Founded by Shubham Gupta and Ravin Kumar from India, VUERON is an AI-driven deep-tech startup that is working on Human-Computer interaction (HCI) systems. They are explicitly making use of HCI in delivering touchless solutions in the fields of healthcare & public utilities. It includes touchless operability of elevators, medical equipment’s, interactive displays (ticketing, vending kiosks, and social distance monitoring).
VUERON was selected after tough competition to be a part of the HexGn Startup Ready Program in 2020. It six-month online Startup Acceleration program by HexGn in partnership with Invest India (AGNIi, and Startup India) to boost technology-based entrepreneurs from India.
They are mainly working on AI-powered gesture-based touchless systems which aid in the accomplishment of a specific task intended by a user in a contact-free manner. They enable available regular buttons and display screens to become touchless/contact-free in terms of their interaction with the user. The solution is a gesture-based pad which can be used for data input. Their AI system can accurately perceive the input from a user by tracking the user’s hand, and the task can be executed based on a definite hand gesture. They intend to first integrate their solutions into Elevators/Lifts for their touchless operation.
VUERON started with a promising yet intricate field in vision-based AI. The responses through customer validation were encouraging. They managed to get par because of the zeal, persistence and devotion to our work. But when they completed prototype version-2, were looking to raise funds, corona happened. Funding’s got seized.
That is when they tried to apply themselves into something that creates value in these times. So, they took a tough decision of pivoting into touchless technologies while rubbing off all the hard work done for the previous venture idea. Building anything in the cutting-edge technology of HCI is highly complex. With covid-19, the procurement of high-end devices got affected. Running a real-time AI without requiring GPUs is a severe challenge, and now they had to build an AI running on minimal hardware (only available option).
The uniqueness of VUERON lies in the highly optimized AI solution, running inside minimalistic hardware (smartphones/tablets). It is an immensely accurate & customizable system, that can be operated from even distances like 10 feet. The ability to provide innovative add-on features like Social distancing check, Face mask compliance, Voice Assistance, Awareness on safety norms, User recognition and personalization, etc. make it one of a kind in the market.
On advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, VUERON founders say, “First focus on creating a T-shape personality, i.e. having expertise in one area and basic knowledge of others. Find people who share the same passion and excitement to work on the idea. It is always good to have people with complementary skillsets because it magnifies the overall synergy of the startup. Any startup is as good as their team members, the coordination among them and their alignment towards a common goal. Entrepreneurship is a path full of multi-dimensional struggles, so patience, consistency and persistence are the keys to stand tall and deliver.”
On managing stress, the founders say” By analyzing the source of stress in a neutral, transparent & more profound sense and then working on what needs to be to done to relieve that stress. Trying to resolve situations via dialogue has proved to be one of the best ways to handle conflicts. Apart from that, it is always good to talk to people and discuss rather than keeping things to yourself and mismanaging the stress.”
On the questions, If the founders Ravin and Shubham, could roll back time, what would they do differently? They say, they would have built a rough contingency plan on the side-lines. This would have certainly helped for managing stress which we think almost everyone has gone through during the pandemic phase. Another thing one would like to do is getting an experienced mentor early on, getting associated and groomed from accelerators like HexGn as early as possible.