Pitch Please

00:02.99
mike_flywheel
What's up everybody and welcome back. It's Mike from the pitch please podcast today. We're here with shov from Seleste they are smart glasses for people with vision loss. They're based out of Vancouver canada um today I'm also going to spend some time learning about Shubh's background with. Ah, next thirty six is a next 36 founder. Let's jump into it. You want to hear his pitch. Not mine so shove dive of a sin. What what you been up to man.

00:28.16
Shubh Mittal
Hi yeah, no thanks, great to be here. Um I'm working on Seleste. We're making smart glasses to give people's vision loss back their independence and freedom I've been interested in entrepreneurship since middle school I've done a couple startups and like grade 10 so at university. Ah, the biggest one by far is Seleste started about two years ago in ah in university who.

00:51.85
mike_flywheel
That's cool so you jumped into this right out of University I got a question actually even before that you're wearing glasses if we're on video and you can see this if you're on audio you're you're gonna know that chubs wearing some glasses are those part of this smart glasses for people with vision loss that you're wearing right now.

01:04.48
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, absolutely yeah, like we these are the glasses we've released So there are a lot of parallel bagats leads out there wearing our glasses right now.

01:13.43
mike_flywheel
Wow I'm liking that they're super fashionable So we'll talk about those more in a second. Um, but you jumped into this right out of University was there like you know you were an entrepreneur a couple other times. What are some of the things that you worked on before before Seleste.

01:27.70
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, well, um, initially in middle school when I got into this whole space I was really big into robotics and so I thought this is going to be the future I'm like I want to make robots for like every home I don't want to do like my own chores anymore I want like a robot to do that for me.

01:43.00
mike_flywheel
You know there's roomba now right.

01:43.51
Shubh Mittal
And so like mess around with these likes ruma. Yeah, now there's roomba so now that that's been solved um, little partially if I'm like let's get them to like fold the clothes and like do dishes and like just everything like you know what people like like Jetsons you know Jetsons have a robot like.

01:53.94
mike_flywheel
U.

02:00.36
mike_flywheel
Yeah.

02:03.56
Shubh Mittal
Im like yeah, let's make that a reality. Um, but like I hit my limit with like Lego Robot sets I did that I'm like okay I don't know how to get go from there but um, then I worked on actually in grade 10 I joined this like student club where we made blankets that turned into pillows. So he lift he is like the student club I was the quote unquote Cto I mean like the website and stop. But we literallyie hand sewed blank is together and like went out and sold them that was pretty fun experience as Well. Um, yeah now and.

02:31.22
mike_flywheel
So you've sort of always had this like entrepreneurial spirit to you like you liked tinkering especially on like physical things. It sounds like not just like ideas but like physical tactile things robots you're in glasses Now you meet a blanket that turns into a pillow so you've always sort of liked being it.

02:47.65
Shubh Mittal
Ah, ah hello.

02:50.71
mike_flywheel
Not even just an entrepreneur but an inventor it sounds like.

02:54.63
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, like the physical aspect was huge I mean I'm big into coding and software. But um I don't know that idea of like like you know iron man we get to be in a workshop and actually physically work on something that was very interesting to me.

03:05.50
mike_flywheel
So you want to be like the next Tony Stark you don't want to be like the next you know Unicorn Ceo the Toby the Zuckerberg you want to be like jedsons or or Tony Stark is like your vision.

03:21.84
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, absolutely no like iron men 1 is one of my top time like all favorite movies. Ah, just because of that idea. Yeah.

03:29.26
mike_flywheel
I Love it. So then um, help me understand the sequence of events you started Seleste then join next thirty six or you started next join next thirty six then started Seleste. How does that work.

03:37.79
Shubh Mittal
Yes I started Seleste about two years ago and next thirty six started in January this year so I came into the program with an idea already which is somewhat unusual I like the program is kind of designed to be a lot of times people come in without an idea and they build it. Some people come with an idea like me.

03:57.90
mike_flywheel
So so before we even dive into lasted. Can you just tell me more than like for anyone that's listening what is what is next 36 and and how do you is this 36 founders are you like 1 of 36 tell us a little bit about that.

03:57.45
Shubh Mittal
And then build it throughout. So yeah I search for.

04:08.48
Shubh Mittal
So yeah, I'm one of the 36 people that got selected I think with cofounders and everything became like 42 so not exactly fit to the name. But um, it's a canadian incubator and I think what they do. That's really special is focus on the person. Rather than the idea. So the whole concept is that 36 people enter the program they work with each other. They find co-funders within the program and start an idea and build it out throughout the six months and at the end of the month at the end of the program in August there's a big demo day. You pitch to. Ah, investors to a bunch of people and um, it just helps you kick off your idea and really they try and grow you as a person so they don't even honestly they don't even care about the idea you work on in the cohort in the program. You know like hopefully that works out but a lot of the companies that have come out of next thirty six. It's their second or third idea. That um, that they worked on that eventually blew up and made them successful.

05:06.86
mike_flywheel
So They focus on the individual growth and leadership and over time that should translate into what you're doing as a business and they connect you with resources. Um are so there's are they like learning is it like an education path like how how does it work and what are the criteria to get in if someone's curious. And and where did you land in the draft pick were you like 36 of 36 2 of 36 I'm curious.

