AirBolt is a redesign and invention of the small lock that we use in our travel bags, to make it smart and compatible with our modern and technical life, and to bring features that go beyond its basic function of locking the bag. For more information, the Arab portal for technical news spoke to Kabir Sidhu , founder of AirBolt, to tell us about his product, his company, and his entrepreneurial experience.
The story of AirBolt began with the suffering of “Kabir” on one of his trips to the United States of America. After a long trip that took more than 15 hours, he arrived at the hotel room and finally wanted to take a break after the trouble of traveling, and when he tried to open his travel bag he could not that. He tried again and again to enter the password, but his attempts failed, and although he registered the password on his phone, this password simply does not work, and being in a country he is visiting for the first time, and he has no friends or neighbors, he cannot borrow pliers to cut the damn lock, He does not want to tear a bag and damage it either, so he spent more than 45 minutes trying possible numbers to be able to open the lock, but this led him to think that there must be a better way to lock and open bags instead of this miserable old way, but when His search did not find anything, so Kabir decided to solve the problem himself and invent the new AirBolt lock.
AirBolt is a smart lock that can be locked and unlocked with an app from your phone, as well as programmed, and has many features such as bag locator, alert in case the bag is forgotten, left or stolen.
Kabir worked for more than a year and a half to reach what he has reached now. He has a strong team and each has his own experience and ideas, and they are from different cultures and ages.
Unlike the rest of the entrepreneurs we met, “Kabir” established his company alone, and did not work with another co-founder. “Kabir” says that the process of choosing a founding partner must be done wisely, and it must be taken into account how much this person He is dynamic and has the same future vision for the project, so his decision was to establish his own company and gather around him an innovative and creative-thinking team. He has a vision for the company and from his previous experiences, he found that the presence of partners might distract attention and the path towards the goal.
The method of financing AirBolt was through austerity Bootstrapping, as “Kabir” was financing the company from his full-time work as an employee, as well as from some of the deals he made, so he collected all that and invested in establishing the company, and after all the long hours of work and staying up late nights, the result was satisfactory to him.
After designing the prototype, AirBolt launched a campaign on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, and was able to raise more than $133,000 from more than a thousand supporters, and the campaign goal was only $50,000.
Kabir says that by comparing the AirBolt smart lock with some smart bags, which have started to appear recently, you will find that in AirBolt all this technology has been placed in this small lock, and you can lock anything smartly, not just a bag, and he adds that we all have bags, Why do we have to pay hundreds of dollars to buy a new smart bag, this smart lock will make any bag smart, and it will not affect your budget compared to the prices of smart bags, and in addition to that it has little weight, it will keep your bag light when traveling.
Kabir is interested in the global market in general, and also has an interest in the Middle East and North Africa market. AirBolt is not yet available in retail stores, but it can be ordered through the Internet, and when distribution agreements are signed, it will be present in retail stores in the region.
The fact that the team at AirBolt is small makes continuity, follow-up and adherence to the budget a real challenge. Building a new product takes a lot of time, as well as maintaining quality. The team must remain alert and work hard all the time to stay ahead, Kabir adds. They are a young and emerging company, and they do not mind working long hours, but they always plan ahead and take precautions, so that they always have enough time.
Kabir does not hide his anxiety about failure, and says that as a person he cannot deny his fear of failure, although everyone says that you should not worry about it, but it is the truth for him, anxiety is a natural thing for a person, and you have to know how You deal with anxiety, as he worries about failing, but he knows that with every experience of failure you will become a stronger person than before, and you know that there is a new journey and adventure ahead of you, and that it will lead you to something greater and greater than the previous adventure, in the end you have to accept the outcome whatever it is, and learn and grow with it.
What motivates Kabir is that all the effort he does to develop AirBolt improves people's lives. If he can make a positive change in this world in some way, it will make him feel satisfied and happy. When you do what you love and help people, you will be sure that The path you have taken is the right path, and this is what fills you with happiness and challenges you to do more.
The method for selecting the work team
The method for selecting a “senior” for his work team includes detailed interviews according to the job, so he starts with online tests, then interviews, and the thing he is looking for in the applicant is his innovation, as he loves people who love what He does it, but they have to add something special to the company. When he interviews the applicant, we are not impressed by the person who answers the questions accurately, but rather by the person who shows interest in him, and naturally starts presenting ideas and suggestions. This is what attracts his interest in the applicant more than the skills he possesses.
The role of the family
It took Kabir's family some time to be convinced of what he is doing, and to understand the importance of the idea, and when they were able to understand that, they became understanding and supportive of him. Great resources, but “Kabir” says that if you seriously convince them and explain your plans to them, your family will support you, and he finds himself fortunate that the role of his family was positive and they did not question what he was doing, but rather they were real supporters, and the issue was in the right way to get them the idea. Kabir tells us an example of his family’s support, that he used to spend long hours of staying up late working on the AirBolt, in addition to his daytime work at his job, and when he wanted to devote more time to the AirBolt project, his family’s role was positive, and they encouraged him and provided him with moral support to achieve his dream.
mentors
Although Kabir believes in the importance of mentorship, he does not have a mentor at the moment, and he says if you have someone with more experience than you, there is always a lot to learn from him, and his advice is to work Always with people who add experience, ideas and creativity to your company, he does his research on the best way to do something, then he asks for advice and advice, when he is unsure he does not hesitate to ask for help, and he finds that by being an entrepreneur and founder of the company, all ideas and answers do not have to be emanating from it, but it should come from the team as well, who have experiences and expertise in different aspects of life, the answer is always there if you have the willingness to listen.
Entrepreneurship workshops and events
Kabir attended some entrepreneurship workshops and found them useful for building relationships, but he finds that these events in his region (Melbron, Australia) are not that important compared to what is happening in the states United Nations, in terms of its ability to stimulate creativity and develop startups.
Useful tools
Kabir says that in the company they use applications that help them communicate faster and smoothly, and increase productivity, and he tells us that one of these tools that they use is Slack, enabling them to share information between team members and create a line of communication They can create chat groups for specific topics, as well as files, and they can be integrated with Dropbox so everything stays in sync, and in addition to Slack, “Big” uses Dropbox and GitHub to control the versions of the application.
Special advice for entrepreneurs from “Kabir”
“Never give up” This is what “Kabir” says, he went through many times when he felt that he had to lose hope, but somehow he returned to continue his project And this is what always opened new doors for him, so when you face a difficult situation, try to think of this situation as an opportunity to learn, pounce on the problem and solve it once, and when you acquire a skill to solve a problem, you can use this skill in the future, because every problem you face makes you Wiser, stronger and better.
Success
Success for “Kabir” is a simple thing, it is your ability to do the thing you love, and to have a balanced life, so you can make extraordinary efforts when you do something you love, and you will simply become A person with extraordinary achievements, so if you still do something you don't like, maybe it's time to change that, go ahead and explore your potential.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePTxzMWRgeY
If you have a startup or a distinguished project and you would like us to highlight it through the Arab portal for technical news, do not hesitate to email me at homam.g @ gmail.com or through the social networking pages found in my profile below.