1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,640 Welcome back to another episode of Ed Up LND, where we explore 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:08,400 the innovations, tools, and stories shaping the future of 3 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:11,360 learning and development. Today I'm thrilled to introduce 4 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:16,440 you to Shivali Guel, the founder of Troopier AI, a platform 5 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,840 that's truly changing the game for how LND professionals create 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,880 content. From her startup at Boston 7 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,840 Consulting Group to building in both Edtech and Fintech 8 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:33,040 startups, and now launching her own AI powered company, Shivali 9 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,240 has lived the startup journey from every angle. 10 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:40,480 In this conversation, we talk about the leap from big 11 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:44,680 corporate consulting to building your own startup, How True Peer 12 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:49,840 uses AI to instantly transform rough screen recordings into 13 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:56,400 polished videos and guides, why this tool is saving pros massive 14 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:58,960 amounts of time by boosting accessibility and 15 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:01,720 personalizations. Hello L&D professionals and 16 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:05,720 instructional designers, the reality of fundraising, what it 17 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:10,880 takes to build today's AI driven world, and her top three pieces 18 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:13,440 of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. 19 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,840 This episode is packed with practical insights for anyone 20 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,520 and learning tech or even just curious about what it takes to 21 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,760 build something from scratch in today's fast moving landscape. 22 00:01:27,320 --> 00:01:32,160 Let's dive. In Hi we're Ice Spring, an 23 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,960 international team of e-learning enthusiasts who help more than 24 00:01:35,960 --> 00:01:40,400 60,000 clients across the globe succeed with better online 25 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,360 learning. Our two flagship solutions are 26 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,640 ispring Suite and ispring Learn LMS. 27 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,920 Ispring Suite is an intuitive, all in one authoring tool for 28 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,400 creating engaging elearning content, and ispringlearn is an 29 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:58,160 innovative online training platform for onboarding, 30 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,080 upskilling, and certifying your teams. 31 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,800 We also provide tons of free resources for aspiring and 32 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,760 experienced e-learning professionals, conduct weekly 33 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,640 webinars with top industry experts, and organize annual 34 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:15,280 e-learning conferences, challenges, and championships. 35 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,280 We'd be happy to get to know you and pick a solution that fits 36 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:24,200 your needs best. Go to www.icepringsolutions.com 37 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:28,480 to learn more about us, download our resources, and connect. 38 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,840 Hello everyone and welcome to another amazing episode of Add 39 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,280 Up L&D. My name is Holly Owens and I'm 40 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,120 your host and I always say I'm excited, but I'm super excited 41 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,160 today. I'm really looking forward to 42 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:46,320 this episode because I have Shivali here who's the founder 43 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:51,040 of Troopier dot AI, and she is going to tell us all about the 44 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:53,920 different things that she's done in her professional life. 45 00:02:53,920 --> 00:02:55,640 But Shivali, welcome to the show. 46 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:58,400 Thank you so much, Holly, for having me. 47 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:00,520 It's really, it's really a pleasure. 48 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:03,160 Of course. Well, we're excited to get into 49 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,360 everything troupe here. But before we do that, tell us a 50 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,440 little bit about who you are, your journey, where you've been, 51 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:11,440 all the things the audience wants to know. 52 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,400 How did you become a founder of this this wonderful company? 53 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,280 Absolutely. So yeah. 54 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:20,560 So like like you already mentioned, news flash, I'm the 55 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,280 founder of troop here dot AI. But yeah, like like everybody 56 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:27,400 else, my journey didn't start as the founder. 57 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,720 Of course, I started actually like very unconventionally. 58 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:35,480 I started working at a very large corporation very early 59 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:38,920 into my career. In fact, my first ever work 60 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,440 experience was a Boston Consulting Group as a management 61 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,320 consultant. So that's as large an 62 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:47,520 organization as it can get, right? 63 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,760 But I was really, really interested in technology from 64 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,080 the beginning, right? So even at PCG, I used to do 65 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,160 like large scale technology implementations and 66 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:01,080 transformation projects. And you know, that's how my 67 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,920 journey with technology started. But then very quickly I realized 68 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:09,400 that, you know, like large corporations don't give you like 69 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:11,680 the full room to explore your potential, right? 