Pitch Please

00:01.80
mike_flywheel
What's up everybody. It's Mike we're back here on the pitch please podcast today I've got akshay from aview they are content management platform for creators and enterprises looking to monetize media with international audiences I'm excited to learn more about what they do. I'm also excited to learn more about the amazing entrepreneurial history here of akhay. But let's start with a quick introduction about yourself. Ak shay tell us a little bit about your role at a view and a bit of your background that kind of got you to where you are today.

00:29.70
Akshay
Yeah, awesome. Thanks Mike I appreciate the opportunity and happen to dig a little deeper into the backstory. It's it's a pretty unique one because this entire journey for myself. Didn't really start with this idea of business. It actually started with the idea of let's go to med school. And with a train of decisions which I'm sure we're going to get into later on things really diverted quite quickly but all of this really began in around grade eleven so I was 16 seventeen years old myself and my cofounder Garnett who actually lives just a few houses down from me. We so we grew up in a very small town called Ancaster just outside of Hamilton and we did everything together from playing sports to watching content creators together to hanging out on the weekends. It was just we just best buds and that started that relationship between us you started actually kindergarten. So even before this entire high school journey so he came to me one day and said you know what I want to start a company around the content creator space and I said to him but let's do it like I give me a break from this like science give me a break from this chemistry biology give me something fun to do. But I had absolutely no idea what business was I had no idea what accounting was no idea what any of that world was all I saw was okay I like to buy a ah bought a bunch of products from businesses. Maybe I can make some money who knows and with that hunch we decided to dig a little deeper.

02:03.77
Akshay
Into the markets that we loved in this case, the creator economy we were just coming off of this huge wave of vine creators who I just transitioned over to Youtube people like the David dobricks people like the lobe and the Jake Paul individuals like this and I said what happens if we work with them. Why can't we work with them and so based off this hunch. We started this very very simple subtitling service. Let's subtitle content for our favorite content creators people that we watch and just start providing with those providing them with this very simple opportunity and. Created a very cringy website even looking back at it today overly professional with all these guys with suit and ties and it was just yeah, not not the greatest. Um we the company at the time was called web translators international and it looked like some scam company. It was really funny. And then ah you know we started sending out Dms to them. We started mailing them like a one pager and brochures panphlets flyers anything then we realize okay, maybe what if we just send them an email so we thought okay I send them an email sent them an email next thing you know we're on a phone call with Logan Paul Logan loves what we're doing and says you know what I want I want to do this I want to try this out with you guys. So I was sitting in a room right across my house here in my bedroom just thinking what the heck is going on right now I'm on the phone with this guy.

03:37.10
Akshay
Wants to actually use our services. We do 3 videos for free next thing you know it. We've been working with him for about four four and a half years now ever since and been taking him globally along with many others but but yeah I mean that's that's just the high level that's that's the beginning of it all that was that was a starting point.

03:51.88
mike_flywheel
Okay, dude like this is a wild story okayll. So um, I'm Goingnna rewind I'm trying to like pick this apart because there's parts I want to learn about and I'm trying to figure out and I don't want to miss them. Okay, so you started you live in Ancaster so you're actually pretty close to me I'm in I'm in Burlington.

03:59.42
Akshay
Yeah.

04:07.70
Akshay
Oh nice. Okay.

04:09.77
mike_flywheel
But you started down a path of like medical school and health care and sciences. Ah did you finish that track by the way like did you go down that track all the way or like this pivotal moment of hanging out with your buddy from Kindergarten completely Shook shit up. And was a disruptive change moment in your life.

04:30.47
Akshay
That was exactly it So University applications had just ruled around I look at my brother. My brother went down the medical side went down the science side. My family comes from this very academic heavy focus. Everything is academics.

04:37.62
mike_flywheel
Um, yeah.

04:43.82
mike_flywheel
Got it you so you like if I roll back pre grade eleven there's zero zero friggin chance you were're gonna end up as an entrepreneur.

04:51.23
Akshay
0 like literally I was working at a neuroscience lab epic mastery university doing rna research and alzheimer's research extracting like parts of these these mice and then breaking it down and then sending it off for experiments that was my life.

05:08.88
mike_flywheel
Okay, and so your friend came to you like let's do some stuff and and you were getting hard pivot then you guys started exploring first I'm guessing that this like hard break in your path started happening.

05:09.54
Akshay
That was what I was doing every day. Let's do it? yeah.

05:18.70
Akshay
Yeah.

05:27.34
mike_flywheel
When you started gaining momentum right? So like before there your price still get very both but like that was like ah that was the pendulum swing for you was Jake Paul all right

05:32.13
Akshay
Um, even that's it yeah, these guys even to the very very end. Remember I was sitting in english class and at the time my high school was going over some renovations and so our english class was sitting in the auditorium. So here. We are a class about 20 in this ib class. My teacher is sitting at the front and I raise my hand I tell the teacher I don't know what to do I'm between this idea of business. Had applied to 1 business school and this idea of science because that's that's everything I knew that was my comfort zone that was my safe place and he just said to me just go literally go for a walk and think about it and think about where you see yourself and I feel like I think back to that moment and that honestly was one of the. Biggest deciding factors and understanding. What do I actually want to do not the plan that my family wants me to do completely not the plan that potentially the community wanted me to do not the plan that my friends wanted me to do but what do I genuinely want to do.

