December 26, 2024 • 27 mins
In this special interview, Mallory chats with Varun Puri, co-founder of Yoodli, an AI-powered communication coach revolutionizing how people prepare for speeches, interviews, and conversations. Varun shares Yoodli’s journey, from its inspiration as a "smart mirror" for speech to its adoption by global organizations like Google and Toastmasters. Discover how associations, professionals, and even doctors are using Yoodli to enhance communication skills, and get insights into why keeping the "human in the loop" is key for authentic speaking. Varun’s candid anecdotes, including the quirky origin of Yoodli’s name, make this an episode you won’t forget.
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🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Yoodli ➡ https://yoodli.ai
Chapters:
00:00 - Welcome to Sidecar Sync
02:05 - Introducing Yoodli: The AI Speech Coach
03:29 - Varun Puri’s Journey and Vision for Yoodli
05:26 - Yoodli’s Process: From Filler Words to Confidence
08:54 - Real-Life Applications for Yoodli Users
12:26 - Feedback on Both Content and Delivery
16:11 - Human and AI Collaboration in Speaking
19:49 - Use Cases: From Google to Toastmasters
23:45 - The Future of Yoodli: A Personal Communication Ally
26:15 - Final Thoughts and Call to Action
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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.
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Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space.
📣 Follow Mallory:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think what I'm learning about speaking is it's
like any other sport.
You need to train the muscle.
You can get better after acouple practice sessions, but
then, if you don't work on it,you'll either get a new take or
you move back into your oldhabits.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Sidecar Sync, your weekly dose of
innovation.
If you're looking for thelatest news, insights and
developments in the associationworld, especially those driven
by artificial intelligenceyou're in the association world,
especially those driven byartificial intelligence you're
in the right place.
We cut through the noise tobring you the most relevant
updates, with a keen focus onhow AI and other emerging
technologies are shaping thefuture.
No fluff, just facts andinformed discussions.
(00:38):
I'm Amit Nagarajan, chairman ofBlue Cypress, and I'm your host
.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hello and welcome back to today's episode of the
Sidecar Sync Podcast.
My name is Mallory Mejiaz andI'm one of your hosts, along
with Amit Nagarajan.
Today, we're excited to bringyou a special interview edition
episode of the Sidecar SyncPodcast, where we interview
Varun Puri, who is theco-founder of Uli, an AI
communication coach.
Before we kick off today'sepisode, let's hear a quick word
(01:08):
from our sponsor.
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Today at learnsidecarglobalcom.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So what exactly is Udly?
It's essentially grammarly forspeech.
Udly provides private andjudgment-free feedback to help
you ace your next speech, salespitch or interview.
It's being used by hundreds ofthousands of individuals and
organizations like GoogleToastmasters, dale Carnegie,
among others.
(02:26):
Yudley has raised over $7million in funding and has been
featured across media outletslike the Wall Street Journal.
Before Yudley, varun ranspecial projects for Sergey Brin
, one of Google's founders.
Varun is a TEDx speaker, part ofForbes 30 Under 30, voted the
best young entrepreneur in thePacific Northwest and gave the
(02:48):
commencement speech at ClaremontMcKenna College, his alma mater
.
So today we have a really goodepisode lined up for you with
Varun.
We're, of course, going to betalking about the Udly platform
and everything it entails.
We'll chat about different usecases, both at the individual
level and at the associationlevel.
I will share some of my ownthoughts from using Yudli myself
(03:11):
and some perhaps unfortunatepatterns I noticed about my
speaking using Yudli and perhapscounterintuitive.
We're going to discuss the ideaof how communication and
speaking is so innately human inmany ways and how Varun thinks
keeping the human in the loop isessential, even when using a
(03:31):
platform he co-founded like Udly.
So please, please, enjoytoday's episode, varun.
Welcome to the Sidecar Syncpodcast.
We are so excited to have youon this episode.
Amit and I connected with youthrough Neil Hoyne, chief
Strategist at Google, who we'vehad on the podcast before and
who was a speaker at our annualevent, digital Now, and we are
(03:53):
so excited to have you on thispodcast.
Before we dive into everythingthat you're working on at Udly,
I wanted to give you theopportunity to tell our audience
a little bit about you and yourbackground.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, no, it's such an honor to be here.
Neil is awesome.
He is an inspiration and agreat mentor and it was great
connecting with you all.
My quick story I'm Varun.
I grew up in India.
I came to the US for college.
My dream, behind Yudli, is tohelp people around the world,
especially in India.
Speak with confidence.
So think of Yudli as to helppeople around the world,
especially in India.
(04:24):
Speak with confidence.
So think of Yudli as Grammarlyfor speech.
We're in the early days of ourjourney, but chugging along.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Awesome, awesome.
Thank you for sharing that.
And when did you found Yudli?
How old is the company?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
It's been two and a half years now, which is nuts to
think, because sometimes itfeels like it was yesterday.
Other days it feels like we'vebeen doing this for 20 years.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know, I feel that I feel that a lot with
workflows when things are reallybusy, but then you look back
and you think, how has it onlybeen a few years?
I've definitely been in thatboat.
On the Udly website I found astat that kind of blew my mind
that I'm sure you know, becauseit's on your website that one in
three people rank publicspeaking as their biggest fear,
(05:08):
higher than the fear of death.
So obviously you created asolution for that, being an AI
coach for public speaking.
But I want to get into more ofthe nitty gritty.
What does Udly actually do forour listeners who've never
experimented with it, neverheard of it?
What does the process look likefor using it?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, it's super simple.
I mean, we all struggled beforea difficult conversation, a big
speech, maybe even aconversation in front of a few
colleagues.
It could be an interview, asalary raise, that best man
speech and we all know 15, 20people who are struggling with
this problem right now.
It is so, so, palpable, and ouralternative today is to
(05:49):
practice in front of a camera ora mirror or a stopwatch.
Yudli is an AI-powered speechcoach.
Think of Yudli as your smartmirror that gives you private,
real-time and judgment-freefeedback.
Now, varun, your intro didn'thave the juice in it or have a
call to action at the end, oryou had too many filler words.
Here.