70 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:13,960 And you want to be able to figure way to put it at the 71 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,800 forefront of innovation. So I decided to move to 72 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,920 startups, right? So just to sort of learn how to 73 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,520 build my own startup. I first started working at a 74 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:29,080 really big tech startup. Then I moved into another 75 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:32,400 fintech startup, you know, in founding roles, operating roles, 76 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,720 and that really gave me a first time view of how to actually 77 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,200 build a stardom from scratch. So obviously the logical next 78 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:41,200 step was to actually build something of my own. 79 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:46,680 And it so happened that I was also really interested in AI on 80 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,080 the side, right? So I used to do a lot of my own 81 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:54,040 experimentation and tinkering with what can we do with AI, 82 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:55,800 what interesting things can happen. 83 00:04:56,280 --> 00:04:59,960 And some of those explorations LED into some interesting 84 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:03,520 projects, and I started working with a couple of companies. 85 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:07,000 And that's how sort of the idea for Troopier came about. 86 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,920 And once I had enough conviction, I decided to move 87 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:13,400 out of my job and start this from scratch. 88 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:18,760 So it started like late last year, but we've been growing the 89 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:20,600 team and the business ever since. 90 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,800 Yeah, people know the name now. I mean, going like a year in, it 91 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:28,600 was just it's, it's something to be said about your marketing, of 92 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:31,360 course, and about the person that you are, that you spread 93 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,640 the information very well. And I love your journey, You 94 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:38,600 know, like getting to know all the things about how to do this 95 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,280 and then actually doing it yourself. 96 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:43,920 You know, often times people will feel a little bit scared to 97 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,120 take that leap into something of their own, but you're you. 98 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:49,800 You did it, you've done it. Yeah, absolutely. 99 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:54,280 It's it's scary, but once you do it, it's it like the that 100 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:56,240 adrenaline is like nothing else. You. 101 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,160 You feel like you'll. You'll do that. 102 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:03,800 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So tell us like for the audience 103 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,200 that doesn't know and of course we'll have all the information 104 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,720 in the show notes about where you can access Troopier and get 105 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:12,400 to know more about the company. But tell us what is, what is 106 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,360 Troopier and what does it do Let's you know for L&D 107 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:19,960 professionals because I know like I've used it in, it's just 108 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,240 something I'll let you talk. I'll let you talk about it. 109 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:23,560 I'm not going to give too much away. 110 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:26,720 Yeah, for sure. You know, like, you know the way 111 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:28,480 that we like to describe it, right? 112 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,280 Like if you if you just look at what's happening today in the 113 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:34,920 world of software is that it's become so much easier to build 114 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,200 software with AI, right? Like you can write code with 115 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:42,680 Shaji PD, CLOD, etcetera. But when it comes about actually 116 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,560 communication of around the software or the products, right? 117 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:50,600 Like essentially training people on how we use that software, 118 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:55,280 onboarding users on it, even marketing it, selling it, right? 119 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:59,160 There's that communication layer or the content layer which is 120 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:03,320 still really, really broken. And it's really hard to create 121 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:05,360 that professional quality content today, right? 122 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,520 So what we have essentially created is almost like 123 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:14,440 democratized that content creation for software and 124 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:17,600 products, right? So what you essentially do is 125 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:22,440 just like Loom, for example, you take a rough screen recording of 126 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:24,360 anything that you want to show on your screen. 127 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:27,120 But that's that's where the magic happens. 128 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:30,440 Like that rough screen recording then gets magically transformed 129 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:34,440 into a really professional quality video as well as like a 130 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:38,680 professional guide all written out for you and all made for you 131 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:42,520 completely automatically so that you don't have to put any of the 132 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:46,200 effort into creation of that great content, right? 133 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:51,240 So now you can publish videos, guides in a matter of minutes 134 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,880 and at 100th the cost that it usually takes. 135 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:59,960 So essentially like learning or LND, like we say, gets 136 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:03,880 transformed completely for for this sort of area, right? 137 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:08,800 You can join so much content at scale and you can make sure it's 138 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:11,120 really high quality. You can make sure it's 139 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,960 personalized to the users. You can make sure it's in the 140 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,920 language that the users actually want to listen to, right? 