Bootstrapping An Innovative Telecom Services Startup: Callture Co-founders Mamoon Rashid and Siva Sanmuga (Part 7)

Sramana: Aside from your virtual PBX product, what else are you doing with your business?

Mamoon Rashid: We have two separate business divisions. One is the virtual PBX, which primarily targets small businesses. On the other side we have long distance. We have made significant improvements and are able to offer additional technologies for consumers. For example, one of the strategies we have had for the past several years is to virtualize the calling card. We have created an entire ecosystem; we handle the end consumer opening their account and making phone calls all the way to the agents and affiliates with their commissions. We manage the entire billing system, and it was developed around the end consumer being able to re-charge and make calls whenever they want.

Sramana: Would you give me more details about what is going on in that business?

Mamoon Rashid: We have created a tracking system where affiliates can market the product online via social media websites or offline. There are commissions which are given to the person receiving the promotion and the person offering the promotion. We have integrated that with the mobile phones. We are working with AT&T to offer the white label SIM cards for prepaid business. The long distance goes through us, but they have unlimited local calling. We target specific local markets, and we work with affiliates in those regions.

Point of sale is another key product. The account can be recharged and managed at that point of sale site. On the same theme, we have created a dial-through system. Calling cards require you to call a number, enter your PIN, and then your destination number. That is a traditional method. Then came another service that allowed you to call an access number which would remember your calling card based on your caller ID, and only required you to enter your destination number. We have actually come up with a third method. When you call an access number, it will call your destination number for you. When you call an access number for the first time it will ask you for a PIN and the destination number. You can save that access number in your address book. The next time you want to call that same person you do not have to enter your PIN or your destination number.

Sramana: That would work well if you are always calling the same destination number.

Mamoon Rashid: Let’s say your husband was in a different country and you had to call him regularly. You could have one access number assigned to him. You could then assign your mother a different access number.

Sramana: It’s almost like an address book for the calling card industry.

Mamoon Rashid: Exactly. This way you are not entering destination numbers or PIN numbers. We do the lookup, you just dial a number.

Sramana: What is the business model for that side of the business?

Mamoon Rashid: It is a long distance business model. We differentiate on convenience. We sell this only through reseller white label programs. We do not sell this under our brand. This is a per-minute based plan, and we get a percentage of that charge.

Sramana: You are running a very interesting business; thank you for sharing your journey with us.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Bootstrapping An Innovative Telecom Services Startup: Callture Co-founders Mamoon Rashid and Siva Sanmuga
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