Fintech South 2022: Sanjay Ahuja, Intellekt AI

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Georgia World Congress Center for Fintech South 2022, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Atlanta Blockchain Center. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Lee Kantor here broadcasting live from Fintech South 2022. So excited to be talking to Sanjay Ahuja with Intellekt. Welcome.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:00:37] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Intellekt.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:00:44] Sure. Intellekt is basically a self-onboarding platform for Fintechs. As you know that a lot of companies in the digital age are onboarding merchants, consumers, businesses. And most of them typically are taking about 60 to 70 days to onboard.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:00] Right.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:01:00] And that’s a big problem in the market. So, we’re creating a platform which will allow them for self-onboarding in a few weeks. So, that’s the key thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So, what’s your background? Have you always been involved in Fintech?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:01:12] Yes, not primarily Fintech, but in the tech industry. But mostly in Fintech, e-commerce, health care. So, that’s been my background over 28 years. We work with various organizations. So, I know quite a bit about the process.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] Now, how do you find the Fintech community here in Georgia?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:01:32] Well, I think — I would say this is the Fintech capital of the U.S., right? Because most of the payment industries are out here. The New Age, Neobanks are coming out of here. There’s a huge amount of talent pool which is there. And I think the big thing is that the education system is getting improved by the day, right? The Georgia FinTech Academy is helping new engineers to kind of train themselves on the Fintech processes. So, I think the whole ecosystem is coming together to support.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:01] Is that really a challenge in terms of when you have a startup and you’re really trying to grow to have the right talent?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:02:10] Often — fundamentally, it’s all about people, at the end of the day, right? Because we are developing a software, and software is made by people, right? But the good part is that we are part of the ATDC which is a part of the Georgia Tech community. So, we’re getting a lot of support from the community in terms of engineers, as well as other ecosystem players.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:28] Now, you mentioned the FinTech Academy. That’s where the University System is training up and that has curriculum around Fintech, right?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:02:37] That’s right, yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:37] That’s critically important and it’s kind of unique to Georgia, right? This isn’t something that’s in every city.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:02:43] It is not. And it’s curated towards the new generation. Technologies coming in like — Fintech is broad, right? It’s just not banks. So, it’s about knowledge about NFT’s, knowledge about crypto, and these are new things coming up in the market. And new jobs are being created.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:59] It’s changing every day.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:03:01] Every day.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:01] There’s a new one, right?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:03:01] Exactly, yes. So, I think the community is doing a great job in training these young engineers or people who are students coming in from these universities. So, I think we’ll have probably a large talent pool in the next couple of years to be able to fulfill all these jobs.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:18] Right. Because right now, it’s like negative unemployment, right? The only way you’re finding somebody is that they’re leaving another opportunity somewhere.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:03:24] Exactly, yes. I think you’re right on that. So — and I think we are also seeing a lot of skills moving from other cities to Georgia because of this ecosystem we’ve developed. So, I think that’s going to be good for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:35] Now, are you seeing that, nationwide, that a lot of folks are moving to Georgia for these opportunities because, like you said, this is the Fintech capital of, at least, the United States or maybe the world?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:03:46] It is. And I can clearly see that. I think the three reasons why people are moving here. One is, you know, there’s a lot of new companies coming in. So, there’s a lot of new jobs, you know. The whole startup ecosystem is really coming up and they need a lot of people.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:03:59] Number two, I think the cost of living is much cheaper than many of these big cities. And third is the climate, obviously, right? Because it’s much more warmer as compared to what’s going to happen in the global warming cities.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] Sure.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:04:09] So, I think, yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] Now, are you finding that there’s good collaboration with enterprise-level organizations and startups? Is there a good, kind of, give and take in the sense that the enterprise level, organization or public company might be open to more taking shots and working with startups and earlier stage companies?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:04:28] I would say yes and no. I think there’s a lot of work which has been done, but there’s a lot more needs to be done. Because I think the big boys have agreed and understood the value which we’re bringing in. But I don’t think the mass is doing it right now.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:04:40] So, I think a lot more has to be done to be able to get to that stage, but it’s in the right direction. So, we’re seeing a lot of education being done on companies of the value they’re bringing into the ecosystem. So, yes, definitely it is the right direction.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:56] Now, is that something that Intellekt is looking to partner with more enterprise-level organizations?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:05:01] Yes, definitely. So, we’re doing a couple of things to be able to get to these enterprises. One is, we are actually doing a series of education, you know, through our blogs, through our videos on our platform. The second is we are looking at interns to be able to, you know, get to these companies and kind of provide some good entry-level talent.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:22] Right.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:05:22] And third is, we are actually doing some free proof of concepts for them to feel how a startup can do it. Because the big boys can do things, but they just take a lot of time, right? We can be more agile and that’s the advantage we bring to the table.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:37] Right. So, you can take action faster and demonstrate actual work being done as opposed to them whiteboarding something for months on, you know —

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:05:46] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:46] — and thinking about it and being on the back burner where you can just make something happen almost instantly in their world.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:05:52] Exactly. And you’ve seen that big companies are actually losing market share because they’re just not agile,

Lee Kantor: [00:05:57] Right.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:05:57] Because they’re just waiting for six months, nine-month projects.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:00] And the world changes.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:06:02] Every week.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] So, what do you need more of — how can we help you?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:06:07] So, I think what is definitely needed is more catalysts who are talking to these enterprises and looking at talent pool, number one. Number two, I think we need more of the local universities making Fintech programs for the talent pool to be aware of what the opportunities are.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:28] And create that curriculum so that these younger people are ready to go, rather than you’re going to have to retrain them anyway after they get out of college.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:06:36] Exactly. Like you see this program, too, right. Fintech South is good for corporates and businesses. But if you can create a program for the kids just for education, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:46] Right.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:06:46] Like a fair or Fintech fair. Now, they’ll be like — thousands of kids wanting to learn what’s going on. So, that’s the kind of exposure which we need to give because then everybody will feel that — you see, because traditionally what everybody wants to do is get into computer science or get into medicine, right. That’s been the traditional old-school thinking.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:07] Right.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:07:07] Is Fintech a big career opportunity? It is, but not many people are aware of it. So, that’s where I think it’s our joint responsibility to be able to make them aware. So, we should have a big Fintech career fair or Fintech exhibition regularly so that the kids can get more knowledgeable about what’s going on.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:29] Right, and understand the career path that’s in that space. And they might not be realizing the opportunity is so great and people are so hungry for those — that kind of talent.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:07:39] Exactly. Exactly, yes, I’m with you on that.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:41] So, be the change you want the world. Do you want to start working on this or work with TAG to get something like this to happen?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:07:47] Absolutely. And I think we are already hobnobbing with most of the catalysts and we’re talking about it. So, I think you will see something coming up definitely before the end of the year.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:56] Exciting time. So, if somebody wants to connect with you or learn more about Intellekt, what’s a website?

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:08:01] intellekt.ai with a K.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:03] All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Sanjay Ahuja: [00:08:07] Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:09] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back in a few at Fintech South 2022.

Outro: [00:08:21] This episode has been brought to you by Atlanta Blockchain Center, the catalyst for Atlanta’s emergence as the Premier Blockchain Innovation Hub globally through cultivating entrepreneurship, inclusivity, and education. To learn more, go to atlblockchaincenter.com.