You're rambling too much whenyou had your joke about your
(06:13):
previous job as an example.
The insight that we have, or wethink we have, is we aren't
solving things with technologyor anything.
We're solving for deep rootedhuman insecurity.
I hate feeling judged and I'mscared of what people might
think of me.
At the core, the best way toimprove is to record yourself
(06:36):
and watch yourself and cringe.
You'd leave just a safeenvironment to do that.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I love that.
Watch yourself and cringe.
I think that is so true to thehuman experience.
And I love what you said aboutthe best man speech, for example
, or the difficult salaryconversation that you have to
have, because I'm sure a lot oflisteners are hearing this and
thinking public speaking theythink a speaker in front of a
big audience, hundreds of people, conferences they may not be
(07:01):
thinking that Yudley could beuseful to them as kind of an
individual in their personallives and their professional
lives.
So I think that's reallyinsightful.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I think also in that vein, people often think of
public speaking as this thingthat Steve Jobs does at TED.
Yudli is not just a publicspeaking coach.
Yudli is a communication skillscoach.
Yudli will simulate yourlisteners persona, whether your
listener is one person, theinterviewer who's grilling you,
whether it's a five personinvestment committee, or whether
(07:30):
it's 100 people in the audience.
We struggle with speaking.
Yudli can help you, or istrying to help you, with as many
forms of speaking as possibletrying to help you with as many
forms of speaking as possible.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Absolutely, I got to dabble with you a little bit in
preparation for this call, soI'll talk to you a little bit
about my experience.
So I did the sales role playconversation and I of course
selected the persona that wasthe most blunt and the most rude
and it was a really goodexercise for me.
It kind of caught me off guard.
You immediately get on the callwith the persona and they say
who are you?
I didn't schedule this call andthat kind of took me aback, so
(08:07):
I had to take a minute and kindof really think through how I
would react in that actualsituation.
But for being a simulation itdid feel pretty realistic.
So I will say I was impressedwith that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
No, thank you.
I mean, look, the speed atwhich AI is evolving is scary.
There are times I demo theproduct Sometimes I'll give it a
personality to be a doucheymanager and I'm trying to
convince this manager to give mea salary raise and I'm like, oh
my God, you literally grilledme and had my heart pounding the
way a manager would.
And I look at my statistics andmy feedback I'm like, wow, I
(08:42):
have a long way to go and I'llpractice four or five times.
Or I use Udly while preppingfor podcasts very often.
Or folks often use us topractice before a media
appearance or a panel discussion.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So I was going to ask you use Udly.
Does your whole team use Udlyas well?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, it's also actually really unfair because,
since we are the Yudli team,people expect us to speak with a
lot of confidence and charismaand be spot on, and that's just
not true.
I speak infinitely faster thananyone.
I know I ramble all the timeand I keep getting penalized,
but I'm getting better.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
You're getting better with Yudli and, hey, it's
gotten you this far, so I wouldsay that I think it's working
out well for you.
I am curious what is the storybehind the name of the company?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
It's a good one.
I get this often.
I'll give you both versions.
So I'll give you the cleaned upversion that I tell people.
If we're in an audience where Ishouldn't be talking about the
true story, then I'll give youthe true story.
So the journalist version islook, yodlee is a play on yodel,
which is a voice exercise.
It's a song in sound of music.
(09:49):
The search engine optimizationwas easy.
The trademark piece was easy.
It has two O's and an L, so itsounds like Google, hulu, like
you know those cool SiliconValley companies, which is why
we ran with it.
The honest answer is I was afreshman in college.
I was looking for my roommate.
I was really drunk.
(10:09):
I was like Tyler, where are you?
You do who, you do who.
And then a couple more fireballshots you do who became Yudli.
And then it just became ourlittle chant in our friend group
and I promised myself if Istart a company one day, I want
my friends to be able to readabout it and say you are kidding
me.
Like grown adults are using theword yoodly.
So we aren't quite there yet.
But when you know we've hadlike press releases or my
(10:33):
friends hear about us in thenews like I always get a texting
, I cannot believe people aretaking yoodly seriously.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I'm sure you experience a little bit of
cognitive dissonance every timeyou're on one of these podcasts
and you hear the interviewerasking you about Udly, which is
a drunken term from yourfreshman year of college.
But I'm honored that you sharedit with all the Sidecar Sync
listeners.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I will say I'm excited to be speaking here and
hopefully collaborate with a lotof folks who are listening to
this podcast.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Well, yeah, I wanted to get into kind of the world of
associations which is our worldhere at Sidecar and on the
Sidecar Sync podcast.
Do you see nonprofits usingUdly associations or is it
mainly for-profit companies?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I mean we have folks across the board.
Toastmasters is a really goodexample.
Toastmasters is a speakingorganization.
They'll use Udly to train theirspeakers, but we've got the
School Nutrition Association andsmaller organizations and
nonprofits who are using us toprepare for fundraising
conversations Essentially, anyorganization that has people who
(11:39):
are speaking and need topractice for their speaking
engagement.
Think of something like theRotary Club, as an example, or
the American MarketingAssociation, et cetera.
I have talks with versions ofthese.
I can't reveal everyone we areworking with or folks who have
members who want to upskillthemselves and struggle with
communication skills.
What Udly does is we give you awhite-labeled, branded version.
(11:59):
What Udly does is we'll giveyou a white label, branded
version of Udly.
It's built around your method,your branding.
You know you might say hey, wecall our people users, not
customers.
Or remember to always thank theaudience and the world of
Toastmasters.
Start with Madam Toastmastersand call them the um counter,
not filler words.
Whatever it might be, Udly willtake on your persona and coach
(12:21):
your members in your voice.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Okay, so Yudli is not just critiquing individuals or
providing feedback on speakingstyle, but also on content.
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, that's super, super important.
I think we need to do a betterjob with our marketing.
A lot of people look at us andthey're like well, it just gives
feedback on the mechanics ofyour speaking.
That's not true.
Udly gives you feedback on yourcontent, your structure.
So are you speaking in threes?
Are you posing?
And then the mechanics of yourdelivery.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, In my own example, I would say, for the
most part, right, publicspeaking is something for me
that comes maybe a bit morenaturally.
