Eturi Corp has been recognized as one of the 20 Fastest Growing Companies to Work in 2021 by The Executive Headlines

 

The worries of parents for their children spending hours on gadgets needs a solid solution. Screen time affects the brain and t also is distancing children from the social skills. As a parent Amir Moussavian, Executive Chairman and CEO of Eturi Corp., also saw the need to manage screen time from a very personal perspective. The problem was his children were not ‘present’ — they were texting at the dinner table and scrolling through Instagram during conversations.

One day Amir got an idea of launching an app that would help families limit screen time for the kids and Eturi Corp. was born.

The company continue to lead the Mobile Management category in innovation and product development, bringing new ideas and products to the market. While some companies worry about competition, Eturi Corp., thrives on competition, teamwork, collaboration, and innovation. 

Following are the highlights of the interview, where Amir shares his vision about the parent control apps and enlightens us with the dynamics of the MDM space.

What inspired you to Eturi Corp? Please brief us about Eturi.

Back in 2014, I would home after long days at the office and was excited to spend quality time with his family. Being a father of two, I saw my children constantly on phone. It felt like every family moment was being hijacked by screens, or by arguments about screens.

That is when I decided to write up a ‘pact’ that positioned device use as a privilege and outlined expectations for that privilege to continue: no screens during family meals, for an hour before bed, during homework time. No more arguments. In theory. While my kids made great progress, the system still lacked accountability. I told my daughters: ‘only fifteen more minutes,’ then come back to them still on their device over an hour later.

One morning, I looked at the contracts taped to the refrigerator and had an ‘Aha’ moment. Right then, I knew that technology was the problem, and it can also be the solution. From that day, I set out to develop an app that would help families limit screen time, without the arguments.

It was in this ‘aha’ moment that OurPact, Powered by Eturi Corp was born.  

What is the most important key to your success? Share your experience. 

There are several elements that have been critical to my success: 

First, your vision needs to be crystal clear. You need to know your company’s vision inside and out, and you need to believe it wholeheartedly. This was particularly true as we looked to expand our portfolio outside of the parental screen time monitoring and parent target. 

Second, ensure your team understands your vision. To have everyone rowing in the same direction, the team needs to also be clear. It should be clear on the company vision and individual missions executed within the company. If your team does not have a clear path, it will lose the game very quickly.

Then, empower your team. People are the most valuable asset any company will have. Bringing in the people with the right skills and mindset sets you up for success, but you must empower them beyond that. That means you help them develop and expand their skills and knowledge and encourage them to use their talents. 

Finally, have a strong culture.  I have always considered culture to be a critical element to the success of a company. But you cannot expect culture to happen ‘accidentally’. Part of what makes Eturi successful is that I have spent time defining and cultivating the organization’s culture. I also lean into my team leaders to help refine and guide our culture, ensure it is clear and well communicated to the entire company and that we all live it. This has proved invaluable when the Pandemic hit, and we began working fully remote. It has allowed our team to stay connected and as innovative as ever! 

What are the unique offerings provided by Eturi’s team?

Eturi Corp is an expert in remote management software. Our flagship app, OurPact, started the category and remains the top-rated screen time parental control app in the market.

It is that same innovation and vision that made Eturi Corp enter the SMB market in 2021. In 2020 COVID-19 dramatically restructured work practices. I realized that the new decentralized way of working left many leaders seeking ways to evaluate the activity of their teams and from this, Motiv was born. With reporting focusing on team collaboration, Eturi developed the app to ensure the highest level of employee privacy. 

Motiv is the corner-office view into today’s distributed workforce and is the first productivity app built for business leaders of distributed and remote teams. 

What were the challenges you faced while entering the mobile device management space?

There are several challenges when entering the MDM market, but two of the biggest are security and user experience. We always want to deliver the best user experience possible and build a foundation that will allow us to easily and quickly expand features based on user preferences. However, our number one priority to safeguarding our customers data; we build our apps with this in mind.

How have technological advancements have impacted business operations of Eturi?

The industry has always been dynamic, and that continues to accelerate year after year. Leading any company requires the ability to look ahead and make quick decisions – often at the expense of progress you have already made towards an alternate goal.

This is even more salient in the mobile application solution space, where you not only can take an idea to conception in a relatively short period of time, but your competitors (existing and potential) do as well. A healthy combination of creativity, decisiveness, and strong processes are essential to success in this fast-paced field. This energizes the Eturi team to develop the most innovative and groundbreaking products on the market. 

Can you explain what Remote Management for Modern Parents is all about?

