College students strike a new note

Kochi: Ever wondered how to cut out only that much you want from a video in Youtube or any other website? Shoutcrow, a browser extension developed by Dolojo Labs, a student startup in Kochi, can make that cut so simple for you. Recently, US technology giants Evernote and IBM have evinced interest in the product.

Vijith Padmanabhan, who launched the company at the Startup Village in 2012 when he was still in the third year of his B Tech Computer Science course at Model Engineering College, here, in fact has never looked back after creating Shoutcrow which is also a social networking site.

It was during Mr Padhmanabhan’s visit to Silicon Valley, under a government project for giving international exposure to promising startup founders in the state, in December last that he ended up having a meeting with Evernote honchos. “Evernote has a web clipper with which one can cut web pages but not videos. So when they heard about our product, they developed an instant liking for it,” Mr Padhmanabhan, who is also the CEO of the company, said.

With the release of Shoutcrow, the company could raise Rs 30 lakh from Agnus Capital, within a short span of time. Dolojo would soon bring out a mobile app of Shoutcrow as well.

Mr Padhmanabhan who started the company with his friend Amit S. Namboodiri has since brought in more friends to work with him and the company is now a 10-member strong entity. Dolojo is now working on Strikepad, which is basically a note taking app where you can store documents, videos, sounds, photos and share it with people you choose.

“The idea of an app of this kind emerged from my personal experience. As an entrepreneur I manage the company and I travel a lot as well.  So I have a feeling that a note taking app could be useful for every one of us to enhance our creative power. A thought is the starting point of an action, but it strikes out of the blue, but we may forget it later. Thus our thoughts need to be stored and shared with colleagues, boss or even friends,” Mr Padhmanabhan said.

“I discussed the idea with some entrepreneurs, travellers and journalists and all of them supported the idea. The three processes, (taking notes, sharing and discussion) can be done in the app in the most simple, private, and efficient manner. The Android version of Strikepad app will be released on March 20,” he told this correspondent.

Mr Padhmanabhan also has ideas of his own about the work culture in his organisation. “We don’t tell people to work, instead we ask them to ‘help’ each other. When starting a new project we don’t put people in teams  but instead we have a project manager and we ask others to help him,” he said.  

Interestingly, the name of the company is derived from three principles  do your best, love your work, and find joy in what you do.