I think it's always a journey,right, right, you're never
finished or you're never like atyour best all the time.
But in my feedback from thesimulation that I did with
yudley oh, I'm scared to sharethis feedback with everybody,
(13:10):
but I started 20 of my sentenceswith the word.
So it was a short run, it wasonly two minutes or so, oh, but
now this whole podcast.
I'm thinking, hmm, how manysentences am I starting with?
So I didn't know that aboutmyself.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It's really interesting.
And again, first off, it'sunlikely that another person
would have the courage to giveyou that feedback because it's
good.
But as a speaker, right, that'sprobably helpful to be like.
Am I rambling or am I notpausing between sentences and
I'm just jumping from one ideato another?
A lot of us do that, mine is,and or basically, he just points
that out really quickly.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And do you find you've made improvements on
those filler words, being moreaware of them?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yes, but not just filler words.
It's my ability to make eyecontact, or my body language and
gestures.
I think what I'm learning aboutspeaking is it's like any other
sport you need to train themuscle.
You can get better after acouple of practice sessions, but
then, if you don't work on it,you'll either get a new take or
you move back into your own oldhabits.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
And do you find, since the medium through which
people are using Yudli is online, do you find that it's more
beneficial for onlinepresentations, for webinar
sessions, or do you find thatthat still translates to
in-person speaking events aswell?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I think definitely the latter.
It's people practice for thereal session.
Yes, there are Zoompresentations and interviews
through a bunch of these onlinerecording tools, but I'd say a
majority of our users are usingUdly as their private coach
before the big in-person session, because that's what gets the
nerves pounding as well.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
My mind's kind of grinding over here for
association use cases and Ithink one that's worth
mentioning that we discussedwith you, amit and I the first
time we met you was thatassociations have annual
meetings right, this is a bigpart of their business, and they
bring in a variety of speakersand subject matter experts to
speak at those annual meetings.
That might have a variety oflevels of public speaking skills
(15:11):
.
So I think it could beincredibly useful maybe for an
association to create kind ofsome content or some structure
around how they want thosesessions to go.
Maybe they want them to be moreinteractive, maybe they want
them all to feed in really wellto that overarching annual
meeting theme for that year.
So I think that is certainlyone use case I can think of with
(15:31):
Udly in the association space,totally.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
In fact, that's our bullseye use case.
That's what a lot oforganizations use us for.
You know we've got our annualconvention, our mid-year keynote
organizations use us for.
You know we've got our annualconvention, our mid-year keynote
, our big one-off gathering,where we've spent thousands of
dollars getting speakers,getting the audience, getting
the venue.
The worst thing that couldhappen is someone just drones on
at the event.
How do you make sure theypractice?
(15:55):
Some organizations even pay forhuman speech coaches.
Usually it's by no means asgood as a human coach I want to
be the first to acknowledge thatbut it is a helpful place for
you to practice and then maybebuild some confidence and then
go to the human coach.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Ah, I think that's really profound, because I did
want to ask you about that humanin the loop approach, which is
something we're always talkingabout here at Sidecar.
So you do think there's a placefor both Yudli and human
coaches kind of in that feedbackloop 100%.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
There's always room for human coaches.
Speaking is nuanced andspontaneous and authentic and
brings about vulnerability thatI don't think machines can or
should provide feedback on.
I think of Yudly as the medicalreport, if the human coach is a
doctor, as TurboTax, if thehuman coach is the accountant.
(16:45):
Udly is your co-pilot.
That's here to help you scale.
That's here to do the boring,repetitive tasks in your job and
save you time.
Udly, if used on its own, canget someone from a zero to an
eight, but the last eight to a10 has to happen with a human in
the loop, and the way we'vebuilt the entire platform is
make it really easy to share itwith colleagues and friends and
(17:06):
coaches and have them give youfeedback all through the Udly
ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I really like that.
One of the questions I hadthought about before meeting
with you today was the fact thatpublic speaking to me
inherently feels so human.
And you think about the kindsof speakers that we gravitate
toward or the kinds of speakersthat we think are good quote
unquote, which is subjective,but they're often speakers with
charm, or speakers with stagepresence, or speakers that
(17:34):
command a room, and all of thosethings feel inherently human.
So I did want to ask you howyou've been able, to the best of
your ability, to kind of takethose human intuition, gut
feelings, and put them into anAI.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I don't think we have right.
Yudli will not give youfeedback.
When you sounded inauthentic Ithink that's hard Yudli might
say hey, you rambled a bit whenyou said this and then you
contradicted yourself, but theway quantitative as possible,
which is Varun, you spoke reallyfast in these three sections.
(18:10):
Here's what our typical userbase speaks at.
Speaking fast is fine At somepoint.
It shows excitement and energy.
But were you aware of it Then?
Here's something for you tothink about.
That's very much the ethos ofUdly.
We haven't completely crackedthis.
As AI is getting good, we haveto course correct the way we
approach it, but at aphilosophical level it's very
(18:31):
much.
Let the humans do the humanstuff, let Udly do everything
else.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Do you see a path where AI gets so good that it
can sense inauthenticity?
Or again, are you trying tokind of leave that to the humans
for the foreseeable future?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I don't know, to be honest, I'm by no means the
world's best AI engineer.
I'm future.
I don't know, to be honest, I'mby no means the world's best AI
engineer.
I'm terrified sometimes when Ilook at the speed of development
.
The way we are building ourcompany is.
You can help there, but ourgoal isn't to provide feedback
on those elements of speaking.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I would love for you to share, if you have any off
the top of your head, anyparticular use cases or case
studies, I should say, fromindividuals, professionals, from
companies that you all haveworked with, that really stand
out to you or that you areparticularly, really proud of.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, I mean it's been exciting for us.
This year we landed contractswith many of the world's biggest
companies, so Google just usedus to train 15,000 sales reps on
their new pitches.
As an example, getting 15,000folks to speak about Google's AI
strategy would take forever.
By the time the 15,000th personis trained, google would have
(19:41):
launched 500 new products orinstructor-led workshops on
scale.
They use Udly for that.
