Voicetap Date:   Tuesday , July 06, 2010 Someone in your family wants to do an MBA, but doesn’t know from whom to get the correct advice on how best to approach it. They try speaking to their friends or colleagues or even search on Google to get guidance. Though these methods may work sometimes, it is usually hard to get accurate advice directly from someone who is an expert at that topic. How about just being able to talk to someone who is an expert and has the right answers? Voicetap’s solution aims to solve the problem of having to know someone who is an expert and to be able to speak with him or her. Using the service offered by Voicetap, a user can connect to the relevant people by sending a simple SMS. Once the message is sent with the related keywords (for example, MBA marketing Bangalore), the user gets an SMS back stating the number of people available to speak with the person at that very moment and a call will be made out to him by Voicetap. He will hear the profiles of the people who can help on that topic and it is up to him to choose the person whom he wishes to speak to. Once he selects a particular name, he will be able to speak to the person directly through the platform. The numbers are not shared – it’s anonymous (for the sake of both parties). What makes it even more exciting is that this is a free service and can be accessed through any mobile phone. Though the service can be used by anyone, the person who is willing to share his expertise through this platform should be registered with Voicetap. Product: The idea was conceptualized by Tripathi when his niece, who passed her exam with good marks, was unable to 'find anyone to talk to', who could tell her about the right college and the right course for her to join. Using Voicetap, a person can talk directly with someone on any topic of their choice, without having to know the person or his phone number. Till now, people could only connect with people on the basis of a phone number, which can be taken from the telephone directory or from other people, but Tripathi and his team aim to change this routine. Revenue Model: Though the users don’t pay anything to use the Voicetap service, organizations that are experts by virtue of being in that business, pay a ‘pay for performance’ fee to Voicetap to engage with their potential customers using the platform. The company is also looking to tie-up with telecom operators in the future to offer Voicetap as a value added service to their subscribers. Apart from this, the company is also planning to use contextual advertisements as another revenue generator. Future Roadmap and Challenges: In order to grow the business, Tripathi is looking to expand the team and hire 10-15 people, though he is facing a challenge of getting the right people who are willing to work in a startup (He has not seen the CVs of 6 of the 8 people in his team – they were hired because of their conviction and attitude). In the coming months, the company plans to increase its user base by introducing features like conference call facility, increasing the access points, and developing special apps to support the platform on mobile phones. The company is also looking to spread its presence into newer markets like Africa, where the telecom sector is booming. It is also planning to introduce the service in other Indian languages to reach out to more people. Voicetap plans to do all this by raising extra funding from the VCs. The company is also looking to join hands with large communities like doctors, lawyers, or engineers to increase its customer base. What is unique? While ChaCha offers a ‘pay per question’ service over SMS mainly, Mahalo is more concentrated on the online platform rather than the mobile platform. Also being a single player in a market comprising of over 600 million mobile subscribers, Voicetap believes this is a major advantage.