0:00:02 Amanda Stassen: Welcome to Purpose Power Brand, a podcast for leaders and brands transforming business into a force for good. I'm Amanda Stassen: , business and brand strategist, social justice advocate, and founder of Bizu Innovation Group. I'm speaking with leaders who are proving that not only does purpose drive profit, but the future of our world depends on it. If you want to grow your business, increase your brand loyalty, and not get left behind in the ever changing marketplace, this podcast is for you.

0:00:28 Amanda Stassen: Today I have the pleasure of chatting with Thyagi Delanerolle, CEO and co founder of OOT, a tech startup on a mission to end loneliness by powering human connectivity. Hey Thiagi, welcome to the Purpose Power Brand podcast. Super excited to be chatting with you today.

0:00:45 Thyagi Delanerolle: Thanks, Amanda. Really excited to be here today as well.

0:00:49 Amanda Stassen: Awesome. So this interview has been a while in the coming, but like, really, really stoked to dive into it. But before we get into what UT is, I want to talk about you. Share with me one word that best describes what purpose powers you and how this inspires the work you do and guides the decisions you make.

0:01:12 Thyagi Delanerolle: So one word I would say above all else, kindness. So I really believe in the power of kindness in so many ways. It's ultimately what brought, I believe on UT, and even more so than connection, because I think that kindness is the ultimate goal and connection is a stepping stone towards it. So, yeah, kindness, I love it.

0:01:43 Amanda Stassen: I love it. It's such a human term and such something that we take for granted that it's actually something we need to lean into and something we have to work on. So before starting oot, you had a very successful career in enterprise sales for over 20 years. What was the tipping point that led you to take on a social issue like this through entrepreneurship? Maybe talk us through from the sales career to the AHA moment that started oot.

0:02:18 Thyagi Delanerolle: : Yeah, for sure. I've been very fortunate in my life that I actually stumbled, I feel like, into a career in enterprise sales. And during that time, in the 20 years, I had an opportunity to make a good sum of money. And I realized that as I was closing deals, meeting clients, building relationships with all of these executives, I wanted something more for my life. I wanted to be able to tap into some of my powers of building relationships and seeing if I could build something that is much more sustainable, that will transcend me in my lifetime.

0:03:05 Thyagi Delanerolle: And so that's ultimately what fuels me and drives me. It's something that I'm so excited about and our team is so excited about and anyone we talk to is so excited about it's. Because of this prevailing problem right now that is kind of just causing havoc on society with that feeling of loneliness and that feeling of disconnection. And how can we overcome this in a way that is both leading with kindness but also going to be ultimately profitable for those who decide to invest and continue this mission of bringing people together?

0:03:48 Amanda Stassen: So let's dive into oot. I love Oot's tagline of making social social again. I mean, there's something about that statement that speaks. It's just a tremendous amount of, you know, the word social went from gathering together with people to posting comments on an app. I mean, millions of people around the world use social media every day, every hour, even every minute. Yet more and more, there are studies that show that people who spend more time on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat, they may actually feel more socially isolated than people who don't.

0:04:27 Amanda Stassen: Now, there's a ton here to unpack, but let's start at the beginning. What does the oot name actually mean? And how is oot making social again?

0:04:38 Thyagi Delanerolle: Okay, let's start with the name first. Okay. So we had a different name altogether. I'm not going to bring that old name up. But when we thought about UT and we were actually working with another team that was part of our marketing team, and we were reviewing a lot of the data that I had submitted for review. And a lot of the data was around the fact that oot was born during the pandemic. And in the pandemic, there was a lot of folks that were inside. We were all inside. We were all cooped up inside.

0:05:12 Thyagi Delanerolle: Inside. Right. And so what ultimately, UT wants to do is get people out, get people outside and connecting in person. And so in paying tribute to our Canadian heritage of being oot and a boot, which is something that we will say as Canadians from time to time, not all the time, but sometimes we wanted to pay tribute to getting out and about. Right. And so hence the reason why Oot exists, which is a fantastic term, because we're finding so many ways to leverage Oot in words choices like hang oots, or just all sorts of different ways that we can bring in oot into different phrases.