06:39.96
mike_flywheel
And and content was that right? like it sounds like that was a passion point. Regardless so you started like ideating where the gaps in content and at that moment the gap was transcription translation. Okay.

06:40.49
Akshay
That and that was the start of that.

06:51.27
Akshay
Um, that was it translations translations right? anything subtitling? yeah.

06:59.48
mike_flywheel
Got it? Um, so that got you started in entrepreneurship obviously sounds like it scaled up pretty quickly. Um, and I forget the name that you gave me because it's like 52 names what yeah okay like.

07:13.38
Akshay
Yeah, Web Web Translators international. Ah.

07:18.24
mike_flywheel
And like something from a movie like totally from like ah like some parody movie. Um, you're not called that anymore. Now you're a V and how far departed and we're going to talk about what your idea is now but how far departed from what you were doing.

07:20.10
Akshay
Um, it would yeah no no give you.

07:35.41
mike_flywheel
Web Translators international to a view like how much have you evolved and how long has that timeline been.

07:39.91
Akshay
Yeah, yeah, so you know from the evolution of it I think the only reason why it's become what it is today is because the market has evolved the pain points that we've discovered initially is truly no longer the weight the pain point that we have today and. I'll get into to that a little bit more in detail but long story short. We're realizing that it's not a lack of subtitling It's not a lack of translations anymore that was a 17 problem the lack of what's what's affecting the market right now is a lack of monetization globally, that's what's the problem. I can duve and translate as many videos as I want and post them on an english Youtube channel you think those are those that piece of content's going to track anyone probably not. But now what if I told you I can post that in the region that you're trying to target targeting brands that are operating within that region targeting advertisers targeting. And building a new community of viewers within that particular area. That's what a view is today. So there was a long gap I mean you know worked on it for 2 years in high school. Um, we're doing like but we're we're having a ball with this I mean we're like grade 11 grade 12 students doing 6 figures a year in revenue just

08:41.49
mike_flywheel
Interest tech.

08:58.35
Akshay
Just chilling I mean having a great time. We were like I was working on the company during school for most most of the day because.

09:02.16
mike_flywheel
It is literally a movie like you're like 2 like like young kids making 6 figures a year at web translations international like this is a movie.

09:17.54
Akshay
It was. It was definitely. You know, looking back at it I mean it it was it feels like something else I mean um, you know in the evenings both myself and garnet played high level hockey to so you know we we. Go to school we work on the business throughout school then we come home play hockey get some work done at who knows what time for for school and then wake up again in the morning and just repeat and that was our life for 2 years and then university rolled around and. Gone into my science schools I'd gotten into to queens for business and I had no idea what to do I was writing my ivy exams my parents drove to Kingston while I was writing my exams took a tour of the place and my mom was like you know what? dear this is the this is the best school you got to go to does he got check this place. This is amazing. My dad on the other hand was like I don't know about this whole business world. I think you know you go to mcmaster you go down the science path and I was caught in this in this crossroads and ruby really like affected everything I did I didn't know direction i't know where where to go out and what to do. But then just on this hunch of I can always come back to this love of science. But this opportunity of business may bring me somewhere else. Let's let's give this thing a try. So I went to business school. That's where that's where that whole journey begins. But.

10:41.32
mike_flywheel
Well I want to I want to talk about that because like you you made it sound relatively easy as you've described in a few words we've kind of picked this path but when you're young and in University and.

10:51.86
Akshay
Listen.

10:58.33
mike_flywheel
You know, maybe people want to even finish and circle back. But like how were what was like the thoughts going through your head and how you were sort of like weighing the pros and cons of that decision. You obviously said you can come back to this and you still went down a path. You just changed it to a business path versus science path and I know some people that have done that.

11:01.75
Akshay
Um, yeah.

11:11.40
Akshay
Um, if ah.

11:16.48
mike_flywheel
But we're like or the most challenging bits of that decision and obviously you know your family has an influence on that and I'm sure they're so very supportive of the path you've chosen now but you know like what's like advice to someone. Ah, that's there. It might be they're in University but like sometimes this isn't just like the.

11:25.90
Akshay
Yeah. Yeah.

11:34.51
mike_flywheel
This is like I leave your career type decision as well. Right? There's like emotional aspects to it and you're you're thinking about it. You're doubting yourself. You're trying to figure out if it's going to work like what were you going through and and what were some of the things that you would maybe impart onto others as as insights.

11:37.59
Akshay
Um.

