Here are the excerpts from the conversation:
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I am a software engineer and entrepreneur and I love playing Chess. In fact, I first came to the USA on a chess scholarship back in 2007. Looking back at it right now it seems unbelievable as I actually won the 2007 U.S chess national Collegiate and in the 2008 US Open, I was able to take down the grandmaster.
After graduating, I got my first job at Ericsson in 2010 where I did everything from network design engineering to business analytics. While working for Ericsson, I got my Master’s Degree in Software Engineering and his MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
From Ericsson to Signapay and now Deeprisk.AI, how has this journey been?
Well, it hasn’t been easy. Nothing really is, I was juggling my studies with work and since I was on a scholarship meant that if I lagged behind I would lose the funding, which I didn’t want to lose. When I was studying my master’s degree I was awarded with the prestigious Ford EngineeringScholarship and this meant a lot to me.
Although all the juggling between work, at Ericsson, and studying was difficult, all, I knew was that I had to make it through, there was no space for failure in my life. This attitude kept me focused and I was soon recognized at work for and awarded for my work in in Automation of the LTE for MetroPCS that was crucial for the company’s transition from 3G to 4G and I just worked towards my goals one at a time. In fact while I was
Also like most engineers in this sector, I have been plagued with self-doubt and lack of confidence, especially because I am in Irving Texas and not in the Silicon Valley. Self-doubt can be very demoralizing but I have been lucky enough to see past it and believe in myself, I would tell myself that I was just as good as anyone in the silicon valley. And this eventually helped me pull myself together. So, yeah the journey has been interesting, educational and most of all it hasn’t always been a bed of roses.
What led to the inception of Deeprisk.Ai?
When working at SignaPay as the director of technology I realized just how essential the skills I have can be in advancing their systems. I realized that if we apply the advances happening in the tech industry to the online payment industry, we can leap years ahead. It was then that I started thinking about risk analysis and on building an AI platform. But I wasn’t really sure until I spoke to my mentor and veteran entrepreneur of Cynergy Data, John Martillo at the Founders Network and the CEO of Founders Network, Kevin Holmes, that I realized that I had stumbled upon something huge. Holms, was so impressed with my idea that he immediately told me to patent it. So, I pitched it to my boss and suggested spinning it out into a different company, and that was how DeepRisk.ai was born.
What is Deeprisk about and how does it work?
Deeprisk is like the financial adviser you never had, it not only tells you that the investment you are making is a high risk, it also tells you why and lists out the factors in simple layman terms. For instance, say you wanted to know the risks of investing in a coffee shop in a small town in Texas, because it was showing a large annual profit margin, the DeepRisk.ai software would take into account all of the analytics of not just that coffee shop, but all those in the surrounding area and produce a result that would you why you should not make that investment, it will actually spell out the reasons like in this case, it is a high-risk investment because no coffee shop in any small town in Texas has ever had this large of a profit margin. Due to its user-friendly approach and it’sin-depth analysis capabilities, deeprisk.ai since its establishment in January 2019, has already processed over three thousand merchants and is even being considered by some of the world’s top fifty banks. When we showed our demo to a top bank they basically put us in the running of the companies that could get the contract, along with other experienced companies, I couldn’t believe it, it wasn’t what we had expected, at least not the first time we presented our product.
What in your opinion sets DeepRisk.ai apart from the other companies in the same business?
I think the first thing that makes us different is that we use an AI platform and the use of AI in this industry is still quite rare. Also, DeepRisk.ai will actually do the entire underwriting process and produce the result in simple English that can easily be understood by anyone.
Similarly, I firmly believe that we should first think about the people. Technology should be people-centric and not the other way around. These days technology is turning us into robots like computers. We are losing our humanity to it, but instead, we should be making technology more human-like. This is why I believe that in order to have a successful A.I. company, entrepreneurs should focus on studying the life of a particular person or profession, figuring out what problems they are having, and using A.I. to solve those specific problems. In the case of DeepRisk.ai, my team and I, studied a day in the life of a risk analyst. We found problems they didn’t even know they were having and then we set out to solve them.
These are a few things, in my opinion, that makes DeepRisk.ai unique.
What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs wanting to start their own AI company?
When it comes to starting any company, especially an A.I. based company, I feel it’s imperative to use your expertise, connections, and relationships to find problems, and really comprehensively solve them. Instead of using A.I. to solve a problem, use it to solve a particular problem geared for a specific person or group of people. Then, your solution will be marketable and one hundred times better because of the A.I.
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