0:06:01 Amanda Stassen: Nice. And so how is oot? And actually, personally, I've never said Oot and I've never said a boot, but I think that's how Canadians are perceived by our friends south of the border. Absolutely. How is oot making social again? How are you actually doing that?

0:06:22 Thyagi Delanerolle: Yeah. When I had originally really kind of dove into the problem that I was feeling. So, five years ago, I was feeling very disconnected in downtown Toronto. And I knew that I tend to try to actually observe my surroundings and observe what's going on in the world around me. And what I realized was so much of the technology landscape that we had in front of us, much of it around social media, was very asynchronous.

0:06:54 Thyagi Delanerolle: It was us trying to connect with potentially influencers or watching videos or scrolling through media, and it wasn't actually facilitating that face to face connection, which ultimately was the nourishing element of being human. Right? So when we think about food and water and how important it is to the human body, we don't necessarily think of social connection and social health as being just as vital.

0:07:23 Thyagi Delanerolle: And so I realized even back then, when I was going through my own struggles, that I wanted to connect with people. I wanted to hang out with people and have these amazing conversations, even with folks that I didn't know well, but I wanted to get to know well, because we had some things in common. And so what I realized was, what if we had technology that allowed you to understand proximity, interests of folks around us, and then actual intention of wanting to connect?

0:07:55 Thyagi Delanerolle: So I call it pie. Right? I wanted some pie. And so that's ultimately what we wanted to build. So when I was pitching my co founder about the concept for Oot, I was explaining to him the pie concept, and he was like, wow, he's like, that sounds really interesting, but go do research. Go do some research. And of course, lo and behold, when we started to kind of get people acquainted with the concept of oot, everyone was getting excited, right? Everyone that we spoke to. 0:08:29

0:08:23 Amanda Stassen: Yeah. Your personal story about feeling loneliness in a new city, it strikes a chord. The feeling of loneliness is not uncommon. It creeps up. It could be a new job. It could be a new city. As you mentioned, it could be a new school. And more and more of our learning and working is done virtually through technology. So some of those accidental, and I would say almost forced collisions that we all took for granted, that brought us face to face with people, that we could meet those incidents, those serendipitous moments where connections could be made, they're less and less frequent.

0:09:13 Amanda Stassen: And the way that you took that feeling of isolation and loneliness to this idea that maybe the very technology that's separating us might be the answer is bringing us together is fascinating. So maybe connect for me, the dots for this feeling you were feeling, this very personal sort of loneliness, to suddenly thinking, well, what if I could meet people? I mean, it brings you to the question of how do I make friends?

0:09:42 Amanda Stassen: Do we know how to make friends anymore? And so it sounds like you found a hack for that. Talk a little bit about that.

0:09:49 Thyagi Delanerolle: Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm the kind of person I like to try to break things down. I don't have an engineering background, but I've been told that I think a little bit like an engineer in that I like to try to work backwards. I know that I want to connect with people on a patio. Literally just tap into like, oh, there's a group of folks over here on a patio. Let me figure out a way to join them. But not seem super creepy, right? Like not seem like, hey, can I join you guys? And then if you did it in person, that would seem kind of creepy. But if you had a digital interface that allowed you to be able to easily tap in and tap into the social circles that are happening all around us, wow, wouldn't that be really powerful?

0:10:42 Thyagi Delanerolle: So that was the thought process in my mind. Now, this took place two years ago, and of course our team has been on a journey, right. We thought about the tech, we thought about the mapping technology, we thought about the algorithm in which, how do you convey communities on a map, how do you put together kind of like the lay down of the infrastructure so that when you physically walk into a venue, you can actually see in a digital grid format all of the people that have similar interests to you that you can easily indicate to want to connect with.

0:11:22 Thyagi Delanerolle: Wow. Working through that whole process. And now seeing just earlier today I was pitching to a conference organizer and they're doing a conference for close to 1000 event like thousand folks. And we pitch them on UT in order to not only help them connect at the conference, but also as soon as the conference ends, there's going to be little hangouts here and there throughout in and around the conference venue that people can tap into.

