Arjun Kava - Co-founder and CEO - Video SDK

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[00:00:48] This is your front row siege to dive headfirst into their business pitches and stay updated with their business updates. Let's go! Video SDK.Live provides end-to-end solutions in real-time communication technology with solutions tailored for diverse sectors. They enable businesses to deliver immersive and interactive video experiences.

[00:01:11] Hi, welcome to Follow.us Startups. I'm your host, Ankitapawa. And today we are joined by Arjun Kawa, the co-founder and CEO at Video SDK.Live. Arjun's journey in the tech world began in high school

[00:01:23] and since then he has helped deep into various domains from compilers to real-time deep learning and video technology to now building Video SDK.Live. He's right here to talk to us about all the amazing work that he's been doing. Hi, Arjun. Welcome to Follow.us Startups.

[00:01:37] Thanks a lot, Ankitapawa, for having me. Really appreciate this and looking forward to it. Well, it's a delight to have you here, Arjun. So, before we talk business, Arjun, why don't you share a little bit about yourself? I'm sure our audience would love that as well.

[00:01:52] Sure. I'll start with my journey so far with the tech. So, when I started programming, I was in the 10th. I was much curious about how computer works and used to spend a lot in the computer labs.

[00:02:08] Almost like an equal to who I used to spend in the school. And that's how I got addicted to programming. Then after I decided to pursue computer science, I did a diploma first and then a Bachelor of Computer Science. And 2012, I got my first job as a developer.

[00:02:28] I used to write a lot of code in PHP programming language. Then after the journey was really, really exciting. I started working in a lot of startups, couple of bunch of companies, large link to the backend infrastructure side. Last seven to eight years for me is video tech.

[00:02:50] I've been in video tech including video encoding, live streaming and now 3L10 video. Thanks for sharing that. Video SDK Arjun is known for its diverse range of real-time communication solutions tailored for developers. So, could you walk us through what you provide and the tangible benefits

[00:03:10] that would be missed if video SDK.live wasn't there? So, we started with video SDK from the problem of that if anyone wanted to make their own tool for video communication, recordings, like you know, podcast recording for example, we are doing right away. Or something, right?

[00:03:32] Where they have to provide communication in their tool, in their application. But the problem is that it's really hard technology to build. It takes a lot of research, it takes a lot of developers. It's very hard to manage infrastructure, right?

[00:03:50] For developers technically and someone is building from scratch is very difficult. So, that's where we found the problem. Video SDK solves exactly that problem, right? It helps you with the SDK that you can build your own real-time video application. If you are building for education, for video KYC,

[00:04:12] if you are building for podcast recording or building for a live commerce site. Video SDK powers everything. Everything that developer wanted to build and wanted to have audio, video communication in that particular tool. So, beyond you said education and KYC, so beyond finance and tech and even medicine,

[00:04:36] could you shed some light on other industries that form a part of your target market as a whole? So, currently like you know, our primary target market, the first target market is the VFSI. Video KYC, video banking, right? A lot of other solutions, just a clean settlement.

[00:04:50] All these stuffs come under the, you know, under this solution only. After that, the second largest market for us is the healthcare. Mental wellness, like you know, mental health, telehealth specifically. Where in developed countries, you know, transportation is a big problem.

[00:05:08] So, how can we reduce that, you know, physical communication and make it virtual? Right? After that, industries like HR tech, interview as a service, auto proctoring, assessments, right? After that, education, online learning, doubt solving, after that, retail, live commerce, social retail, all the industry like it.

[00:05:32] Endless list of the industry, like you know, where video SDK can be used. Currently, our primary focus is like, you know, first large three industries, BFSI, healthcare and then the, you know, market like HR tech.

[00:05:46] So, can you share the names of some of your existing customers that might be benefiting from your services? Sure, sure. So, in the BFSI, like we are serving companies like ICSA, Prodential, we are service companies like, you know, Grow. We are serving companies like, you know, Digio, right?

[00:06:03] They are powering all the solutions, right? In the healthcare, we are serving the largest, you know, platform in Europe called Alan. They are the, like, you know, they are the by juice of there, right? One of the largest company specifically for the telehealth, mental wellness,

[00:06:22] enterprise, employee wellness programs. One of the largest company in the U.S.A. area called Okadok, they provide the hospital, they provide the infrastructure to hospital. They are our customer like, you know, one of the largest provider in North America called Examid, right?

