The Computer in Your Pocket: An Interview with Sonpreet Bhatia of MobileROI -- Charlene Weisler

Sonpreet Bhatia, CTO and co-founder of MobileROI, has deep and extensive data science experience. She started at Watson Labs at IBM and then moved to Wall Street where she got firsthand experience in monitoring how products move through the consumer funnel. From there she created her own company, My-City-Way, where she created a mobile platform to engage with consumers before co-founding MobileROI, a mobile marketing automation company. Bhatia is one of those rare technologists whose profound sense of mission lends not only to for-profit enterprises but also to those initiatives designed to help a common cause -- in her case, poor women in India.

In this fascinating interview, Bhatia talks about her mobile engagement and marketing company MobileROI and how it captures data to enable brands to uniquely interact with customers. She also talks about what it is like to be a female CTO, the opportunities for women to excel in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curriculum and how the media landscape will change with the advancement of artificial intelligence.

Charlene Weisler: What advice can you give a woman who is considering a career in technology?

Sonpreet Bhatia: Since I come from a family of engineers the idea of STEM was instilled in me early on. It was the atmosphere in which I was brought up. So I think the whole idea of STEM needs to be instilled early in little girls. We see companies like Goldieblox, for example, which is trying to create toys that are not standard types of girl-oriented toys in that they have a science basis to them. There are a lot of resources, such as Sheryl Sandburg’s Lean In Mentorship network, which can be very beneficial for a woman considering a career in technology. There are women who are making good progress in the industry. So start networking. Start reaching out. Connect with other women. Find female mentors.

CW: Tell me about the platform you are building to bring more women into STEM.

SB: This technology platform would give opportunities to young girls in developing countries to start thinking about the area of STEM. This platform will actually help them become entrepreneurs as the students will be thinking of new ideas that can actually change the world. They can form groups. They create ideas and build plans. They will have a platform where they can actually pitch to VCs. Remember this is in developing countries where these women might have never had the opportunity to understand STEM, nonetheless get their ideas in front of investors who can help them bring their ideas to life. The ultimate goal is to solve for poverty in these developing nations by empowering women.

CW: Tell me about MobileROI.

SB: I am the CTO of MobileROI, which is a mobile automation platform that connects brands to the customer real-time through highly personalized content, offers and experiences across the entire customer journey. With smartphones, we now have a very powerful computer in our pocket and it is on for 24 hours. How can brands take advantage of that and how can customers get the most relevant experience? We capture the intent and customer context, including the time of day, location and weather, among other things, and we help the brand connect with the customer using all of the external and structural signals around them. For example, is it raining outside? Is there an event going on in that area? What is going on around the customer and how can a brand organically participate in a person’s life by providing the right information or experience at the right time? We also use external sensors such as beacons so that if a customer walks into a store that is beacon enabled, the brand can connect to the history of that customer so that she can get the best, most personal service and relevant shopping experience.

CW: Where do you see the technology landscape going in the next few years?

SB: You have probably heard that software is eating the world. That is where I think it is going. Technology is going to rule in every sector. Because of technology there will be a lot of innovation and a lot of changes. One area that we once saw a while ago, then it faded away and now it is coming back, is artificial intelligence. I think that a lot of jobs that are repetitive may be taken over by artificial intelligence systems.

Interview conducted by Charlene Weisler, Weisler Media LLC. She can be reached through herresearch blog www.WeislerMedia.blogspot.com or at WeislerMedia@yahoo.com. Full disclosure: Charlene hosts a street art blog on The Starry Eye blog community.

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