11:46.92
Akshay
Um, you know what the more I think about it I I think about this here and there as well because I'm a type of person where I look back at the journey I've had and I think about the decisions that were made and and I think to myself if that decision had just. Lightly changed I don't know where I probably wouldn't be here today and when I think back to everything that's happened, especially that that crossroads I'll be honest I just decided to do what I felt was best for myself I think. We get so caught up especially in high school making that next transition that next stage of that life so much focused on on pressing others so much focused in on being afraid of taking on the next challenge being afraid of stepping outside of that comfort zone. But I thought to myself. What's the worst that could potentially happen here. What is the worst that can happen and when I thought about it that in that way I said the worst that could potentially happen is I leave queens and I come back to Mac and I do my undergraduate here back at home. And I was okay with that worst case, scenario I was prepared for that worst case, scenario I was ready for that worst case, scenario and I think that mindset helped me decide and take on that risk and I was very cognizant of the fact that.

13:13.90
Akshay
My peer group was all at home my family was all at home everything I knew was at home yet why not right? if there's a time to try something There's a time to do something different. It's now and I didn't go into business school thinking I was going to become an entrepreneur I went into business school thinking. Maybe I'll work at a big bank. Maybe I'll work as a consultant and I mean that transition was was horrible. I mean that first year of university was the lowest point of my life I mean it was by far one of the most challenging experiences I've ever had and I wanted to get out of there. So quickly and I realized that I was trying to conform myself to this standard of what the university wanted me to do and I was so focused in on pleasing other people so focused and on trying to fit in where I forgot who I was I forgot what I e liked I forgot what. I enjoy to do in life and so that summer things really changed quite substantially went back to university for my second and truly final year of school full time school with this new head on my shoulders and realizing I can't live in this mindset of. Fear that I'm not going to impress everyone. That's why I decided to kind of go back to that same mindset I had when I made that initial decision. So it was definitely quite quite the journey from that perspective. Um think something that taught me a lot about myself at the end of the day.

14:44.87
mike_flywheel
I like how you summed up, there's 2 elements that really stood out to me the first was this element of what's going to make you happy which I think that that one's not as revolutionary like people talk about that. But I think it's the act of actually sitting down to think through that. But the other is actually making that list of like what is the worst case alternative and for yours it was time really, there's an an element of time that you are going to have to double back on and you probably quantified it like oh what are you going to lose 3 years of time.

15:08.39
Akshay
Um.

15:22.90
mike_flywheel
And you're pretty early like you just won congratulations. That's actually how I came came to get here a young entrepreneur of the year award from league of innovators loi which means you're under thirty years old and you're killing it which man sounds like you've had an amazing story. But I think that's the piece you you.

15:30.29
Akshay
Um, thank you.

15:33.35
Akshay
Appreciate it.

15:38.92
mike_flywheel
Wade you weighed like how much time am I really risking here and you you went on to go do some great things. Let let's talk about those great things because it sounds like that's obviously some element of the foundation that helped you win this this top young entrepreneur of the year award. Um. But before we dive into that the show's called pitch. Please so Akshay. Let's hear your best pitch please.

16:00.90
Akshay
Of course, of course so co-founded a company called a vue international out of view. We help content creators in large media organizations monetize their content to new international audiences what we found is a lot of content creators are unable to tap into over 70% of the entire social media space. Leaving essentially millions of dollars of unanswered views and monetization revenue on the table we come in here and we built out a platform that streamlines the entire phase from content creation all the way down to the distribution of that content from the transcription translation voice over dubbing in your own voice. As well as censoring any culturally insignificant items within that transcript as well. So if I'm trying to post a piece of content and say India or the Middle East or in Japan or Korea there are certain things that may not translate properly will censor those to make sure that you don't. Protocole cancel yourself in those international markets and then we'll even go as far as managing that content to engage with your community to make sure that the community is being built to monetize that community so being able to do all of this pretty much Bootstrapped. We just ah, almost have class clothes. Closed our our fundraising round so we're kind of wrapping that up right now which we're really really excited about to continue to grow. We've completed the creative destruction labs program. We're 1 of 4 companies that graduated that in June and we had just graduated tech stars about a month ago

17:28.90
mike_flywheel
Wow congrats heavy hitters I want to unpack this more. So let's start with talking about the industry obviously content creation. There's tons of scenarios here. Can you talk to me a little bit about like the categories of services. Or solutions that exist servicing content creators that way we can start to formalize where you fit into that that mix.

17:53.98
Akshay
Yeah, so if you look at the creator economy and the opportunities within it, you can kind of divide it up into 3 buckets. So and the reason why I I did so much research into this is because prior to even a view I wanted to become a manager for content creators and I wanted to have this trifecta of of. Opportunities under your belt. So that's kind of what what I'll get into so number one is opportunities from a talent management perspective. So as a manager. What are the tools that you need to provide good service offerings for your talent roster. So if you look at a company like viral nation right now. Massive massive talent management company I mean there. They're really killing it right? You look at night media and what they're doing a Mr. beast these are organizations that have really redefined what it is to be a talent manager. They're building their own tools in-house to service these content creators from a financial perspective from a monetization perspective from a content creation perspective. So that's. Kind of bucket number 1 right now if you look at the other side you have the creates themselves right? So the creators themselves the tools that creators need in order to create content that performs well create content that conforms to what they believe in as values as missions as beliefs and so I mean that. That industry of itself. We're seeing anyone and everyone become a content creator. We're seeing people wake up in the morning with a couple hundred thousand views on Tiktok realizing. Oh this is a picture of me doing work. Why are people watching this right? and so you're seeing this huge rise of new creator culture.