141 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,200 So all of that gets unlocked because of the power of AI. 142 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:26,600 I love it too, you know, like I, I wanted to say this to the 143 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:28,360 beginning, but I wanted you to explain it first. 144 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,120 The fact that it how much time it saves L&D professionals 145 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,720 because we would spend, we spend so much time creating like how 146 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,480 to guides, instructor guides, videos like those, those are 147 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:43,039 whole projects within themselves and thinking about standard 148 00:08:43,039 --> 00:08:44,920 operating procedures for a company. 149 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,000 Like you just put that all in the trip here. 150 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,680 And then it's this nice clean layout and it has, it's 151 00:08:50,680 --> 00:08:54,040 multimodal, which we love as instructional design for 152 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:57,920 accessibility purposes. And it's just like, OK, so now 153 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:01,280 we can really focus on like, what's the next step? 154 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:03,880 Or like thinking about truly what we need to do for the 155 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:07,320 learners instead of having to worry about like, did we have 156 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:10,720 grammatical errors or did this video get messed up somewhere? 157 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,760 Or did we not mention, you know, we didn't add the captioning, 158 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:15,600 the captioning and all that stuff is there. 159 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,080 So I, that's one of the reasons I was really drawn to it because 160 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:22,840 I'm like, Oh my goodness, this is going to save me so much 161 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:24,960 time. But also too is the fact that 162 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,880 how intuitive and easy it is to use. 163 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:32,000 Like it's not something like you mentioned loom, you know, some 164 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,960 other Ed tech companies or technology companies where 165 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:39,240 there's like a there's a vast amount of features, but this is 166 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:41,880 just so easy to implement. Yeah. 167 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:43,720 And that was the core idea, right? 168 00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:47,720 Like the idea is to bring that professional video creation to 169 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:51,240 everybody, right? Like an LND professional does 170 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,080 not need to be like a professional video editor or a 171 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,160 script writer, right? Today they have to be right 172 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:58,560 because right. The tools. 173 00:09:58,560 --> 00:10:01,960 Are just so complex and they're made for someone who knows all 174 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,080 of those finer things. So the idea was that if you're 175 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:08,840 able to explain something to a friend, you should be able to 176 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:12,640 create a professional video. So let AI handle all of that 177 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:16,680 heavy lifting and you can just focus on talking through what 178 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:21,360 what you want to communicate. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's if 179 00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:25,440 it was my dream, like maybe 10 years ago as an LMD professional 180 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:28,800 to have a technology, it would be this one. 181 00:10:29,560 --> 00:10:34,240 Because we I've worked through so many different tools and so 182 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,720 many different like when I stepped out of teaching, I was 183 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:41,800 an e-learning developer for about 6 to 12 months and we had 184 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,320 to create instructor guides and I was like, Oh my gosh, is so 185 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:47,760 taxing. It takes so long. 186 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:50,720 And you have to it was for the military, so for like Tricare, 187 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,280 the healthcare. So it had to be very by the 188 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:54,480 book. Yeah. 189 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:57,160 And this, this would have helped tremendously. 190 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:02,080 So tell us a little bit about what are some of your favorite 191 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:04,600 features or what have you heard from some of your customers when 192 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,240 they're the feedback that you're getting about Troop here and 193 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,720 what do they love the most? I know what I love the most, but 194 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:11,960 what are you hearing or what are some of your favorite features? 195 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:15,680 Absolutely. I think like obviously the aha 196 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:19,400 moment or that magical moment is the first time someone 197 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:22,280 experiences it, right? Like so I would actually urge 198 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,520 everybody who's listening to actually try it out themselves. 199 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,360 But like as soon as you take a screen recording and you click 200 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,760 on generate, it automatically creates that really great AI 201 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:37,080 video and a step by step guide for you in 30 seconds, right, 202 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:38,520 right. That's something that you're 203 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:41,720 like, OK, how did it happen? Like how did it understand 204 00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:44,320 everything that I said? How did it understand whatever I 205 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:46,960 was doing? And how did it create like a 206 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,040 really professional output from it? 207 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,520 So that's obviously that transformation itself is 208 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:53,920 something that people really love. 209 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,600 But I think on top of that, there are a lot of workflows 210 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:02,200 that we have built to enable that ease of then the final fine 211 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:05,000 tuning, right? Like for example, the editor is 212 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,480 built out in a way that you can easily edit the text. 213 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:12,400 For example, like while recording, let's say you missed 214 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:15,880 out on something or you misspelled something or you want 215 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:18,560 to address someone specifically, right? 