05:27.83
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, so um, oh they didn't tell us those rankings that'd be that they dead but but there'll be rankings at the end so'll see at the end who who's where but um, no so the program is a lot of workshops and professors like the 2 people that co-founded the program.

05:33.40
mike_flywheel
Ah, okay.

05:46.96
Shubh Mittal
Ah, Reza Slau and aagaral. They're both Harvard professors. They're both like big entrepreneurs themselves and so they'll come and do classes which was a big reason I wanted to join the program like doing an Mba at Harvard was always just so interesting to me and this is basically ah ah, almost a mini version of that specifically on entrepreneurship where these. Amazing professors and successful entrepreneurs come and talk about their journey and um teach you how to be an entrepreneur and they tell you advice that is not obvious. It's not stuff that you normally hear like publicly or through other like platforms things like that and so I think that's what's special about the program like they keep it real. There. Honest and they're brutal and so the classes have been really really ah, interesting and fun and learned a lot.

06:34.18
mike_flywheel
What's been like to I like that you know they tell you some stuff that you haven't heard anywhere before so like can we hear one on the podcast like what's what's like 1 of your favorite like real talks that you've you've had at next thirty six that you think other people that are trying to be a founder or entrepreneur or.

06:39.30
Shubh Mittal
But.

06:49.44
mike_flywheel
Are already doing it should should hear. Okay.

06:52.36
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, okay, so so one of these things and this is you know a hot take is um when you're looking at Vcs investors. The number 1 thing that you care about is and it seems obvious but it it really is money and keeping control in a lot of um, vcs will go and say. Or providing you a ton of value in all these other spaces and that's true. You know they they have great advisors great mentors that stuff is amazing, but really no one knows more about the company than you and so the one like number 1 thing you want to get out of funding is really the money and maintain making sure you keep control of the company not letting someone who is spending. You know an hour a week or less decide where your business is going. Um, that should be decisions that are made by you and not letting like analysts who you know gets that a little bit of time looking into your company help like make decisions for what your company's doing when you're spending 8000 hours a week whatever work not every day like you know the best and so that was something interesting where these lot of funds talk about like the value they bring and obviously you know there is value but understanding like the context behind that was really interesting to the talk.

07:58.76
mike_flywheel
That makes sense so still. It's like hey take advice learn get input. But at the end of the day you're spending the most time on this so ride with confidence money is going to be an important piece. So don't don't overshadow the money and control aspect when you're you know, don't don't get. Don't get distracted by shiny objects like your mission's money. Um and control and continue to take all the learning and advice and connections because you'll get them through your Vc or funding rounds but you can get them all elsewhere as well. So interesting hot take I don't know I I've never personally raised so I can't say if I agree or disagree.

08:28.62
Shubh Mittal
Thank you.

08:36.92
mike_flywheel
Maybe we'll start a debate online about that. But I like it so that's the kind of stuff you guys talk about Um, so Seleste you said it's abnormal to come in with an idea. Um how did and you know we'll do more your pitch and the background of Seleste but maybe like. Where and how did that come to be because you sort of went from internships to wishing to be Tony Stark to looking me in the eye with some Tony Stark like glasses and then adopting your way into next thirty six where in that journey did Seleste come about. Was there something profound that like.

09:02.28
Shubh Mittal
Um.

09:12.00
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, well like you mentioned it what I started during University and so was really I was in class and this board and think about the future of technology I think everything I work on is I try and think like really really big picture. You know like robots for every home and like Ill just think of the future of technology and I thought.

09:12.11
mike_flywheel
Sparked this for you.

09:30.90
Shubh Mittal
Smart glasses just seems like the natural progression after phones like I think everyone's going to be using smart glasses after phones and it's going to be the new way to use technology and so I was just really excited about that space and so I started reading a lot of research papers and general smart glasses talking to researchers about smart glasses. I mean like made some of my own like is that you just like a the videos are a self audience. It's like an Android a giant led and like a mirror that's like really close to my eye and it's like trying to replicate my own pair of like air glasses. Um, and then I realized that the display technology for error glasses was just too early. And I wasn't going to be the one I don't have a ph d or anything that space I wasn't going to be the one to innovate there and so what I thought is let me look at another space where smart glasses are useful right now and I can like solve a problem with them right now and in the future once we do figure out this display technology I can go and make smart glasses for everybody. And so I was thinking about that and um I have a friend in university who's blind and he studies computer science with me and he's a much better programmer than I am so like I'd be complaining about assignments and things like that and he'd be complaining about going grocery shopping and getting from class to class and taking notes and all these things and I'm like.

10:44.55
mike_flywheel
Yeah.

10:46.79
Shubh Mittal
This is something that smart glasses can solve right now we don't need to display. We just need a camera mike and speaker and we can use Ai to help give him independence and like do these tasks on his own and so to start from there.

11:01.43
mike_flywheel
And are you a sole founder. Do you have cofounders. How big is your your team is this individual that sort of like inspired you um, part of part of Seleste.

