Startup of the Day - Loqu8

The BizSpark company of the day is Loqu8, Inc., based in the US. Loqu8 helps you learn whatever you want: just hover your mouse over text. You will find below an interview with Dr. Timothy Uy, CEO and Principal Developer for Loqu8. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.loqu8.com.

Interview with Dr. Timothy Uy, CEO and Principal Developer for Loqu8

Tell us who you are and your role in the company.

After graduating from Caltech, I joined Mitchell Madison, a McKinsey offshoot, as a generalist. I worked with Prof. Patrick Suppes on brain-wave recognition research for my PhD at Stanford. Upon graduation, I started and managed the Silicon Valley office of a boutique electronic discovery firm. When not acting as CEO and principal developer for Loqu8, I spend my time tickling my three children, strumming on an acoustic guitar and waiting for my patent on information retrieval to be granted.

What did you do before creating your company?

Prior to starting Loqu8, I was a senior manager and principal consultant with Gallivan, Gallivan & O’Melia, an electronics discovery firm that specializes in manipulating terabytes of data for forensic acquisition, fingerprinting, data mining and database optimization.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

After delivering Loqu8-powered solutions to over 13,000 users in 22 countries around the world, it’s an honor to be recognized by Microsoft. From the early days, we’ve always wanted to provide the most powerful learning solution for the widest range of users. Developing for the Microsoft ecosystem was an easy business decision.

By being one of the early adopters to incorporate multi-touch into iNtuition™, our augmented learning engine, we anticipate reaching a much broader range of users on Windows 7.

What is your company’s mission?

Years ago, you might have flipped through a dictionary or typed keywords into Google or Wikipedia. Our vision is for this kind of information to come to you instantaneously—in context and at just the right time. Imagine touching a screen or moving your mouse over unfamiliar words and suddenly understanding foreign languages, scientific journals and gaining new insight. Loqu8 calls this augmented learning and we believe it will change the way people learn and access information.

How did you get the idea for your company?

I attribute it to a decade of cutting and pasting words and phrases along with countless EEG experiments at Stanford. Personally plowing through hundreds of scientific papers and watching attorneys plow through hundreds of thousands of emails and documents, I realized that the interface to information, rather than the availability of information, had become the bottleneck to learning and comprehension. The race with my kids to read Chinese forced me to come up with a real solution.

Tell us about your funding history. A re you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

At this stage the founders have provided all of the seed capital. Now that we’ve built a revenue-generating model, it’s time to accelerate our growth by adding capital. Our fiscal planning calls for an infusion of $2-$3M during the next year.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

Loqu8 employs two full-time employees plus additional contractors and service providers. Both of us have strong technical experience, but I currently manage engineering.

Are you hiring? If yes, what are you hiring for and where?

Loqu8 is always looking for talented individuals with a passion for excellence and creative learning. See our website for specific details on engineering and business development opportunities.

Which platform are you building on? Why?

Microsoft .NET 3.5 with C# is our primary platform. This environment provides the foundation for a rich user experience while allowing us to reach the single largest segment of users in our target audience.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet areas?

I’m impressed with the opportunities available by mashing Microsoft Windows 7, Bing and other web services. We believe the best solutions will be based on an eclectic combination of these resources.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

In just a few short months of engagement with BizSpark, we’ve received tremendous support from the Microsoft business development team. Quite frankly, without BizSpark, we probably wouldn’t have prioritized our scarce development resources for the Microsoft platforms. It rocks!

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

One, build the software for yourself or someone you love – it makes a difference! Two, charge money. Start with a working business model and then scale up. If it’s not working at the early (seed or pilot) stage, re-tool and re-think.

Who’s your role model?

Jesus said things like “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” and “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." He not only preached it, he lived it. He is my role model.

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

Don’t waste time cutting and pasting; invest it in loving God and those around you.