19:29.92
Akshay
And then you have the third avenue which most people are focusing a lot of time on which is that brand and sponsorship opportunity side. That's what's funding a lot of these opportunities that's in essence why they're called influencers. It's because they can take their influence. They can monetize say. Brand deal and advertisement whatever it might be and share it with the masses and we're seeing more creators and more brands put in more money to the creator economy than they were putting into traditional media because now I can literally see that engagement I can track that metric I can see the conversions. Literally in it's in a way I believe that the greater economy is the next major celebrity push I think a lot of these individuals have already been able to break into it I mean we just saw with Aidan Ross and x qc getting paid more than Lebron James I mean in what world would we ever have imagined that. Right? And so we're seeing these things that are just unbelievable and I think we're going to start getting to a point where that money is going to continuously grow within this market as well.

20:38.64
mike_flywheel
That's cool so where where across those three does a view fit in or is it across a couple of those because you know you talked about the fact that you're helping people monetize in other markets and so is that like a management capability is that like a content creator capability.

20:52.00
Akshay
Um.

20:53.73
mike_flywheel
Is that a brand sponsorship capability help help us understand where Av fits in across those three spectrums.

20:56.87
Akshay
So when I look at the of you I want to say we're we're kind of a union of the 3 and the reason why I look at it from that perspective is because in essence we're a content management tool right? where we're a tool that managers major talent management. Organizations can literally just integrate directly into their their platform and we can power that entire international expansion and the reason why it taps into the other two is because we get those international brand deals for the creators I mean it's already hard enough to get now english north american brand deals. But now imagine trying to sweet the language and negotiate to ah a customer or brand deal and in Latin America in either brazilian portuguese or and in spanish or in hindi whatever might be and so we're able to do that. We're able to facilitate that conversation get that brand deal to actually happen. And at the end of the day as much as we're talent for you know content management platform. We're here to help the creators expand and that kind of is a true ah union of of why I believe we're in the we're in the 3 um, but I mean as the company evolves I can see us. Kind of more so emphasizing the push on the brand deal side and of course on the talent management side because that's where all the crates are funneling into anyways.

22:17.66
mike_flywheel
Got it. So let's talk about the creators for a bit here. Um this sounds like it's for famous people. Maybe it's not like what's the spectrum of what types of whether they be creators for certain channels like Youtube or podcasts or tiktoks like.

22:35.22
Akshay
Um, if a.

22:37.46
mike_flywheel
What distribution channels of creators. Do you support and what's sort of like the right size of who would even use. Um a solution I gave you.

22:43.83
Akshay
Yeah, when we first started the company. We did a lot of research into you know who are the creators that best fit this demographic of international expansion. We learned a few things is number 1 your creators need to have around. Ah, 100000 average views per video on Youtube right? That's that's really that sweet spot if they're coming off of Tiktok if they're coming off of Instagram if they're coming off of Facebook I mean that's great. But Youtube we have found that Youtube has 1 of the more loyal audiences audiences that are willing to buy in audiences that are willing to be part of that community. We're seeing that also with streaming platforms like Kik. We're seeing that with you know Youtube with the streaming side. The live sides seen that with Twitch and so that's another kind of angle that we're looking at it. But when we initially started this company. We also didn't expect it to be so versatile I mean sure there's a social media plate to this but there's also a major head tech play to this and so we're now starting to tap into udemy courses skillshare courses kajabi courses starting to build into courses where people are sharing knowledge in some capacity. But that knowledge is so centralized to 1 domestic market. What if I told you you can learn from one of the best software engineers from India or what if I told you you can learn quantum mechanics from someone in Argentina right? like its education is so widespread.

24:10.74
Akshay
We're now able to solve their pain point as well and that's just the beauty the versatility with our platform and so that's that's really where we see it. We see that corporate arm of that Ed Tech space of organizations that want to share their message. But then we also see this huge huge creator market that we're also able to push into and. Really becomes a bit of a no-brainer especially for both sides because you're literally getting this huge return for the matter of not much and upfront.

24:41.55
mike_flywheel
It's interesting. So um, talk me through a little bit about how it works. Obviously you've kind of said there's there's ah, an amount of momentum of relevance that that.

24:44.79
Akshay
P.

24:54.40
mike_flywheel
It's not really worth that if you've got you know a thousand or three thousand views of video you sort of need like some amount of momentum in market to have relevance in other international markets. Maybe that's a little bit different on the courses bit because it sounds like that's a slightly different space.

25:04.11
Akshay
That's it.

25:10.10
Akshay
Yeah.

25:12.60
mike_flywheel
But talk to me a little bit about how it works if you know say one day the pitch please podcast starts ripping over 100000 views of video I got to get videos on Youtube first instead of just being audio but let's let's say we fast forward to there. Um, what's what's the process look like how does this work.

