Sramana Mitra: What is happening in the algorithm? You are processing tons of resumes and training your model to determine what are good ways of representing information. You have a database of skillsets. Your model understands what’s a good way of representing that skillset. When you process resumes, you can figure that out. Is that
Sramana Mitra: Between 2009 and the time you raised your seed financing, you figured that piece out. You figured out that you were going to go after the US career development offices and you were going to build this product in India. Kiran Pande: Yes, he was leaning towards having the engineering team from people
Sramana Mitra: When you went out to raise money, you didn’t pitch it as an AI company? Salil Pande: I didn’t pitch to anyone. All my seed investment came from my ex-boss. He connected to his ex-boss. Sramana Mitra: Friends and family.
Sramana Mitra: What is the pricing structure? How much are colleges and universities willing to pay to train their student body in just the elevator pitch? Salil Pande: We don’t ask that question. Our thing is we’re trying to be a collaborator with the university. Sramana Mitra: But you’re doing $5 million plus in revenue.
Sramana Mitra: Go down one level and explain more about the technology. Salil Pande: What we have done is essentially provide feedback on your resume. For feedback from someone qualified today, they would have to spend boatloads of time with you. There is an assumed knowledge that they should have about what’s a good resume
Salil and Kiran Pande have built a capital-efficient AI company from India addressing the global career services market. It’s a wonderful conversation that works in both AI thought leadership and also their entrepreneurial journey. Enjoy! Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself, your co-founder, and VMock.