From Street Kid to CEO: An Interview with Mike Calvo
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- Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 07:44:16 -0400
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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