April 16, 2025 • 34 mins
Sameer Ranjan, founder of Catenate Corp, shares how his AI-powered talent assessment tool Maya Maya is revolutionizing how businesses understand, develop, and retain their employees beyond traditional resume screening.
• Maya Maya evolved from an earlier product designed to help students identify optimal college and career paths
• The platform uses behavioral assessment to evaluate 84 different personality parameters that reveal both strengths and potential blindspots
• Unlike traditional personality tests, Maya Maya presents realistic situations with multiple viable options that can't be gamed
• The system tracks personality evolution over time, helping businesses align incentives with employees' changing priorities and life circumstances
• Universities use Maya Maya to prepare students for available jobs, align curriculum with market needs, and identify candidates for graduate programs
• The platform helps companies understand team dynamics by identifying which personality types work well together and who shows leadership potential
• Sameer's philosophy: "Not knowing AI will take your job" - emphasizing the importance of adapting to technological change
Connect with Sameer to learn more about Maya Maya and how it can transform your approach to talent management, hiring, and employee development.
sameer@catenate.io
www.catenate.io
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Storie (00:15):
Welcome back to Market it With Atmo, where we share the
tips, tools and strategies tohelp your business be successful
.
Today we have on the show avery special guest, owner and
founder of Catonate Corp, theumbrella company of Maya Maya,
mr Samir, we are going todiscuss a few things that are
very interesting to me and onthe cutting edge of what we do,
(00:39):
what you do and, I think, wherethe world is going now.
So let's please welcome Samir.
Thank you for joining us.
Sameer (00:47):
Thank you so much for having me here.
I'm excited to talk about whatwe are doing and where the world
is progressing.
Storie (00:53):
Yes, so you are local in Texas, right, yep?
And I'm so glad you reached outto me, because AI is everything
right now.
Sameer (01:01):
That's true.
That's true.
I think AI was a sales word.
I want to call it up till 2023.
But since last couple of yearsit is much more than a sales
word.
Now it's a real thing.
Storie (01:13):
Absolutely, and I'm sure there's plenty of pros and cons
we can hear.
But can you tell me your story,how you began to develop Maya
Maya and what led you here today?
Sameer (01:24):
Right.
So Maya Maya was basicallysomething that we morphed from
Mira Mira.
Mira Mira was the first productthat we developed at Catanate.
It was basically a tool to helpstudents identify which
colleges they should go to,which courses they should pursue
, and we thought, if we addanother element to it, which is
(01:44):
the resume, which is the jobskills of the people, we can
make it a great tool tounderstand talent management.
It's not just how do you hirepeople, but how do you upskill
them, how do you retain them,how do you nurture them.
It's much more important tonurture your employees by
understanding them.
I can give incentive as much asI want to the people, but if
(02:08):
they're not looking for theincentive, they might be looking
for something very else and Idon't know about it.
Right, I will never be able toretain them.
Storie (02:15):
How could you know, as a business owner, other than
what's on their resume, who theyreally are, if they'll fit in
well, right, so can you take meback just a little bit more on?
Why is this something thattouched you and you decided to
become an entrepreneur and justrun with it?
Sameer (02:33):
Right, Okay, so become becoming an entrepreneur.
The story goes.
I think I want to call now 15years ago.
Right, I was right out of highschool and I wanted to do
something, because I saw most ofthe schools where I come from
in India.
They don't have a system bywhich they can exchange courses
(02:53):
with each other, which isapparently even US doesn't have
that kind of a system.
Storie (02:58):
Exchange or compare.
Sameer (03:00):
It's exchange.
For example, there might be aschool in Plano which teaches
calculus to the best right andsomebody in Carrollton wants to
learn how they teach thatcalculus or algebra and they
should have access to thateducational information where
they can go buy that education,buy that course or buy that
(03:21):
recorded lectures and basicallylearn from it.
Storie (03:24):
Almost like you can do a certification, almost like you
can do a certification Almostlike you can do a certification.
Okay.
Yeah.
Sameer (03:30):
So I would like to call it loosely Coursera I was trying
to build at that time.
And I built that Coursera forIndian kids at that time and
then there was nobody whounderstood that, okay, we might
need Coursera also, becausethere was nothing like remote
that okay, we might need.
Coursera also because there wasnothing like remote work
existed at that time.
There was no.
(03:50):
We had internet, but nobodythought that you can learn
something with an online coursemodule.
Storie (03:58):
It wasn't utilized.
Like it is today, people arekind of afraid of you know the
cutting edge at first right.
Sameer (04:04):
And I'm talking about 2009 and 10, right, which is
where we are just coming out ofrecession economy.
Nobody wants to invest inonline courses.
So I had my first moment ofsales there, which is, I
understood, creating technologyis the easiest thing to do in
the world, but sellingtechnology is the hardest thing.
Storie (04:23):
Absolutely, I would have to agree with you.
Trying to get people tounderstand easiest thing to do
in the world, but sellingtechnology is the hardest thing.
Absolutely I would have toagree with you.
Trying to get people tounderstand everything that you
put into something is is it, Iagree, the most difficult thing
you can do.
Sameer (04:33):
So that was the.
That that was my firstentrepreneurship moment, and
then, from there on, I startedcreating community of people,
community of students, andhelping them out, and, and I
think along the way, I learnedlike, okay, one thing that is
never going to change in theworld is how people upskill
themselves, which is education.
And second finding jobs ordoing something for monetary
(04:57):
gains.
Storie (04:57):
Right, absolutely so.
In your growing up and learningall these things and really
finding your passion, did youcome from a family of
entrepreneurs?
Did you have mentors that kindof helped guide you, or were you
just take the road and figureit out?
Sameer (05:13):
Yeah, I'll say like in my growing up years, right in my
family nobody has ever steppeda foot in business because they
all come from public sector.
They work in public sector,private sector, and they have
been very happy, blessed thatthey get a salary at the end of
the month.
Storie (05:32):
They don't have to secure jobs yeah.
Sameer (05:36):
And that was the mindset that I grew up with.
But I think that helped me alot because my parents never
asked me to be in the same zone.
They always told me that followyour dream, whatever you can do
and you can achieve.
And they also told me that thereis no right age or wrong age to
be successful.
Right, you can be successful at50, you can be successful at 30
(05:58):
.
And success is a very differentparameter for everyone.
For my parents, it was justthat my father and mother can
enjoy both the meals with eachother.
That was the success to them.
Storie (06:09):
That's their content, that's where they're happy.
Sameer (06:13):
And that's where, like whole, I think that gave me
strength to become anentrepreneur, because it's a
very difficult journey I haveseen, but when I came here, I
met nice people in everywhereand anywhere.
I have worked in every venturethat I have seen and but when I
came here, I met nice people ineverywhere and anywhere.
I have worked.
In every venture that I haveworked, I think I met some
amazing people who basicallypushed me up.
(06:34):
I have.
I have seen people who, likethis is very common right.
People say that you need luckto be successful.
I think you need to be luckyenough to find the good people
so that you can be successful Ineverything.
Storie (06:49):
I would have to agree with you in everything I've
learned in the differentindustries I've been in, what
I've excelled in is when I havesomebody that is more
intelligent in that than I amand that is willing to teach me
100%.
Right, I mean you lead byexample, just like kids.
Sameer (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Storie (07:06):
For sure.
So, now that we've got somebackstory on that which is what
I was really striving tounderstand, because it's like
for all the entrepreneurs outthere that didn't think they can
do it and are now trying howdid they grow up?
What do they want to teachtheir children?
And that's important becauseyou're making the next
generation.
Yep, they want to teach theirchildren, and that's important
because you're making the nextgeneration and this next
(07:27):
generation is going to beintense, it is Because of AI,
almost.
So tell me, how did you notmonetize?