Corn Ferry, one of the world'slargest coaching companies, is
using Udly with their Fortune500 clients to help you practice
crucial conversations,interview prep, etc.
Who are the other publiclyknown ones?
(20:03):
Obviously Toastmasters, daleCarnegie.
Hundreds of thousands of usersacross the world have found
their own applications.
I have some folks who come andsay look, I had a stutter when I
was growing up and I didn'tknow how to practice and people
would make fun of me or myspeech language pathologist
recommended this to me or areally fun one.
We're working with some of theworld's largest hospitals and
(20:25):
medical schools where they areusing Yudli to simulate
difficult conversations fordoctors or bedside manners.
Right, if you're a doctor, youneed to practice your
communication skills so deeply.
You cannot tell someone hey,you're going to die.
You got to use gentle languagewhere it's like, hey, you know,
let's talk about a plan afterthis.
(20:46):
Or you kind of say, hey, youhave cancer, it's on this tumor,
whatever it might be, and Udlythen takes on the patient
persona and helps the doctorspractice in this private
environment.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Wow, that is incredible.
See, that's why I wanted to askyou that question, because,
again, I'm still stuck in therut of thinking, conferences,
public speakers, big audiencesbut to think that even medical
professionals are getting valueout of this, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, it's what gets me really excited.
Udly is an AI powered role playsimulator and people make it
their own for whatever they want.
I've heard of folks who use usto practice negotiations with
their toddler.
The toddler is like I wantcandy, and here's why.
How do you have thisconversation where you can't
(21:33):
just say no, you're not going toget it, and buzz off?
You can't talk to your kid likethat.
How do you practice just beinga good parent?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yep, yep.
I wanted to ask you too,because, as I was playing with
the tool, I started thinkingabout using it for foreign
language practice.
Do you see anyone using it inthat way?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, in fact that's one of our biggest user groups.
Right, it's.
Let's say I'm a non-nativeEnglish speaker.
I'm conscious of my accent, I'man immigrant, I've just landed
in the US, I know a little bitof English.
Utility is not where I learnEnglish, but it's where I learn
to speak conversational Englishall the time, because you can
practice why you should go on adate with me, why I want to
(22:12):
order this steak, how expensiveis this meal, whatever
conversation, and you canliterally do like really quick
drills.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
That's awesome.
I speak Spanish as a secondlanguage, but it's getting so
rusty because I never do it,except when I occasionally
travel to a Spanish speakingcountry.
And as I was playing with Yudlitoday, I thought, huh, maybe I
should work on my Spanish skillswith this.
So that's great to know that'show some people are using it.
I'm curious, varun, can youshare with us what is on the
(22:40):
roadmap for Yudli in the nextfew months?
Maybe in the next few years, ifyou thought ahead that far?
Yeah, I mean my dream.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Dream with udley has always been udley is my friend,
my spouse, um, my mom.
That's by my side anytime I'mspeaking, right?
So when I'm at a boarddiscussion, my co-founder will
poke me under the table if I'mjust saying something
ridiculously stupid on ourrevenue slide and she'd be like,
well, get away from this slide.
Or at thanksgiving dinner, likemy mom will like pinch me if
(23:10):
I've, like uh, said somethingreally dumb.
Or you know, we all have thatfriend in the audience who's
like, hey, I can't hear youspeak up.
Um, my dream with you is thiscoach that's by your side in
private anytime you're speaking,just nudging you but don't shut
up, like ask her questions, orhey, like focus on your intro a
little bit, or you're cursingway too much, whatever it might
(23:32):
be, just to help you through theday-to-day of your life.
The same way I use Grammarlyanytime I'm writing, I use Udly
anytime I'm speaking.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yep, or the person or the entity that says Mallory,
you said so.
You know 30% of the sentencesthat you said on this podcast.
Maybe I should have you to lead, just like integrated, onto the
Zoom meeting in the future andget feedback.
Is that something I could?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
do Absolutely.
You can actually do that todayitself.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Wow, the things I'm learning.
So for our associationlisteners who are curious about
getting started, even at theindividual level, but if we're
talking about the enterpriselevel as well, like with the
annual meeting example that Igave earlier, what are the next
steps?
How can we create an accountwith Yoodly and get started?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yep, please go to yoodlyai.
That's Y-O-O-D-L-Iai.
It's free to start Start usingthe tool.
Ideally, you'll love it andyou'll be like, oh my God, I
want this for my team, myassociation.
What if I could white label itand can it do this and that?
And hopefully, you then reachout to us and we can set you up
with the organization plan.
Now we can be reached at infoat yoodleeai.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
My goal with Yoodlee, though, is it should be
self-serve a really fun consumerproduct that you use and love
and you want to share with folksA hundred percent.
And you can like he said, youcan share the videos as well of
you with the blunt salespersonfumbling that sales call, if you
would like to.
And Varun, I also want to sharewith you.
When we connected with you justa few months ago, amit and I,
something was ringing a bell andI kept thinking I've heard of
(25:07):
this product before, like Idon't know how, but I went back
through my emails and searchedand searched and years ago,
probably right after youlaunched, we had considered at
our family of companies doing apublic speaking kind of
initiative, training thing, andI found Yudely and I sent it off
to Amit and was like, hey,check this out.
We didn't end up going forwardwith that initiative at all at
(25:29):
that time, but I just wanted toshare that with you as a little
piece of serendipity that we hadfound you and then forgotten
and then we reconnected again.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
You know, it's exciting to hear that, it's
awesome to hear stories of Yudliout in the wild.
I think I've been through many,many situations where people
have laughed at me or said thisis a dumb idea or the product
has, you know, not worked.
And it's awesome where, a fewyears later, they're coming back
and they're like oh wow, it'schanged.
And can we chat and can weoffer this to our team?
So yeah, if you all would likeit, like let me know and you're
(25:58):
good to go.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Oh well, I encourage everybody seriously go try it
out.
You will be impressed and youmight learn some things that you
didn't necessarily want tolearn about how you speak, but
that will improve yourcommunication in the future.
Varun, thank you so much forjoining us, of course thank you
for having me.
Thank you all for tuning in totoday's episode of the Sidecar
Sync podcast.
