Rajiv Poddar, Founder, CallGraph

Callgraph- Freemium at its best

The “freemium” model has its most dominant champion in Skype when it comes to communication software. Now supporters and lovers of Opensource software have another name to add to their hot list, that of “CallGraph”. Created by Young EntrepreneurRajiv Poddar the CallGraph business idea has really taken off. Built to be used with Skype, it is the only current plugin for Skype which is free.

YourStory learnt more from Rajiv Poddar about “Callgraph” and how the “Freemium” model makes its profit.

1) How would you explain the CallGraph business idea in three sentences to a newcomer?

CallGraph provides tools to record phone calls and a transcription service to convert the audio to text. It is aimed at journalists, researchers, writers and academics who conduct interviews over the phone and need the files transcribed in order to writer articles, research papers, reports etc. We provide an easy to use, affordable solution for such people.

2) How are CallGraph products different from other Skype-related service platforms?

We have a 'freemium' business model. We provide the tools for free and charge for services built around the tool. None of the other Skype recording plugins are free.

3) How was the business idea for CallGraph developed and deployed?

CallGraph was a tool which was developed and used internally by us when I was running my last venture. Unfortunately that venture failed. After that we decided to commercialize CallGraph and monetize it based on the 'freemium' model.

4) Could you enlighten us a bit more on your background?

Around 8 years of experience in Telecom domain, worked for TCS and Lucent Technologies. Left Lucent in 2006 to start my first venture, and closed that down in 2008. Working on CallGraph.Biz since then.

6) Where do you see VOIP, Skype and CallGraph five years from now?

Internet VoIP will the preferred mode of voice communication five years from now. The quality and reliability will match, if not better, the present fixed-line and mobile telephony. Skype will be one of the largest players in the space, along with Google's voice services. Speech-to-text technology will allow real-time conversion of voice data to text and will pave the way for ad-based VoIP services which will drive down the cost.

The vision for CallGraph is to be the leading provider for machine and human based transcription service, available for all kinds of platforms, integrated with all leading VoIP services and provide real time cloud based transcription service, .

8) As an entrepreneur, what motivates you and what keeps you grounded?

There are too many to list. However running your own business is a very liberating experience and great learning experience. It gives you a new perspective on business and economics; things that only experience and learning the hard way can teach you.

Bootstrapping your business is the biggest challenge. Since funds are limited in this phase we have to carefully re-invest our profits into the business and ensure that the balance is just right to keep it growing. Marketing, fund-raising, team-building are also other major challenges.

9) How big is the CallGraph team? What kind of talent do you work with?

We are right now 3 people; I handle all the product and business development and two contractors from Philippines who work on transcription for us. We also work with hundreds of freelance transcribers worldwide and we are always looking to hire more transcribers.

10) What expansion plans do you have for CallGraph?

We plan to expand to as many platforms as possible; tablets, mobiles etc. We also plan on releasing an API which would enable a third party site to integrate our service and offer transcription service to their customer.

11) What do the statistics say about how well CallGraph has been received?

We have completed more than 1500 hours of transcription till date. CallGraph Skype Recorder has been downloaded around 150,000 times. We expect to double the number of hours transcribed each month every year, a 50% year-on-year growth.

YourStory wishes Callgraph and it creator Rajiv Poddar more success and infinite downloads in the days to come. We hope to see and learn more on the “Freemium” model which they endorse and wish them success in pursuing it. To have your cake and eat it too click on http://callgraph.biz