[real-eyes] From Street Kid to CEO: An Interview with Mike Calvo
- From: <bigdaddylou63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:32:24 -0500
> AFB Accessworld, American Foundation for the Blind, USA
> Wednesday, October 10, 2007
>
> From Street Kid to CEO: An Interview with Mike Calvo
>
> By Deborah Kendrick
>
> From the latest issue of AFB Accessworld, at www.afb.org/aw
>
> He was a kid on the streets in Miami, growing up in the center of gang
> life and the drug trade. Today, he describes himself as an entrepreneur,
> not ashamed that he is a high school dropout and proud that he is doing
> something to benefit a community that he did not know existed until he was
> well into his 20s--a community of like-minded, intelligent people who are
> blind, who enjoy the Internet and the power of technology as much as he
> does. As the only blind CEO among the most talked-about companies that
> provide screen access to people who are blind, Mike Calvo knows business
> and knows people. He is smart; articulate; and, most would say, hyper.
>
> I caught up with him during a packed travel schedule this summer and
> learned about the man, the company, and past and future highlights of his
> product. Like many busy professionals, his hotel suite bore the signs of
> multitasking. The remains of his breakfast were carried away as we spoke,
> and his laptop on the desk chimed the arrival of new e-mail messages every
> little while, yet, he was relaxed, casual, and never interrupted our
> conversation for telephone calls or e-mail messages. He stopped only once
> to answer a knock at the door and to ask the representatives of another
> company if their meeting might be delayed an hour to give me more time.
> Calvo, a born storyteller, talks rapidly, and his language is colorful--in
> the sense of being peppered with slang and vernacular and filled with
> analogies and parables.
>
> Caption: Mike Calvo accepting an award.
>
> Calvo is the founder and CEO of Serotek Corporation, the company that
> launched the product formerly known as FreedomBox, a product that has
> evolved dramatically and is now called the System Access Mobile Network. A
> series of coincidences--or, as he calls them, moments when God chose to be
> anonymous--led him to a string of successful ventures and, ultimately, to
> develop a product that, although used by only a few hundred people five
> years ago, is now enjoying a virtual explosion in sales.
>
> Love Affair with the Internet
>
> Calvo's first foray into a product to benefit people who are blind was one
> that did not start out that way. As a teenager and young adult, Calvo says
> he did what every Latin kid (he is Cuban American) did on the streets of
> Miami. But a combination of marriage, religion, and a certain kind of
> growing up changed all that. In school and his early jobs, he recalled an
> unsettling assessment that he heard all too often from teachers and
> employers--a message of low expectations, the subtle reminder that he, as
> a person who is blind, should not aim too high. Unrealistic goals, he was
> told, would lead to disappointment. "I was a rebel without a cause," he
> said of himself in his early 20s. His response was to start his own
> company, a company that trained and placed over 400 people who are blind
> in competitive jobs with such corporate entities as Ryder Trucks, American
> Express, American Airlines, FedEx, and Marriott. His conviction that
> computers are a must for every person who is blind
> grew steadily more ardent, and, eventually, that certitude evolved into a
> love affair with the Internet. The Internet, Calvo came to believe, was
> the single force that could give people who are blind opportunities that
> are equal to those of sighted people.
>
> In 1999, Calvo's best friend (a fellow high school dropout and successful
> entrepreneur) gave him an FM transmitter that allowed Calvo to listen to
> radio stations broadcast on his computer while he kept his wife company
> when she watched television. It was not long before Calvo's first
> Internet-related business venture, Radio Webcaster, was launched. With an
> FM transmitter connected to the computer, software to tune into thousands
> of radio stations, and an FM remote control that worked through walls, a
> person could listen to any radio station (or anything else on the
> computer) through any FM radio and do it from the comfort of the living
> room or patio.
>
> Radio Webcaster was featured in Playboy magazine and, in 2000, was hailed
> by CNN as a flagship product of the new millennium. The way that the
> product was assembled and shipped provides an excellent example of Calvo's
> ability to form connections with a wide variety of people and then connect
> the dots, so to speak, to make these connections productive. The
> transmitters were built in Indiana, the FM remote controls came from
> California, and the software CDs were burned in Miami. Calvo's friend in a
> Mailboxes Etc. location received orders, assembled the various components
> of a Radio Webcaster package, and shipped them. Meanwhile, payment went to
> Calvo's bank account, and word was spreading not only among sighted
> Internet radio enthusiasts, but among the blind community, about this
> great new product.
>
> "I started realizing that there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of blind
> people who were professionals, who were party animals, who smelled good,
> and dressed well," Calvo said. "They were people who were cool, and they
> had money to spend just like sighted people." Through electronic
> discussion groups, where people talked about audio, music, and assistive
> technology, and through his growing customer base, he realized that there
> were many blind people who saw things the way he did.