How did you conform this AI in,particularly to help these
businesses Walk?
Sameer (07:45):
me through the steps of how it works, right.
So, uh, it's very simple, likeit's any other SaaS tool, right,
you buy the license tounderstand.
Now there are different faucetsof the business, right there
might be someone who's trying toacquire talent, which is hiring
right, or there might be peoplewho might want to upskill the
talent which is you already haveemployees you want to
understand how you can upskillthe talent, which is you already
have employees.
You want to understand how youcan upskill them for the jobs
(08:07):
that are going to come in next10 year, five year, two year
right.
You need to provide anupskilling plan, and not just
upskilling plan, but apersonalized upskilling plan,
which means you have to do thiscourse, you might have to do it
in an auditory method, or youmight need mentorship, you might
need need teamwork but that's alot of time to devote to each
and every person, is it not?
Storie (08:27):
it is, it is, but again, you are as good as your
employees are absolutely so,instead of doing that by
themselves and reading throughall their personalities and
their you know, their referencesand things like that you've
created've created a tool tohelp optimize that.
Sameer (08:46):
To do everything for them, which is basically my tool
.
You just need to giveassessment for 10 minutes, and
this is something we prescribeto do it every three months.
So, I can chart out yourpersonality, how your
personality is changing, howyour soft skills are changing.
And based on that, we provideupskilling strategy.
We provide differentprescriptions on how you can
upskill your employees.
(09:07):
And over a period of time, weare able to profile your
employees, which means that now,let's say, you want to hire
someone who is exactly like yourpersonality, but you want to
add a few more elements to it.
You can do it with our tool andthen that creates a baseline.
So anybody who applies to thejob role, if they have similar
or better personality, betteraptitude, then you just have to
(09:30):
interview them.
You don't have to go throughhundreds and thousands of
resumes and then waste all thattime and then the time to
interview them.
Storie (09:39):
So can the business owner create based on that
evaluation, like like someonelike you, but with maybe softer
speaking or networking skills,can you optimize questions,
interview questions, so thatthey're answering the right
questions to fill in thoseblanks?
Sameer (09:55):
yeah, so the assessment is it has a recommendation
engine which basicallyunderstands the personality as
you answer.
So the system is automaticallytrying to map out your
personality and if you try togame, the system system games
you.
So it tries to give you moredifferent types of questions.
Storie (10:14):
Oh see, and that is the cutting edge of AI People who
have figured out how to utilizeit as a cheating tool, and now
you're telling me you've made itto where they can't.
Sameer (10:23):
Where they can't, because they can, because they
don't, nobody will understand.
Like what I'm trying to assess.
I'll ask very simple questionand that question will basically
I might be assessing 84different parameters and we we
assess soft skills also.
So it basically means that youneed to be smart enough to
understand how soft skillsinteract with each other.
(10:43):
For example, there might besomeone who is very adaptable
and that person might be veryinsecure also.
So adaptability is a very goodthing to have.
Right.
But if you have very highadaptability, you might be a
very high insecure person also.
Right which people don't showwhich people don't show right,
(11:03):
so I will be able to understandevery facet of personality and I
can basically show a mirrorRight.
And that's what Maya basicallymeans.
It's an illusion.
Interesting.
You basically create yourillusion and I'm able to find
who you are in your illusion.
Storie (11:20):
Okay, and is this by them answering a set of
questions, or is it by video orvoice?
Sameer (11:26):
It is just simple, like assessment questions are there.
It's a behavioral economicsbased assessment.
Right.
So you just answer the questionand we are able to identify
your personality profile.
Storie (11:37):
And you really can't know what questions they're
going to ask, because you makeit optimized to each business
and what they're looking forright.
Or what they could optimize.
Sameer (11:46):
Yeah.
So businesses don't have thatoption to optimize the questions
, so we have.
So questions are very workplacesetting or general life setting
.
For example, let's say I had ahuge loan of.
Let's say I had a $10,000 loanon my head and I won a lottery
of $100 and I'm in front of acasino and will I go in casino
(12:08):
and play that $100 to winanother $100?
Right.
Or I'll just go and pay that$100 off my debt Right.
Storie (12:16):
Now both are the right options.
Sameer (12:18):
There is nothing wrong.
Storie (12:19):
Right, absolutely.
Sameer (12:20):
And then there will be a question which will come
sometime in the trailing thing,which is if you have $100 and
you went to casino and you won$100, now you have $200.
Do you still place the bet oryou go and pay off your $10,000
debt with that $200 that youhave won?
Storie (12:37):
And that decision is a personality trait.
Sameer (12:39):
And it depends on the day that you are giving that
assessment also, because in reallife you might have got just a
bonus, right you?
Might be feeling that you areon top of the world.
You'll give a very differentanswer than your car got total
somewhere.
Storie (12:54):
That was where I was going to ask my next question,
because I mean, you have thoseBriggs Myers test right and I've
taken a few and they'redifferent, different levels of
it.
But one day so I tried to, Itried to see how I could beat
this system right.
So one day I was feeling reallydown and I took it, and then I
took the same set of questionswhen I was feeling really up,
(13:14):
said I was a completelydifferent person.
So how is what you do differentfrom that?
Sameer (13:19):
Yeah, so there are two things right.
Myers-briggs usually gives youa situation and it asks you
whether you highly agree with itor highly disagree with it
which is trying to put you intoa box, right.
There won't be any situation inlife where you will either
highly agree or highly disagree.
Every situation of the life,there will be options, actions
that you need to take Variables,yeah, and we basically give you
(13:43):
actions in our assessment.
So I don't ask whether youhighly agree with it or highly
disagree with it.
I'll give you a situation andI'll give you four options that
are very right to that situationthat you can go and take action
on.
And now you have to order it.
What was the first thing?
(14:03):
Second thing, third thing,fourth thing now, as you said,
yes, personality changes, but wemap that personality change.
I want to see, over a period oftime, how much your personality
is changing.
Or is it not changing at all,or is it going?
For example, we do somethingaround the term ikigai which
basically means finding the coreof your life, finding the
purpose of your life it haspurpose, passion, reward and
spirit right right?
(14:24):
uh, let's say I'm single.
I'm not chasing that much aboutreward, I just want to work, I
want to follow my passion andeverything.
Right now, suddenly, I'mmarried, I have one person to
take care of and I want to bemore responsible.
So I want to earn more money,everything that I was doing as a
passionate person.
Now my outlook will be on thereward side.
(14:44):
Now, let's say I have a kid.
Now I want to do somethingbetter so that world is a better
place for my kid.
Now, from passion to rewardeverything will convert to a
purpose.
And I want to do everythingthat is purposeful.
I want to a purpose and I wantto do everything that is
purposeful.
I want to eat healthy.
I want to make them eat healthy.
So, that's how our personalitybasically revolves around these
(15:05):
four quadrants.
And now that's what we try totrack.
If your employee is basicallyall of a sudden he's going
towards a purpose-drivenaptitude, it means that
something has changed in theirlife.
They might have a moreresponsible outlook towards life
, and if that is the outlook,you need to reward them in that
(15:26):
similar manner that helps themtheir purpose.
Storie (15:29):
Wow.
Sameer (15:30):
So it helps that the synergy between your manager and
your employee and it helps themunderstand it helps them
understand at the granular levelrather than just very nominal
on the resume level right rightyou might have seen people get
promoted to become manager, butthey are never a good manager
(15:50):
because they never had atraining to become manager right
or they don't even have theaptitude or the soft skill to
become a manager right, and thenthe most of the people under
them either start hating them orthey leave the company.
Storie (16:03):
Right, absolutely, at the end of the day, and that's
bad for the business right.
Turnover for any business isnot good.
You want that longevity, so canyou tell me what type of
businesses are you working withright now and how are they
utilizing this technology?