[00:06:42] They provide online blood tests, they are like one MG of, you know, USA. They are 100% on us, right? With the solution. And a lot of companies like that, like, you know, companies like Slake, Kool, Omegle for Zimzi, they are powered by us, right? Companies like Judge Group, right?

[00:07:03] For the assessment of that interviews, staffing interviews online, they're powered by us specifically. So all the solutions are powered by us. Amazing. So we can say that video SDK is gaining the trust of millions of users.

[00:07:21] And it's clear that you are making a very substantial impact in the industry. So, you know, this being a very competitive landscape also, what would you say is your standout advantage that sets video SDK apart from others in the market? Sure.

[00:07:35] So see, me, you know, myself is a developer, right? So from understanding the point, pain of a developer, right? One thing is our major positioning and we want to solve one problem, which is developer experience at the end of the day. Right?

[00:07:53] So it has to be very easy. It has to be very precise. It has to be flexible. Builder should not have a hold point anywhere that I can't build. Like they have their own canvas. Then the limitation is only imagination for them, right?

[00:08:08] So this experience is USP for us, right? We care a lot about the developer ecosystem, their problems. We care a lot about the second thing we care a lot about is the experience, right?

[00:08:22] So our fundamental is we wanted to make our users and users more productive and more engaging. So whatever they are making, either if they are building a social application, it should be so engaging, right? That if you see them for an hour, they shouldn't feel boring.

[00:08:40] So that's an engagement. Like, you know, that we make sure it's always there, you know, with the solution. At the same time productivity, right? Like if someone is doing a video KYC, someone is taking a sales code, then they get insights,

[00:08:54] they get a whole workflow that is customizable and their work is less. Right? So for example, recording, like this interview is running, I recorded it, so the clips are generated automatically, the topics are segregated, summaries are created, right? And then you don't have to do nothing, right?

[00:09:12] So then you go to the workflow and take out one thing and you have to send it over, right? So we care a lot about this. How our developer can solve a mundane task of a customer, right?

[00:09:25] If it's a health care, if it's a BFSI or if it's any other industry, we provide it with tools that make their work very easy. For them, whatever can be done in a year, they can literally do it in couple of days, right?

[00:09:39] So that is something like our USP compared to anyone else in the market look like. Very well. So at what stage would you say your startup is currently? We are an early stage company, you can say we have, currently we are serving more than 300 customers in general,

[00:09:59] but if it be, we look, you can think of us as a post-BMF company, right? And jumping into the growth stage is the current stage look like. 300 customers for an early stage startup is a good number to begin with.

[00:10:17] So besides that, are there any business numbers or metrics that you are particularly proud of and would like to share with us? So we are currently serving more than 131 countries, right? So in these countries, our paid customers, it's not about the active customers at all

[00:10:35] or a premium customer, it's a paid customers that we hold. Like, and largest is like North America, second largest is the like, you know, APEC and then the Europe, right? So we're globally available, like, we are globally there.

[00:10:48] One of the major benchmark we did in the 2023 itself, right? K, our global infrastructure latency under 80ms, right? So someone joining from Singapore, another guy joining from maybe a China, third guy joining from North America,

[00:11:03] all of them will have a less than 80ms delay in the video view, right? Across the globe, right? So that's the proudest benchmark that we have. And we like, you know, I've posted this like, you know, over the, over the blog post as well, okay?

[00:11:17] Was to the Kutum Bukam, like, you know, that's our motto. So we wanted to make sure that the one world, one family, right? Everyone like under the one hood and there should not be any communication connection gaps, right? To that is something we did, like, you know,

[00:11:31] specifically in the whole 2023, right? And what those services to all of our customers, right? Large amount of our customers having a multi-country user base. To them, it's a big problem that someone has to connect from one country to another country, right?

[00:11:46] There are a lot of good tools available, like Zoom and Google Meet, right? But this is a proprietary tool. You can't use it under your application, right? That's why there is a limitation. And those are the, you know, high-end benchmark for us. For whole 2023, we are 99.99% uptime company.