25:22.27
Akshay
Um, yeah.

25:29.00
mike_flywheel
What does the content creator do versus not do what do you carry on talk us through it.

25:31.54
Akshay
Um, when we first started this we were so obsessed with this idea of optionality optionality being let's give them a hundred options as many options as possible and let them decide what they want. Have you ever been to a restaurant where there's like 4 pages of of meals you can decide from and it's like I came in craving this but now I have no idea what I want to eat. That's the problem that we found with a lot of these companies. That's the problem that we found with a lot of companies appealing to the creator economy and so when we are. Just about to deploy our first version. 1 of this platform I looked down my engineer looked at my designer said I don't like any of this I just isn't this doesn't work. This doesn't make sense and we literally restarted the entire flow process to where it is today where creators now they come onto our platform they log in or they sign up. Can sign up with Google or they can get like a unique email and then they literally integrate their social media channels from Youtube Instagram Tiktok Facebook whatever channels they're they're using and they select the regions of the world that they want to Target so if I want to target North America I can see cueba qua french I can see english I can see latin american spanish if I want to target europe I can see the languages there if I want to Target Asia I can see all the languages there and they literally just have to select the regions of the world. That's it automatically, we will create.

27:04.67
Akshay
All of the new International channels using their profile picture using their thumbnails using their descriptions using their about pages instantaneously. So now you have all your channels already made for you in exactly in the region of the world that you want that content relevant to.

27:14.92
mike_flywheel
And centrally managed.

27:23.67
Akshay
We can even get down to the dialect of the region you want to Target. So for instance, we had a customer come to us and say I want my content done in the african french african french I said okay, we'll make it happen. And that's what we did. So we're able to pinpoint down to the regions that were able to target that language once they complete that they literally Click Christy to dashboard they come onto our dashboard. They see all of the videos. They've uploaded everything all they need to do select the content click next and everything. Is in a toggle switch if they want to target that region. They can toggle it and click next and that's done.

28:04.69
mike_flywheel
So of ah I have a really stupid maybe naive question. Um as a content creator like as best practice say I have english content and I have ah a Youtube channel so technically is it a best practice to create a separate.

28:08.14
Akshay
Um, yeah.

28:17.78
Akshay
Um, this is.

28:22.13
mike_flywheel
Youtube channel and have separated views rather than the snowball effect or is there like some hierarchy lets me have my main page but these separated out pages for my Youtube channel and other regions like how does that work because I imagine if you you know your Youtube famous. You have 100000 subscribers in one channel.

28:31.92
Akshay
Is.

28:41.84
Akshay
Um.

28:42.00
mike_flywheel
Are you going to then manage a second channel or is there a bridging and where and how does your platform fit into that for anyone that's not like used to how this stuff works.

28:46.84
Akshay
Yeah, you know, really good question. Our goal is to create the new international channels for you and the reason why we believe that is the best solution is because you're not mixing communities. You're not mixing cultures the content that's going to be featured on. Your spanish channel will will appeal by the title. the description The thumbnail the metadata that is relevant to that audience versus a piece of content on a North american channel like american channel or canadian channel where we're seeing a particular thumbnail. We're seeing a particular title. We're seeing things that get me excited to want to watch this video but how am I able to get on the trending page in Canada with a spanish title unlikely right? And so we're able to build up back that new international community.

29:34.60
mike_flywheel
Interesting.

29:42.17
Akshay
But then the second and quite frankly, the most important reason about why we do this is because 1 video posted to 1 channel I get 1 brand deal now that one video posted to 5 different channels I can now get 5 additional brand names 5 new sponsorships. Now get add revenue that's coming in from multiple sources and for us sure it may not be the same amount of views you are going to get on your main channel from the get go but give it six months and you're going to be building up a new community of traction. You now do collaborations with individuals in that international setting. So you're essentially just duplicating your persona but now laying it out in all these new international markets for you to grow. We take care of all that yep, that's literally it.

30:24.20
mike_flywheel
So now the ongoing management of that is that an element of where you fit in like I just have to focus on uploading to my central page and it will cascade to all the other markets as part of a service with a view.

30:38.83
Akshay
That's literally it and and to even to the point where at the end of every month we do a profit sharing so whatever money comes into a view a percentage of it goes back to the creators percentage you go back the cra so as a creator, you're not only benefiting off of yourself, but's a community of creators right? We're all able to win collectively.

30:48.30
mike_flywheel
That's cool.

30:56.71
Akshay
And that's one of the biggest things that we've been wanting to do.

30:59.12
mike_flywheel
Um I love it So tell me about where you you actually make the money in that is this like a monthly service is annual service is it based on views. What how how does that piece work.

31:06.17
Akshay
Um, yeah, so there's a few different models that we have in place we have some that are set out for individual creators. We also have some that are set up for the talent management company. So talent management companies if they want to onboard all of their creators. We essentially license out our platform.

31:20.19
mike_flywheel
And that's like a viral nation I Guess got it.