Sameer (16:19):
right.
So we, we are working with fewof the IT clients, which is more
or less they are trying to findout their employees and how
they can upskill them.
Everybody tried to do a layoffin 2023 huge layoff in the IT
industry, but that didn't helpanyone, because market is now
(16:42):
overpopulated with talentedpeople, right, but the
technology has changed for whatthey were very talented of,
right.
So now new things are required,so how you can upskill your
talent so that they are readyfor the jobs, rather than you
just cutting them off and thenfiguring out how to go and find
the next person Starting allover?
Storie (17:01):
Yeah.
Sameer (17:02):
So that's what a few of the IT clients are doing.
Same thing is being used byuniversities also, because they
are the people who are creatingthose talent for the industry,
and universities need to knowexactly what they need to
prepare the talent for,otherwise there will be a huge
shortage of supply chain.
(17:22):
Same thing we have seen in thenursing industry.
Right as of today, we have, ifnumbers are correct, around
250,000 jobs opening for nursesin this country alone, and
that's a staggering huge number.
We don't have enough nurses tofill that job because some eight
, nine years ago nobody wasgoing into the nursing degrees.
(17:44):
Either people wanted to becomeaccountant, store manager,
managers, right Inventorymanager, because retail was
booming.
Storie (17:53):
Right and the interest rates on mortgages were lower.
Sameer (17:57):
Yeah, so nobody wanted to do that thing right.
It created a massive shortagein the industry.
Wow, so that's what we aretrying to prevent.
If people say AI will take thejob, I always say not knowing AI
will take the job, absolutelynot.
Storie (18:12):
Just like the internet when it first came to be right,
I mean now everyone that trulywas innovative in that time and
took hold of it and grasped it.
Yeah, they're the ones that areahead today.
They really are.
At the end of the day, whetheryou understand or not, the world
is still shifting.
My kids know don't even knowwhat a magazine looks like
sometimes you know, and that'sokay, because that's where we're
(18:35):
going yeah, 100.
Sameer (18:37):
Most of the people might never know the VCR tapes.
Storie (18:39):
I know.
Sameer (18:41):
Or the records.
Storie (18:42):
I intentionally bought a house phone just so they would
understand what that was.
You know, I mean some thingsyou have to learn, like cursives
so you can read history books,but you have to have an
innovative mentality.
In the way we're moving rightnow, it's just necessary.
So how does this differ fromany other AI?
Sameer (19:04):
Yeah, so AI is.
I usually call it an umbrellaterm.
Ai is basically any system thatcan take action on your behalf.
That is AI.
Everything under it is.
There might be data analysis,there might be data science,
which is prediction, right.
There might be processautomation, which is basically
automating different processes.
There might be data extraction,there might be data reading.
(19:28):
So a lot of different thingscomes under AI.
Now how this is different is wetry to do three things, which
is different than any other tool.
One is clustering of people,which is we try to figure out
who are the similar people focusgroups focus groups and can
they make up uh?
Do they have any similarpersonality trait?
Storie (19:48):
if they have similar personality trait.
Sameer (19:50):
Do they gel together well or they don't gel with each
other?
And based on figure out okay,this is how your company looks
like, right?
Which is a very different formof AI, because system can take
action on behalf of you.
It can basically tell you whoare the people who will work
together, who are the people whowon't work together Longevity,
longevity.
And it gives you successionplanning also, which is who are
(20:13):
the people who show trade tobecome better leader or manager
in your firm.
Storie (20:19):
Or who is great at what they do and needs to stay
Correct.
Sameer (20:24):
I don't want to ever use this product to recycle people,
but again, I can create a tool.
People can use it to even useit as a screwdriver or a murder
weapon.
It's up to them.
Storie (20:36):
I mean, that's with everything right.
At the end of the day, we'reall trying to be successful,
especially entrepreneurs andbusiness owners.
So, at the end of the day, yes,you want to be there for your
people, but if you had somethingon the front end to tell you
what people are going to helpyou grow, I mean, how is that?
You're right, though, if youutilize it in the way that
(20:58):
you've made it.
Sameer (20:59):
Yeah, yeah.
Storie (21:00):
So that's what's important.
So tell me, we work off of theBuild Launch Grow scale
methodology at Advent Trinityand it sounds like you've really
done a lot of investing in thebuild phase and even the launch
phase.
I took a look at your website.
So where are you going now?
What stage are you in of thatBuild Launch Grow scale?
Sameer (21:19):
I think we are in the growth scale this year.
In the last three months wehave basically got like seven
clients, seven new clients.
Out of that, four areuniversities, with every
university having more than60,000 students in it.
Storie (21:37):
Is it helping them optimize what students they
allow to come in?
Sameer (21:42):
One of the use cases yes , they are using it for.
And another use case they'reusing it to prepare their
students for the job that isthere in the market.
Storie (21:49):
Wow.
Sameer (21:50):
Third is how they are going to align their curriculum,
or what they need to add intotheir curriculum so that they
can make it better.
Right, and then who are thepeople who should be moved from
one degree to another, which is,if they are in the undergrad,
who are the people who showpropensity to join the graduate
programs so they are using itfor?
Storie (22:10):
That's wonderful, to make them more successful right
At the end of the day and givethem an opportunity to not fail
and then learn Correct.
That's wonderful.
So what do you project, or whatare your goals in the next
three, five years for thiscompany?
Sameer (22:24):
Yeah, I think again I'll be speaking out of turn, but
our personal goal is like in2027, texas is going to have,
dallas is going to have itsstock exchange and we want to be
one of the first company to goand ring the bell there.
Wow.
Storie (22:44):
And I think we are on the way.
So, hey, one step every day,right?
Yeah, that's all you can do.
So tell me and we've talked alot about the good what are some
of the challenges that you havehad to overcome in this process
?
Sameer (22:51):
yeah, I think we created a product of future.
A couple of years ago, nobodyunderstood the importance of
soft skill, because nobody wasaware that AI will come and will
replace the talent, likeanything Everybody was focused
on.
We want to hire people for jobskills, which is they should be
(23:11):
good at X, y, z thing and that'sabout it, because that will get
the job done.
So it was very hard for us toconvince people that job skills
are not the only thing that isimportant for hiring process,
but there are other skills also,and the same goes for how do
you manage talent?
But all of a sudden, thanks toAI in advent of AI, I will call
(23:34):
it which is people have changedhow they look business at all,
because website development usedto take like months, now I can
do it in like a couple ofseconds.
Right.
I was just doing a prototyping,basically showing how to build a
new company to around 100founders last week and we
(23:54):
basically built, I think, theirsoftware prototypes in like half
an hour for 100 differentprototypes.
We built it, which isunimaginable because I remember
three years ago that would havetaken at least two or three
years because I was building 100product at a time.
I just got it done in 30 minutes, and if I can get it done in 30
(24:17):
minutes, you just need onecoder, one developer, to do all
those work.
What rest of them will do?
And you still need them toimplement it.
But you need to be smart enoughto understand how to use your
talent again.
Storie (24:29):
Absolutely.
Sameer (24:30):
And that shortage of understanding has created a huge
demand for our product rightnow, even without any marketing
Right, With just a word of mouth.
We are getting huge traction.
Storie (24:40):
and then I'm not just talking about basis yeah, and
I'm not just talking USA.
Sameer (24:45):
I'm talking USA, I'm talking UAE, I'm talking India,
I'm talking.
Australia all over the worldyeah, because everybody now
needs the solution.
Storie (24:54):
So I think wonderful.
So how do you approach?
Unlike some of the universities, are they buying a technology?
Are they buying two years worthof technology?
What are they purchasing?
Sameer (25:05):
from you.
So they are purchasing more orless a services solution I'll
call it which is getting thereport of their students,
getting the report what theyneed to do.
