Xena Vision Revenue & Funding (2024)

[00:00] Hey, folks. My guest today is Nazli Temur. She's been an entrepreneur since the age of 27, and now today, Founder of xena-vision. She's got a master's study in theoretical, master of computer science in France. She did a research internship at the Inria Sophia Antipolis in France and was a software engineer at Huawei R and D in Istanbul. She's now building next generation emergency recognition technology whose commitment is saving lives through reactive surveillance. Nazli, you ready to [00:25] take us to the top? [00:27] >> Yeah, thank you. You bet. [00:29] What does reactive surveillance mean? [00:32] >> It means like in the case it detects some emergency, it can able to react, like create the alarm and notify the people. So it's an active surveillance system. [00:43] For what? Like a terrorist attack or a fire or what? [00:47] >> Like it can be a terrorist attack and so on. But like our first customers are airports, in the airports, there can be some terrorist risk, but also someone can fall down and have heart attack in that large venue. So this both safety and security cases are covered. And to increase the number of use cases, we can call like stadium, [01:16] >> human safety stuff, like cardiac heart attack, again, the violence. And in the road, this is road accident recognition. All these things threat the human life. And it is crucial to just react on time. And so those are scalable use cases, which are deployed our system. [01:39] And Nazli, you're starting with airports, we love a niche focus, obviously. What's the average airport paying you to use your technology per month? [01:49] >> Just can I like, can you repeat the question? [01:53] No problem. What's the average customer what's the average customer paying you per month to use your technology? [02:03] >> Like, this this question, I couldn't understand. I'm sorry about this. [02:07] Your price point. What's what are customers paying you per month? [02:11] >> Paying you. Okay. You know the pain keyword? So I just mismatch with this pain and paying. Actually, is kind of a POC customer right now. Because, yeah, we developed an AI and this AI, we have to test it on customer data. So for each and every customer we have a POC phase, we test it in their data. So right now this is kind of pre revenue. We haven't generated revenue from the airports. [02:44] How many tests, POCs how are you running right now? [02:47] >> Now it is almost kind of five, like one for airport, one for a 3,000,000 municipality in Bursa in Turkey. And also there is kind of this sport accident recognition in China for access leasures. And there is a flying car company, which is called Airspeeder and the accident detection collision avoidance for them also. [03:12] And Nazli, if they start paying you, let's say the POC goes well, they start paying you revenue, what will they pay you? How big are the contracts potentially? [03:22] >> Actually, the system is, how to say, they can run all these customer have large number of cameras and we expect them to pay by number of camera. Like we are right now, it is kind of a per month, one camera, We are thinking to charge to $1,000 for each camera. [03:50] >> But this pricing is kind of, [03:54] >> they are not going to start with thousand camera just right away. They gradually increase. This is our first [04:01] How many Nazli, how many across the five tests you're running right now, how many total cameras? [04:07] >> Actually, like four camera for municipality right now. Four? Four. But this is I'm not say I'm going to say four camera. This is for intersection with the like, a large number of camera. Let's say total maybe 20. [04:29] >> So for the airport, it is actually, the the number of camera right now, it is not clear how to say this. [04:36] Yeah, I see. Okay, no problem. So you're just getting started. Are you bootstrapping or have you raised capital? [04:43] >> Actually, have raised almost $140,000 [04:52] >> This is $90,000 from a national R and D institution, and the other one is from the biggest telecom company of Turkey, just like two, three months before. [05:03] Okay. Yeah. What How much equity did you sell? What valuation did you raise at? [05:09] >> I keep all the equity. This is all grant. [05:13] Okay. [05:14] >> Yeah. [05:15] Okay. So it's all grant money. And how many people are on the team today? [05:20] >> Nine. [05:21] Got it. So how are you paying them? [05:23] >> Actually, this is kind of [05:28] >> We are not using money as the instrument all the time. This is a very kind of intellectual project, and we have a great know how inside. So we are working with the best university last students, last year students and fresh graduates. And they are not asking too much money from us, and they are very much eager to learn. And also we have some B2B company collaborations, they provide us some office and like expensive equipment support for [06:03] >> developing our projects. And so we decreased a lot of cost to how to say, [06:11] Nazli, if a student at one of the universities does work for you, do you own the IP even though you're not paying them? [06:18] >> I'm paying them, but it is like, you know, Turkish lira compared to dollar, it is not too much. So if it is 1,000 lira, it is like very few when we compare to the dollars. But for US or any other European country, you can think of a €1,000 in their place. [06:40] Okay. And of the 140,000 you raised, do you have to pay that back or it was just a donation? [06:46] >> It is all donation actually to develop the project because we are selected kind of for 4,500 