(26:20):
I hope that the next time youhave a speaking event coming up
that you're a little bit nervousabout that, you consider using
artificial intelligence to helpyou prepare for it.
We will see you all next week.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Thanks for tuning into Sidecar Sync this week.
Looking to dive deeper?
Download your free copy of ournew book Ascend Unlocking the
Power of AI for Associations atascendbookorg.
It's packed with insights topower your association's journey
with AI.
And remember, sidecar is herewith more resources, from
webinars to boot camps, to helpyou stay ahead in the
(26:56):
association world.
We'll catch you in the nextepisode.
Until then, keep learning, keepgrowing and keep disrupting.
I think what I'm learning about speaking is it's
like any other sport.
You need to train the muscle.
You can get better after acouple practice sessions, but
then, if you don't work on it,you'll either get a new take or
you move back into your oldhabits.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Sidecar Sync, your weekly dose of
innovation.
If you're looking for thelatest news, insights and
developments in the associationworld, especially those driven
by artificial intelligenceyou're in the association world,
especially those driven byartificial intelligence you're
in the right place.
We cut through the noise tobring you the most relevant
updates, with a keen focus onhow AI and other emerging
technologies are shaping thefuture.
No fluff, just facts andinformed discussions.
(00:38):
I'm Amit Nagarajan, chairman ofBlue Cypress, and I'm your host
.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hello and welcome back to today's episode of the
Sidecar Sync Podcast.
My name is Mallory Mejiaz andI'm one of your hosts, along
with Amit Nagarajan.
Today, we're excited to bringyou a special interview edition
episode of the Sidecar SyncPodcast, where we interview
Varun Puri, who is theco-founder of Uli, an AI
communication coach.
Before we kick off today'sepisode, let's hear a quick word
(01:08):
from our sponsor.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Introducing the newly revamped AI Learning Hub, your
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(01:30):
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Speaker 3 (02:06):
So what exactly is Udly?
It's essentially grammarly forspeech.
Udly provides private andjudgment-free feedback to help
you ace your next speech, salespitch or interview.
It's being used by hundreds ofthousands of individuals and
organizations like GoogleToastmasters, dale Carnegie,
among others.
(02:26):
Yudley has raised over $7million in funding and has been
featured across media outletslike the Wall Street Journal.
Before Yudley, varun ranspecial projects for Sergey Brin
, one of Google's founders.
Varun is a TEDx speaker, part ofForbes 30 Under 30, voted the
best young entrepreneur in thePacific Northwest and gave the
(02:48):
commencement speech at ClaremontMcKenna College, his alma mater
.
So today we have a really goodepisode lined up for you with
Varun.
We're, of course, going to betalking about the Udly platform
and everything it entails.
We'll chat about different usecases, both at the individual
level and at the associationlevel.
I will share some of my ownthoughts from using Yudli myself
(03:11):
and some perhaps unfortunatepatterns I noticed about my
speaking using Yudli and perhapscounterintuitive.
We're going to discuss the ideaof how communication and
speaking is so innately human inmany ways and how Varun thinks
keeping the human in the loop isessential, even when using a
(03:31):
platform he co-founded like Udly.
So please, please, enjoytoday's episode, varun.
Welcome to the Sidecar Syncpodcast.
We are so excited to have youon this episode.
Amit and I connected with youthrough Neil Hoyne, chief
Strategist at Google, who we'vehad on the podcast before and
who was a speaker at our annualevent, digital Now, and we are
(03:53):
so excited to have you on thispodcast.
Before we dive into everythingthat you're working on at Udly,
I wanted to give you theopportunity to tell our audience
a little bit about you and yourbackground.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, no, it's such an honor to be here.
Neil is awesome.
He is an inspiration and agreat mentor and it was great
connecting with you all.
My quick story I'm Varun.
I grew up in India.
I came to the US for college.
My dream, behind Yudli, is tohelp people around the world,
especially in India.
Speak with confidence.
So think of Yudli as to helppeople around the world,
especially in India.
(04:24):
Speak with confidence.
So think of Yudli as Grammarlyfor speech.
We're in the early days of ourjourney, but chugging along.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Awesome, awesome.
Thank you for sharing that.
And when did you found Yudli?
How old is the company?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
It's been two and a half years now, which is nuts to
think, because sometimes itfeels like it was yesterday.
Other days it feels like we'vebeen doing this for 20 years.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You know, I feel that I feel that a lot with
workflows when things are reallybusy, but then you look back
and you think, how has it onlybeen a few years?
I've definitely been in thatboat.
On the Udly website I found astat that kind of blew my mind
that I'm sure you know, becauseit's on your website that one in
three people rank publicspeaking as their biggest fear,
(05:08):
higher than the fear of death.
So obviously you created asolution for that, being an AI
coach for public speaking.
But I want to get into more ofthe nitty gritty.
What does Udly actually do forour listeners who've never
experimented with it, neverheard of it?
What does the process look likefor using it?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah, it's super simple.
I mean, we all struggled beforea difficult conversation, a big
speech, maybe even aconversation in front of a few
colleagues.
It could be an interview, asalary raise, that best man
speech and we all know 15, 20people who are struggling with
this problem right now.
It is so, so, palpable, and ouralternative today is to
(05:49):
practice in front of a camera ora mirror or a stopwatch.
Yudli is an AI-powered speechcoach.
Think of Yudli as your smartmirror that gives you private,
real-time and judgment-freefeedback.
Now, varun, your intro didn'thave the juice in it or have a
call to action at the end, oryou had too many filler words.
Here.
You're rambling too much whenyou had your joke about your
(06:13):
previous job as an example.
The insight that we have, or wethink we have, is we aren't
solving things with technologyor anything.
We're solving for deep rootedhuman insecurity.
I hate feeling judged and I'mscared of what people might
think of me.
At the core, the best way toimprove is to record yourself
(06:36):
and watch yourself and cringe.
You'd leave just a safeenvironment to do that.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
I love that.
Watch yourself and cringe.
I think that is so true to thehuman experience.
And I love what you said aboutthe best man speech, for example
, or the difficult salaryconversation that you have to
have, because I'm sure a lot oflisteners are hearing this and
thinking public speaking theythink a speaker in front of a
big audience, hundreds of people, conferences they may not be
(07:01):
thinking that Yudley could beuseful to them as kind of an
individual in their personallives and their professional
lives.
