Zozolo CEO:  US trip was great
By Bala and DJ

US-based social, digital and news site Mashable is among the top 10 blogs in the world.  Founded in 2005, Mashable gets more than 30 million page views a month and is one of the most influential sites on the internet. Under the Radar is a one-day showcase of hand-selected disruptive companies in a particular sector. Under the Radar alumni include: LinkedIn, AdMob and Flickr.

Mashable has partnered with Under the Radar for Fast Pitch - a startup competition that took place on November 12, 2010 at the Microsoft Conference Center in Mountain View, California. Mashable and 300+ decision makers from some of the biggest and most influential brands, agencies and marketing companies were there to listen to all the startups which were invited to the finals in California

More than 160 startups from all over the world applied, from which a short list of 10 companies was worked out.  Mumbai based Zozolo had been selected by Mashable as one of the top 10 hottest young companies to watch out for and been invited to the Mashable Fast Pitch contest in California. Zozolo was the only Indian startup representing India at this prestigious event.  

Techgoss caught up with Zozolo Founder and CEO, Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, and asked him about his experience at this high profile meet.  Ahmed told us:

“
After the Zozolo Presentation, we received a standing ovation from the crowd and were unanimously adjudged the audience's favourite. Ben Parr, co-editor of Mashable said he really enjoyed the presentation and gave a favorable feedback. So did all the other judges. It also generated considerable excitement among industry experts, retailers and venture capitalists. We are in talks with some of the world's leading brands to provide them a white label solution built on the Zozolo Social Commerce Engine. Cannot disclose names right now, but we will soon be announcing them in January.

We have received offers from angel investors as well as incubators but have decided to continue boot strapping for a bit longer. Being able to leverage the fantastic talent at raa - our web & mobile development agency (raastudios.com) and gozoop - our social media agency (gozoop.com) which are lead by Dushyant Bhatia & Rohan Bhansali certainly makes this possible. It is like working in a 30 member startup from day one. Zozolo will soon be launching a solution for Independent sellers to sell inside Facebook. Social ecommerce is here to stay- well who doesn't like taking their friends along for shopping. Shopping is an experience and Zozolo helps make that possible.
“

(Techgoss had published the following on Nov 9, 2010)

Mumbai startup invited to USA
By Bala Shah

US-based social, digital and news site Mashable is among the top 10 blogs in the world.  Founded in 2005, Mashable gets more than 30 million page views a month and is one of the most influential sites on the internet. Under the Radar is a one-day showcase of hand-selected disruptive companies in a particular sector. Under the Radar alumni include: LinkedIn, AdMob and Flickr.

Mashable has partnered with Under the Radar for Fast Pitch - a startup competition that will take place on November 12 at the Microsoft Conference Center in Mountain View, California. Mashable and 300+ decision makers from some of the biggest and most influential brands, agencies and marketing companies will be there to listen to all the startups which were invited to the finals in California.  Each startup will get 2 minutes to sell their idea to the panel of judges as well as the audience.

The format is simple: you get two minutes to wow the audience and the panel of judges with your pitch.

More than 160 startups from all over the world applied from which a short list of 10 companies has been worked out.  Mumbai based Zozolo has been selected by Mashable as one of the top 10 hottest young companies to watch out for and been invited to the Mashable Fast Pitch contest in California. Zozolo is the only Indian startup representing India at this prestigious event.  

What does Indian startup Zozolo do? With Zozolo, one can easily start a shop in your Facebook fan page and instantly leverage your fans by turning them into customers.

Zozolo describes their features as

- Your customers can like products, share them with their friends, get advice from them or even recommend it to their friends. In turn your customers become the promoters of your brand & products.
- As the owner of the shop you receive complete details & foot prints of your visitors. Right from their name, country and other basic information to more detailed ones like their email address & what they exactly did on the shop. Whether they saw a particular product and if they bought it or not. If they did not but it, you can send them a personalized message with a discount coupon.
- Also this is a shop with a heart. It understand who the visitors is and personalizes the experience. It aims to delight with personalization. For example if you visit the shop on your birthday, you get a special discount - the shop knows it’s your birthday.
- There is no sign up required since you are already logged in Facebook, and using the Facebook Ads, the shop keeper can really leverage the power of social shopping. Any activity by the visitors is published on their wall. The brands and products start going viral.

Zozolo has been founded by Dushyant Bhatia, Rohan Bhansali and Ahmed Naqvi (pictured above). Ahmed Naqvi is leading ZOZOLO.com and is currently in California to showcase the startup at the conference

Techgoss caught up with Dushyant who told us: “It came as a pleasant surprise to us when our startup was selected as one of the top 10 companies out of 160 odd applicants across the globe. Under the Radar has been recognized as the most important startup showcase and deal-making forums in Silicon Valley and it surely feels great to have made the cut inspite of the fact that ZOZOLO is based out of India. The recognition surely helps boost our morale and confidence. We intend to revolutionize social ecommerce and believe platforms like these certainly give much required exposure to Indian startups like ours"