally made or imported. James also sells the saddles of his brother company. As well, he was the merchandise of whips and harness.

Evolutions in the business

In 1863, the company shifted to Gawler place. During this time, the policy of business expansion was somewhat changed. J. A. Holden & Co made a contract with the Overland Telegraph Line project. The contract was to supply carts other required components for 165 horses and 210 bullocks.

Thereafter, the firm became Holden and Briks as A. J. Briks became the partner in business.  This time, the firm owned the premised on Rundle street.

Partnership with Frost and Financial problems in James life

Later on, James became the partner with Frost who was in financial problems. In 1885, James sold J. A. Holden & Co to his son and the business partner Frost. The firm again renamed as Holden & Frost. In 1886 James declared insolvent. After this incident, he had to sell his property.

Personal life

During all this struggle, James decided to settle down with his landlady’s daughter in 1857. They buy a cottage in Beulah Park. Later on, they shifted at Magill. Because of financial problems and lots of up-downs in later life, James started drinking which complicated the situation of tuberculosis. The founder of J. A. Holden & Co. Died due to tuberculosis.

Holden in the Automotive industry

After the death of a partner, James’ son Henry purchased Frost’s equity and became the sole proprietor of the company. As well, after the death of father James holden, Henry decided to try luck in vehicle production. Initially, the company begins production unit for making car bodies for Chevrolet. In fact, Holden set the record and became the first Australian company to assemble bodies for Ford. The year 1924 was a golden year for the firm, it became the leading car bodies supplier in Australia.

Later success of the company

In 1948, Holden was a leading car supplier in Australia. During this time, it manufactured the first car in Australia, which is completely Australian. From the body to the engine, everything was produced in the country. It named FX 48-215. This model became the most successful in the history of Holden, giving the record-breaking sell.

The history of Holden is inspiring that bears lots of up-downs. However, the company managed to become a commercial leader. Later on, Holden’s modern designs like FJ Holden, FE, and 1958 FC become popular among Australians. Despite several ups and downs in business, Holden’s car will always be the first model, Made in Australia for Australia!

Li-Fi

Harald Hass- German Professor who coined the new Li-Fi technology

Leave a Comment / Founder, Inspiration, Product, Tech Story / By

Generally, we all know wired and wireless communication technologies because we all use it. For example, the telephones(the cable ones) as a wired communication device, and of course mobile as a wireless communication device. But like all fields, communication technology is also improvising day by day, many new inventions are there like Li-fi technology. It is introduced by Harald Hass for the first time in the world. Well, it is a form of wireless communication known as light fidelity technology.

In 2011, at TED global talk, Hass made the reference of visible light communication, and based on this he introduced the advanced Li-fi communication technology for the first time. After this, it became the center of attraction for many researchers and scientists. As well, Time Magazine listed the Li-fi technology in the list of Top 50 inventions of the year 2011.

About Li-Fi

Li-fi stands for Light Fidelity. It is the Optical Wireless communication’s derivative. In common language, we can say it as an advanced form of optical wireless communication. Light-emitting diodes are the center of this technology. The light emitted from these LEDs is used as a medium to deliver the network to mobile phones and enables high-speed communication. Similar to Wi-Fi, but Li-fi uses light as a medium.

A person who introduced Li-Fi for the first time- Harlad Hass

He is a German professor who is best known for many scientific types of research, Li-Fi is one of them. In fact, he has been credited for introducing li-fi for the first time. Presently, he is working at the University of Edinburgh as a professor in the field of mobile communication. However, he has a Ph.D. degree from the same University. As well, Hass is the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s fellow since 2017.

Career and Notable researches

He is a professor at the University of Edinburgh and director of life research center at the same university. Also, he contributed to establishing pureLiFi ltd where he is serving as a director and chief scientific officer.

Coming to his research field, Hass’s special area of research is wireless communications. Specifically in Hybrid optical wireless/RF communication, spatial modulation, optical wireless communication, and interference coordination in wireless networks. However, he coined Li-fi and spatial modulation, and among these researches, Li-fi became most popular.

In 2011, Li-fi was in the Time Magazine’s list of Top 50 inventions. As a matter of fact, Hass introduced the world about Li-fi in TED Global talk in 2011.