[00:12:06] We didn't give that downtime to our customers at another benchmark that we did. We have grown like almost 100% like, you know, more than 100% quarter-to-quarter month-to-month in the whole 2023 journey from the very beginning. Currently, like, you know, we are one of the largest provider when it came to BFSM,

[00:12:28] specifically in EPEC region, one of the largest provider in healthcare when it came to Europe and North America region. Incredible. And where is your home base? Where's your office? We have started the whole company, you know, specifically from Surat. So, like, you know, in pandemic, I've moved to,

[00:12:46] you know, stuck in the Surat, by the way, not moved to Surat, right? And then, like, you know, I... City, it looks so good on me. You know, we have started the whole company when it comes to Surat itself. Large amount of our employees stays in Surat, almost 70%.

[00:13:00] Other 30% is like kind of, you know, in the Bangalore, in the Mumbai. So, since we have already touched upon the employees at Video SDK, tell us what is the current strength of the company and how are the roles divided within the organization?

[00:13:16] We are a very lean startup, right? 20 bunch of people, not more than that, including me. Including founders, we are a 20 bunch of guys, right? Large amount of team is the engineering only. Sub-engineer, some sub-computer scientists here, right? Even people selling the solution

[00:13:33] or giving the support as the engineers, right? At the end of the day, bunch of engineers are trying to solve one single problem. And like, you know, divided into three major teams. One is the engineering team, which is like a bunch of 10 to 12 people.

[00:13:48] Then the second team is the sales marketing, four to five people, right? And the last team is the success team and the solution team. So, bunch of three to four people over there, right? And are you looking to hire anybody in your team?

[00:14:02] We are looking to hire someone on the leadership position, right? You know, who can? So, I'm a technical guy. I'm a great with product, right? And I'm great with engineering, but we wanted to hire a really good talent when it came to, you know, heading the sales,

[00:14:16] heading the success, heading the GTM at our organization, right? And like scaling this to, you know, the, on the global platform, scaling this to, you know, a lot of really good customers. All right. Well, here's a chance for someone from our audience to apply.

[00:14:34] So, I just talked to us about your co-founder, Sagar Kava, who apparently is your own brother. So, what was his background before you both started building this? And how long have you worked together? You know, we started working together in 2021 itself.

[00:14:48] So, prior to that, Sagar used to, you know, work in, you know, bunch of startups, like, you know, largely looking after the GTM part. He's great with marketing, his skill set. He's also a computer science guy, but, you know, like, you know, he is a real,

[00:15:04] he is having a real blood of startup, like, you know, he's a call-it-drop-out and, you know, then like join tech, right? So, like, Ojaswatha, and then, you know, he worked for two years in bunch of startups looking after the GTM, ACO digital marketing specifically of those companies.

[00:15:24] Prior to this, I had one more venture, right? You know, which was a social learning application, which, you know, we have sold as a product to one of the company in US back in 2020 itself. And prior to that, like, you know,

[00:15:38] I used to work in bunch of MNCs, bunch of startups as a developer, right? You know, that's how, you know, started. 2021, I mean, we both were in same city. We both had, you know, post-pandemic, nothing to do, literally, right? You know, we, and we were thinking to, like,

[00:15:56] you know, start by ourselves since long. Many things started, and I thought that, like, you know, like maybe I just wanted to continue in the path of, you know, entrepreneurship instead of joining somewhere else. So, and that's how, you know,

[00:16:12] I joined first and Sagar joined me after six months. A bunch of friends, like, you know, a couple of other friends joined me, the prior, they worked with me. And then it got started, then, you know, we made a product, and then it gone moved.

[00:16:29] But we both were staying together, like, you know, in 2021, from the beginning of the 2021, before that, like, you used to stay in the different location. I used to stay in different location. So, that we can say that that one leap of faith was a success.

[00:16:47] Now, let's come to the aspect that drives every business forward, the revenue. So, tell us what is your revenue model? So, our revenue model is very simple, like, we are usage-based, like, you know, pricing model, our revenue model. So, we never charge per room, per license, per user.

[00:17:06] It's like, we charge as much as we use in the platform. So, it gives the users and the developers flexibility. For example, you are, we are two people in this call, right? And we take this call for an hour. So, we technically call it participant minute,

[00:17:23] which is 60 minutes into two participant, which equals to 120 participant minutes. So, we charge as per the 120 participant minutes. Now, many users, millions of participant minutes use it. Many users, thousands also do it, right? So, based on that, that bill gets very, and for them, it's a flexibility.

[00:17:41] They don't need to pay for ideal cost. If you, for example, if you are using a platform, Zoom or a Google Meet, so you have to pay, like, even for the ideal cost, because you won't use 24-7, of course, right? So, we have a different model.

