Santa Barbara startup Cogi has created a call management system that allows you to capture the important parts of a call or meeting, record them, share the call with others, makes notes, and get a written transcription.
I’ve been test-driving Cogi for about two months. I recently talked with co-founder and COO Palmer Jackson about the business. In fact, I used Cogi to record the call, annotate sections, and review the transcript.
The company was started in 2007 by a group of telephony veterans: Bob Dolan, Mark Cromack, and Palmer Jackson. Mark comes out of CrystalVoice Communications, and both Palmer and Bob, as well as much of the engineering and marketing staff, come out our Callwave.
(Side note; recently, I’ve seen a lot of talent and entrepreneurial energy that’s come out of Callwave. I’d be very interested in hearing more about the history and dynamic in that company, and how it became a spring of talent and new ventures in the Santa Barbara community. Any of you insiders care to tell the tale, lunch is on me any time.)
The Offering
In terms of a software product, I’m impressed. First under a free trial month, then as a paying customer, I’ve been using Cogi to capture the key parts of phone conversations for a couple months, so I’ve had a good chance to kick the tires. I’d recommend that people take a look and think about how this tool could be useful in your business.
I’m certainly no engineer: more of an operational and marketing guy. But, as someone who’s been around software development companies for 13 years, I recognize Cogi’s offering as a success on two fronts.
First, on backend, infrastructural development, it’s clear the team has a background in IP telephony and signal processing. The smooth call handling as well as the impressive clarity of playback recording makes this a tool ready for primetime.
Second, on the user interface front-end, they’ve built a tool that packs a powerful set of features into a very approachable, usable experience. I go so far as to say its pretty damn cool.
For example, I can share access to recorded calls with other people in our company, so they can hear the details of the call directly. I can also download any call as an MP3 and re-listen on my iPod or include audio interviews on our blog.
How have we used Cogi?
I first used Cogi for Formation Solutions, our incorporation and LLC formation services company, a.k.a. my full time, paying gig.
At Formation Solutions, we regulary reach out to our present and past clients as an ongoing process of gathering feedback to improve our service. Also, for the Formation Solutions Blog, we like to write posts that highlight our clients and our professional services partners.
We typically do the interviews by phone. one can try to be a good listener and take good notes, but there’s only so much you can capture with your memory and typing while on a call.
So as I watched a demo of the service from Palmer Jackson and Mark Cromacka couple months back, it become immediately clear how I could use their service in conducting these interviews.
I always enjoyed the calls with our clients, because entrepreneurs in the early days of a new business are an inspiring, energetic group.
But now, with Cogi, the calls have a new dimension.
We’re able to capture the cogent elements of the conversation. Nothing falls through the cracks. This means we are better able to capture and act on feedback from our clients.
Challenges
Probably the biggest challenge to Cogi is that this is a new concept. There’s a bit of a stigma associated with recording calls.
As any startup must, the company’s products and services must solve a burning problem that exists OR provide a compelling way to increase revenue. Cogi’s big challenge right now is finding the right market and the right application of their offering.
There are quite a few directions they can go. They are acquiring customers directly, and they have a big push on closing several large partnerships that would give Cogi a substantial reach.
And there is also a viral component to their service. Obviously, when someone makes a call with Cogi, and then shares that call, there is often an interest in the sharee to sign up themselves.
We wish them success.
If you’ve used Cogi, or if you have other thoughts about their business, we’d like to hear your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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