Contribution to promote Li-fi

In his TED talk, he represented Visible light communication, whose references found in history(Particularly 1880s duration). Base on this, he introduced Light fidelity, attributed to Li-Fi. He not only coined the term but also try to market it with setting up a company known as PureLiFi. Today, this firm is working to commercializing Li-fi products.

Awards and recognition

Harald Hass received many awards for his contribution to wireless communications. In 2015, for his Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, Hass received EURASIP Best Paper Award(Co-recipient). Also, he became co-recipient of the Jack Neubauer Memorial Award of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in the same year. EPSRC offered him Career Fellowship in the UK in 2012, it is one of the prestigious fellowships. Moreover, the University of Edinburgh honored him with Tam Dalyell Prize in 2013 for his contribution to engaging common people with science. Recently, EPSRC selected him as one of the RISE Leaders in the UK in 2014(RISE- Recognising Inspirational Scientists and Engineers).

Future of Li-fi technology

As of 2018, the Li-fi market had projected to deliver the 6 billion dollars per year. But till now the market is not developed as wi-fi. Because there are few limitations. Like as of now, it is not ideal for mobile communication purposes. However, Li-fi technology offers many advantages especially in electromagnetic sensitive areas. Like hospitals, nuclear power plants, aircraft cabins. Therefore, it can be turn out useful in the future.

Bottom Line

Harald is working on commercializing the product that uses Li-fi technology with his PureLiFi firm. As well, many scientists are working on this. It is just the beginning of Li-Fi, in the future it may get more advanced and scientists can find the solution to its restrictions. Also, we know that whenever any technology is new, there are some limitations and people take some time to accept it. But once it is accepted it becomes part of daily life. Hopefully, it will turn out useful for humans in the future.

Tadao Kashio

Tadao Kashio’s Journey to start Casio Computer

Leave a Comment / Founder, Tech Story / By

In the era of the 1970’s and ’80s, the only name that was in highlight for electronic devices was Casio. Scientific calculators, electronic musical instruments, digital watches, etc were majorly manufactured by this company. Even today, this is the most common name in the consumer electronics company. Almost 90% of engineering students use Casio calculators. And that’s how most of us know this name. Want to know more about the company and how it was founded? Read ahead to find out.

Casio Computer Co

Founded by Tadao Kashio in 1946, Casio Computer Co is a Japanese company that makes consumer electronics and commercial electronics products. It is currently headquartered in Shibuya, located in Tokyo (Japan). The products of this company include calculators, mobile phones, digital watches, music instruments. In 1957, this company introduced the world’s first entirely electric compact calculator. 

Founder Tadao Kashio 

Born in an ordinary family on November 26, 1917, Tadao had a rough childhood. He has seen the worst of the days in the early years of his life. But his condition did not hold him back from achieving academic excellence. Tadao was the best student in his class. He joined a company just after his school graduation, which recycled oil cans. Later he joined another company which used to make military medals for soldiers. He was working as a lathe operator and never failed to impress his managers with his skills. They encouraged him to take further education and asked him to take admission into Waseda’s worker’s school (Currently, Waseda University). He got a chance to enrich his professional knowledge there.

Later he took up a few jobs and demonstrated his excellence and continued to impress his managers. After getting experience in various fields, he started making pots, bicycle generator lamps, and pans. He gained a lot of popularity in his locality because of which he started getting some contracts for making various products.

 Starting own company 

In 1946, Japan was going through a major loss caused by world war II. After completing his graduation, Kashio started his own company to manufacture simple electrical relays. The company was called Kashio Seisakujo. It is commonly known as Casio in English speaking countries. He started this venture with his father, Shigeru, and three brothers – Kazuo, Toshio and Yukio. The first product of the company was the Yubiwa pipe which was a finger ringer to hold a cigarette. That product was celebrated by its users because it was giving comfort to them. During world war II, there was a lot of tension and stress in Japan and that’s why Cigarette usage increased, and the product went successful. 