31:22.50
Akshay
Here That'll be like like a viral nation style of a of a customer. Yeah, So we'd give them access to our entire platform. They can onboard all their creators. They'll pay us per creator like a monthly monthly fee and then what we like to do is we like to align our success. The creator Success. So As soon as rev revenue comes in from those international channels and starts to overtake what they would typically be paying us in in monthly rates. We completely get rid of the monthly fee and we just go right to refshare. So Now we're incentivized as well to keep that channel running or incentivized as well to get those brand deals to continuously come On. We have that alignment of success now on an individual creator level to get things started. We charge like a small monthly fee just to get the channel going. Get the channels made make sure that we're able to put some money into the channel as well to get the flywheel running and then similarly as soon as the channel starts making revenue waive all those fees and go right to a revenue share. So Now we'll only take revenue share on the international channels that we take care of if we don't touch the main Channel. We don't take any any of that revenue at all as long as it may International channels are growing or happy The creator's happy you all make a ton of money at to that. That's the cool.

32:33.10
mike_flywheel
That's cool I Love that you're like you've aligned the goals not only in the way where you transition from a monthly payment to a rev sharere because it will benefit you too. It helps you grow? Um, but the piece where as you grow, there's a profit share back to all of your customers. So there's like.

32:39.67
Akshay
Exactly.

32:48.60
mike_flywheel
This community feel to to the work that you're doing which is which is quite impressive now you don't have to name them but is there competitors in this space like how does this? How does this pan out and where do you see yourselves sort of making you've obviously got a first mover advantage.

32:59.50
Akshay
Um, yeah.

33:04.77
mike_flywheel
Um, but you know are there competitors starting to light up here and and what do you see as sort of your unique differentiators.

33:08.56
Akshay
So we're seeing a lot of competitors come up with this just evolution rise of Ai right with any market. We're seeing dubbing companies popping up or seeing translation companies popping up and for us as much as. I see them as competitors I also see them as a big compliment because we're building a lot of our tools in-house and it just means that we're making ways in Ai we can continuously better our own system which is what we're trying to do at the end of the day. But a lot of these companies are focused in on making money and not solving a problem which is fundamentally what we're not trying to do the money will come as you solve the problem and that's what's ingrained in our mindset is we solve the pain point for these creatives which is the lack of monetization and we're able to to grow the company. But these other organizations are focused too much in on is let's dub content. Let's send it back to the creator and let them have pay us whatever amount of money per month for that that doesn't actually solve anything because giving Logan Paul a dubbed video in Hindi is not going to solve his problems. But. Growing a community uploading that content for him managing that content interacting with the fans as well as finding brand deals that is what's going to bring him money exactly.

34:26.32
mike_flywheel
Yeah, he just doesn't have the time like you've also taken this time element off my Hands. You're like man I'm a content creator I want to create content I don't want to focus on managing 25000 different channels of where I have to go create that content. So you've outsourced that bit. Basically you've you've outsourced the international market for people that have single channel but very successful content creation which is which is super impressive is is ai I mean obviously from when you started to where we are now.

34:51.15
Akshay
By tip.

34:58.20
mike_flywheel
You were deep in the thick of it. So Ai you would have had access to this. But obviously it's more democratized now is this helping you um, accelerate faster or are all your models built custom anyway, so it hasn't really accelerated things.

35:05.13
Akshay
It's great. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? So it's It's Funny. We're building this big tech company and both myself and my co-founder and non technicaln right? I mean I never did anything of I mean hearing about my back story right? There is no Cs nothing like that.

35:24.98
mike_flywheel
Um, but you guys sure is how we're marketers are the web names you're coming up with.

35:29.83
Akshay
Ah, in fact, even our previous company before of you. Yeah I mean we had a big technical team supporting us and like a lot of tech stuff going on and so I I'm not very familiar with the whole Ai but got very familiar very comfortable with sure I may not be able to write a lot of code. But I can at a high level conceptual understand how these are moving how it's working and what we need to do as a company and I mean given a lot of our systems are are now being built in-house. It. It doesn't really bother us too much. In fact I think what we're we're likely going to do is just allow. Creators allow companies just to use our own tools if if they don't want the whole distribution. They just want to use our dubbing software go go for it if they want to use just our translation software go for it. Don't use our subttiling software go for it right now we're just that's that next step right? It's just giving them that tool set I mean even on the.

36:22.60
mike_flywheel
Yeah, so it's like buying this software buying the managed service depending how busy you are and how much you want to put in.

36:25.30
Akshay
Yeah, exactly and so just a compliment right to to what we're doing at the end of the day I mean we have to build them out of at you know, eventually might as well monetize it.

36:38.24
mike_flywheel
That's cool. What? um, what about this journey is sort of in your favorite Part. You know the most memorable experience in in that I don't know if it was maybe naming web translation Translators international or there's something else but like what's. But sort of like the standout moment that that is a highlight for you.

36:58.29
Akshay
So I think the the biggest kind of eye opener experience experience that I think about a lot is the failure that we had with our company between web translators in a view. It was about during the pandemic and.

37:12.70
mike_flywheel
And.

