Interview with Digital Gorkha Founder Hitesh Malviya

Hitesh Malviya is the co-founder of Digital Gorkha. The company is revolutionising the way consumers interface their registration details providing fast and secure service to users.  

What is Digital Gorkha and what problem does it solve?

www.digitalgorkha.com

Everywhere we go, any office, any society we need to fill our details in an old eared visitor book. That can be tampered by filling wrong details and mobile number ( no verification of identity here).  If any criminal tamper with this data and get access to premises and check out safely. There will be no trace back will be behind in these visitor records. And even we want to view old records, we found them inked and not proper format to understand. So security of a resident is a concern here.

We replaced visitor book with an android application. Gorkha brings a paperless solution to make visitor registration things more easy and faster.  It verify mobile number of first time visitor, capture his/her image , get his required information and send and confirmation SMS/CALL to resident/recipient. They can only check in once get confirmation from recipients. Their data is instantly uploaded on a server,  residents can view visitor information with their check in/checkout time from their dashboard.

How did the idea for Digital Gorkha come about?

Wherever I go, any society or office, front desk ask me to fill my details in Visitor register, many people write fake details, no one cares to verify you. They just ask you whom your meeting and write your details and send you in. I thought about this process deeply and found if some guy checks into the premises and comes out cleanly after murdering someone. Do you have any proof to recognize him rather than that visitor book and low pixel CCTV Camera.  If he tampers his details in visitor book and everyone does, how will you find him. No clues and thousands of such incidents happen every day in every corner of the world.  I decided to make a solution to make this process more sleek and secure. I and Suraj (Co-founder) discussed and designed the concept of Visitor registration app and named it Digital Gorkha. The Application is developed by the team of Ramakant Yadav and Vinay Thakar.

Tell us a bit about your background?

I come from a small town of Rajasthan. Hacking excited me in my earlier days in college. Started a blog on hacking in my 2^nd year of engineering, Later I started an online discussion form and built a cyber army with few of my hacker friends. We named it Hindustan cyber force. Released a Book Hackdecoders on hacking techniques. I don’t wanna stop, I was always in hurry to do something BIG, still I am. Later I decided to start a company to provide ethical hacking training, penetration testing services.  HCF Information and security private limited (www.hcf.co.in) incorporated in Noida , while I was still studying in final year of my college. I stayed with HCF infosec for two years, Later I took an exit from the company to start another venture. I Moved to Mumbai and cofounded Sriyaan technologies. Sriyaan technologies helped to me to make my ideas into reality. I am currently working on three different startups, Mediico- a platform connecting patients with healthcare (www.mediico.com), Digital gorkha- App which store visitor info in the cloud(www.digitalgorkha.com). And Xpose- a parental control app.

Digital Gorkha Founder Hitesh Malviya

What has been your biggest challenge so far as an entrepreneur?

Cash flow is essential to small business survival, yet many entrepreneurs struggle to pay the bills (let alone themselves) while they’re waiting for checks to arrive. Part of the problem stems from delayed invoicing, which is common in the entrepreneurial world. You perform a job, send an invoice, then get paid (hopefully) 30 days later. In the meantime, you have to pay everything from your employees or contractors to your mortgage to your grocery bill. Waiting to get paid can make it difficult to get by – and when a customer doesn’t pay, you can risk everything. Even though cash flow is fine, it seems you never have enough in your budget to market your company to its full potential. An entrepreneur’s life is not enviable, at least in the beginning. It’s extremely easy to get discouraged when something goes wrong or when you’re not growing as fast as you’d like. Self-doubt creeps in, and you feel like giving up.

What do you think are the most important factors that will make a Digital Gorkha success?

First Factor: everywhere we go, we find an visitor book, we can replace that with our application, So there is huge market opportunities in India and rest of the world. 

Second Factor: we are the first mover in the industry who came out with the visitor registration mobile application, this factor can lead us to success. 

Third Factor: People don’t compromise on their security & we providing security to residents in some way.

What words of advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?

Do what you love and start what you think, this is the right time, An Idea is nothing without execution. Start doing rather than only thinking. If your steady on your business progress, no one can stop you to touch a billion dollar mark, it might take time but one day you will achieve anyhow.

Visit Digital Gorkha @ www.digitalgorkha.com

Interview with Derek Joseph, Founder of Social Photo Booth

Derek Joseph is the founder and CEO of Social Photo Booth. The success of the innovative Canadian based company has seen its rapid growth from its beginnings in Ottawa to now being available in both Montreal and Toronto. 

Describe your entrepreneurial story, including the genius behind the 
Social Photo Booth.

Social Photo Booth started as an idea in late 2012. I was at a wedding and there was a DIY basic photo booth which was starting to get a little popular. At that time the idea came to mind of commercializing it & doing it in a professional way to target more than just weddings but also businesses & help them in their marketing strategies using a fun & creative way. The company started as a small experiment with a bunch of different ideas being tested until some solid services were established.

What is some of the new tech behind the Social Photo Booth?

Social Photo Booth uses state of art technology with high end equipment to produce the best quality of pictures which is instantly evident in comparison to other companies. We use photolab grade printers that print in less than 8 seconds on a water proof, tear proof & smudge proof paper.

Weddings are an obvious use of the photo booth, what other sorts of events have been big?

Social Photo Booth's clients are both individuals & businesses. Weddings makeup the biggest majority of the individual clients in addition to birthday parties, reunions, anniversaries, bar & bat mitzvas while the business side of business consists of corporate events, staff parties, product launches, new store openings, conferences & christmas parties.

What have been the challenges as you've grown?

One of the challenges we had was how to be able to replicate the success we had in our local market in other markets where competition is stronger & customers have different level of expectation. Social Photo Booth started in Ottawa, Ontario in Canada. Then expanded to included services in Montreal where have a dedicated team of bilingual staff to cater to the french community in Montreal & we have just recently launched in Toronto. Toronto's market is strong. But our connections & contacts with corporate clients have helped us develop a network that has started to pay off in the Torontonian market where all corporate headquarters are located.

Any advice you would give to other entrepreneurs thinking of chasing their dream?

I would say everything successful starts with a small idea & then grows. Whenever you have an idea you believe in it, don't be afraid to pursue it & see where it may take you. Most importantly ask for advice, & opinions don't rely solely on your own judgement & be open to criticism, it only makes you better.

Visit the Social Photo Booth @ www.socialphotobooth.ca 
For inquiries please email: info@socialphotobooth.ca