Casio Computer

The first fully electrical product of the company was released in 1957, which was a compact electric calculator. His father was the president till 1960 and later Tadao became the president. With Tadao’s leadership, Casio became worldwide famous with products like digital watches cash registers liquid crystal display pocket televisions and other devices for business and private use. The company became a $2 billion-dollar global operation with thousands of employees worldwide.

In the 1980s, Casio’s affordable electronic instruments and its line of affordable home electronic musical keyboard instruments became very famous. With this, their wristwatches also got worldwide acceptance because they were one of the only digital and analog watches. Casio was the first company to manufacture watches that displayed timezones and temperature. Casio also made some contributions to the digital camera field.

Later Life                                

Tadao lived his entire life as the president of the company. In the history of Japan, he is one of the most celebrated industrialists because he founded that electric company when Japan was at the lowest point in the industrial area. His company emerged as a saviour. The boost in the Japanese economy was very evident.

Death

On 4th March 1993, Mr. Tadao died in Tokyo, Japan. The causes of his death were vague. The company was taken over by his brothers after his death. 

Bottom line

Casio is an outcome of tremendous efforts made by its founders even in the toughest time of their lives and countries. Currently, Casio sells ‘n’ types of calculators, watches, and other different products. The simple message from their story is, it is not the situation that determines your success, but your will power and hard work do.

Payza

The award-winning online platform of Payza has made money transfer much easier

Leave a Comment / Founder, Tech Story / By

The economy of every nation is trying to make most transactions online. This way the digital payment companies have grown so much in the past decade. Everyone aims towards a cashless economy, even for the smallest of transactions. The digitalization in the payment system helps it make it more transparent as well. Many online payment companies have come up in the last 20 years. The American and European markets acquire most of them. But, this does not necessarily mean that only the citizens of that particular nation can use for transactions. Many online payment platforms are spread worldwide and support international money transactions. Firoz Patel founded Payza, a digital payment service in 2012. His main goal was to target those groups of people who weren’t satisfied with the services of big payment companies. When a customer is already facing problems, then it is easy to lure them towards a different company. Payza offered its service in more than 190 countries and 21 currencies until the higher authorities ceased operations in 2018.

About the founder of Payza

Firoz went to Champlain Saint-Lambert and acquired his degree in Business Administration. He graduated in the year 1994. Firoz started his career by working in the sales department for a software company. In April 1999, he joined OnX Enterprise Solution where he worked for business development and consulting.

In 2004, Firoz founded AlertPay, an online platform for payments. He was the CEO of the company and left in 2012 to found Payza. Firoz was also a member of the Board of Directors of Ceptum AB. Currently, he is the CEO of Payza and Fintech Specialist at FP Consulting.

What is Payza?

To expand the economy of every nation and to tie everyone with the same thread of digitalization, Firoz came up with Payza. And, everyone should be a part of this global marketplace. People build different kinds of businesses and carry out a variety of trades. So, every customer doesn’t have the same need. And, Payza has grasped this idea and used it to its advantage.

To empower the local communities they should be connected to the biggest and the only marketplace. Exposing oneself internationally means more profit and more advantages. So, Payza provides local tools for the communities that can be used to carry out international payments. It helps out both the local customers as well as the cross-border merchants.

Who are the customers?

From a person with no business portfolio to a big cross-border trader, everyone is the customer of Payza. Payza provides its services to anyone willing to make an online transaction through its platform. The company provides a variety of options for accepting and making payments, transferring money internationally, and also exchange of funds. Many businesses use the platform of Payza for making payments. So, they can pay through credit cards, e-wallet, and cryptocurrencies as well.

The payment option by bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are especially for those locations where there is a shallow trend of credit cards. Because it becomes a problem for the cross-border transactions. Payza is trying its best to find other alternative methods as well. The customers of Payza also have Payza Card that enables to carry out transaction both online and offline.

A set of disadvantages 

But, there always lies both pros and cons to everything. Apart from the fact, that Payza is a very fast and efficient platform, it has certain disadvantages. The main flaw of the platform is the transfer fee is way too high. Before Payza came into the market, there already existed many gigantic companies. So, if Payza started demanding high charges, its survival will come at stake.

Payza also needs to take care of customer care and support. Because many people claim that their problems were not solved by the company. And, one fact about Payza that affects its reputation is false claims. When you visit the website, you can find the company providing free accounts, free invoicing, etc. But, when you reach the bottom of the page, it is mentioned that you have to pay fees for it.