>
> The Next Step
>
> One good idea sparks another, and Calvo soon began dreaming about another
> product that he wanted to create. What he envisioned was, as he playfully
> described it, "A kind of AOL meets WebTV for blind people." In other
> words, whereas Radio Webcaster gave people who are blind a taste of the
> breadth of radio stations that are available through Internet connections,
> it did not give them the easy access to news, entertainment, shopping,
> instant messaging, and more that sighted people enjoyed with easily
> accessed commercial interfaces.
>
> Once the idea was rooted in his brain, Calvo began to post to various
> electronic discussion groups to find the kind of collaboration he needed,
> and, as he put it, "This 20-year-old kid from Kansas, a typical geek who
> then spoke in three-word sentences, said he could do what I needed." That
> "kid" was Matt Campbell, and their relationship led to the development of
> software that, in January 2007, was demonstrated as the first access to
> Windows Vista for people who are blind.
>
> "I write the road maps," Calvo explained, "but I don't know a lick of
> code. Matt is the one who makes the magic." Although Calvo lives in
> Orlando and Campbell lives in Kansas, the two are in constant contact,
> talking back and forth via Skype as though they were both zipping around
> in the same office space. "Sometimes it seems like I spend more time with
> Matt than with my wife and family," Calvo quipped. (Calvo has five
> children.)
>
> The first FreedomBox product was designed with "technophobes" and people
> with limited dexterity in mind. The product was driven mainly by voice
> commands and offered an extensive web browser, providing instant access to
> e-mail, radio stations, news, entertainment, and instant messaging--in
> short, everything that sighted people with limited technical expertise
> were already enjoying.
>
> Calvo recognized that this new business could not be operated alone and
> sought investors. One contact in the Minneapolis area led to another, and
> Serotek Corporation was formed. When the Serotek board involved Michael
> Fox, a consultant who specializes in business turnarounds, the company saw
> growth.
>
> "Michael Fox polished me up, shaved me down, and taught me how to speak in
> the business world," Calvo said. (For AccessWorld readers who may remember
> hearing him on Internet radio programs back when Radio Webcaster was new,
> however, Calvo has clearly always had a decidedly engaging style and
> charming way of communicating his point.)
>
> No Overnight Success
>
> Sadly, as Calvo sees it, except for the few hundred early customers who
> discovered the first-generation FreedomBox, people who are blind were not
> quick to trust a product that did not cost much. (Access to the then
> FreedomBox Network--now SA Mobile Network--originally cost $99 a year or
> $9.95 a month.) Gradually, Calvo and Campbell started adding features of
> interest to more sophisticated users. The price was raised to $499, and
> sales increased exponentially.
>
> When System Access became an integral part of the product--thus enabling a
> user who is blind to access such popular applications as Microsoft Word,
> Excel, and PowerPoint, some of the most serious--and savviest--blind
> computer users started paying close attention. With the software on a USB
> drive, a person could have access to the features of the network from any
> computer.
>
> A lawsuit claiming trademark infringement inspired a change in the
> product's name this past June. The new name, SA Mobile Network, is, Calvo
> said, actually more reflective of where the product is headed. The latest
> development, called SA to Go <www.satogo.com>, affords computer users who
> are blind the opportunity to render any computer accessible simply by
> launching the <www.satogo.com> web site. The SA Mobile Network continues
> to evolve; blogging, podcasts, RSS feeds, and more have been added to its
> original smorgasbord of shopping, entertainment, and news, and more
> features are on the horizon.
>
> In January 2007, Serotek demonstrated System Access with Windows Vista at
> the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the same venue in which
> Microsoft rolled out Vista itself. The product will soon offer braille
> access and Java compatibility, Calvo said.
>
> Serotek Corporation and its SA Mobile Network are gaining momentum and
> recognition in the assistive technology arena, and Calvo is giddy with the
> news that the product he loves and uses every day is gaining popularity.
> But "at the end of the day," as he said, he is first and foremost an
> entrepreneur.
>
> "I feel called to do what I'm doing right now," he said, "but my major
> interest is facilitating the needs of my customers. Right now my customers
> are blind consumers, and I wake up each day to facilitate customers who
> want to open their wallets and put their credit cards on the virtual
> counter."
>
> LINKS: Related articles
> The Liberty to Use a Computer: A Review of the FreedomBox by Deborah
> Kendrick
> http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw070307
> Who's Using the FreedomBox? by Deborah Kendrick
> http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw070308
>
> Read AFB Accessworld magazine at www.afb.org/aw
>
>
> http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw080506
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