11:12.95
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, he's a he's a very very close advisor to us. You eventually couldn't like work on start a full times like international student. There's all these ah issues that came up but I do have co-founders I initially started alone so I was alone for the first year of slus and then I brought on. Um. Ah, cofounder I brought him like interns to kind of help develop the software for doing so right now I have one co-founder his name sunu Choi. He's the cto. He's managingaging a lot of the tech it goes on ah to enable our glasses. We also have a team of. 1 other the developer and one of the person to help with a go-tomarket strategy and that person that's helping go to market strategy. He's actually previously heading sales strategy for 1 of our competitors also in smart classes and so that was amazing to have someone on the team that has experience in the industry.

12:01.80
mike_flywheel
That's solid and did you meet them and where the connections to next 36 okay

12:06.95
Shubh Mittal
No, this is all before 36 this is just me talking to friends in university to bring them on ah the per the sales ah director he was just someone I reached out to on Linkedin as an advisor just someone who could like give us advice and then he just liked what we're doing and. Ah, wanted to help out further. Thanks.

12:24.50
mike_flywheel
Wow How how um how hard was that process like finding this co-founder So like I assumed I guess I assumed you did it through next thirty six because it sounds like that's a part of it. But um, you know since you started solo some people start with someone you started solo and then went out seeking help.

12:31.61
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah.

12:40.60
mike_flywheel
Um, to to bring in how how was that was that hard. What worked best for you as you were kind of trying to decide who like I'm sure everyone was like yeah this idea sounds amazing or yeah, let me in so you probably had to make some decisions to keep people that like didn't make sense to be co-founders or help.

12:46.91
Shubh Mittal
Um, yeah.

12:57.79
mike_flywheel
You know, inspire people to jump into this like what was like the the learning and and doing that yourself.

13:03.54
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, no I mean it is tough I think it's a tough. Um, there weren't as many people like reaching out and being like hey let's let's do this together I guess I'm also kind of um, maybe a control freakance I didn't want to bring on somebody that didn't have like the same passion for what we're doing seem like vision for what this could be. Asme and also it's a huge commitment right? Like we're sure there's school but you're giving up your life to go work in the startup and even after university you're gonna go work unpaid for a little while like all these things you're giving up a lot and so I actually got super lucky where we had some grant funding. Where we could go and hire interns and so I did that and one of those interns is just a university student hiring other university students and so they're all just like people my as I goes is really close ah like easy to be friends with them and one of them was just incredibly smart. He was incredibly hardworking he um like. Build out the majority of the platform and he also really understood the vision he helped like I volunteer with paralympic athletes in Vancouver that are blind and so he came with me to volunteering things like that and so I brought him on as a co-founder like we need you full time on this. Um and he was able he was ready to commit. So.

14:17.33
mike_flywheel
That's Amazing. So You're obviously a little bit convincing as well and you inspired some people I Guess that's the part that maybe is harder right? Like if you've got big money and big numbers. It's like at the beginning when it's going to take lots of hard work and lots of sweat and not a lot of money. Not a lot of fame. It's harder to get people invested. They have to be passionate about what you're doing and so I guess naturally you find those that are equally passionate about what you're doing because it's going to take that Work. Um.

14:43.51
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, absolutely like we had somebody else reach out to now you're talking about it I remember we had someone else reach out to us who was this Microsoft engineer um and he wanted to help and like kind of be a co-founder but he's also like farther along like he was a manager now and he didn't want to code. Like himself like you wanted to outsource that and all these things and I'm like we're too early for that like you need to put in the work now and so even though he had this amazing experience. It just wouldn't be a fit.

15:08.92
mike_flywheel
Yeah, fair enough. Um, was there anyone like maybe it was Tony Stark I don't know man but was there anyone that inspired you to like be an inventor or be an entrepreneur like someone in your life someone external like what sort of.

15:14.84
Shubh Mittal
The thought that.

15:26.40
mike_flywheel
Was it just you tinkering and then 1 thing led to another was there someone that sort of you've always looked up to or inspired by Tony Stark or otherwise.

15:32.54
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, no I I mean honestly, definitely like the like Tony Stark um the classic like Steve jobsville gates ah things like I also watch like as like I watched a lot of anime as well. It's like seeing amazing like these people do amazing things. It just. Inspiring but um, no my my uncle is an entrepreneur and so my uncle started a company. Um, he's starting company initially in India he moved to America he built it out. He sold it for millions of dollars and he moved back to India and is now doing another startup and so.

16:08.97
Shubh Mittal
Whenever I go back to India I just like am glued to him like I talked to him I even now like I talked to him all the time asking him for advice I talk him about him to him about his like journey and again like he'll keep it real right? like he's family and so he tell me like the reality like the struggles of what he's done. We asked like deep questions and and so that was. Amazing to go talk to him like and like last time I visited India he brought me to all of like the talks that he did to like the you know influential people that he's met. He brought me to like a cool party where I met like some crazy entrepreneurs and people had done amazing things and so he's been a real inspiration as well.