So I think that's reallyinsightful.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I think also in that vein, people often think of
public speaking as this thingthat Steve Jobs does at TED.
Yudli is not just a publicspeaking coach.
Yudli is a communication skillscoach.
Yudli will simulate yourlisteners persona, whether your
listener is one person, theinterviewer who's grilling you,
whether it's a five personinvestment committee, or whether
(07:30):
it's 100 people in the audience.
We struggle with speaking.
Yudli can help you, or istrying to help you, with as many
forms of speaking as possibletrying to help you with as many
forms of speaking as possible.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Absolutely, I got to dabble with you a little bit in
preparation for this call, soI'll talk to you a little bit
about my experience.
So I did the sales role playconversation and I of course
selected the persona that wasthe most blunt and the most rude
and it was a really goodexercise for me.
It kind of caught me off guard.
You immediately get on the callwith the persona and they say
who are you?
I didn't schedule this call andthat kind of took me aback, so
(08:07):
I had to take a minute and kindof really think through how I
would react in that actualsituation.
But for being a simulation itdid feel pretty realistic.
So I will say I was impressedwith that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
No, thank you.
I mean, look, the speed atwhich AI is evolving is scary.
There are times I demo theproduct Sometimes I'll give it a
personality to be a doucheymanager and I'm trying to
convince this manager to give mea salary raise and I'm like, oh
my God, you literally grilledme and had my heart pounding the
way a manager would.
And I look at my statistics andmy feedback I'm like, wow, I
(08:42):
have a long way to go and I'llpractice four or five times.
Or I use Udly while preppingfor podcasts very often.
Or folks often use us topractice before a media
appearance or a panel discussion.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
So I was going to ask you use Udly.
Does your whole team use Udlyas well?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, it's also actually really unfair because,
since we are the Yudli team,people expect us to speak with a
lot of confidence and charismaand be spot on, and that's just
not true.
I speak infinitely faster thananyone.
I know I ramble all the timeand I keep getting penalized,
but I'm getting better.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
You're getting better with Yudli and, hey, it's
gotten you this far, so I wouldsay that I think it's working
out well for you.
I am curious what is the storybehind the name of the company?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
It's a good one.
I get this often.
I'll give you both versions.
So I'll give you the cleaned upversion that I tell people.
If we're in an audience where Ishouldn't be talking about the
true story, then I'll give youthe true story.
So the journalist version islook, yodlee is a play on yodel,
which is a voice exercise.
It's a song in sound of music.
(09:49):
The search engine optimizationwas easy.
The trademark piece was easy.
It has two O's and an L, so itsounds like Google, hulu, like
you know those cool SiliconValley companies, which is why
we ran with it.
The honest answer is I was afreshman in college.
I was looking for my roommate.
I was really drunk.
(10:09):
I was like Tyler, where are you?
You do who, you do who.
And then a couple more fireballshots you do who became Yudli.
And then it just became ourlittle chant in our friend group
and I promised myself if Istart a company one day, I want
my friends to be able to readabout it and say you are kidding
me.
Like grown adults are using theword yoodly.
So we aren't quite there yet.
But when you know we've hadlike press releases or my
(10:33):
friends hear about us in thenews like I always get a texting
, I cannot believe people aretaking yoodly seriously.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I'm sure you experience a little bit of
cognitive dissonance every timeyou're on one of these podcasts
and you hear the interviewerasking you about Udly, which is
a drunken term from yourfreshman year of college.
But I'm honored that you sharedit with all the Sidecar Sync
listeners.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
I will say I'm excited to be speaking here and
hopefully collaborate with a lotof folks who are listening to
this podcast.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Well, yeah, I wanted to get into kind of the world of
associations which is our worldhere at Sidecar and on the
Sidecar Sync podcast.
Do you see nonprofits usingUdly associations or is it
mainly for-profit companies?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I mean we have folks across the board.
Toastmasters is a really goodexample.
Toastmasters is a speakingorganization.
They'll use Udly to train theirspeakers, but we've got the
School Nutrition Association andsmaller organizations and
nonprofits who are using us toprepare for fundraising
conversations Essentially, anyorganization that has people who
(11:39):
are speaking and need topractice for their speaking
engagement.
Think of something like theRotary Club, as an example, or
the American MarketingAssociation, et cetera.
I have talks with versions ofthese.
I can't reveal everyone we areworking with or folks who have
members who want to upskillthemselves and struggle with
communication skills.
What Udly does is we give you awhite-labeled, branded version.
(11:59):
What Udly does is we'll giveyou a white label, branded
version of Udly.
It's built around your method,your branding.
You know you might say hey, wecall our people users, not
customers.
Or remember to always thank theaudience and the world of
Toastmasters.
Start with Madam Toastmastersand call them the um counter,
not filler words.
Whatever it might be, Udly willtake on your persona and coach
(12:21):
your members in your voice.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Okay, so Yudli is not just critiquing individuals or
providing feedback on speakingstyle, but also on content.
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, that's super, super important.
I think we need to do a betterjob with our marketing.
A lot of people look at us andthey're like well, it just gives
feedback on the mechanics ofyour speaking.
That's not true.
Udly gives you feedback on yourcontent, your structure.
So are you speaking in threes?
Are you posing?
And then the mechanics of yourdelivery.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Yeah, In my own example, I would say, for the
most part, right, publicspeaking is something for me
that comes maybe a bit morenaturally.
I think it's always a journey,right, right, you're never
finished or you're never like atyour best all the time.
But in my feedback from thesimulation that I did with
yudley oh, I'm scared to sharethis feedback with everybody,
(13:10):
but I started 20 of my sentenceswith the word.
So it was a short run, it wasonly two minutes or so, oh, but
now this whole podcast.
I'm thinking, hmm, how manysentences am I starting with?
So I didn't know that aboutmyself.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It's really interesting.
And again, first off, it'sunlikely that another person
would have the courage to giveyou that feedback because it's
good.
But as a speaker, right, that'sprobably helpful to be like.