So, more or less, we are like areport to them yeah but on a
skill and upskilling andprescribe personalized
upskilling for their students.
So we become very differentthan any other reporting tool,
(25:27):
because this is not.
We are not just coming withexternal data.
We are looking at your people.
Your people are doing somethingon my platform and then I'm
giving you who you already have.
Storie (25:38):
So let me ask you on the consumer side, or the students
that are coming out of highschool on?
My 13 year old daughter alreadyknows what she wants to do with
her life.
Can they take this?
Could it help them decide wherethey really need to go, based
on their personality?
Sameer (25:54):
yeah, the the initial product that we had.
It can give them indication onwhat their personality is
aligned to, on what they need todo.
But again I'll say 13 year oldis it is, it's still too young,
they're not decided right.
Yeah, they have not decided.
I think any personalityassessment in the world works
better after a certain age,which usually I say after 19 or
(26:16):
20 years of age, because up till13 or 14, you have just learned
everything from your parents.
Storie (26:22):
Absolutely.
Or your relatives, right.
It's like the phases in life,right, because I mean I just had
one recently.
It's like I've enjoyed whatI've done, but now I have a
different purpose.
Where do I go from here?
And that's kind of hard tofigure out, but this technology
you've created is really helpingto optimize that.
Sameer (26:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the idea.
Storie (26:43):
And you're doing a great job, it seems like.
So what other I guess cohortsare you dabbling in right now?
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat.
Sameer (26:55):
Yeah, so more or less we are trying to.
One of our client is, or two ofour clients are using it to
acquire the talent, which is,basically they use it as an
initial assessment whenever theywant to hire someone.
So they send the assessment toa massive pool of people and
then they do the assessment andthey just get like, let's say,
100 people apply for a job or200 people applied for a job.
(27:17):
System recommend only these arethe top 10 whom you should
interview.
Wow.
So, you don't even have to lookat like 190, 200 resumes.
Now, most of the people comewith this notion that AI is
rejecting my resume, butactually it doesn't, because
your resume might look exactlysame like the other person's
resume and every single personwho uses ChatGPT.
(27:42):
Their resume looks almostsimilar because now all the
keywords are there, all themetrics are there, so nothing
changes there.
But the one thing that changesis how you have answered the
assessment.
Right.
And now let's say, two peopleare sitting next to each other
and giving the assessment.
That's the only chance which ispossible that you might get
similar result, but again.
Storie (28:03):
Why?
Why even do that?
though, if you really want toknow where you should be right,
yeah you know through thatprocess that you mentioned being
, um, not fit for this job, notfit for that job, based on the
assessments.
It honestly made me take adeeper dive not too long I think
it was over a year ago now andI was curious what my
personality was saying, right,and so it helped me.
(28:25):
Going through the differentprograms which now there's a lot
more out there um realized thatmy personality is and the way I
conduct business is only madefor seven percent of the jobs in
the world.
So, yeah, it's going to be alittle difficult, but, man, when
, when I found this position,it's a perfect fit personality
(28:46):
too, and that's what makes mehappy at the end of the day.
Sameer (28:48):
Yeah, I think like that's how we anyhow live in the
life also, right, I don't knowwhy we don't do it for the
career.
We work on elimination method.
We never work on selectionmethod in life.
That's a good point.
Yeah, like we want to buy ahouse, we'll first decide okay,
we cannot buy a million dollarhouse, we cannot buy a $300,000
house, we can only buy 300 to400.
Storie (29:09):
Right, you put yourself in a lane.
Sameer (29:16):
Yeah, we didn't select it.
We eliminated the other options.
That's very true when you go onZillow or any of the housing
platform you don't go and lookat everything.
You go and put filters, whichis again an elimination method.
You are eliminating out of allthe two million options,
everything that basically goesand fits into you.
Storie (29:29):
That's a good point.
Sameer (29:31):
So I have written a book basically on psychology of
interviews, right?
So what's the name of the book?
Psychology of Interview.
Storie (29:38):
Oh, it really is.
Yeah, ok, I'm going to have tolook that up?
Sameer (29:42):
Yeah, so I talk about that thing there, which is you
need to understand yourselfenough so that you can eliminate
all the noises around you,which is, if you are able to
eliminate everything that is notaligning with you, you'll be
able to find out.
Even like you said, you knowthat 7% of the job only fits you
right Now.
(30:02):
You should be very muchrelieved that.
I just have to focus on 7%.
Yes.
If it would have came 93% ofthe jobs aligned with you, I'll
be heck lot confused because 93%is everything in the world.
Storie (30:14):
That is so much.
Yes, it's nice to know whereyour niche is to focus on, but
that is so.
That's very forward thinkingand it kind of helps you reframe
your mindset, to take you outof that negative mindset and
method into a more positive,productive mindset method, which
is wonderful.
So, at the end of the day, how,if someone wanted to reach you
(30:39):
or a business wanted to reachyou to talk more about this, how
can these companies orbusinesses reach you?
Sameer (30:44):
wanted to reach you to talk more about this.
How can these companies orbusinesses reach you?
The easiest method is linkedin.
I guess I'm not very proud ofit but I'm too active on
linkedin but but it helps me alot.
So absolutely.
Storie (30:53):
I think that's how I reached out to you, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's a greatnetworking tool and, honestly,
we are a digital marketingcompany, so I've always got you
in my pocket if you ever need me.
100%.
So LinkedIn.
And is it the business name oris it your name?
Sameer (31:09):
So it's my name.
So if you just reach out to me,we can talk a lot about what is
happening in the hiring side,or how do you upskill your
talent or how do you manage yourtalent, because I think these
are the three big black boxesfor most of the major companies
today also, and it will be thesame thing tomorrow, because
(31:29):
nobody invest enough tounderstand their people, but
everybody invest enough to givethem whatever they think is
right which is the wrong method,which isn't helping their
business at the end of the dayright well, it seems like you
really want to help people atthe end of the day.
Storie (31:44):
so on Well, it seems like you really want to help
people at the end of the day.
So, on the last question I'mgoing to ask you I ask it to all
of my guests what is one thingyou wish you knew before you
started this whole adventure?
Sameer (31:53):
Oh.
Storie (31:54):
Or someone would have told you.
Sameer (32:00):
Oh, very interestingly, this was something which was
asked yesterday.
I was doing just an interviewwith some magazine and they
asked me this question If youare mentoring someone and you
need to tell them like theyshould be precautious of X, y, z
thing, what would be that?
And I said, like, even if I'llgive you in writing and I'll
tell you the method that exactlythis is what you need to follow
whenever those things willhappen to you, you won't be able
(32:23):
to follow it because life willgive you curveball.
And entrepreneurship, I think,is a one of the most hardest
thing because, first of all,nobody understands what you're
doing right.
Second, if they understand they, they then now try to perceive
whether you are making money ornot, because that is what the
success criteria becomes.
(32:43):
Now, let's say you're makingmoney also, and people
understand your business, nowyou have to protect yourself
from new things, which isinvestor shock, it might be
stakeholder shock.
Right Now, let's say you areable to do that.
Now you have to protect yoursocial image right, and nobody
gives you training for any ofthat, because nobody can.
Every single person has adifferent situation, different
(33:06):
outlook, different way to handleit.
I don't want to go political,but if you'll just look at what
is happening in the US,Absolutely.
Yeah, all the entrepreneurs.
They are right on a target side, because one guy who created
the best thing in the world istrying to do something, whether
right or wrong.
I won't comment on it, but he'senemy number one right now
(33:29):
right so and and that that'swhat the entrepreneurship is
right at that scale, or even ata smaller scale yeah, right.
Storie (33:36):
So so be agile.
Have a plan, but be agile withthat plan, and be ready to laugh
at at yourself.