37:17.73
Akshay
It was the first time I realized that employees are people that rely on this company for everything they do I realized that we were dealing with a lot more stakeholders than we anticipated I realized that our impact was. More important than anything else that money can be made. But how you make that money is critical that was the mindset and that learning experience really shaped a lot of the decisions we make today realizing that there's a very. Easy ways to take advantage of people really easy ways to make money in a dishonest manner and I think that learning helped me shape how you make money today helped me shape the relationships I have with our customers make me shape the relationship we have with our suppliers with our investors. And if it wasn't for that I feel like I don't know if we would have the success that we have today out of you right? because it's very easy to to run for that dollar sign and forget about everything else in that path. But I think you know that entire journey of going up feeling like we were a million bucks and then hitting rock bottom and closing out the company I had to say that was probably the most rewarding tough journey but definitely the one that brought the most amount of insight to everything I do today. What's it.

38:43.34
mike_flywheel
Comeback story I love it. So um, maybe it's maybe it's paired with that but like what was sort of the the low light or the biggest you know. Challenge that you had to overcome. Maybe it was that one or maybe it's just like what was like the like you know there's always these stories that talk about the success and we talked about your awards you talked about Logan all everything sounds like it's like bomb dignity but like there's got to be.

39:08.70
Akshay
There.

39:12.47
mike_flywheel
Some challenges along the way and I think it's about having an honest conversation with other people considering entrepreneurship. What's what's that moment for you.

39:18.10
Akshay
You have to believe in yourself more than anyone else in the world if you can trust yourself and put all the chips in the world on yourself I feel like you'll have a lot of success I lost that touch. I lost the ability to trust myself I lost the ability to believe in myself I quite frankly, lost who I was during this journey and I thought that this was over I thought that this was just a dream I thought that nothing I do would result to any type of success and it and it was really. Devastating low point in my life I'm a big big mma fan I love the Ufc and Kamara Usman had just retained his title and he would grab the mic from Joe Rogan and he said the reason why I am the best in the world is not because I'm the strongest. But because of my mindset because of his mentality and I think about that moment so often so frequently that if you have the strongest mindset if you have a mindset that is impenetrable. There is nothing that can defeat you. There's nothing that can take you down. There's no mountain that can't be climbed. There's no task that can't be solved and I forgot that but I think about that moment and I think about that downfall.

40:42.60
Akshay
And if it wasn't for that downfall I don't think I would ever have that same mindset and that's a mindset that I wake up every morning with I can conquer this day. No one is going to reign on this day. No one is going to ruin what I have going. Having that full self-belief is where I think really shape the success of where I am today and the success of where we're headed as a company as well.

41:07.48
mike_flywheel
It's great perspective. Let's actually do that. Let's double down on that so where are you headed? What's the next year ahead look like for a view.

41:13.73
Akshay
So I think the the next the next year is going to consist of onboarding as many creators that we can potentially provide a value to talent management companies content creators brands really start that journey of scalability. Have the foundation built. We have the prospects there. We have the relationships available now it's time to start that scale now it's time to really exponentially grow and proof this model out that's that's our her. That's our focus is how can we every single day increase the amount of. Customers that are on this platform increase the amount of views that we're generating for our for our content creators increase the amount of communities built increase the amount of voices amplified. That's our that's our horizon. That's our goal from there the next few years after that is how do we now? scale this opportunity to now become. Primary distribution software for all things global all things international but before we can get there getting this under our belt making sure that we're able to scale effectively over the next year I leaves the next big goal.

42:27.61
mike_flywheel
That's impressive as part of that journey are there any aspects or things that av is looking for help from the community help from others like if there's someone out there that's listing that you know has the hey I want to help what what sort of that help. That you're looking for as part of this next twelve month journey to scale up.

42:45.42
Akshay
You know Mike when you and you mentioned you know, winning that award and and how I'm under 30 so I just turn 23 in September and so as a young entrepreneur I want to absorb as much knowledge as possible. I want to be able to take in as much information as possible I want to be able to if someone said what's the create I can answer that I can provide t to I find insight and so what we're looking for is broken down to 3 3 categories I say so all of our investmentorss is every mentor I say it's a really anyone number 1 is people who understand the creator economy I am always trying to learn more I'm always trying to get in front of more creators. Not even from a selling perspective but just from a recognition of I want to hear your story I want to hear your challenge I want to hear what gets you up in the morning. What keeps you up at night. So creators people who understand the creator economy. Number 2 is with the tech side I mean the world of Ai is involving the world of web 3 is evolving is a position that we can take in this so we are one of the earlier adopters into this process so that's at that's how second pace is how can we learn from a technology standpoint if what we're doing is the most efficient. Manner if there's other things we should be considering so on so forth and the third thing to me is more of a personal goal and myself my co-founders are quite out aligned on this It doesn't involve money doesn't involve company involves just building my entrepreneurial acumen.