16:44.32
mike_flywheel
Shout out shobs and uncle man like I think that's important like sometimes you need those role models or people that you can have very real conversations with I think like it's part of you in this podcast like I have conversations where like there's no specific outcome I'm trying to drive other than learning From. A bunch of crate founders that are at multiple stages of their journey. What got them here. What they'd advise others to do and hopefully someone can learn along the way Now. Let's talk about Seleste. Um I'm going to want your pitch in a second but like how did how did the name come up. How did you get to the name Seleste. It doesn't sound like glasses or. Smart Ar Glasses. So I Imagine there's some some backing or something that that came or maybe just whiteboard and a couple drinks and that's how you got there.

17:31.00
Shubh Mittal
Ah, yeah, yeah, well actually ah when I first started the company at Uvc it was called angel glasses that was the name of their own company and that was just because I was forced to come up with a name because I was filling.

17:35.52
mike_flywheel
Okay. And then you add someone in marketing and they're like dude horrible idea.

17:46.17
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, and i' like I don't want the word glasses in the name of the companies too. It used to be more abstract or whatever. Um, but I still like the idea of like angels and like heavenly and like big picture and celestial and things like that and so like the idea but like space stars So Seleste are less. Our company spelled slightly wrong is normally spelled the CELESteE. Um, but that's been taken and so but I like that name is um, it means heavenly in Latin celeste and so I Replaces C with an s and still sounds the same and I'll see as a name as well. But um.

18:23.17
mike_flywheel
Okay, okay, it makes sense I like this like ti to angels celestial start you know at least all you had to do was change the CdS some people have to like remove consonants add vowels iss like all this like you know, take you know you take the e out.

18:23.52
Shubh Mittal
Yes, that's how it came about.

18:34.53
Shubh Mittal
Yeah.

18:39.74
mike_flywheel
You make it a double E people just whiteboarding for days so cool to see how you got there. Let's learn a little bit more about Seleste. So um Shob this is the part of the the podcast where you know we want to hear from you so shob your pitch please.

18:43.58
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah.

18:54.18
Shubh Mittal
Great. So we're making smart glasses to help people with vision loss people with vision loss often face problems with day-to-day tasks that we take for granted like cooking or going grocery shopping or looking at an Amazon package. Ah, they often have to rely on other people for help with these tasks but that takes away their independence and freedom. We've made smart glasses with a camera mic and speaker that will use Ai so that you can walk into a restaurant pick up a menu and the glasses will read the menu to you. We also detect objects. We tell you about. People around you about your environment and more so that you can do tasks on your own and give back your independence. We also have video calling on the glasses you can call friends family or volunteers for help with more complex tasks and get help at any time.

19:46.87
mike_flywheel
That's that's super cool I'm getting some in my past World. You know I worked a little bit in hololens and mixed reality. So I'm getting some some flashbacks of some of those problem solvings I Want to learn a little bit more so your solution. Is hardware based but also software based so you sell Hardware Withd Software. They're independent of each other.. How does that work.

20:06.28
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, so we ship we ship you a pair of glasses. They connect to our cell phone like our mobile app they connect over Bluetooth and your hotspot and the magic of what we're doing is in the software like Michael funer and I are both computer scientists and so. Really the hardware. The idea with the hardware was just keeping it really simple and like dumb you know, like having the software and the phone do a lot of the heavy processing and do a lot of the hard work so we could have glasses that are thin that are affordable and that can last a long time.

20:36.91
mike_flywheel
Got it and so when you're talking make sure to keep keep me honest on this. So You said there's a camera a mic and speakers. So. There's no augmented reality in the lens. It's actually about these additional things that are just attached to glasses so they look like glasses but the glasses are just the interface with the world. And the interface with the individual but through Cameras mics and speakers right.

20:57.55
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, absolutely so it's it's audio based fully and so you interact with glasses either through the mic you can use voice assistant. There's buttons on the glasses and every all the output is through the speakers.

21:12.50
mike_flywheel
Got it? Um, how hard was that to build like you know you you talked about at the beginning like the Software. We'll get into that and and that makes sense but you know I don't talk to a lot of people building products I've had a couple on the on the show. Um, and the product journey is always way harder ah than people could ever Imagine. So a I Guess how did you do this and B um. Why I Guess did you decide you needed to equally build the hardware in the South Software simultaneously I Assume it's some aspect of things not existing but I want to hear your take on this.

21:50.82
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, absolutely no, that was that was a huge huge challenge I remember like and two years ago I'm like I want to build a smart glasses company. But again I'm just like a student very little money and like how am I going to do this and I think at some point it's really just this like confidence that's totally unwarranted of. Active building up smart glasses and it was just like like I took an arduino and started messing around with that attached a camera to it. That's pretty simple. There's a dev kit called an esp 3 yeah so arduino or and esp 32 they're both these small dev kits ah that you can connect higher through like.

22:18.00
mike_flywheel
What what's an arduino. What's an arduino.

22:27.66
mike_flywheel
Ah, okay.

22:30.20
Shubh Mittal
You living in like high school people teachers give to students to start getting to hardware a little bit and so there's this good entry way to hardware.

22:38.23
mike_flywheel
Okay, okay, that makes sense I just needed to I didn't know what it is I imagine someone else doesn't know what it is I never wanted to be Tony Stark well I kind of probably did but um, yeah so I used an arduino you started playing around and then poof you me glasses.