Sameer (33:44):
I think people take themselves very seriously.
Yeah.
And I think that's what killedentrepreneurship in them.
Storie (33:52):
Absolutely.
You've got to not get boggeddown with it all Well.
Thank you so much for sharingmore about your business, and
I'm so excited to see where yougo from here.
Sameer (34:02):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you, Sameer.
Storie (34:05):
And to all of our listeners out there.
The contact information forSamir and his companies will be
in the description below.
Please feel free to share thispodcast with any entrepreneur or
business owner who really wantsto build, launch, grow and
scale.
We'll see you again next time.
Welcome back to Market it With Atmo, where we share the
tips, tools and strategies tohelp your business be successful
.
Today we have on the show avery special guest, owner and
founder of Catonate Corp, theumbrella company of Maya Maya,
mr Samir, we are going todiscuss a few things that are
very interesting to me and onthe cutting edge of what we do,
(00:39):
what you do and, I think, wherethe world is going now.
So let's please welcome Samir.
Thank you for joining us.
Sameer (00:47):
Thank you so much for having me here.
I'm excited to talk about whatwe are doing and where the world
is progressing.
Storie (00:53):
Yes, so you are local in Texas, right, yep?
And I'm so glad you reached outto me, because AI is everything
right now.
Sameer (01:01):
That's true.
That's true.
I think AI was a sales word.
I want to call it up till 2023.
But since last couple of yearsit is much more than a sales
word.
Now it's a real thing.
Storie (01:13):
Absolutely, and I'm sure there's plenty of pros and cons
we can hear.
But can you tell me your story,how you began to develop Maya
Maya and what led you here today?
Sameer (01:24):
Right.
So Maya Maya was basicallysomething that we morphed from
Mira Mira.
Mira Mira was the first productthat we developed at Catanate.
It was basically a tool to helpstudents identify which
colleges they should go to,which courses they should pursue
, and we thought, if we addanother element to it, which is
(01:44):
the resume, which is the jobskills of the people, we can
make it a great tool tounderstand talent management.
It's not just how do you hirepeople, but how do you upskill
them, how do you retain them,how do you nurture them.
It's much more important tonurture your employees by
understanding them.
I can give incentive as much asI want to the people, but if
(02:08):
they're not looking for theincentive, they might be looking
for something very else and Idon't know about it.
Right, I will never be able toretain them.
Storie (02:15):
How could you know, as a business owner, other than
what's on their resume, who theyreally are, if they'll fit in
well, right, so can you take meback just a little bit more on?
Why is this something thattouched you and you decided to
become an entrepreneur and justrun with it?
Sameer (02:33):
Right, Okay, so become becoming an entrepreneur.
The story goes.
I think I want to call now 15years ago.
Right, I was right out of highschool and I wanted to do
something, because I saw most ofthe schools where I come from
in India.
They don't have a system bywhich they can exchange courses
(02:53):
with each other, which isapparently even US doesn't have
that kind of a system.
Storie (02:58):
Exchange or compare.
Sameer (03:00):
It's exchange.
For example, there might be aschool in Plano which teaches
calculus to the best right andsomebody in Carrollton wants to
learn how they teach thatcalculus or algebra and they
should have access to thateducational information where
they can go buy that education,buy that course or buy that
(03:21):
recorded lectures and basicallylearn from it.
Storie (03:24):
Almost like you can do a certification, almost like you
can do a certification Almostlike you can do a certification.
Okay.
Yeah.
Sameer (03:30):
So I would like to call it loosely Coursera I was trying
to build at that time.
And I built that Coursera forIndian kids at that time and
then there was nobody whounderstood that, okay, we might
need Coursera also, becausethere was nothing like remote
that okay, we might need.
Coursera also because there wasnothing like remote work
existed at that time.
There was no.
(03:50):
We had internet, but nobodythought that you can learn
something with an online coursemodule.
Storie (03:58):
It wasn't utilized.
Like it is today, people arekind of afraid of you know the
cutting edge at first right.
Sameer (04:04):
And I'm talking about 2009 and 10, right, which is
where we are just coming out ofrecession economy.
Nobody wants to invest inonline courses.
So I had my first moment ofsales there, which is, I
understood, creating technologyis the easiest thing to do in
the world, but sellingtechnology is the hardest thing.
Storie (04:23):
Absolutely, I would have to agree with you.
Trying to get people tounderstand easiest thing to do
in the world, but sellingtechnology is the hardest thing.
Absolutely I would have toagree with you.
Trying to get people tounderstand everything that you
put into something is is it, Iagree, the most difficult thing
you can do.
Sameer (04:33):
So that was the.
That that was my firstentrepreneurship moment, and
then, from there on, I startedcreating community of people,
community of students, andhelping them out, and, and I
think along the way, I learnedlike, okay, one thing that is
never going to change in theworld is how people upskill
themselves, which is education.
And second finding jobs ordoing something for monetary
(04:57):
gains.
Storie (04:57):
Right, absolutely so.
In your growing up and learningall these things and really
finding your passion, did youcome from a family of
entrepreneurs?
Did you have mentors that kindof helped guide you, or were you
just take the road and figureit out?
Sameer (05:13):
Yeah, I'll say like in my growing up years, right in my
family nobody has ever steppeda foot in business because they
all come from public sector.
They work in public sector,private sector, and they have
been very happy, blessed thatthey get a salary at the end of
the month.
Storie (05:32):
They don't have to secure jobs yeah.
Sameer (05:36):
And that was the mindset that I grew up with.
But I think that helped me alot because my parents never
asked me to be in the same zone.
They always told me that followyour dream, whatever you can do
and you can achieve.
And they also told me that thereis no right age or wrong age to
be successful.
Right, you can be successful at50, you can be successful at 30
(05:58):
.
And success is a very differentparameter for everyone.
For my parents, it was justthat my father and mother can
enjoy both the meals with eachother.
That was the success to them.
Storie (06:09):
That's their content, that's where they're happy.
Sameer (06:13):
And that's where, like whole, I think that gave me
strength to become anentrepreneur, because it's a
very difficult journey I haveseen, but when I came here, I
met nice people in everywhereand anywhere.
I have worked in every venturethat I have seen and but when I
came here, I met nice people ineverywhere and anywhere.
I have worked.
In every venture that I haveworked, I think I met some
amazing people who basicallypushed me up.
(06:34):
I have.
I have seen people who, likethis is very common right.
People say that you need luckto be successful.
I think you need to be luckyenough to find the good people
so that you can be successful Ineverything.
Storie (06:49):
I would have to agree with you in everything I've
learned in the differentindustries I've been in, what
I've excelled in is when I havesomebody that is more
intelligent in that than I amand that is willing to teach me
100%.
Right, I mean you lead byexample, just like kids.
Sameer (07:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Storie (07:06):
For sure.
So, now that we've got somebackstory on that which is what
I was really striving tounderstand, because it's like
for all the entrepreneurs outthere that didn't think they can
do it and are now trying howdid they grow up?
What do they want to teachtheir children?
And that's important becauseyou're making the next
generation.
Yep, they want to teach theirchildren, and that's important
because you're making the nextgeneration and this next
(07:27):
generation is going to beintense, it is Because of AI,
almost.
So tell me, how did you notmonetize?
How did you conform this AI in,particularly to help these
businesses Walk?
Sameer (07:45):
me through the steps of how it works, right.
So, uh, it's very simple, likeit's any other SaaS tool, right,
you buy the license tounderstand.
Now there are different faucetsof the business, right there
might be someone who's trying toacquire talent, which is hiring
right, or there might be peoplewho might want to upskill the
talent which is you already haveemployees you want to
understand how you can upskillthe talent, which is you already
have employees.
You want to understand how youcan upskill them for the jobs
(08:07):
that are going to come in next10 year, five year, two year
right.