Am I rambling or am I notpausing between sentences and
I'm just jumping from one ideato another?
A lot of us do that, mine is,and or basically, he just points
that out really quickly.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And do you find you've made improvements on
those filler words, being moreaware of them?
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yes, but not just filler words.
It's my ability to make eyecontact, or my body language and
gestures.
I think what I'm learning aboutspeaking is it's like any other
sport you need to train themuscle.
You can get better after acouple of practice sessions, but
then, if you don't work on it,you'll either get a new take or
you move back into your own oldhabits.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
And do you find, since the medium through which
people are using Yudli is online, do you find that it's more
beneficial for onlinepresentations, for webinar
sessions, or do you find thatthat still translates to
in-person speaking events aswell?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I think definitely the latter.
It's people practice for thereal session.
Yes, there are Zoompresentations and interviews
through a bunch of these onlinerecording tools, but I'd say a
majority of our users are usingUdly as their private coach
before the big in-person session, because that's what gets the
nerves pounding as well.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
My mind's kind of grinding over here for
association use cases and Ithink one that's worth
mentioning that we discussedwith you, amit and I the first
time we met you was thatassociations have annual
meetings right, this is a bigpart of their business, and they
bring in a variety of speakersand subject matter experts to
speak at those annual meetings.
That might have a variety oflevels of public speaking skills
(15:11):
.
So I think it could beincredibly useful maybe for an
association to create kind ofsome content or some structure
around how they want thosesessions to go.
Maybe they want them to be moreinteractive, maybe they want
them all to feed in really wellto that overarching annual
meeting theme for that year.
So I think that is certainlyone use case I can think of with
(15:31):
Udly in the association space,totally.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
In fact, that's our bullseye use case.
That's what a lot oforganizations use us for.
You know we've got our annualconvention, our mid-year keynote
organizations use us for.
You know we've got our annualconvention, our mid-year keynote
, our big one-off gathering,where we've spent thousands of
dollars getting speakers,getting the audience, getting
the venue.
The worst thing that couldhappen is someone just drones on
at the event.
How do you make sure theypractice?
(15:55):
Some organizations even pay forhuman speech coaches.
Usually it's by no means asgood as a human coach I want to
be the first to acknowledge thatbut it is a helpful place for
you to practice and then maybebuild some confidence and then
go to the human coach.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Ah, I think that's really profound, because I did
want to ask you about that humanin the loop approach, which is
something we're always talkingabout here at Sidecar.
So you do think there's a placefor both Yudli and human
coaches kind of in that feedbackloop 100%.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
There's always room for human coaches.
Speaking is nuanced andspontaneous and authentic and
brings about vulnerability thatI don't think machines can or
should provide feedback on.
I think of Yudly as the medicalreport, if the human coach is a
doctor, as TurboTax, if thehuman coach is the accountant.
(16:45):
Udly is your co-pilot.
That's here to help you scale.
That's here to do the boring,repetitive tasks in your job and
save you time.
Udly, if used on its own, canget someone from a zero to an
eight, but the last eight to a10 has to happen with a human in
the loop, and the way we'vebuilt the entire platform is
make it really easy to share itwith colleagues and friends and
(17:06):
coaches and have them give youfeedback all through the Udly
ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I really like that.
One of the questions I hadthought about before meeting
with you today was the fact thatpublic speaking to me
inherently feels so human.
And you think about the kindsof speakers that we gravitate
toward or the kinds of speakersthat we think are good quote
unquote, which is subjective,but they're often speakers with
charm, or speakers with stagepresence, or speakers that
(17:34):
command a room, and all of thosethings feel inherently human.
So I did want to ask you howyou've been able, to the best of
your ability, to kind of takethose human intuition, gut
feelings, and put them into anAI.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I don't think we have right.
Yudli will not give youfeedback.
When you sounded inauthentic Ithink that's hard Yudli might
say hey, you rambled a bit whenyou said this and then you
contradicted yourself, but theway quantitative as possible,
which is Varun, you spoke reallyfast in these three sections.
(18:10):
Here's what our typical userbase speaks at.
Speaking fast is fine At somepoint.
It shows excitement and energy.
But were you aware of it Then?
Here's something for you tothink about.
That's very much the ethos ofUdly.
We haven't completely crackedthis.
As AI is getting good, we haveto course correct the way we
approach it, but at aphilosophical level it's very
(18:31):
much.
Let the humans do the humanstuff, let Udly do everything
else.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Do you see a path where AI gets so good that it
can sense inauthenticity?
Or again, are you trying tokind of leave that to the humans
for the foreseeable future?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
I don't know, to be honest, I'm by no means the
world's best AI engineer.
I'm future.
I don't know, to be honest, I'mby no means the world's best AI
engineer.
I'm terrified sometimes when Ilook at the speed of development
.
The way we are building ourcompany is.
You can help there, but ourgoal isn't to provide feedback
on those elements of speaking.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I would love for you to share, if you have any off
the top of your head, anyparticular use cases or case
studies, I should say, fromindividuals, professionals, from
companies that you all haveworked with, that really stand
out to you or that you areparticularly, really proud of.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, I mean it's been exciting for us.
This year we landed contractswith many of the world's biggest
companies, so Google just usedus to train 15,000 sales reps on
their new pitches.
As an example, getting 15,000folks to speak about Google's AI
strategy would take forever.
By the time the 15,000th personis trained, google would have
(19:41):
launched 500 new products orinstructor-led workshops on
scale.
They use Udly for that.
Corn Ferry, one of the world'slargest coaching companies, is
using Udly with their Fortune500 clients to help you practice
crucial conversations,interview prep, etc.
Who are the other publiclyknown ones?
(20:03):
Obviously Toastmasters, daleCarnegie.
Hundreds of thousands of usersacross the world have found
their own applications.
I have some folks who come andsay look, I had a stutter when I
was growing up and I didn'tknow how to practice and people
would make fun of me or myspeech language pathologist
recommended this to me or areally fun one.
We're working with some of theworld's largest hospitals and
(20:25):
medical schools where they areusing Yudli to simulate
difficult conversations fordoctors or bedside manners.