Firoz Patel’s money laundering

The downfall of the company took place in March 2018. The DOJ claimed that the founder and his brother laundered a minimum of $250 million from the company. They used money in child pornography and many other illegal aspects. Police also accused him of committing tax fraud. Firoz was taken a fugitive in 2018 and next year he turned himself in. The company since then has remained inactive.

LINCOLN

LINCOLN COMPANY’S LUXURIOUS VEHICLES SPEAK FOR ITS ROYALTY

Leave a Comment / Founder, Tech Story / By

When the automobile industry started expanding, most of the companies aimed at making low-cost car designs. This was a revolution that started to make sure every people of the nation can afford one of them. For example, we know that Volkswagen started manufacturing Volkswagen Beetle which became famous as The People’s Car. But, many companies were also inclined towards producing luxury vehicles. Back in the early 1900s, the demand for personal luxury vehicles also existed. Some people loved the tinge of royalty that led to its mass production. Lincoln Motor Company, a division of the American automobile company, Ford specializes only on luxury vehicles. Henry M. Leland founded the company in August 1917 which gradually came under the acquisition of Ford.

Henry M. Leland

Henry is one of the most famous American automotive entrepreneurs who founded two major companies, Lincoln and Cadillac. He was born in 1843 and was the youngest among his eight siblings. Born into Vermont, Henry grew up in Barton. Later, he went to Brown & Sharpe Plant where he learned engineering and precision machining. His growing knowledge landed him a job in the firearms industry.

In the upcoming years, he served in many companies and also invented the electric barber clippers. In 1902, Henry started working for Ford. And, under his guidance, many changes were made in the engineering of its vehicles. Five years after founding Lincoln Motor Company, Henry was struggling to keep the company altogether and thus sold it to Ford. He sold Cadillac to General Motors.

Henry also took a very active part in politics to set his country free from corrupt politicians. He died on 26th March 1932.

What led to the founding of a new company?

Henry already founded Cadillac went to established Lincoln Motor Company. He came into a heated argument with William C. Durant, President of General Motors. So, he left the company in 1917 and planned to build a new company. He decided to name the company after Abraham Lincoln, as Henry cast his first-ever vote for him.

Henry founded the company with a capital investment of $10 million. He was focused on making Liberty V12 aircraft engines and he bought many parts from companies like Buick, Cadillac, and Packard. Due to World War I the production came to a halt. But, before it took place, the company produced 6,500 units of such engines.

After the acquisition by Ford Motor Company

Ford acquired the Lincoln Motor Company on 4th February 1922 for $8 million. Ford noticed that after General Motors bought Cadillac, they made an entire division for luxury cars. So, they did the same thing with Lincoln Motor Company and gave a tough competition to GM. Lincoln witnessed many changes after the acquisition.

In 1933, Lincoln became the first company to manufacture luxury vehicles with an exclusive V12 engine. The company introduced many models during this time. Some of them are Lincoln Model K (1931), Lincoln Zephyr (1940), Lincoln Continental (1948), etc. The company ended the production of Continental after producing 5,322 units. In the 1950s, Lincoln launched Continental Mark II as its model line. During this time, this model became the most expensive car in the automobile market in America.

The recession economy                     

Due to the global recession in the 1950s, Lincoln was forced to consolidate its model lineup to a single model line. Moreover, the model cycle of Lincoln witnessed an extension of nine years from three years. But, in the next decade, Ford decided to come up with a new model as the successor of Continental Mark II. So, in the last 1960s, Continental Mark III was released in the market.

During the 1980s, the company redesigned and launched the new Continental thus making it the lightest model in its history after World War II.

A new century

After entering the 21st century, the company ended the production of Mark series and started producing Navigator SUV. In 2006, the company released the redesigned Lincoln Zephyr which became the smallest sedan Lincoln ever produced. 2020 will witness a series of new models which includes Lincoln Aviator Black Label, Lincoln Corsair, Lincoln MKZ, and many more. The company has a very huge market in South Korea apart from introducing the Lincoln Navigator model. The company has stopped importing in Japan since 2016. Other markets where the company is available are Oman, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico, United States, etc.