You need to provide anupskilling plan, and not just
upskilling plan, but apersonalized upskilling plan,
which means you have to do thiscourse, you might have to do it
in an auditory method, or youmight need mentorship, you might
need need teamwork but that's alot of time to devote to each
and every person, is it not?
Storie (08:27):
it is, it is, but again, you are as good as your
employees are absolutely so,instead of doing that by
themselves and reading throughall their personalities and
their you know, their referencesand things like that you've
created've created a tool tohelp optimize that.
Sameer (08:46):
To do everything for them, which is basically my tool
.
You just need to giveassessment for 10 minutes, and
this is something we prescribeto do it every three months.
So, I can chart out yourpersonality, how your
personality is changing, howyour soft skills are changing.
And based on that, we provideupskilling strategy.
We provide differentprescriptions on how you can
upskill your employees.
(09:07):
And over a period of time, weare able to profile your
employees, which means that now,let's say, you want to hire
someone who is exactly like yourpersonality, but you want to
add a few more elements to it.
You can do it with our tool andthen that creates a baseline.
So anybody who applies to thejob role, if they have similar
or better personality, betteraptitude, then you just have to
(09:30):
interview them.
You don't have to go throughhundreds and thousands of
resumes and then waste all thattime and then the time to
interview them.
Storie (09:39):
So can the business owner create based on that
evaluation, like like someonelike you, but with maybe softer
speaking or networking skills,can you optimize questions,
interview questions, so thatthey're answering the right
questions to fill in thoseblanks?
Sameer (09:55):
yeah, so the assessment is it has a recommendation
engine which basicallyunderstands the personality as
you answer.
So the system is automaticallytrying to map out your
personality and if you try togame, the system system games
you.
So it tries to give you moredifferent types of questions.
Storie (10:14):
Oh see, and that is the cutting edge of AI People who
have figured out how to utilizeit as a cheating tool, and now
you're telling me you've made itto where they can't.
Sameer (10:23):
Where they can't, because they can, because they
don't, nobody will understand.
Like what I'm trying to assess.
I'll ask very simple questionand that question will basically
I might be assessing 84different parameters and we we
assess soft skills also.
So it basically means that youneed to be smart enough to
understand how soft skillsinteract with each other.
(10:43):
For example, there might besomeone who is very adaptable
and that person might be veryinsecure also.
So adaptability is a very goodthing to have.
Right.
But if you have very highadaptability, you might be a
very high insecure person also.
Right which people don't showwhich people don't show right,
(11:03):
so I will be able to understandevery facet of personality and I
can basically show a mirrorRight.
And that's what Maya basicallymeans.
It's an illusion.
Interesting.
You basically create yourillusion and I'm able to find
who you are in your illusion.
Storie (11:20):
Okay, and is this by them answering a set of
questions, or is it by video orvoice?
Sameer (11:26):
It is just simple, like assessment questions are there.
It's a behavioral economicsbased assessment.
Right.
So you just answer the questionand we are able to identify
your personality profile.
Storie (11:37):
And you really can't know what questions they're
going to ask, because you makeit optimized to each business
and what they're looking forright.
Or what they could optimize.
Sameer (11:46):
Yeah.
So businesses don't have thatoption to optimize the questions
, so we have.
So questions are very workplacesetting or general life setting
.
For example, let's say I had ahuge loan of.
Let's say I had a $10,000 loanon my head and I won a lottery
of $100 and I'm in front of acasino and will I go in casino
(12:08):
and play that $100 to winanother $100?
Right.
Or I'll just go and pay that$100 off my debt Right.
Storie (12:16):
Now both are the right options.
Sameer (12:18):
There is nothing wrong.
Storie (12:19):
Right, absolutely.
Sameer (12:20):
And then there will be a question which will come
sometime in the trailing thing,which is if you have $100 and
you went to casino and you won$100, now you have $200.
Do you still place the bet oryou go and pay off your $10,000
debt with that $200 that youhave won?
Storie (12:37):
And that decision is a personality trait.
Sameer (12:39):
And it depends on the day that you are giving that
assessment also, because in reallife you might have got just a
bonus, right you?
Might be feeling that you areon top of the world.
You'll give a very differentanswer than your car got total
somewhere.
Storie (12:54):
That was where I was going to ask my next question,
because I mean, you have thoseBriggs Myers test right and I've
taken a few and they'redifferent, different levels of
it.
But one day so I tried to, Itried to see how I could beat
this system right.
So one day I was feeling reallydown and I took it, and then I
took the same set of questionswhen I was feeling really up,
(13:14):
said I was a completelydifferent person.
So how is what you do differentfrom that?
Sameer (13:19):
Yeah, so there are two things right.
Myers-briggs usually gives youa situation and it asks you
whether you highly agree with itor highly disagree with it
which is trying to put you intoa box, right.
There won't be any situation inlife where you will either
highly agree or highly disagree.
Every situation of the life,there will be options, actions
that you need to take Variables,yeah, and we basically give you
(13:43):
actions in our assessment.
So I don't ask whether youhighly agree with it or highly
disagree with it.
I'll give you a situation andI'll give you four options that
are very right to that situationthat you can go and take action
on.
And now you have to order it.
What was the first thing?
(14:03):
Second thing, third thing,fourth thing now, as you said,
yes, personality changes, but wemap that personality change.
I want to see, over a period oftime, how much your personality
is changing.
Or is it not changing at all,or is it going?
For example, we do somethingaround the term ikigai which
basically means finding the coreof your life, finding the
purpose of your life it haspurpose, passion, reward and
spirit right right?
(14:24):
uh, let's say I'm single.
I'm not chasing that much aboutreward, I just want to work, I
want to follow my passion andeverything.
Right now, suddenly, I'mmarried, I have one person to
take care of and I want to bemore responsible.
So I want to earn more money,everything that I was doing as a
passionate person.
Now my outlook will be on thereward side.
(14:44):
Now, let's say I have a kid.
Now I want to do somethingbetter so that world is a better
place for my kid.
Now, from passion to rewardeverything will convert to a
purpose.
And I want to do everythingthat is purposeful.
I want to a purpose and I wantto do everything that is
purposeful.
I want to eat healthy.
I want to make them eat healthy.
So, that's how our personalitybasically revolves around these
(15:05):
four quadrants.
And now that's what we try totrack.
If your employee is basicallyall of a sudden he's going
towards a purpose-drivenaptitude, it means that
something has changed in theirlife.
They might have a moreresponsible outlook towards life
, and if that is the outlook,you need to reward them in that
(15:26):
similar manner that helps themtheir purpose.
Storie (15:29):
Wow.
Sameer (15:30):
So it helps that the synergy between your manager and
your employee and it helps themunderstand it helps them
understand at the granular levelrather than just very nominal
on the resume level right rightyou might have seen people get
promoted to become manager, butthey are never a good manager
(15:50):
because they never had atraining to become manager right
or they don't even have theaptitude or the soft skill to
become a manager right, and thenthe most of the people under
them either start hating them orthey leave the company.
Storie (16:03):
Right, absolutely, at the end of the day, and that's
bad for the business right.
Turnover for any business isnot good.
You want that longevity, so canyou tell me what type of
businesses are you working withright now and how are they
utilizing this technology?
Sameer (16:19):
right.
So we, we are working with fewof the IT clients, which is more
or less they are trying to findout their employees and how
they can upskill them.
Everybody tried to do a layoffin 2023 huge layoff in the IT
industry, but that didn't helpanyone, because market is now
(16:42):
overpopulated with talentedpeople, right, but the
technology has changed for whatthey were very talented of,
right.
So now new things are required,so how you can upskill your
talent so that they are readyfor the jobs, rather than you
just cutting them off and thenfiguring out how to go and find
the next person Starting allover?