0:11:59 Thyagi Delanerolle: And they got so excited, right? Like they saw the potential, they understood the possibilities and they were like, wow, this is going to be so great. It's going to take us over the top, make that experience even more special for folks.

0:12:14 Amanda Stassen: Yeah. Because technology has been so helpful in so many ways. But one of the things that it has maybe handicapped in us as human beings is how to talk with one another. Like find those places of commonality. And what UT is doing is almost giving you the introduction. Hey, here's a topic that you could talk about that makes it absolutely less difficult to have that conversation with somebody that you don't know necessarily or you want to meet.

0:12:47 Thyagi Delanerolle: Yeah, I was talking with another podcaster, right. About the fact that. How are we looking to also look at leveraging AI? Because let's be honest, right? AI is everything. It's everywhere right now. Everyone's talking about it. And so they were curious as to, like, how is oot planning on leveraging elements of AI? And certainly one of the ways is conversation starters. Like, we can take the intersection of your communities of interest.

0:13:20 Thyagi Delanerolle: Right. And then be able to take that and then automatically provide maybe three quick conversation starters. How wonderful would that be for anyone that had any level of social anxiety.

0:13:33 Amanda Stassen: Yeah. And just remove those barriers of that intro, that beginning statement that starts conversation. And I think all of us have had that dream where you walk into a room and you don't know anybody. And so what do you say? What do you talk about all those things?

0:13:57 Thyagi Delanerolle: Although I feel like I can definitely give maybe, like a crash course to some folks on how to get conversations started because people are so interesting. Everyone is so uniquely interesting. And you just got to have one or two lines, really oftentimes to get things going.

0:14:16 Amanda Stassen: And that's such a good point. It's such a good point. Let's flip over to you mentioned briefly, social connection as a fundamental human need, that it's as essential to our survival as food and water and shelter. And you're making me think about the 2023 US Surgeon General Advisory Report. And it cited that our epidemic is one of loneliness and isolation. And in that study, one of the things that struck me is that they were stating that social connection can increase, or lack of social connection can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

0:14:57 Amanda Stassen: I can't even fathom it. But what's your take on this? And then are there any other statistics that you can share that would just bring this matter home of why social connection is so imporTant?

0:15:09 Thyagi Delanerolle: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's so many statistics out there, but I can rhyme off three easily. But I want to just take a moment to pay special tribute to the gentleman that's been spearheading so much of this. So, Dr. Vivek Murphy, if you're listening, thank you. Thank you for spearheading this, and thank you for writing your book together. It is such a fantastic book. It really talks about three major tenets, which we can talk about in a moment. But going back to your question, Amanda, around the statistics, right? So the statistics are dire.

0:15:50 Thyagi Delanerolle: 40% of Canadians are lonely. So a third of the global population is lonely. And 61%, according to Harvard, of Gen. Z's. Are lonely. So Gen Z's 18 to 24, those young, impressionable individuals, right. They're the loneliest because they're, I think, the most kind of attracted to social media, which is unfortunate. So it goes beyond this, because part of what we're trying to do is also educate employers.

0:16:24 Thyagi Delanerolle: So employers are also really understanding the severity of the situation because they're realizing $154,000,000,000 in loss due to absenteeism, loneliness, absenteeism. And then organizations like Microsoft, for example, who are also doing some tremendous work around this topic, they did a survey last year of 9000 employees, and they found that 76% of those 9000 folks wanted a platform, a technology that allowed for more face to face connections.

0:17:01 Thyagi Delanerolle: So it's almost like something that we're craving as humans right now. There's a lacking of that face to face connection, and it's something that needs to be addressed.

0:17:13 Amanda Stassen: Absolutely. Even just some of the stats that you just shared, there's definitely health and societal impacts of social isolation, loneliness, and there is a public health concern. We can see that with the surgeon General. But I just want to dive into what you just mentioned about the workplace, and maybe we can dive a little bit deeper into the impact of remote and hybrid work and how we really should be thinking about navigating the future of work when everYone's trying to figure it out. Do I go to work? Do I not go to work? Is it mandatory?