out of 140. [06:58] >> So like, actually the use cases and the progress on the product is like, this is really, I am the technical founder. And this is a really kind of cutting edge technical project. And this is what make people exciting about and spending their time, dedication and resources. But we not We may be a little slow to generate the revenue. [07:26] Nazli, what year did you write the first line of code? [07:31] >> Could you please repeat this? [07:33] When did you write the first line of code for the platform? [07:35] >> Ten years before. No. It's like, I have graduated from university 2012, And I launched this two and a half year before. So I started this, can say, July 1 in 2019. And this is the official start date. [07:58] Okay. And so how have you paid yourself between 2019 and 2020 and this year out of the grant money? [08:06] >> Yeah, this is the grant money. It is kind of $20,000 for two years actually we spent. And then by [08:20] >> achieving the first phase successfully, have the opportunity to get $90,000 too. We haven't spent this money, it's going to come in two and three months here. And we get this grant from the telecom provider. And again, $25,000 and we spend one out of third, and we are going to receive the end of kind of this month, the other part. [08:55] So Nazli, of the 140,000 you've already raised, how much is still on the bank? [09:01] >> Like, it is 90 plus, I can say, let me say, if we divide, let's say 15, 115, 15 I can say. We only spent 20,000. [09:24] So Nazli of the 140,000 you've raised minus 20,000 you spent in 2019 and 2020, that means you still have 120,000 in the bank today. [09:34] >> Yeah, yeah, exactly. [09:36] Is I see. [09:37] >> Yes. I'm kind of very efficient to generate resources without money. [09:43] I think that's super impressive. So when do you think you'll have your first paying customer? Not a POC, an actual signed closed contract. [09:51] >> Actually, I'm planning to make it by this year and before this year. [09:58] >> Customers, are actually how to say happy. I can say this also, I am a little obsessed with the technical kind of improvements. We are like, right now, one designer designed the customer real time reports for the customers, etcetera. This is kind of a surprise for them. So we are like, how to say, over preparing for them. [10:24] How long have these POCs been running? [10:27] >> Actually, like for this airspeeder, actually, for last two months, we have started. [10:35] Is that the oldest one? [10:37] >> The oldest one was the actually, Okay. The oldest one was the airport, but in between, my father passed away and this quite make this a little, make some things a little complicated. In between, [10:55] >> we got some, we are selected to hype global acceleration for the sports and we get this access leasures and airspeeder and the municipality customers. So what we did, we increased the number of POC actually. [11:13] >> The closing the sales, it's a little stress, it requires more energy. So I took more time on this POC and my comfort zone. [11:25] Makes sense, Nazli. I'm sorry to hear that about your dad, but it's impressive the traction you've generated after that over the past year, and we're rooting for you. We hope these POCs turn into signed customers before the end of the year. Okay? [11:37] >> Yeah. All right. Yes. All right. [11:39] Let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book? [11:45] >> It is Zero to One. [11:47] Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying? [11:51] >> This is Elon Musk. [11:54] Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building xena vision? [11:59] >> And air table, I can say. I have my living project plan. [12:04] >> I love that. [12:05] Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night? [12:09] >> Actually, [12:11] >> right now it is eight hours, but last year it was like two, three hours, [12:18] That's not healthy. [12:20] >> Yeah. But first first year was like very I was really passionate, very energetic and etcetera. But right now I spend more time, some time with family, myself and business. [12:32] It's a healthy balance. And what's your situation Nazli, married, single, do you have any kids? [12:36] >> I I am single. I am married with my project. [12:41] And can I ask how old you are? [12:44] >> 31 years old. [12:46] >> 31. [12:47] Last question. What's something you wish you knew when you were 20? [12:53] >> I shouldn't wait. I I yes. I I delayed certain things, and I should have started that time. I have already actually, I had plans to be an entrepreneur that time, but I didn't know the name was being an entrepreneur. [13:13] Guys, there you have it. Nazli launched her company xena-vision in 2019 to help folks like airports track incidents, both security risks and also safety hazards like someone falling or a terrorist threat. She has five POCs right now hoping to convert one of them to a paid customer before the end of the year. She's gonna price on a model that is a thousand dollars per camera per business. We'll see if she can convert these five POCs into [13:36] paid accounts by the end the year. She has $140,000 raised. It was all a donation grant money. She's burned only $20,000 since 2019, so very capital efficient. Nazli, we're rooting for you. Thanks for taking us to the top. [13:48] >> Thanks a lot. [13:51] One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers. They try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday one [14:15] p. M. Central. Additionally, remember these recorded founder interviews go live. 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