Storie (17:01):
Yeah.
Sameer (17:02):
So that's what a few of the IT clients are doing.
Same thing is being used byuniversities also, because they
are the people who are creatingthose talent for the industry,
and universities need to knowexactly what they need to
prepare the talent for,otherwise there will be a huge
shortage of supply chain.
(17:22):
Same thing we have seen in thenursing industry.
Right as of today, we have, ifnumbers are correct, around
250,000 jobs opening for nursesin this country alone, and
that's a staggering huge number.
We don't have enough nurses tofill that job because some eight
, nine years ago nobody wasgoing into the nursing degrees.
(17:44):
Either people wanted to becomeaccountant, store manager,
managers, right Inventorymanager, because retail was
booming.
Storie (17:53):
Right and the interest rates on mortgages were lower.
Sameer (17:57):
Yeah, so nobody wanted to do that thing right.
It created a massive shortagein the industry.
Wow, so that's what we aretrying to prevent.
If people say AI will take thejob, I always say not knowing AI
will take the job, absolutelynot.
Storie (18:12):
Just like the internet when it first came to be right,
I mean now everyone that trulywas innovative in that time and
took hold of it and grasped it.
Yeah, they're the ones that areahead today.
They really are.
At the end of the day, whetheryou understand or not, the world
is still shifting.
My kids know don't even knowwhat a magazine looks like
sometimes you know, and that'sokay, because that's where we're
(18:35):
going yeah, 100.
Sameer (18:37):
Most of the people might never know the VCR tapes.
Storie (18:39):
I know.
Sameer (18:41):
Or the records.
Storie (18:42):
I intentionally bought a house phone just so they would
understand what that was.
You know, I mean some thingsyou have to learn, like cursives
so you can read history books,but you have to have an
innovative mentality.
In the way we're moving rightnow, it's just necessary.
So how does this differ fromany other AI?
Sameer (19:04):
Yeah, so AI is.
I usually call it an umbrellaterm.
Ai is basically any system thatcan take action on your behalf.
That is AI.
Everything under it is.
There might be data analysis,there might be data science,
which is prediction, right.
There might be processautomation, which is basically
automating different processes.
There might be data extraction,there might be data reading.
(19:28):
So a lot of different thingscomes under AI.
Now how this is different is wetry to do three things, which
is different than any other tool.
One is clustering of people,which is we try to figure out
who are the similar people focusgroups focus groups and can
they make up uh?
Do they have any similarpersonality trait?
Storie (19:48):
if they have similar personality trait.
Sameer (19:50):
Do they gel together well or they don't gel with each
other?
And based on figure out okay,this is how your company looks
like, right?
Which is a very different formof AI, because system can take
action on behalf of you.
It can basically tell you whoare the people who will work
together, who are the people whowon't work together Longevity,
longevity.
And it gives you successionplanning also, which is who are
(20:13):
the people who show trade tobecome better leader or manager
in your firm.
Storie (20:19):
Or who is great at what they do and needs to stay
Correct.
Sameer (20:24):
I don't want to ever use this product to recycle people,
but again, I can create a tool.
People can use it to even useit as a screwdriver or a murder
weapon.
It's up to them.
Storie (20:36):
I mean, that's with everything right.
At the end of the day, we'reall trying to be successful,
especially entrepreneurs andbusiness owners.
So, at the end of the day, yes,you want to be there for your
people, but if you had somethingon the front end to tell you
what people are going to helpyou grow, I mean, how is that?
You're right, though, if youutilize it in the way that
(20:58):
you've made it.
Sameer (20:59):
Yeah, yeah.
Storie (21:00):
So that's what's important.
So tell me, we work off of theBuild Launch Grow scale
methodology at Advent Trinityand it sounds like you've really
done a lot of investing in thebuild phase and even the launch
phase.
I took a look at your website.
So where are you going now?
What stage are you in of thatBuild Launch Grow scale?
Sameer (21:19):
I think we are in the growth scale this year.
In the last three months wehave basically got like seven
clients, seven new clients.
Out of that, four areuniversities, with every
university having more than60,000 students in it.
Storie (21:37):
Is it helping them optimize what students they
allow to come in?
Sameer (21:42):
One of the use cases yes , they are using it for.
And another use case they'reusing it to prepare their
students for the job that isthere in the market.
Storie (21:49):
Wow.
Sameer (21:50):
Third is how they are going to align their curriculum,
or what they need to add intotheir curriculum so that they
can make it better.
Right, and then who are thepeople who should be moved from
one degree to another, which is,if they are in the undergrad,
who are the people who showpropensity to join the graduate
programs so they are using itfor?
Storie (22:10):
That's wonderful, to make them more successful right
At the end of the day and givethem an opportunity to not fail
and then learn Correct.
That's wonderful.
So what do you project, or whatare your goals in the next
three, five years for thiscompany?
Sameer (22:24):
Yeah, I think again I'll be speaking out of turn, but
our personal goal is like in2027, texas is going to have,
dallas is going to have itsstock exchange and we want to be
one of the first company to goand ring the bell there.
Wow.
Storie (22:44):
And I think we are on the way.
So, hey, one step every day,right?
Yeah, that's all you can do.
So tell me and we've talked alot about the good what are some
of the challenges that you havehad to overcome in this process
?
Sameer (22:51):
yeah, I think we created a product of future.
A couple of years ago, nobodyunderstood the importance of
soft skill, because nobody wasaware that AI will come and will
replace the talent, likeanything Everybody was focused
on.
We want to hire people for jobskills, which is they should be
(23:11):
good at X, y, z thing and that'sabout it, because that will get
the job done.
So it was very hard for us toconvince people that job skills
are not the only thing that isimportant for hiring process,
but there are other skills also,and the same goes for how do
you manage talent?
But all of a sudden, thanks toAI in advent of AI, I will call
(23:34):
it which is people have changedhow they look business at all,
because website development usedto take like months, now I can
do it in like a couple ofseconds.
Right.
I was just doing a prototyping,basically showing how to build a
new company to around 100founders last week and we
(23:54):
basically built, I think, theirsoftware prototypes in like half
an hour for 100 differentprototypes.
We built it, which isunimaginable because I remember
three years ago that would havetaken at least two or three
years because I was building 100product at a time.
I just got it done in 30 minutes, and if I can get it done in 30
(24:17):
minutes, you just need onecoder, one developer, to do all
those work.
What rest of them will do?
And you still need them toimplement it.
But you need to be smart enoughto understand how to use your
talent again.
Storie (24:29):
Absolutely.
Sameer (24:30):
And that shortage of understanding has created a huge
demand for our product rightnow, even without any marketing
Right, With just a word of mouth.
We are getting huge traction.
Storie (24:40):
and then I'm not just talking about basis yeah, and
I'm not just talking USA.
Sameer (24:45):
I'm talking USA, I'm talking UAE, I'm talking India,
I'm talking.
Australia all over the worldyeah, because everybody now
needs the solution.
Storie (24:54):
So I think wonderful.
So how do you approach?
Unlike some of the universities, are they buying a technology?
Are they buying two years worthof technology?
What are they purchasing?
Sameer (25:05):
from you.
So they are purchasing more orless a services solution I'll
call it which is getting thereport of their students,
getting the report what theyneed to do.
So, more or less, we are like areport to them yeah but on a
skill and upskilling andprescribe personalized
upskilling for their students.
So we become very differentthan any other reporting tool,
(25:27):
because this is not.
We are not just coming withexternal data.
We are looking at your people.
Your people are doing somethingon my platform and then I'm
giving you who you already have.
Storie (25:38):
So let me ask you on the consumer side, or the students
that are coming out of highschool on?
My 13 year old daughter alreadyknows what she wants to do with
her life.
Can they take this?
Could it help them decide wherethey really need to go, based
on their personality?