[00:17:56] We take usage-based, so you used it for an hour, you're just paying for that one hour. You don't need to pay for anything else in general. That's great. Arjun, you've definitely gotten me curious to know who your investors are, and how much capital have you raised? Sure.

[00:18:12] So, we have raised one round in 2023, end of 2023 something, mid to end of 2023. Primary investor was GVFL, or Gujarat-based venture fund, specifically like one of the oldest venture fund in India. They've started in 1980s or something, along with them people like Naman Sarogi, the founder of the reference,

[00:18:38] he joined the round. Ashwin Ramasamy, the founder of the pipe candy, he joined us in this particular round, and we reached almost 1.2 million at the moment. And are you raising capital now? As of now, I'm not raising at the moment, but of course down the line,

[00:18:59] I'm taking a couple of matrices, and the growth down the line maybe in the next 8 to 12 months is the raising plan for me look like. So, last but not least, Arjun, tell us what exciting developments can we expect from video SDK in this financial year per se,

[00:19:16] and what are your top priorities for the next 3 to 6 months? Great. So, basically, we have worked with customers for a long time. These are two major problems in this industry. One is the productivity. Communication is the everyday need. To our vision, it's very simple. Just like a text,

[00:19:39] voice has replaced the text in the last 10 years. Now, real-time video will replace the voice very granularly. So, our vision is that productivity and engagement are the two major problems in this industry. So, we are building great stuff such as we are calling it video SDK co-pilot.

[00:20:05] So, basically, it listens to all the communication, text notes, like if the contact center is done, it tells you that you said this wrong. If you are taking support, then the customer will answer your question on their screen. So, intelligence within the meeting for the better productivity

[00:20:27] is something we are next building. At the same time, we are building for engagement, for example, for the social use cases, characters, virtual characters, for the engagement, for the social use cases, for maybe as a salesperson, for taking the supports. All these things are the two major projects

[00:20:49] that we are building in this particular year. Specifically, we are building this since last six to eight months. We have did great progress so far. We are going to further launch it very soon, most probably in the next couple of quarters.

[00:21:09] And I am looking forward to have that conversation post the launch. So, I hope we meet very soon right here. Okay. So, I am considering your rich experience in the industry and of course, your first hand insights in understanding the challenges of real-time communication technology.

[00:21:27] Could you identify three key factors that have been very pivotal in driving the growth of video SDK? If I say pandemic itself, right, pandemic has become a habit to get on the video call. That habit was not so big. So, that was one of the consumer behavior, right,

[00:21:48] was one of the major pivotal moment for us. Because after this, we don't have to say anything like, let's get on to the video call. And the other person doesn't say that they can't meet. Now, he says that they can take a video call,

[00:22:02] what is the need to meet? Right? Yeah. That becomes one of the great moment specifically for our business. Next thing is that device, like hardware progress in your pocket. Right? So, powerful devices in your pocket is the next pivotal moment for us. Now, the device and next generation

[00:22:23] are coming. CPU, memory. In 2016, if you're using a computer and in 2024, you're using a mobile, both have the same capacity. Right? So, processing the video in real-time, processing audio in real-time, sending this in real-time is now not a big deal for a client device. Right?

[00:22:42] So, your pocket has a device that is capable enough to produce a high-quality stream. One thing. And then, to send and process. That is one of the second largest benchmark. Right? So, a moment for our business to grow much further.

[00:22:57] Third and the most important is the network capabilities. Now, if you look at the last, prior to GEO in India specifically, was like traditional networks were there. So, everything was there, traditional networks, but there was no modern network infrastructure. Data centered, data centered mobile devices,

[00:23:17] mobile packages were not there. Now, you're not buying SMS, you're not buying OS, you're buying data package. So, now it become a ritual moving from that telco to a real internet-first network. Right? So, the progress we have achieved and the networks that has been deployed

[00:23:36] across the globe, right? Connectivity, better connectivity over the internet is the third and the most important thing. That is where these three things of mixture became a great opportunity for us and also emerging market. Next thus, if you see the next 10 years specifically, granularly I think this device,

[00:23:58] this network will become more powerful. And the habit of consumer will also become, as we're going more virtual and virtual, though habitual, apni life may video call is a part of a life now. Right? It's not something you casually do. It's like you're calling to your dad now.