44:18.50
Akshay
As a young entrepreneur. How can I be a better person. How can I create more impact. How can I do better. Overall what are list priorities. How can I organize my day. How can I time manage a more efficient manner. How can I break up my my day into. Different chunk. Whatever it might be how can I become a better entrepreneur from that standpoint listening to other founders founders have gone through this journey founders have succeeded founders that maybe thought to themselves I don't know if I can do this. I Want to hear that story I Want to be able to learn from them So those are the 3 main things that I'm looking for I would say.

44:58.63
mike_flywheel
I like the well-roundedness of it I think it's like noble and I mean if I can help in anyway, there's I'm not I'm not too important on the creator front. But maybe 1 day but there's a couple people that I know that would probably even be the right size to even take advantage of of a view.

45:14.99
Akshay
Appreciate it.

45:17.98
mike_flywheel
I mean actually curious question hundred just over a 100000 subs on Youtube is that like you said a hundred thousand views per video. But if you had a 100000 subs is that in the right range.

45:27.80
Akshay
Generating like I'd say 100000 subs like ballpark anywhere between 20 to thirty Thousand visa video is that rough roughly. So I mean it's not. It's it's definitely not bad. We can definitely work with that. So what we did and I haven't really focus too much on this is.

45:33.82
mike_flywheel
Okay.

45:44.31
Akshay
For creators that are up and coming so creators that are growing relatively quickly creators that are growing very fast on Youtube we provide a lot of just editing work for them as well because we have a technology built out. We can help you increase that that subscriber rate initially because if we believe that.

45:53.31
mike_flywheel
Oh.

46:02.65
Akshay
This is the next big creator. We're going to put the resources in right away to help grow that channel. So then we can help with the international expansion side. So it's something that we have available. It's more of a very selective thing because we work very closely with that creator to help them give them some capital to even help grow that Channel globally help them grow that channel.

46:03.96
mike_flywheel
Yeah, yeah.

46:21.65
Akshay
In the domestic park and and whatnot.

46:23.92
mike_flywheel
That's cool. Well at a minimum. Maybe the 3 of us can go grab a coffee and you'll at least pick his brain. Maybe it will make sense for him. Maybe it won't either way he's a cool dude and he lives local to us and we can go for a fun coffee and coffee drive. It's actually a car channel so he's obviously got it. He's obviously got a cool car.

46:27.30
Akshay
Um, we'll do it I'll be fun.

46:34.38
Akshay
Awesome! Oh sweet. Okay I love that I Love that.

46:41.31
mike_flywheel
Um, So so do I but we can go have some fun with that. Um, where can people find out more and we'll link everything in the description. But if you want to find out more to either sign up because they are of the right magnitude to leverage a view or they just want to maybe invest or whatever else you need. Where should people go.

46:58.77
Akshay
Um, yeah, so you can check me out like Linkedin is great I'm very pretty'm trying to get more active on that. Um I try to keep my community involved in updates as frequently as possible as to what we're doing next what we're building for the company side. If you want to check out the website of view I n t dot com. There's a waitlist page you can sign up, you can get started. We were app proving pretty quickly on on getting that flow going but outside of that we're also increasing our social media presence very very quickly. So I'm actually thinking about creating some content myself and so whether that's. Live streams through short form content wherever that might be so you'll catch that onto the of few Youtube channel or even my own socials on Linkedin or Instagram or whatnot.

47:46.94
mike_flywheel
That's cool, Super cool. Well your website's obviously way better than Web Translators International prop prop.

47:51.48
Akshay
I wouldn't even show you the web translator website. It's so bad. It's I made on wix and the picture of the about us page is myself my cofounder on a grade 12 prom that's that's the photo of us.

48:06.00
mike_flywheel
You know what? it just it just proves that it's actually about what you're solving and can you bring value. It's not about how it looks sometimes. So now I mean it helps if it looks good too. But um, actually any any parting words for our audience thoughts.

48:11.59
Akshay
Um, exactly that's it It helps helps a little bit exactly.

48:22.55
mike_flywheel
Um, you know you've shared a ton of great insights and value tonight that I'm sure many people are going to find interesting whether they're considering a a career pivot an educational pivot. You know, creating the right mindset bouncing back from failures you talked about a whole range of stuff and you're doing amazing work. Um, any final parting thoughts or words for people listening tonight.

48:42.63
Akshay
The only thing I'll say is don't sweat the small stuff. Um I think I'm I'm one of the mass when I say that I get way too obsessed over certain things and if it doesn't go that way and you get very upset and I kind of bring myself down very quickly. It's not worth it. Life goes on things keep moving forward as long as you're able to pick yourself back up and and keep that ball rolling. That's all that matters at the end of the day and as long as you're able to have that positive mindset and mindset that's Unpenetrable. You're aligned for a lot of Success. So I'll just I'll leave it at that.

49:15.27
mike_flywheel
I love it? Well thanks again. Actuallyy for coming congrats again on that award I can't wait to follow along I'm sure there's gonna be many others in your future at 23 you guys are killing it. Thanks everybody who tuned into the pitch please podcast if you are of that level of. Magnitude and popularity a maybe should come on the show b you should check out a view. But if not, you should hopefully take a few lessons away from this podcast and make sure to tune into the next one so have a great one. Thanks for tuning in a pitch please.