Dwolla

Unstoppable Journey of Dwolla towards becoming an E-commerce platform for businesses building the future!

Leave a Comment / Founder, Story, Tech Story / By

Sometimes simple ideas give birth to game-changing businesses. Like a leading payment start-up Dwolla, based in Des Moines that is the product of a simple idea. The idea was related to money transfer. Founder thought it should be simple, speedy, and affordable to all, and as a result, they started a platform called Dwolla. Presently, it is the US’ only e-commerce Company, provides mobile payment networks and online payment systems.  It deals with moving money that is affordable yet, simple. Well, we know that dozens of platforms are available for money transfer. But, with the unique idea of Ben Milne and Shane Neuerburg, Dwolla stands out from others. Also, many other businesses chose and succeed with Dwolla as it is customer-centric and its several other features are just great. To take the progress further, recently on 30 March 2020, the firm appointed Brady Harris as a new CEO of the company.

About Founders of Dwolla

Any company is the product of ideas, dedication, and determination of founders. However, the further policies of them build a strong foundation for the company, and help in exploring the business. Dwolla is a perfect example of it. Its foundation is based on Ben Milne and Shane Neuerburg’s idea of moving money in a faster, simpler, and affordable way. In 2008, they set up Dwolla and made the money moving faster, simpler, and affordable than before.

Former CEO and co-founder: Ben Milne

He is the originator and CEO of the company. Under his policies, Dwolla raised a huge investment of approximately 22 million dollars for further exploration of the company. Ben helped to acquire investors like Union Square Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Also, under his tenure, Dwolla honored as one of the world’s “50 Most Innovative Companies of 2014” by Fast Company.

As well, Milne honored as one of Forbes’ “Disruptors of the Year”. Additionally, he has appeared on an annual 30 under 30 collections of Inc. Magazine, appeared on The TODAY Show, and Bloomberg TV. For his work, he named in the list, “Innovators Under 35” by MIT Technology Review in 2013.

Shane Neuerburg- CTO and Co-founder

In 2008, he helped in the establishment of Dwolla as well as served as CTO. Apart from that, he is the advisor at Safe Talpa from 2019. Coming to his education, he attended the University of North Dakota for studying computer science. Today the idea of Shane and his co-founder fellow Ben enabled the money transfer with very low transaction costs, faster service, and a feasible approach.  

Brady Harris- Present CEO

He has 20+ years of experience in leadership in the e-commerce sector. Earlier, Harris served at Payscape as a president.

The Backstory of Foundation

In 2008, it is set up and earlier the firm provided local services especially in Lowa. That time, only two employees handled all work of the firm. The actual start of Dwolla is considered in 2010 when it was launched in the US. Earlier, services provided to a few small banks, shops, and retailers. After one year, the firm acquired 20000 users and also, the number of employees increased to 15. Only in the first week afterward, it successfully processed 1 million dollars. 

Significance of Dwolla as an E-commerce platform

It is an e-commerce firm that provides services related to online and mobile payments. Its White label service is constituted of APIs and these are expanded to include instant bank authorizations. In 2011, Dwolla improved its service with Fisync integration and enabled instantaneous transactions which it discontinued in 2017. Also, it has eleven financial firms signed on that provide access to many potential customers (600000 approx).

Lowa based Government authorities use the Dwolla platform as payment methods. In fact, Dwolla is added to the systems of the US Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal for dealing with all kinds of electronics payments.

Controversy

Four years back, in 2016, Dwolla had been accused of inadequate security practices. CFPB charged Dwolla for data security-related issues. As per CFPB, Dwolla didn’t maintain adequate data security practices as mention on the company’s website.

Bottom Line

Despite all odds, Dwolla assisted many small to large businesses to achieve their goals. Also, the firm is known for its unique work method. As a matter of fact, you will never find the Dwolla team in one place. They believed in decentralization, and for that prefer building remote offices at various locations.

As per the idea of founders, the firm is successfully enabled the money transfer with lower transaction costs as compared to Credit card and other payment methods. However, it aims to make the platform more feasible for all kinds of a user in the coming years.