22:52.10
Shubh Mittal
So that what that dev with these devits. Let you do is create a proof of concept and so I did this and I could I was able to get a video stream working from a very like just a camera attached to the small Dev kit and so that's the core of what we're doing is just video on a small device. And streaming that to a computer or laptop phone things like that and so once I knew that was working then um I got some really good advice which was don't try and do the hardware yourself like we again I wanted to be a control v on it to do everything myself? Um, but I knew my specialty was in software inside. Went out and looked at people that were doing hardware. Um and just talk to them about what we're doing talked to them about the vision of what we wanted and they had experience in smart glasses and so I kind of tweaked the stuff that they've worked on already to fit our use case and we just went from there so I had hardware that was. Somewhat built already and this started integrating with that.

23:51.53
mike_flywheel
Got it and then so you do buy that hardware. You're like completely from scratch yourself. You have to have like a whole production process in place.

24:00.11
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, so there there's this whole production process and everything. But like said they've done it before it's just not like I have to go and find new chips or think won. Yeah exactly it's not hard for them to go and change a couple components but for everything else.

24:06.40
mike_flywheel
Okay, so you're able like append append and build on what they've kind of got.

24:18.23
Shubh Mittal
The same suppliers. They've been using for every for their other production and so it was just tweaking their production line.

24:25.73
mike_flywheel
That's cool I Actually like really like that you were able to find someone equally willing to to do that. Um, there was ah ah a recording. We did few weeks back um with the founder of a direct-to-consumer healthy dog food company called Cabo Um, and. They by necessity of what they do had to go build up distribution Kitchens Um, large scale fridges and freezers and one of the things that he shared was like entrepreneurs helping other entrepreneurs. He now has this capacity.

24:57.57
Shubh Mittal
Is a.

24:59.67
mike_flywheel
Um, then not every other person that's trying to create a food brand has like the distribution the freezers the fridges like he's able to go help others and he's doing then so it sounds like you met someone with a similar heart that wanted to say listen Like. We've got this product. You want to modify it and keep going yourself do that and then go build the software on it. So It's super Cool. So The hardware was tricky but you were fortunate that you did find something close that you're able to modify which is actually an amazing lesson in software and hardware which is if you can find something close.

25:18.40
Shubh Mittal
How.

25:32.37
mike_flywheel
It's easier to modify or build upon someone's work stop trying to do everything ourselves and so I love that you took that path to to get Seleste started.

25:39.70
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, Absolutely yeah and part of it was also just like makes it like the hardware is incredibly simple for I mean it's still smart glasses. It's still tough. But um, it is just camera my speaker and then having all the hard work being the software other then also be able to convince people that was only able to. Do that because we had I like go out and talk to people's vision loss and like get traction get presales and be like hey here's people actually want this and so I think that was the toughest part is it's hard to sell vision when you don't have any proof behind it so going out and getting the proof and getting the. You know, ah loi like letters of intent and whatever to show that like hey if we work together. There is something here.

26:17.68
mike_flywheel
So so maybe talk about that. So like the what what stage are you at and what were some of those initial beginnings to get you kind of rolling these letters of intent and sort of those initial initial days of of getting hardware and software in people's hands.

26:26.84
Shubh Mittal
Yeah.

26:35.24
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, well and this is huge even outside of you know manufacturers is just for myself like I'm not blind I'm fully sighted and so but I'm making a product for people that are blind and yeah I have my friend that's blind I actually have another uncle that is blind as well. But um, there's a different uncle but um. I am bying myself and so going out and just literally going on Facebook groups and messaging people who are who sight loss and just asking them to get on a call. The biggest thing I did was go out like find a volunteer group within Vancouver. So like I said I I volunteer with paralympic athletes in Vancouver and so every Sunday we go play sport called goal ball. And you have to put these headbands on so that everyone's at the same level site which is you can't see at all and you throw this ball that has bells inside of it on there's 2 nets on new side and 3 people defending it and it's just tuck of ball and you defend it with your body and try and like guess where it's going from the noise I played it before it's incredibly scary as also because I was playing with. Olympic athletes and I was just my first my first time but um, yeah, very very cool like I get to see um I also get to see them like people's vision loss in their element like the spatial awareness of being able to play this game is amazing. We want to know what are the people in the court are our the ball is things like that. Being able to see was absolutely amazing like when I played I was just cowering in a corner hoping like nothing hit me it just so scary but being able to interact with people with vision loss is huge and getting them to actually get presales for our glasses so we did was saying hey here's.

28:07.83
Shubh Mittal
Like understanding the problem and they were also very excited about smart glasses and this idea and I'm like okay I I want to go out and build this and I want to give this to you. Ah, but we need some like money now to like kind of go build this out like would you be able to give us an early deposit on the glasses so that we can go build it out and they were ah happy to do that And so.

28:25.80
mike_flywheel
So it's like a little bit of like a manual go fund me a little bit.

