Salil Sethi and Lu-Fong Chua are second-year MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management who placed as finalists in the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition on May 3.
“It was a great experience and we met some amazing entrepreneurs and potential investors,” said Sethi. The co-founders are still looking at places to establish their business in Rhode Island, as required by the competition, but their most important criteria is access to high-tech talent, Sethi said.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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PBN: First tell us a little bit about richtr.tv.
SETHI: Richtr.tv is a Web platform that enables people to share TV moments as they happen. In the old days friends and family gathered around TV and enjoyed discussing moments and highlights. Richtr.tv extends and enriches that experience, bringing together viewers no matter how far apart they are. It’s simple, intuitive interface and stunning visual format empowers viewers to not only share opinions but also observe – in real time – how the collective opinion evolves.
In addition, Richtr.tv delivers unique value to content owners and producers; with sophisticated tools, Richtr.tv provides rich and precise analytics about viewer sentiments on different TV programs and different moments within TV programs.
Finally, Richtr.tv provides a low-cost, high-impact, and targeted platform for advertisers to address a large user base, which shares similar TV interests. Advertisers will be attracted to Richtr.tv as it provides an opportunity for viewers to take action based on advertising. Currently, TV advertising is costly, and only allows a one-way messaging solution – from advertisers to viewers. It is very difficult to call viewers to immediate action. With Richtr.tv, viewers are one click away from engaging with advertisers.
PBN: You’re both studying at the Massachusetts of Technology. How did you hear about the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition and what are your connections to the state? Have you entered any other startup competitions? What other funding have you snagged?
CHUA: We learned of the R.I. Business Plan Competition through a systematic due diligence on various competitions out there – based on salient parameters like funding opportunities, timelines, geographical region and mandate.
I am myself a regular visitor to Rhode Island, with my former colleagues taking courses at the Naval War College. This competition provides great opportunities for us to connect with other entrepreneurs, potential investors, and experienced judges who can really sharpen our thinking going forward. At this point we are relying on internal funding only and, based on the above, we have been rather selective about the competitions we enter.
PBN: How far along are you in developing the network? What benchmarks have you set for development?
SETHI: We are in the early stages of development. So far, we have a working prototype, which we are using to gather feedback on features and usability. The R.I. Business Plan competition will unlock important resources, such as external expertise and funding, which we can channel into product development.
As for a roadmap, we are targeting to complete a beta version of the web and mobile application by the end of this summer. We are following the RAD (rapid application development) methodology, as we are a small team and one of the key benchmarks we have during our product development is to be able to quickly add and test features to the prototype.
At Richtr.tv we are very excited with the emerging social TV paradigm. We are closely watching the development of Google TV. Later this year, as Google TV API becomes available to developers, we plan to release an application on the Google TV platform as well. We believe 2011 and 2012 will be watershed years in the development of social TV.
PBN: Why do people need a separate forum to comment on TV programs? Don’t they do that already on social networks like Facebook and Twitter?
SETHI: Richtr.tv is a targeted platform around TV media. Facebook and Twitter provides user with an opportunity to share opinions, but not truly discuss, collaborate or watch a TV show. I follow a number of people on Twitter. At any given time, people I follow are saying something that is important to them on Twitter. But that undirected chatter might not matter to me at that moment. I can also comment on what I am watching, but that might not be relevant to my followers. Richtr.tv, by design, makes sure, that people who are watching the same show are sharing views in the same space. It focuses the conversation and unleashes a whirl of sentiment.
Another key differentiator for us is the data visualization. With stunning real-time graphs, viewers can observe the collective opinion unfold with unparalleled detail. Won’t it be nice to see public opinion on the answers given by the presidential candidates’ debates in real time? Richtr.tv will facilitate that.
Also, no current platform allows for people to comment on TV programs, moment by moment. You can like a show, a movie, even a TV channel on Facebook. But being humans, we have number of emotions as we watch a show. Some are positive, and some negative. Richtr.tv captures the rich range of human emotions as they evolve in the course of a program.
PBN: What do you take away from the business plan competition? What was your experience as a student? Is there some value to it beyond the prizes?
CHUA: As business students, we are thoroughly exposed to business fundamentals like finance, strategy, operations and so on, but nothing is a truer test of our skills than crafting a business plan with vision and with wings. This competition is a valuable platform for us to tighten our nuts and bolts, amidst competitive pressures and judges’ scrutiny. We welcome this excitement and this challenge.
As entrepreneurs, we value prizes and funding certainly, but strategically there is a difference between “dumb money” (with no expertise attached) and “smart money” (from investors that provide expert advice, good connections, and add tremendous non-monetary value), and this business plan competition connects us with “smart money” early in the life of our fledgling enterprise.
We want to learn from the most experienced investors and dynamic fellow entrepreneurs out there, and this competition gives us this exposure and gets us closer to realizing our vision.