[00:24:17] You used to talk on the call, now you're taking a WhatsApp call. Right? That habit has been changed altogether, right? In general. So, that's an emerging moment for us. A pivotal moment where this industry is moving very fast and then eventually after 10 years

[00:24:36] it will become one of the largest cloud market. Absolutely. Very well said Arjun. So now keeping in mind that we will be promoting this conversation, this video to large enterprises, investors, tech giants and a broader startup ecosystem. Is there anything else that you'd like to put down

[00:24:53] that could help you find any external assistance in your concerned areas? Yeah, I think like, I'm always like, I'm always humble enough to have advice, suggestion, anything coming from better experience environment. Either it's a market which is investment and everything or community founders, right?

[00:25:17] Or in general from the users, which is operators like product managers or everyone developers itself. So happy to have their feedback on the platform. Happy to have their insights specifically for market in general. And I'm the person who's looking more to have that,

[00:25:43] you can think it as a partnership mode, for example, where both of the parties can partner together and see the bright future. Instead of like either of the party is trying to gain something out of it, either it's investment or it's the customer base or it's something else.

[00:26:01] What I genuinely care is the solving a problem for them. And at the same time, I have a lot of problems to solve. So a hand, one more hand to solve that problem is something we are looking forward to from the community itself. Amazing.

[00:26:18] I wish you all the best Arjun. And I hope we have our future conversations very soon about all the accomplishments that I know for sure that you are going to have. So thank you so much. And before I let you go,

[00:26:31] I have prepared a quick rapid fire round. So are you ready? Just quick five questions. Sure. Okay. Question number one, a book that you would like to recommend to the youth that has greatly influenced your careers? Hard things about the hard things.

[00:26:48] Great book written by one of the guy called Ben Horowitz. Really great stuff, a founder suit. Like must read the book. Good pick. Okay. Question number two, which productivity tool or app do you find most helpful in your daily work? I think NOSAN is one.

[00:27:03] NOSAN is like really, really helpful. Google slides, really helpful. Like these are the two major tools I generally prefer. Question number three, a fun fact about you that most people don't know yet? I love to read about physics. I really, I'll just mind like my history of YouTube

[00:27:23] is all physics videos and all like the videos basically about the stars, about like what has happened, what NASA did yesterday. Very interesting. And any quotation or mantra that you will apply? What is your favorite quote? I think if you care about, a genuine care about people

[00:27:44] like either a customer or people you're working with or in general, like I think that's my mantra. I mean to be very frank, like if I am doing something I'm 100% there. Otherwise I'm not there at all. Now the best ideas arise from the empathy, the care

[00:28:04] that you have. It's an empathy that cares. Yeah, okay. And last but not the least, what is your one piece of advice for the young audience watching this? Yeah, I think for the young people, still very little I know, but I'll say this like,

[00:28:20] if you're starting anything start early, if you're young today, you'll have a lot of energy. You can take more risk today compared to later on. Later on becomes always later on. Take risk today, don't wait for it. Everything happens like for a reason.

[00:28:40] You'll get failed lot of time, but I think you'll learn lot of things very early in your life, which will give you more wisdom, maturity to look at the world in a very different perspective. Well, thank you so much for sharing that

[00:28:54] and sharing all the insights that you have done. So before I let you go Arjun, I want you to make a wish for video SDK that you hope comes true in the near future and that wish has to be made out loud. Yeah, we wanted to serve like,

[00:29:07] you know, billions of people with the video SDK. That is a wish for me. Like, you know, we wanted to make it larger than our lives. That is a wish like, no, I do have for the video SDK. May you keep bringing seamless interactions

[00:29:23] to every corner of the globe. That's my wish to you all the very best and thank you so much for joining. Thanks a lot, Ankita. Like, you know, it was really, really nice conversation. Really appreciate your questions, your research. Like, you know, so far and very nuanced stuff

[00:29:37] you have gone through the video SDK website. You checked that pricing page calculator and I really appreciate that. It's a pleasure. And that's what we are trying to build a very robust community of all the startup founders and you know, where we all can help each other.

[00:29:52] So thank you so much again. And if you'd like to stay updated with the latest development and business insights at video SDK.life, you can follow their channel on follow.us-startups. Thank you for tuning in. If you want to listen to more such interviews with innovative new founders,

[00:30:12] don't forget to visit www.follow.us-startups. And if you want to showcase your startup, feel free to drop me a note at ankita.pahawa at the red follow.us. We'd love to hear your story.