28:27.14
Shubh Mittal
Able to get. Yeah yeah, yeah, like I was think of doing a kickstarter but really is I'd have to talk to every single person anyways, who would be buying our glasses like each person is an hour hour long call like build a relationship with them and then they give us some money after they trust me and so. It was kind of yeah like a manual kickstarter.

28:48.75
mike_flywheel
That's that's amazing. Um, how many how many people have or are using your your smart glasses from Seleste today.

28:58.90
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, so right now we have 15 people that are using glasses. We're actually shipping out to another 12 people. Um this weekend and so this is the people who put the deposits down like months and months ago we're giving them the glasses. Um and is just you know, same perlim athletes.

29:03.26
mike_flywheel
Nice.

29:15.91
Shubh Mittal
But right now we're also we kind of limited it to 25 in our first round because again it's hardware. We don't ah, it's hard to build like a lot of it. We also want to make changes to it and so we limited to 25 our next round is ah in September we're going to leas the last 200 more people and continue to get feedback.

29:34.60
mike_flywheel
Wow! So this is like initial like feedback loop essentially like you're putting it into people's hands or I guess on their heads and it's your feedback loop of how does this work. How how is it work. Um, now you said that you know as people with vision impairment is it for like complete vision impairment partial for either.

29:49.20
Shubh Mittal
Yeah.

29:51.40
mike_flywheel
Um I guess it could work for either right? because you're just augmenting the physical world through audio I get and man so many questions. Wow Okay, just just di there Hey my brains just got all these questions ready to go.

29:57.30
Shubh Mittal
Um, yeah, no no wories. Yeah, so we're helping people that are ah legally blinded to completely blind and so legally blind means that you have a vision of twenty over two hundred after prescriptions. And 1 other interesting thing is people can actually go to an autometist and put in prescriptions into our glasses because some of them who are legally blinded do want prescriptions. Ah, but then we also help people that are completely buy no vision at all. So yeah.

30:25.21
mike_flywheel
Oh got it so you could use it but still enhance or just use it where it's just a fashion piece. But you're using the audio and spatial audio if you will.

30:35.80
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, like with prescriptions. It's great because it enhances your vision a little bit. But if you're still like at Starbucks you're trying to read the menu that's behind the counter. You can't do that and so that's where glasses come in.

30:47.91
mike_flywheel
That's fair. So so to maybe on that note the Starbucks behind the counter so like teach us a little bit about how the components and software work together and sort of those use cases of like what is or isn't capable with with the hardware and software that you've built today.

31:01.91
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, so we've um, what we do is we actually integrate with services like azure. That's a big part of what we're doing of we send. We have these cloud services where we will take a phone on the glasses and send it to the cloud and we'll either get back to text or the. Objects or the faces or the environment. Ah and then send that back to them through audio through the speakers. This also means that we can integrate with a lot of features really easily because we're not trying to reinvent the wheel with Ai you know we're going do a lot of things in Ai in the future. But right now is just finding these amazing services that exist and putting them onto our platform. So. Like two weeks ago somebody said they have troubling trouble ordering an uber because when they get to order an uber. They don't know which car to get into because they can't see and so what we did is found an existing model that will tell you the make and model of a car so now with the glasses and that took us one day to add to the glasses now with the glasses you can go outside. And I'll say like this is a ah white Nissan or 2013 white nissan whatever and you can know. Okay, this is the car I have to get into.

32:06.20
mike_flywheel
As you're using existing data models to train it on. You're just using hey how do you connect the data models with the image and response output and plug that into the glasses pretty quick so you're innovating like impressively fast by just leveraging a bunch of amazing footing. That's already been built.

32:22.36
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's a big part of the stage we're at right now like we call every person that's using glass every day like we're like hey can we get a 5 minute call once a day even if you don't use the glass that day. It's fine like let's just Alice talk and so that's been huge and we've been updating our app on average twice a week and so it's really just this.

32:28.88
mike_flywheel
Wow.

32:42.33
Shubh Mittal
Having this feedback loop and that's a big part of that was learning through next thirty six like that was advice. We got from udget directly is the biggest thing you need is this feedback loop and to iterate as fast as possible and so that became our goal.

32:54.50
mike_flywheel
That's ah, that's super impressive and it's so valuable right? You're getting these real time things. So I guess you're part of founders of Microsoft founders of I love it. Small shouts.

33:02.67
Shubh Mittal
We are we part of marketing. Um, that's been helpful I Agree's been ah expensive.

33:08.50
mike_flywheel
Yeah, small small shout out I love that I love that you're innovating on our on on the Microsoft platform and I obviously have a little bit of bias this is Mike the Mike The mike podcast and it's called pitch please. But I do work at microsoft so it's always a little bit good to see that love and see how companies are using this to to bring things to life. Um, now. Ah, can't help but think are there competitors in this in this space and if so like what does that landscape look like and what do you think is kind of making you sort of stand out and unique. You don't have to name drop them either. You don't have to give them free marketing. But if you want to you you can.

33:36.11
Shubh Mittal
Um, yeah, ah.

