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Onata, Inc. |
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January 29, 2018 Issue |
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CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
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Revolutionary “Universe of Services™” Ecosystem with a Platform and App that Connect Trusted Neighborhood Service Providers with Those in Need On-Demand and On-Schedule |
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Interview with: Krishna Vemuri, Founder & CEO, Jyoti Vazirani, Founder & President and Narayan Ravisetti, COO
Conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – January 29, 2018
CEOCFO: Mr. Vemuri, your website indicates, “Onata is an ecosystem for the universe of services”. What is the idea behind Onata?
Mr. Vemuri: Onata is a “Universe of Services™” in a Jiffy™. Onata Provides services for the people who are at various stages of Life. ONATA is not an APP but an ecosystem for services.
Onata also facilitates services for pets, appliances, automobiles, and kids.
More remarkably, Onata opens up a can of opportunities for people who have multiple skills, people with one skill, people who are professionals (PROs), people who are handymen, and people who are novices.
CEOCFO: Have similar concepts been tried across a whole range of services, not just in particular segments or is this a brand idea?
Mr. Vemuri: Yes, it is a brand new idea. We are providing an ecosystem for all services. Unlike our competitors who state that their providers are PROs only, we strongly believe NOT all services (gigs) require PROs. For example, cleaning a home can be done by a “pro” or a “novice” while power washing may need a pro only. Onata lets the seekers choose skill level required for a service or a gig.
Ms. Vazirani: I would add that to drop your kids to a game, you don’t need PRO, but you need somebody who can be called a TRUSTED NEIGHBOR. As a parent, you need trusted services such as babysitting, tutoring, picking them to/from activities, helping them with homework --- Onata provides all of this through Trusted Neighbors – a brand new idea!
CEOCFO: What went into putting the technology together? Where were the biggest challenges?
Mr. Vemuri: The biggest challenge was in generalizing the services, and then parameterizing them so that people can switch between services easily and seek different services seamlessly. Be it a bigger service such as “construct a home” or a small service such as “walk a pet.” Onata facilitates all services by navigating ONLY two screens, in comparison to 10 or 15-screens by our competitors.
Ms. Vazirani: We further simplified the service-seeking procedure with the help of the favorites screen. A user can mark any service as a favorite and later seek it directly through the favorites screen on the app.
CEOCFO: How are you getting the providers to learn about Onata and to participate?
Mr. Vemuri: We have adopted a multi-pronged approach for onboarding both service providers and seekers.
Mr. Ravisetti: We encourage readers to become Onata Insiders and try the Trusted Neighborhood Services and Lend & Borrow Services wherein people in the neighborhood can cooperate with one another.
CEOCFO: What has been the response? Are you finding particular types of providers are more interested? Is there a particular geography?
Mr. Vemuri: There is tremendous response from all kinds of Providers. Most providers are welcoming the idea, and they want to be in the system because Onata is very flexible with the providers. Onata offers the following ways for the providers to onboard
At present, we are onboarding providers in the state of New Jersey, USA.
CEOCFO:
What is your business model? Mr. Vemuri: For on-demand and on-schedule services, Onata charges a percentage of the fee from whatever people are paying for the service. For the providers who want to list their services we charge a subscription fee, and for the providers who want to list and get leads, Onata charges a fee for each lead.
CEOCFO: Where are you in the process of development and commercialization?
Ms. Vazirani: Presently, we have soft-launched Onata. Our app is there on the Google Play Store as well on the Apple App Store.
In the soft-launch, we have opened the Onata Insider Program, a unique way of acquiring users by rewarding them for their hard work in referring more users. The actual services will be launched in NJ by the end of March 2018.
The Onata Insider Program (www.onata.com/oip) offers $5 Onata Credits to all the people who register and become Insiders. Onata Insiders can compete among themselves to win a lavish grand perk of 100,001 Onata Stock Options by referring the highest number of people through the contest. The other perks include 10,001 Onata Stock Options for the top 5 insiders, lifetime leads for the top 1000 Insiders, one year of free subscription and leads for the top 10,000 referrers, and free 6 months subscription and Leads for the top 100,000 Insiders.
All Insiders get $5 Onata Credits upon registering. Everybody is a winner!!
Mr. Vemuri: We are also sizing up to launch an Onata special service called Neighborhood Services, wherein neighbors can cooperate and provide services to one another. Basically, Onata is re-inculcating a sense of community into neighbors back together through the same technology that has been isolating people and families even as they share the same habitat. The Neighborhood Services will be followed by Lend & Borrow Services.
Ms. Vazirani: On the same string, we have created a system for the neighbors to congregate Trust each other for TRUSTED services and thereby create a friendly neighborhood.
CEOCFO: How do you get enough participation or enough people to try in the beginning while the connected neighborhood develops? How do you get the early providers, users and interaction?
Mr. Vemuri: Our Onata Insider Program (www.onata.com/oip) will get the users into the system, and throughout this OIP program users are engaged in two ways - one is the competition for the Onata Stock Options itself, and the other is through giving and receiving Neighborhood services. When someone is an Insider, he is encouraged to try our Neighborhood Services.
If a user decides to use Neighborhood Services for its compelling features, they need to draw the neighborhood and invite their physical neighbors to try Onata. If all participants of the Onata Insider Program bring in their neighborhood or the people in their neighborhood, we will have enough traction to propel Onata even further.
