Featured Startup on Azure - CHIFCO

 

BizSpark:   Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

Amine Chouaieb: CEO and founder, Amine CHOUAIEB.

BizSpark:   What did you do before creating your company?

Amine Chouaieb: Consulting in Strategy, management and IT systems

BizSpark:   What is your company’s mission?

Amine Chouaieb: Chifco was founded by former members of large consulting firm. Our mission is to become a key partner for the Energy and Telco actors to develop innovative tools and new sustainable solution (carbon screening, energy monitoring, carbon dashboards…).

BizSpark:   In 140 characters or less, tell us what your company does:

Amine Chouaieb: CHIFCO designs new innovative solutions for the energy and the telco sectors, Our last product is the InnerJ solution, which is a customer engagement platform that reinvents the way utilities, telecommunications companies, and facility managers interact with customers. From the quality of information to the way this material is presented and delivered, this system vastly improves the customer experience by making data more relevant and personal. As a result of the new approach, consumers can learn to use energy more efficiently, ultimately saving money on utility bills. The InnerJ Box captures the complex relationships among devices, premises, customer accounts, users, applications, networks, and services that must be managed by any Smart Grid. Using real-time information and an automated process, the InnerJ platform acts as the central nervous system to drive Smart Grid Management.

BizSpark:   How did you get the idea for your company?

Amine Chouaieb: Working for counsulting firms, we detected the need to a real green solution in opposition to greenwashing or small inefficient action. We began by analyzing a very promising market: the smart grids, then we decided to We then decided to start our own company

BizSpark:   Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

Amine Chouaieb: We are looking for funds to develop our sales, we are contacted by more than a player interested by our solutions but still have a lack of resources, we expect to raise money during the next coming 6 months

BizSpark:   How many employees do you have? How many developers?

Amine Chouaieb: We are currently 11

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

Amine Chouaieb: We are hiring people for the business dev and some embedded engineers (high profile managers and talented juniors)

BizSpark:   Which platform are you building on?  Why?

Amine Chouaieb: .NET / Microsoft SQL server / Linux for the embedded side (for Zwave and TR69 reasons)

BizSpark:   Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/Internet area?

Amine Chouaieb: Internet of things, we are investing on that and on the cloud as a way to rich it faster than ever before (scaling, virtualization…)

BizSpark:   What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

Amine Chouaieb: It’s an interesting step to develop team skills and get an advanced relation with a big corporation such Microsoft.

BizSpark:   Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

Amine Chouaieb: Build your team and attract a diverse partners, they are your most import key of success.

BizSpark:   Who’s your role model?

Amine Chouaieb: From our IT world, Bill Gates was an icon from my early ages: The power of the soft! Hardware is a kind of a vessel, no limit to the virtual world and a lot of great example shows the extent of Gates’s vision. From the art world, Dali inspires me a lot with his extravagance (out of the box thinking) then Boughiba for his “Quick wins” approach.

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

Amine Chouaieb: We are an open innovative team (management, product, communication, partners…) that will definitively change the way the people are looking to the green world. So One day CHIFCO will knock on your door, be faster and knock on ours (we are open to all your suggestions, help, advices, investments, network…).