33:40.95
Shubh Mittal
No, that's okay, yeah, so there's just 2 main competitors. They're name the it's invision and orcam. They're also making smart glasses for people with vision loss. Um, one of them is using. They're working on top of Google glass and so they similarly will use Ai. Ah, to tell you what your surroundings the other one is a clip on that you put onto glasses. Well we're doing that's unique is one ah these companies either process on ah the glasses or they do it on the cloud which means on the glasses you can get a very quick response time. Ah, but you can only run simple ai models whereas on the cloud. Can run complex Ai models but takes like maybe 15 seconds to get a response because of the way we've set up our tech. We can actually run really complex Ai and do it incredibly quickly and just that opens up a lot of doors. It sounds like a simple concept but that opens up a lot of doors where we can now do things that are previously impossible like. Being able to map out an indoor space. This is like 1 of the kind of moonotshot things we're working on which is you can go to an airport and we can actually map out this building and then the next person that goes to the airport. We can give them directions inside of it and so there's things like that we can do because of the way we set it ver attack.

34:51.61
mike_flywheel
Wow So you're doing some element of onboard processing and Cloud processing probably with the mobile device and Cloud. Um, so that's a little bit of your secret sauce is the ability to provide big and complex and low-latency response times.

35:06.88
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, and the other very big thing is these competitors also the glasses for between 4 to $6000 and so the the market so far has been really targeting people that are like retired and have a ton of money or people that are covered by government grants.

35:09.11
mike_flywheel
Simultaneously.

35:25.83
Shubh Mittal
And not the majority of people with vision loss where there's a only 14.5 people ah in Canada with vision loss are employed as the employment rate for people's vision loss is 14.5% the explosion. Yeah, and so.

35:35.69
mike_flywheel
Wow Not the unemployment rate the employment rate.

35:42.92
Shubh Mittal
What a huge thing of what we're done is make smart glasses that are affordable and so we change our pricing structure where it's just $50 a month to get the glasses and so we kind of remove this huge upfront barrier to get glasses and it's just $50

35:51.88
mike_flywheel
Yeah, so your glasses with the software paired in a monthly subscription purchased like software. Yeah wow.

35:57.46
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, exactly yeah whenever we release New Hardware we'll give you that for free when it released you software you get that immediately And yeah.

36:06.68
mike_flywheel
That's that's amazing. So you've made it accessible as well. I was going to ask you your price sounds like you got there. So It's $50 a month that includes the software and the hardware I Assume some element over time you'll need to do hardware refreshes. Um, this is amazing stuff so that I guess that answers. Maybe it doesn't But how do you make money you make money in some way around the subscription but tell us a little bit about that and what your vision for for that is.

36:33.95
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, so on the consumer side is a subscription that's fifty a month. Um, and but we're also working with government subsidies and so these programs like an Alberta is something called a step program where they'll fund 80% of the technology for people's vision loss in Alberta. Ah, but these programs can't handle subscriptions cost and so for them we have this big one. Ah 1 time payment that they do upfront to get the glasses for people and so those are kind of our 2 models where we make money.

37:02.39
mike_flywheel
That That's super cool. Um, just can't help but think what like this has been a heck of a journey in a short period of time you're obviously doing some amazing work and you've already created like your own unique differentiator against others price Capability. What's been like the hardest part. Would you say so far. Yeah.

37:22.34
Shubh Mittal
Yeah I think the hardest part really is figuring out the tech um is we have these huge promises with smart glasses and all the things that they can do and actually getting them done especially like you know we're a startup. We have a small team and so it's just working super hard and ah. Making a product that's useful. But I think that's also a good problem to have for startups where we're pretty confident that once we figure it out and once we have a product that is useful. There are people waiting for it like we really believe that there's a market for this and I think that's been amazing throughout this journey is that we've been getting like some of the biggest players. In the game to help us on early on get like huge advisors like 1 of our advisors his name's Jenison he's the head of accessibility at Linkedin. It's very early on he. He's been helping us out. He's been actually paying for us to go to like conferences things like that and so we've had huge support and he himself is blind and so we've had huge support from these like people.

38:14.50
mike_flywheel
Wow.

38:19.30
Shubh Mittal
Globally that are really passionate. Want to see us ah build this out.

38:24.33
mike_flywheel
Yeah I can't help but think I'm going to have to introduce you to Ricardo Ricardo Wagner if you haven't already met him from the Microsoft team he works. Um, now in in Brazil but he yeah he was our accessibility. Um, lead and champion for Canada for a while and so he's super passionate about this space I can't help but think you should at least have a conversation with him so hardest part's been kind of getting the awareness out there. But you've got a lot of advocates and and friendships and partnerships along the way which is impressive. What's been your favorite part.

38:56.65
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, my favorite part is like recently now getting um these these calls these like 5 minute calls where I get to talk to people using glasses for sure. My favorite part like whenever I'm like tired from coding or whatever I just get to call somebody who's using glasses and they're like. Telling me whatever they use the glasses for that day and it's just so up lefttic like it's great. Having a product that's finally out into the market and hearing stories of people using it like there is somebody that said, um, you know he uses the glasses to read canned food and so before he letci just pick up a can and like shake it and try and tell by the feel. What's inside and now he can just simply read it. And so hearing stories like that every day has just been amazing.