216 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:20,280 You don't have to do any retakes. 217 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:25,000 You can just edit the text in the video script and it will 218 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:27,040 automatically get adjusted. Yeah. 219 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,880 So you won't have to do any retakes, you won't have to do 220 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:33,560 any editing. You can do any number of changes 221 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:37,200 in your script and automatically all of that gets adjusted and 222 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,240 synced perfectly, right? So like editing video is as easy 223 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:43,680 as editing text in Roopio, right? 224 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:46,080 I love it. That's a great, yeah. 225 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:47,760 Yeah. So that's one. 226 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,560 Then the other thing is, you know, translation as a feature, 227 00:12:51,560 --> 00:12:53,560 right? Like we've seen in a lot of 228 00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:57,000 scenarios that people have to just make do with single 229 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:00,640 language videos because of their own comfort in that language. 230 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:04,120 But the users or the employees or, you know, people who 231 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:06,800 actually have to watch them may be comfortable in some other 232 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:10,000 language, right, right. So now we have one click 233 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:14,000 translate where for every guide or every video you create, you 234 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:17,760 can select out of 4050 languages, any language you 235 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:19,920 want. And then in one click all of 236 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:23,000 that content gets automatically automatically translated, 237 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:27,840 including the video, right. So in now have that same process 238 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:31,200 being explained in 10 different languages for 10 different types 239 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:35,360 of users, right? Then the next thing is for AI 240 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:39,560 personalization, right? Like one thing is to create like 241 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:43,880 a basic video output from from your recording. 242 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:47,360 But let's say you wanted to be in a specific tone or you want 243 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:50,000 it to be like a sales demo or you want it to be like a 244 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,280 instructional video or you want it to be a product manual, 245 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:55,480 right? So you can actually choose that 246 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:59,960 AI template or you can choose or you can instruct the AI to 247 00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:03,640 automatically change the content As for that, right? 248 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,080 So you don't need to be like really good at marketing, but if 249 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,720 you instruct the AI that OK, make it in a marketing way or 250 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,280 add a little bit of a marketing tone to it, it'll actually do 251 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:18,640 that for you, right? So now we have engineers making 252 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:21,040 marketing videos because. Yeah. 253 00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:26,040 I just had that context on dog. So cool. 254 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:30,000 I mean, like, yeah. And part of that too is like 255 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:34,320 true Pier is really a universal language for everybody. 256 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,440 I love the fact that you can translate into different 257 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:40,200 languages for people because like you're saying, it's no, I 258 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:42,680 know English is the most common language used around the world, 259 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:45,960 but a lot of different countries, it's just, there's 260 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,160 just so many different languages out there. 261 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:51,640 And I think also too, I love accessibility stuff that's great 262 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:55,320 for accessibility, you know, for giving access to everyone. 263 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:59,160 So you're really thinking on on a greater level here to give 264 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,480 people everyone has access, which I can really, truly 265 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:04,840 appreciate. And I know that people in our 266 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:06,360 audience do appreciate that as well. 267 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:10,320 Absolutely, absolutely. Like we, we've had so many 268 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:13,880 customers come up to us and tell us, OK, this is the first time 269 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:18,040 we're able to make these videos for that audience. 270 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:21,520 Otherwise, they just used to have to make do with English 271 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:22,240 videos. Yeah. 272 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:24,480 Yeah. Well, you just made a big 273 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:28,680 announcement. So we're I saw some things in 274 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:30,040 the news. You want to tell us a little bit 275 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:32,640 about that? Yeah, absolutely. 276 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:38,880 So we we actually just announced our seed round of $3,000,000 277 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,240 from RTB Global. Congratulations. 278 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:43,760 Thank you. Thank you so much. 279 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:47,640 Obviously, like fundraise is never a milestone. 