CEOCFO: Do you see the need for reviews, ratings or vetting of the people on it or is it up to the seekers and providers to figure that all out?
Mr. Vemuri: We conduct the following checks when we are onboarding the providers 1. the Identity check, 2. the criminal background check in all the 50 states and 3. check in the sexual offenders list. All the providers need to pass through all the three checks before getting enrolled as a provider in Onata
Mr. Ravisetti: We also verify all PRO providers for their license, insurance in the state they seek to work.
The people
(seekers) are encouraged to leave review of the service they have gotten and
also rate the providers. Ms. Vazirani: Service seekers can verify the reviews and ratings of the providers before they can request a provider to provide service. We also encourage providers to leave a review for the seekers.
CEOCFO: What surprised you as the concept has evolved and is now entering the marketplace?
Mr. Vemuri: We had a couple of focus group sessions where we pitched the Onata idea and what surprised us was, most of the people have received idea well and they all loved the idea. The majority of the focus group participants could not wait for us to bring it to the market.
Ms. Vazirani: One thing that surprised me when we were doing the market research was that no one else had thought about it before. In addition, we were very excited about the response we have received from the survey about our on-demand real-time feature, and the Neighborhood Services feature. We hope to receive the same response from the actual users of Onata.
CEOCFO: Where are you with funding today? Are you seeking partners or investors? Do you have what you need through the rollout?
Mr. Vemuri: We have charted out a plan. Initially, we the founders are funding the project. However, we are now in the process of approaching angel investors, venture capital companies for further funding. We are seeking funds for us to launch on a grand scale nationwide.
CEOCFO: Would you lay out the timetable? What should we expect to see in a year?
Mr. Vemuri: At present, the Onata Insider Program is running nationally, and we are planning to launch Neighborhood Services nationally by the first week of February. And by the first week of March, we are planning to launch Lend & Borrow nationally. In three months we are expecting more services launching in the state of New Jersey.
Then by the end of the year, depending on funding, we should be able to launch all services in 25 to 30 states in the US.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us more about the Neighborhood Lending and Borrowing component?
Mr. Vemuri: Neighborhood services inclusion came with the personal experiences of our Co-founder Ms. Vazirani. As a working women and mother of elementary school kids, middle school kids and high school kids, she always needed help - a “TRUSTED HELP” to pick the kids from the swimming lessons, or helping the kids with Math homework etc., when she is late from the work. ONATA FACILITATES THESE TYPES OF SERVICES WHERE ONLY TRUSTED NEIGHBORS CAN BE BANKED UPON. Onata lets you define your own neighborhood (by geofencing), inviting neighbors and Onata has a mechanism to trust neighbors for some exclusive services. When the Neighbors Trust each other, they can seek the services any time.
The Neighborhood Lending and Borrowing is a real Icebreaker for the neighbors to flock together like never before, for example if a user is really in need of snow ploughing machine, and the neighbor has one who is willing to lend to the neighbors for a price or pride, ONATA HELPS both of them.
CEOCFO: Put it together for our readers in the business and investment communities. Why pay attention to Onata today?
Mr. Vemuri: Here is what best describes the idea of Onata ™: it is an ecosystem for the Universe of Services™, made available In a Jiffy™. Onata will be the MOTHER OF ALL APPS™ for the services industry. Simply it is the “AMAZON OF UBER OF SERVICES”
In its fullest adaption, most users use Onata, more number of times in a given period, when compared with any other system. This increases the stickiness of users and LTV of the users. Revenues and income is directly proportional to the frequency/volume of transactions per user per given period. Onata is well on its way to become the newest unicorn in the market.
How is all of this possible? As the founders and promoters of Onata, we are passionate about the idea of creating an ideal ecosystem of services, not an APP. A bulk of the features in this app are shaped by our own experiences through the different phases of the Life Cycle of Life. We lived in rented accommodations, owned Apartments, homes. We experienced kids being in elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. We own pets, multiple automobiles. We went thru the phases of less money and more time to more money and less time. At each phase of life, we have encountered different service needs, and we found no solution for our needs
Onata is an app that answers all service requirements for people in different stages of their life - well, practically, for everybody. Watch us grow!
Ms. Vazirani: Over the course of our life experience, we felt the need for services for ourselves, for our children, and also for our parents. Since we have lived through those needs, we have incorporated the summum bonum of their solutions into our System - and that makes it the unique-orn that Onata is! |
Here is what best describes the idea of Onata ™: it is an ecosystem for the Universe of Services™, made available In a Jiffy™. Onata will be the MOTHER OF ALL APPS™ for the services industry. Simply it is the “AMAZON OF UBER OF SERVICES”- Krishna Vemuri
Onata, Inc.
Contact: Krishna Vemuri +1 732 236 8877
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Neighborhood App, Onata, Inc., Universe of Services, Krishna Vemuri, Founder & CEO, Jyoti Vazirani, Founder & President, Narayan Ravisetti, COO, Revolutionary “Universe of Services™” Ecosystem with a Platform and App that Connect Trusted Neighborhood Service Providers with Those in Need On-Demand and On-Schedule, CEO Interviews 2018, Business Services Companies, Find Local Service Providers, Find Services In Your Area, search for services in your neighborhood, Onata, Inc. Press Releases, News |
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