Our mission for OurPact is to deliver a tool that empowers parents to raise smart digital citizens so children can effectively learn to navigate the ever-growing digital eco-system.

Our children are not just digital natives, they are mobile natives, and digital octopuses. They do not know a world before digital and a mobile phone is an extension of their hand. We call them digital octopuses because you often find them not only using their mobile phone but also iPad, chrome books, laptops, or gaming devices, all at the same time. Because of all the opportunity that exists, it is imperative for parents to have a tool that allows them to help learn how to navigate this system.

OurPact allows parents to set up individual children’s profiles on their mobile phones, set digital schedules (when they can be active online and when they must be offline), block inappropriate apps and websites, and even receive screenshots of their digital activity.

We also provide a feature that lets parents know when new apps are downloaded. It works on iOS and Android devices. It also had a GPS locator and notifier that allow you to find your phones and, importantly, ensure your children are where they should be (e.g.: set a geo-fence around their school and receive a notification if they leave the premises before set time).

With OurPact, we always recommend parents have open communication with their children about mobile phone usage, so children learn how best to manage their digital habits.

What are the dynamics of Motiv app?

Motiv is the first dashboard for today’s distributed and remote workforce. With the Motiv app, business leaders receive productivity-boosting workforce analytics in the palm of their hand. Motiv is different because most existing productivity solutions are web-based and target large enterprises. Motiv is unique because its capabilities serve business leaders directly to help with real-time decision making and activity monitoring.

Motiv is early in its launch and has an aggressive development plan to add features vertically and horizontally to enhance the user experience.  To best service our users, we will be working in lockstep with them to build on new features and integrations, providing frequent releases to meet and exceed their needs

What does the future hold for Eturi? Can you briefly describe about your plans?

Our new app, Motiv, is in its infancy and we have an aggressive roadmap to enhance features strikethrough. While we have built out a plan, we will also remain flexible to customer feedback, to ensure we develop the enhancements that will provide the best product for our customers. 

For our flagship product, OurPact, we will be re-examining and enhancing the strong feature already being offered. In the summer of 2021, we started rolling out some of these enhancements, allowing us to continue to deliver the best user experience possible for our parents and families. 

We are very excited about the growth opportunities for both Motiv and OurPact in the coming year. We know the enhancements we will be delivering on a frequent basis throughout the year that offer significant value. However, we are always on the lookout for new opportunities to makes our current (and new) customer’s lives better and easier to manage. 

What do you feel are the reasons behind your company's reputation?

One of the most significant factors impacting Eturi’s reputation is that I never compromise on quality or rush the product to the market. If there is a legitimate need for your product and an urgent market gap, one can ship a product—even before it is ready.

The catch here is the quality directly reflects the effectiveness of that organization’s process and can also stain the reputation. ‘Negative press and brand impressions are difficult to come back from — much harder than the temporary disappointment from missing an internal deadline or not rising to investors' satisfaction. Always cross your T's and dot your I's’.

How was it working through the pandemic? How challenging was it for you?

When we first entered the Pandemic, my priority was to ensure the safety of my team, which meant a quick pivot to work from home. But with that shift, I experienced how challenging it was to lead effectively from a decentralized operation. I have always valued the corner office vantage point – being able to tune into the hum and buzz of my team collaborating. Who is meeting with who? Is my product manager getting enough minutes with appropriate stakeholders in advance of an upcoming release?

With the shift to remote work, that view went away, but I could get a similar picture with technology. With Eturi's years of experience in remote monitoring software, I also knew we are the best team to develop a convenient, easy-to-use app. 

Now, I can access those key insights from my device and subsequently use them to make decisions and drive business effectively. 

How is Eturi Corp. helping users by providing an end-to-end service?

At Eturi, we always take a two-pronged approach to ensure we are delivering the best product. We speak with current and former customers to understand their pain points, elements they like about the product and garner their ‘wish lists’.

We also have internal brainstorm sessions with our teams, encouraging them to ‘push the envelope’ on ideas and ways to continue delivering the best product in the marketplace. This serves to ensure not only innovative products but also energizes the team. 

Is there any specific message or product that you would like to highlight through this article?

While we are early in Motiv’s launch, to date, response has been positive. We have some great early learning, which has helped enhance the ongoing roadmap. Our team is energized and focused on growth. In a short period of time, we have gone from concept to a live app.

With remote and hybrid work become the norm for the long-term, we are excited about how Motiv will be able to grow and offer the one tool every business leader needs to drive team productivity and effectiveness.

 

Quote: “We take great pride in ensuring we develop our apps with security as our number one priority to ensure our apps keep your data private and secure”