280 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:52,920 It's, it's just an input to what we what we have plans to do, but 281 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,760 really excited about its potential to be able to, for us 282 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:59,360 to expand our team. And like we discussed, like this 283 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,920 product has global potentials. We wanted to reach everybody 284 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:06,120 around the world. So it'll just help us accelerate 285 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:08,640 that. That's fantastic. 286 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:12,440 And I'm so glad to hear, you know, especially and you might 287 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:14,520 be able to speak to this a little bit like around the 288 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:16,280 world, there's some different things happening. 289 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:18,360 I can speak what's happening in the United States with some 290 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:21,240 funding and like people are saying that funding is getting 291 00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:24,000 cut or they don't have access to the resources. 292 00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:28,720 So, you know, this funding definitely gives you the access 293 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,840 to give the support to the to the customers. 294 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,960 Can you maybe just talk a little bit about like being a founder 295 00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:36,600 and like trying to find those resources and what that 296 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:38,440 situation's like? Because I know there's a lot of 297 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:41,640 people in the audience who may be thinking about starting their 298 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,480 own thing and they're just like, I don't even know where to 299 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:46,880 begin. So maybe if you tap in that to a 300 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,400 little bit and give our audience some insider insider scoop. 301 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:54,360 Yeah, absolutely. I think the first thing that I 302 00:16:54,360 --> 00:16:58,360 would actually like to say from my own experience is that, you 303 00:16:58,360 --> 00:17:01,800 know, it's become so much easier to build products now, right, 304 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:06,760 with AI, like it just enhances your capability so much more. 305 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:12,359 So I would in fact suggest that for anybody who wants to try 306 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,200 something or a start up at their own level, it doesn't like 307 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:19,440 funding doesn't even need to be like a necessary condition 308 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:20,560 anymore, right. Like, yeah. 309 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:24,280 Yeah, that's true. There are so many startups that 310 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:28,440 are now bootstrapped to like 5 million dollars, $10 million in 311 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:31,040 annual revenue, which is amazing, right? 312 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:33,720 That's something that was never possible before. 313 00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:37,480 But now because you need, you have that capability in 314 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:41,320 marketing, you have coding agents, you have so much that 315 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:45,320 you can do with AI that you need much less resources, right? 316 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:50,080 So that that would actually be my first, you know, comment 317 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:52,760 here. But like regarding funding as 318 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:57,760 well, what I would say is that, you know, in AI at least there 319 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:01,040 is a lot of there's a lot of funding interest, right? 320 00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:04,760 So if you look at traditional software, you will obviously see 321 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:08,080 less and less interest because you know, the whole world is now 322 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:10,760 moving to AI instead of software, right? 323 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:16,400 So if there are interesting ideas around AI, there are still 324 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:18,120 a lot of people who are willing to fund it. 325 00:18:18,560 --> 00:18:22,800 And I think Angel investments is also becoming like a very big 326 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,120 way to source funding, which is to say that you don't have to go 327 00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:28,480 for really big institutional investors, right? 328 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:32,680 You can actually crowd source funding from people who are 329 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:35,040 relevant in your space. So let's say if you have an A 330 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:39,760 really good LND idea, you can actually reach out to like LND 331 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,840 leaders across companies. If they like it, you can just 332 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,960 set up an Angel list account and get them to fund you, right? 333 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:49,800 And that's enough for you to. Get makes it that easy. 334 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,440 I'm fast, I'm I'm really intently listening because I've 335 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,360 never been on that side of it before. 336 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:58,000 And it's fascinating to me that now like you don't have to worry 337 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:01,280 about, you know, like here's the speaking from the states 338 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:05,640 stateside is that, you know, going after those big companies. 339 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,000 I think that was really a challenge and that probably made 340 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:10,800 a lot of companies in the past like they would just give up or 341 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:13,240 they would just say they quote UN quote fail, but they just 342 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:16,000 didn't, you know, this kind of stuff just didn't exist. 343 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:17,640 It's so cool. Yeah. 344 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,720 And like people are really interested. 345 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:26,000 Like I see a lot of interest from people who are experienced 346 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,160 in a space to want to invest in startups in that space, right? 347 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:32,360 Because they want to leverage their domain knowledge, they 348 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:34,960 want to be able to support those ideas because they have 349 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,360 conviction in those ideas. So Angel investment is actually 350 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:40,000 becoming like a really big thing. 