39:36.18
mike_flywheel
Wow like you I don't know how big or if you have a marketing team yet but like the stories are writing themselves like these case studies and all these examples and you're talking to them every day for 5 minutes you must have so many amazing stories. Um, amazing work. Dude like what's what's sort of like the next.

39:41.10
Shubh Mittal
Shift. Yeah.

39:53.11
mike_flywheel
3 six months have in store for for Seleste. What are like areas where you know if there's someone listening that could bridge a connection to your point earlier those are like some amazing things bridge a connection or help what what sort of the next three or six months and what? what would you love people to help you out with.

40:08.57
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, absolutely so ah the next three months like I said in September we're releasing to a hundred people and so we're getting ready for that. We're getting the deposits again. Um, so we're gonna be releasing that and then the big goal is NOf2024 to have 1000 people on the subscription. And so in order to get there right now we're raising ah preeed funding and so everything we've done so far is been Boothstrap. We've had government grants things like that. But now we're actually raising 750 k and so we can talk to vcs investors impact funds things like that. But if they're people. In the vc space like investors that are interested in what we're doing or people who know someone that may be interested in investing that would be huge and yeah, that's a big part of it.

40:52.72
mike_flywheel
That's Awesome. Any um, any words of advice you know things you've learned through next 36 things you've learned through your own Journey. You know you went from being a University student to a founder. You're already making a huge impact I'm sure a lot of people you know are skeptical that you could do that or skeptical that they could do that. What are like some of your you know advice guidance or wisdom that you'd share with others either in your position or or kind of going on in a similar journey.

41:18.23
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, sure. Um, well this is actually something else I heard from next thirty six which by the way that's getting advice in the of itself like these accelerators are just amazing like there's an incredible community of people that are on this journey with you. It's really hard like normally as an entrepreneur you're alone, you're doing this stuff by yourself, but seeing other people. Like and struggling together has been great. Um, one of the big piece of advice again. This actually might be kind of controversial as well. Which is um, um, a j one said you're not a real company until you have product market fit like if you're not if you're not a product market fit. You're just you're not a company like you're not It's not real and that means. And we've been like guilty of this as well of like going to conferences getting you know, an amazing list of advisors getting like all these things that make you feel like you're running a startup. Um, they don't really matter until you actually have something that helps people until you're actually solving a problem with your like solution and so that's. Until you've done that that should be your number 1 thing like day and night should just be solve the problem and then go out and get bigger and market and do all these other important things you need to do but um, it's easy to get caught up in that world before before you're ready.

42:26.70
mike_flywheel
Yeah, so like some of that's like getting people to actually pay for what you're building validation. Um is there like a scale like an amount of people that are like.

42:29.41
Shubh Mittal
Yeah.

42:37.36
mike_flywheel
Ah, paying for your product that's considered like you've sort of found product Market fit because I think it's transient right? like product Market fit starts when people are actually willing to pay and you didn't know them before and they were willing to pay. But probably goes all the way to like how much of the tam is actually buying what you're using here and and willing to advocate. Is there like a defined spectrum that you've learned about.

42:56.89
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, because youre like the product Market fit is at different scale and I actually don't think it's I think it's very separated from money I think money is a good way to kind of test if you have product market fit but like we for example, got money before we even had a product and so that's more.

43:13.14
mike_flywheel
Mean.

43:13.42
Shubh Mittal
Problem market fit where we know there is a problem that people are willing to wait pay for it. But that doesn than mean our like solution our glasses necessarily solve it because they haven't even used it yet and we notice that now even they have paid for it. There are still a lot of things we're working on I don't think we're there yet. We've completely solved it and I think the true metric is if somebody loves. You're a solution and that means like if they especially this is useful in our case where if they like can't live without it anymore. They're like telling everybody else about it. They just it's made a huge impact on their life I think that's a product market fit and it's a different scale like our goal right now is just get 50 people that love it that like die hard they love it. They'll tell everyone about it's changed their lives. And that's really really hard. But that's a level of product market fit for us and then it's killing that to now a thousand people that love it and 10000 people love it and so on but just getting 50 people that love it right now. That's the goal.

44:04.37
mike_flywheel
It's amazing. I love what you're doing anything I can do to help you achieve that goal. You know, um, leverage me in any way shob it's been an amazing dialogue around Seleste and what you're doing. Ah. So inspired by how quickly you're making this happen right out of university some amazing life life lessons. You're already sharing with us from from next 36 any closing words on your side before you sort of wrap up today.

44:31.13
Shubh Mittal
No yeah I mean thank you for having me on here like Marks How has been a huge help for what we've done through azure and everything else and so is great meeting you on and screen being part of being able to say that was I was part of pitch please because I know a bunch of people that went through it ah before and so.

44:45.31
mike_flywheel
Well happy happy to have you on man I'm just happy to hear people's stories and and be able to share them and advocate them again if you tuned in. Thank you for joining pitch. Please if you know have an amazing startup like selester what they're doing make sure to send them my way I'd love to talk to them.

44:45.94
Shubh Mittal
Yeah, it's happy to be here.

45:01.43
mike_flywheel
Otherwise make sure to catch us on the next episode have a great day.