Sameer (25:54):
yeah, the the initial product that we had.
It can give them indication onwhat their personality is
aligned to, on what they need todo.
But again I'll say 13 year oldis it is, it's still too young,
they're not decided right.
Yeah, they have not decided.
I think any personalityassessment in the world works
better after a certain age,which usually I say after 19 or
(26:16):
20 years of age, because up till13 or 14, you have just learned
everything from your parents.
Storie (26:22):
Absolutely.
Or your relatives, right.
It's like the phases in life,right, because I mean I just had
one recently.
It's like I've enjoyed whatI've done, but now I have a
different purpose.
Where do I go from here?
And that's kind of hard tofigure out, but this technology
you've created is really helpingto optimize that.
Sameer (26:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the idea.
Storie (26:43):
And you're doing a great job, it seems like.
So what other I guess cohortsare you dabbling in right now?
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat.
Sameer (26:55):
Yeah, so more or less we are trying to.
One of our client is, or two ofour clients are using it to
acquire the talent, which is,basically they use it as an
initial assessment whenever theywant to hire someone.
So they send the assessment toa massive pool of people and
then they do the assessment andthey just get like, let's say,
100 people apply for a job or200 people applied for a job.
(27:17):
System recommend only these arethe top 10 whom you should
interview.
Wow.
So, you don't even have to lookat like 190, 200 resumes.
Now, most of the people comewith this notion that AI is
rejecting my resume, butactually it doesn't, because
your resume might look exactlysame like the other person's
resume and every single personwho uses ChatGPT.
(27:42):
Their resume looks almostsimilar because now all the
keywords are there, all themetrics are there, so nothing
changes there.
But the one thing that changesis how you have answered the
assessment.
Right.
And now let's say, two peopleare sitting next to each other
and giving the assessment.
That's the only chance which ispossible that you might get
similar result, but again.
Storie (28:03):
Why?
Why even do that?
though, if you really want toknow where you should be right,
yeah you know through thatprocess that you mentioned being
, um, not fit for this job, notfit for that job, based on the
assessments.
It honestly made me take adeeper dive not too long I think
it was over a year ago now andI was curious what my
personality was saying, right,and so it helped me.
(28:25):
Going through the differentprograms which now there's a lot
more out there um realized thatmy personality is and the way I
conduct business is only madefor seven percent of the jobs in
the world.
So, yeah, it's going to be alittle difficult, but, man, when
, when I found this position,it's a perfect fit personality
(28:46):
too, and that's what makes mehappy at the end of the day.
Sameer (28:48):
Yeah, I think like that's how we anyhow live in the
life also, right, I don't knowwhy we don't do it for the
career.
We work on elimination method.
We never work on selectionmethod in life.
That's a good point.
Yeah, like we want to buy ahouse, we'll first decide okay,
we cannot buy a million dollarhouse, we cannot buy a $300,000
house, we can only buy 300 to400.
Storie (29:09):
Right, you put yourself in a lane.
Sameer (29:16):
Yeah, we didn't select it.
We eliminated the other options.
That's very true when you go onZillow or any of the housing
platform you don't go and lookat everything.
You go and put filters, whichis again an elimination method.
You are eliminating out of allthe two million options,
everything that basically goesand fits into you.
Storie (29:29):
That's a good point.
Sameer (29:31):
So I have written a book basically on psychology of
interviews, right?
So what's the name of the book?
Psychology of Interview.
Storie (29:38):
Oh, it really is.
Yeah, ok, I'm going to have tolook that up?
Sameer (29:42):
Yeah, so I talk about that thing there, which is you
need to understand yourselfenough so that you can eliminate
all the noises around you,which is, if you are able to
eliminate everything that is notaligning with you, you'll be
able to find out.
Even like you said, you knowthat 7% of the job only fits you
right Now.
(30:02):
You should be very muchrelieved that.
I just have to focus on 7%.
Yes.
If it would have came 93% ofthe jobs aligned with you, I'll
be heck lot confused because 93%is everything in the world.
Storie (30:14):
That is so much.
Yes, it's nice to know whereyour niche is to focus on, but
that is so.
That's very forward thinkingand it kind of helps you reframe
your mindset, to take you outof that negative mindset and
method into a more positive,productive mindset method, which
is wonderful.
So, at the end of the day, how,if someone wanted to reach you
(30:39):
or a business wanted to reachyou to talk more about this, how
can these companies orbusinesses reach you?
Sameer (30:44):
wanted to reach you to talk more about this.
How can these companies orbusinesses reach you?
The easiest method is linkedin.
I guess I'm not very proud ofit but I'm too active on
linkedin but but it helps me alot.
So absolutely.
Storie (30:53):
I think that's how I reached out to you, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's a greatnetworking tool and, honestly,
we are a digital marketingcompany, so I've always got you
in my pocket if you ever need me.
100%.
So LinkedIn.
And is it the business name oris it your name?
Sameer (31:09):
So it's my name.
So if you just reach out to me,we can talk a lot about what is
happening in the hiring side,or how do you upskill your
talent or how do you manage yourtalent, because I think these
are the three big black boxesfor most of the major companies
today also, and it will be thesame thing tomorrow, because
(31:29):
nobody invest enough tounderstand their people, but
everybody invest enough to givethem whatever they think is
right which is the wrong method,which isn't helping their
business at the end of the dayright well, it seems like you
really want to help people atthe end of the day.
Storie (31:44):
so on Well, it seems like you really want to help
people at the end of the day.
So, on the last question I'mgoing to ask you I ask it to all
of my guests what is one thingyou wish you knew before you
started this whole adventure?
Sameer (31:53):
Oh.
Storie (31:54):
Or someone would have told you.
Sameer (32:00):
Oh, very interestingly, this was something which was
asked yesterday.
I was doing just an interviewwith some magazine and they
asked me this question If youare mentoring someone and you
need to tell them like theyshould be precautious of X, y, z
thing, what would be that?
And I said, like, even if I'llgive you in writing and I'll
tell you the method that exactlythis is what you need to follow
whenever those things willhappen to you, you won't be able
(32:23):
to follow it because life willgive you curveball.
And entrepreneurship, I think,is a one of the most hardest
thing because, first of all,nobody understands what you're
doing right.
Second, if they understand they, they then now try to perceive
whether you are making money ornot, because that is what the
success criteria becomes.
(32:43):
Now, let's say you're makingmoney also, and people
understand your business, nowyou have to protect yourself
from new things, which isinvestor shock, it might be
stakeholder shock.
Right Now, let's say you areable to do that.
Now you have to protect yoursocial image right, and nobody
gives you training for any ofthat, because nobody can.
Every single person has adifferent situation, different
(33:06):
outlook, different way to handleit.
I don't want to go political,but if you'll just look at what
is happening in the US,Absolutely.
Yeah, all the entrepreneurs.
They are right on a target side, because one guy who created
the best thing in the world istrying to do something, whether
right or wrong.
I won't comment on it, but he'senemy number one right now
(33:29):
right so and and that that'swhat the entrepreneurship is
right at that scale, or even ata smaller scale yeah, right.
Storie (33:36):
So so be agile.
Have a plan, but be agile withthat plan, and be ready to laugh
at at yourself.
Sameer (33:44):
I think people take themselves very seriously.
Yeah.
And I think that's what killedentrepreneurship in them.
Storie (33:52):
Absolutely.
You've got to not get boggeddown with it all Well.
Thank you so much for sharingmore about your business, and
I'm so excited to see where yougo from here.
Sameer (34:02):
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you, Sameer.
Storie (34:05):
And to all of our listeners out there.
The contact information forSamir and his companies will be
in the description below.
Please feel free to share thispodcast with any entrepreneur or
business owner who really wantsto build, launch, grow and
scale.
We'll see you again next time.
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