351 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:46,600 Like even for us, for example, a lot of CIOSCXOSCTOS came upfront 352 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:48,880 that they wanted to invest in the idea because they believed 353 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,720 in it so much. So, you know, we ended up 354 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,240 getting a lot of those and you know, it's win win, right? 355 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,920 They they obviously get exposure to the startup and success and 356 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,600 we get access to their experience and their networks. 357 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,880 Yeah, absolutely. What what a, what a fun position 358 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:09,000 to be in, more fun and probably anxiety at certain times. 359 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,440 But I want to ask you because, you know, we have a lot of 360 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:15,320 people and I was mentioning this before we started recording in 361 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:18,640 in the audience that are transitioning out into different 362 00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,000 peers. I myself made a leap that I'm 363 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,080 just not going to be working for somebody else anymore. 364 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,520 I'm going to be working for me, do some side hustle stuff, do 365 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:28,400 this podcast. You know, I don't necessarily 366 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:32,480 need funding for the podcast, but so for those people who are 367 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:34,760 thinking about stepping into this world, maybe doing a 368 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:39,320 startup or an entrepreneur, what, what's like 3 pieces of 369 00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:41,640 advice you would say like somebody sitting here, they're 370 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,200 listening and they're like, I want to start this, but I'm just 371 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:46,360 scared too. You know what, what advice could 372 00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:52,080 you give them? Yeah, I would say that the first 373 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:58,760 and foremost thing is to not have to not really worry about 374 00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:02,800 building like a full scale product or for like especially 375 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,560 if you're building a tech startup, just build a really, 376 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:09,840 really quick and easy prototype, right? 377 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:14,720 Like a lot of ideas actually start as Instagram pages or you 378 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:18,160 know, they may actually start as just a chatty PE wrapper, but 379 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:21,560 that's enough for you to validate whether it actually has 380 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:24,400 potential and it solves a real problem, right? 381 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,760 So that would definitely by be my number one recommendation 382 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:33,000 that don't ever think of building a sophisticated product 383 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,720 as a barrier to starting up. Like you need to have 384 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:38,640 everything. Like people strive for 385 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,800 perfection too much, and in corporate America we call that 386 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,880 MLP, a minimal, lovable. Product exactly, exactly, right, 387 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:51,040 Like, for example, if you if you want to do something in fashion 388 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,440 or whatever, right, like you can just start an Instagram page for 389 00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:55,680 it. Or if you want to do something 390 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:58,960 in L&D, maybe you start a Udemy course around it or you know, 391 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:04,280 like essentially start small, validated and then just think of 392 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,680 scaling it, right. That's number one. 393 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:12,520 And the second thing I would say is like talk to customers really 394 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,760 quickly, right, like potential customers. 395 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:19,440 And this is something that I've also learned a lot that, you 396 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,240 know, founders start to think too much in their head and they 397 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:26,160 start to sort of, you know, that confirmation bias steps in that 398 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:30,720 Oh yes, this makes sense, right? But as soon as you start talking 399 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,480 to customers, a lot of that can get get shattered very quickly 400 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,040 or it can get double the validation, right? 401 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:41,680 So even when you're talking to customers, try to be try to 402 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,160 expect them to be as brutal as possible, right? 403 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:46,480 Don't. Don't look for signals. 404 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,840 That need thick skin in this game for sure. 405 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,720 Constructive criticism is everywhere and you need to take 406 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,920 it absolutely. And tell your customers to be 407 00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:59,440 brutal with you, right? Like there's this book, you 408 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:02,320 know, that's that talks about the mom test, right? 409 00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:05,840 That, you know, if you're asking your mom, she'll obviously be 410 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,440 really awesome about it. And she'll be like, oh, this is 411 00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:10,240 the most loveliest idea I've ever heard. 412 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,560 But that's not really validation. 413 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:16,480 So look for criticism. That's really important. 414 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:20,160 Yeah. And I guess the third thing is 415 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:26,840 like, have really strong support in terms of cofounders, right? 416 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:31,920 I think solo journeys are possible, but having a cofounder 417 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,920 or a couple of cofounders is just a 10X multiplier, right? 