Right, if you're a doctor, youneed to practice your
communication skills so deeply.
You cannot tell someone hey,you're going to die.
You got to use gentle languagewhere it's like, hey, you know,
let's talk about a plan afterthis.
(20:46):
Or you kind of say, hey, youhave cancer, it's on this tumor,
whatever it might be, and Udlythen takes on the patient
persona and helps the doctorspractice in this private
environment.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Wow, that is incredible.
See, that's why I wanted to askyou that question, because,
again, I'm still stuck in therut of thinking, conferences,
public speakers, big audiencesbut to think that even medical
professionals are getting valueout of this, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, it's what gets me really excited.
Udly is an AI powered role playsimulator and people make it
their own for whatever they want.
I've heard of folks who use usto practice negotiations with
their toddler.
The toddler is like I wantcandy, and here's why.
How do you have thisconversation where you can't
(21:33):
just say no, you're not going toget it, and buzz off?
You can't talk to your kid likethat.
How do you practice just beinga good parent?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yep, yep.
I wanted to ask you too,because, as I was playing with
the tool, I started thinkingabout using it for foreign
language practice.
Do you see anyone using it inthat way?
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Yeah, in fact that's one of our biggest user groups.
Right, it's.
Let's say I'm a non-nativeEnglish speaker.
I'm conscious of my accent, I'man immigrant, I've just landed
in the US, I know a little bitof English.
Utility is not where I learnEnglish, but it's where I learn
to speak conversational Englishall the time, because you can
practice why you should go on adate with me, why I want to
(22:12):
order this steak, how expensiveis this meal, whatever
conversation, and you canliterally do like really quick
drills.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
That's awesome.
I speak Spanish as a secondlanguage, but it's getting so
rusty because I never do it,except when I occasionally
travel to a Spanish speakingcountry.
And as I was playing with Yudlitoday, I thought, huh, maybe I
should work on my Spanish skillswith this.
So that's great to know that'show some people are using it.
I'm curious, varun, can youshare with us what is on the
(22:40):
roadmap for Yudli in the nextfew months?
Maybe in the next few years, ifyou thought ahead that far?
Yeah, I mean my dream.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Dream with udley has always been udley is my friend,
my spouse, um, my mom.
That's by my side anytime I'mspeaking, right?
So when I'm at a boarddiscussion, my co-founder will
poke me under the table if I'mjust saying something
ridiculously stupid on ourrevenue slide and she'd be like,
well, get away from this slide.
Or at thanksgiving dinner, likemy mom will like pinch me if
(23:10):
I've, like uh, said somethingreally dumb.
Or you know, we all have thatfriend in the audience who's
like, hey, I can't hear youspeak up.
Um, my dream with you is thiscoach that's by your side in
private anytime you're speaking,just nudging you but don't shut
up, like ask her questions, orhey, like focus on your intro a
little bit, or you're cursingway too much, whatever it might
(23:32):
be, just to help you through theday-to-day of your life.
The same way I use Grammarlyanytime I'm writing, I use Udly
anytime I'm speaking.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yep, or the person or the entity that says Mallory,
you said so.
You know 30% of the sentencesthat you said on this podcast.
Maybe I should have you to lead, just like integrated, onto the
Zoom meeting in the future andget feedback.
Is that something I could?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
do Absolutely.
You can actually do that todayitself.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Wow, the things I'm learning.
So for our associationlisteners who are curious about
getting started, even at theindividual level, but if we're
talking about the enterpriselevel as well, like with the
annual meeting example that Igave earlier, what are the next
steps?
How can we create an accountwith Yoodly and get started?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yep, please go to yoodlyai.
That's Y-O-O-D-L-Iai.
It's free to start Start usingthe tool.
Ideally, you'll love it andyou'll be like, oh my God, I
want this for my team, myassociation.
What if I could white label itand can it do this and that?
And hopefully, you then reachout to us and we can set you up
with the organization plan.
Now we can be reached at infoat yoodleeai.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
My goal with Yoodlee, though, is it should be
self-serve a really fun consumerproduct that you use and love
and you want to share with folksA hundred percent.
And you can like he said, youcan share the videos as well of
you with the blunt salespersonfumbling that sales call, if you
would like to.
And Varun, I also want to sharewith you.
When we connected with you justa few months ago, amit and I,
something was ringing a bell andI kept thinking I've heard of
(25:07):
this product before, like Idon't know how, but I went back
through my emails and searchedand searched and years ago,
probably right after youlaunched, we had considered at
our family of companies doing apublic speaking kind of
initiative, training thing, andI found Yudely and I sent it off
to Amit and was like, hey,check this out.
We didn't end up going forwardwith that initiative at all at
(25:29):
that time, but I just wanted toshare that with you as a little
piece of serendipity that we hadfound you and then forgotten
and then we reconnected again.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
You know, it's exciting to hear that, it's
awesome to hear stories of Yudliout in the wild.
I think I've been through many,many situations where people
have laughed at me or said thisis a dumb idea or the product
has, you know, not worked.
And it's awesome where, a fewyears later, they're coming back
and they're like oh wow, it'schanged.
And can we chat and can weoffer this to our team?
So yeah, if you all would likeit, like let me know and you're
(25:58):
good to go.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Oh well, I encourage everybody seriously go try it
out.
You will be impressed and youmight learn some things that you
didn't necessarily want tolearn about how you speak, but
that will improve yourcommunication in the future.
Varun, thank you so much forjoining us, of course thank you
for having me.
Thank you all for tuning in totoday's episode of the Sidecar
Sync podcast.
(26:20):
I hope that the next time youhave a speaking event coming up
that you're a little bit nervousabout that, you consider using
artificial intelligence to helpyou prepare for it.
We will see you all next week.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
Thanks for tuning into Sidecar Sync this week.
Looking to dive deeper?
Download your free copy of ournew book Ascend Unlocking the
Power of AI for Associations atascendbookorg.
It's packed with insights topower your association's journey
with AI.
And remember, sidecar is herewith more resources, from
webinars to boot camps, to helpyou stay ahead in the
(26:56):
association world.
We'll catch you in the nextepisode.
Until then, keep learning, keepgrowing and keep disrupting.
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