Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock (Part 3)

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.

Salil Pande: The revenue is coming from the universities. They are providing us with the licensing fee, and we provide them with access to our platform. Our platform comprises all the services that we talked about. We help students explore their careers through career fit and we help with the elevator pitch. They subscribe to our platform. 

Sramana Mitra: I’m confused. Kiran said that you’re only ready with the elevator pitch.

Salil Pande: What Kiran is talking about is in the interview category, there are a lot of other features. Applications that we have brought on is the elevator pitch that’s available to the market.

Sramana Mitra: But there are other things that you have brought to market that are generating revenues? These are improving LinkedIn profiles and improving resumes.

Salil Pande: Yes, there is also career fit. Then there’s curation of job opportunities. Then the elevator pitch. There is a full category behind each of the product. Behind the smart resume, Kiran launched the smart editor. The editing of the resume happens on our platform.

We have also eliminated the whole idea and concept behind spending hundreds of hours on just doing the formats on the resume. That is over now. The third piece that is coming out is the resume optimizer. It allows students to work on their function-specific resume. We think of each one as the front-facing application and behind that is a full category.

Sramana Mitra: Let me try to understand a few things. What is the journey of your company? How did you get started? How long did it take to get the product to market? What data did you train on? How do you show a customer a proof of concept that your AI works?

Salil Pande: The way it works is when I was going through Chicago Booth, I came from a technical background. Then I realized what a journey it was for me to get to Chicago. Even after that, when I was applying for jobs, it was like a nightmare for me because I had no business background. Then figuring out how to work on your resume and getting feedback was crazy. I thought I was unique.

Seven years down the line, Kiran goes to Kellogg. It’s the same craziness. One day when she was doing a mock interview with a bunch of her friends, I realized that this needed to change. I thought that there had to be a better way of doing it. I went to a place where I wanted to get a domain registered. I wanted to virtualize this mock interview. That’s how the whole idea of VMock emerged.

I wanted to start this company my own way. I started running around here, there, everywhere, and wasted a lot of time. Then there came a point when Kiran was a consultant. She told me that it’s enough and we should bring some clear wind here. From there on, we got some seed investment. We started thinking of building a team. 

Sramana Mitra: Seed investment in an AI business typically needs some evidence that your AI works and that you have a strategy of getting the data.

Salil Pande: I’m not going to fit in the framework that you’re describing. I did not know that I was building an AI business. Kiran is the computer scientist. I was just trying to create a social platform where someone can give feedback on their own time. Then the idea was there that some parts are going to be automated.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence: Salil and Kiran Pande, Co-Founders of VMock
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