418 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:40,280 Because yeah, startups are just so lonely as an experience and 419 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:44,560 they're so draining that you always need someone who can pull 420 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,000 you up when you're down, right. And vice versa, right? 421 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,880 So right, that's something that always helps, like in my case as 422 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,400 well, like my Co founder does that for me all the time and I 423 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:58,360 do for him, right. But yeah, like it's, it's just 424 00:23:58,360 --> 00:24:01,600 more joyful also because then you get to share that journey, 425 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,480 the ups and downs with somebody. Yeah, it's like a, it's a great 426 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:07,560 partnership. It's great, you know, to bounce 427 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:10,400 ideas off of other people because a lot of the time when 428 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,800 you said you're sitting in like maybe with these blinders on and 429 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:15,720 you don't realize what's happening because they're doing 430 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:20,040 so many different things for the company troopers. 431 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:22,760 Great. I loved, you know, trying it out 432 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,840 and I can definitely say and advocate for L&D professionals 433 00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:29,520 to go try try it out. We'll have everything in the 434 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,720 show notes about that. Shivali, is there anything else 435 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,280 that you before we wrap up the episode that you want to mention 436 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,080 about Troop here yourself? Tell us where to find you. 437 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:41,240 Tell us all the all the things. Like I said, we're going to have 438 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:43,160 everything in the show notes, but is there anything else you 439 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,240 want to share? Yeah, absolutely. 440 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:48,840 I think like I said before, like we've made the experience in a 441 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:53,360 way that anybody can try it. So I would, you know, really 442 00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:55,680 recommend anybody who's listening to just go to 443 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:01,240 www.rupia.ai to sign up and create a bunch of videos and 444 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,160 you'll experience the magic yourself. 445 00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:05,320 Yeah. And. 446 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:07,680 It's magical, is very magical. People. 447 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:12,440 Be ready, yeah. And then if it looks interesting 448 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,720 or if there's something that you want to discuss, then please 449 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,920 reach out to me on LinkedIn. We can probably drop my LinkedIn 450 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:21,400 details in the show notes. Yeah. 451 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:23,640 It's going to, I think, I think it was put in the guest intake. 452 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:25,960 So we're definitely going to have all the places to find you 453 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:27,160 as well. Yeah. 454 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:30,520 But yeah, that's about it. Like always love to collaborate 455 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:33,960 and discuss and like especially because LND is such a close 456 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:37,240 topic to us as well. Like would love to collab 457 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,520 collaborate on how we can make it even better for LND 458 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,200 professionals around the world. Yeah, you're really you're 459 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:46,040 really changing the lives of LND professionals and making things 460 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:48,360 so much easier for us. So we appreciate that. 461 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:50,520 You know, I can probably speak for the audience and saying 462 00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,600 that. So thank you for coming on and 463 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,880 sharing your experiences about troop here and all the advice 464 00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,520 for the audience. Like I said, everything can be 465 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,360 found in the show notes or where to reach out to Shivali or go to 466 00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:05,880 true peer and access the tool. It's wonderful. 467 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,240 So you need to try it out. So thanks so much for coming on. 468 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:15,960 Thank you, Holly, it was lovely. Thanks for spending a few 469 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,280 minutes with Holly. She knows your podcast queue is 470 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,960 packed. If today's episode sparked an 471 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:25,160 idea or gave you that extra nudge of confidence, tap, follow 472 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:28,840 or subscribe in your favorite app so you never miss an episode 473 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,120 of Ed Up L&D. Dropping a quick rating or 474 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:35,600 review helps more educators and learning pros discover the show, 475 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,560 too. Want to keep the conversation 476 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:39,840 going? Connect with Holly on LinkedIn 477 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:41,440 and share your biggest take away. 478 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,000 She reads every message. Until next time, keep learning, 479 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,640 keep leading, and keep believing in your own story. 480 00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:51,800 Talk soon. Hi, we're Ice Spring, an 481 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,720 international team of e-learning enthusiasts who help more than 482 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,240 60,000 clients across the globe succeed with better online 483 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,680 learning. Our two flagship solutions are 484 00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:03,400 Ice Spring Suite and Ice Spring Learn LMS. 485 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:16,120 Ice Spring Suite is an intuitive all in We'd be happy to get to 486 00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:18,480 know you and pick a solution that fits your needs best. 487 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,960 Go to www.ispringsolutions.com to learn more about us and 488 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:23,520 connect.