0:17:45 Amanda Stassen: How do we create, as employers, a culture of that feeling of belonging that will help people work through this and will make it a more productive space? You mentioned absenteeism, but not just from an absenteeism perspective, but from a fulfillment perspective, from a productivity perspective. What's your take on that?

0:18:07 Thyagi Delanerolle: Yeah, absolutely. When I think about my career spanning over 20 years, I remember some of my best memories was because I made friends at work, right? And we had that camaraderie and we had that joy. We would have the wins and then sometimes we'd have some losses, but we would be there for each other and that type of special bond, because when you think about it, we spend a third of our life working.

0:18:39 Thyagi Delanerolle: You got it, 90,000 hours. That's what the statistic is. So if you're spending that much time at work, it's a shame when we're just doing it in a virtual setting. There's something to be said in coming together in almost like a tribe like manner, working towards a goal within an organization together and talking to each other, and also coming up with ideas and innovations that naturally would incur if actually we had the opportunity to have more, some casual conversations as well that could lead to additional innovations.

0:19:21 Thyagi Delanerolle: So these are all things that I think executives are very much now aware of. They're trying to find ways to bring people together, even in this hybrid, because I think hybrid is here to stay. But it's how do we optimize that hybrid environment? And this is where we're positioning oot, especially for enterprises and organizations that really want to address this, because they can essentially find ways for folks to connect in the office, but also create communities, private communities, for their organization outside in neighborhoods that will allow for more of these collisions or connections. Yeah.

0:20:03 Amanda Stassen: And to build on the culture, which feels like a lot of organizational or business cultures. They're dissipating because of that lack of proximity, that lack of opportunity to what we were talking about earlier, these moments of collision where whether it's over the water cooler or whether it's over lunch or whatever, the beginnings of meetings, it's looking people face to face to create those opportunities so important.

0:20:31 Amanda Stassen: Listen, as we draw near in our time, I just want to explore this notion of belonging. Now. UT's mission is to end loneliness, because everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And I love the insight that you're flagging here that there's a correlation between belonging and loneliness. But what is belonging exactly? And is it something that can be created, or is it something that must be nurtured? And there's tons of definitions out there, but maybe a simple one I'll throw out is that belonging is a sense of fitting in and feeling valued with others and in the world.

0:21:07 Amanda Stassen: How is oot powering that sense of belonging?

0:21:12 Thyagi Delanerolle: So, for us, the way we see belonging is also like having some common ground and to be able to be seen and heard. Right. I think that oftentimes you could be in a room full of people and still feel alone because for some reason, no one has approached you or spoken to you and really seen you and validated and acknowledged. Right. And so I think providing an opportunity and a platform where that could more often take place, that's what we're ultimately trying to do with.

0:21:47 Amanda Stassen: Oops.

0:21:47 Thyagi Delanerolle: Right. We're trying to provide an opportunity and an interface where, as we're detecting at a venue level, at a public venue level, folks can have the opportunity to indicate that they want to connect and then have that reciprocated. This type of platform we have not seen from, based on leveraging a mapping technology, building it into that interface, of wanting to connect that double opt in process.

0:22:18 Thyagi Delanerolle: That's what's special about what we're looking to do. And that's know members of Parliament like Ryan Turnbull recently talked about oot in the House of Commons, which was pretty exciting. I think people are starting to understand what we're trying to accomplish, which know it's pretty exciting.

0:22:40 Amanda Stassen: Absolutely. And there's so much more we could talk about, but we've come to the end of our time together. Tiegi, it's been a pleasure spending time with you. But before we sign off as an entrepreneur leading a purpose driven brand and business, I want you to leave our listeners with two practical tips that they can apply today to purpose power, their brand and business for greater impact and growth.

0:23:05 Amanda Stassen: What two tips would you share?

0:23:07 Thyagi Delanerolle: I would share that, well, this to me is not really a tip, but an obvious one is to just really, on a daily basis, try to talk to your customers, right? Try to speak to your customers, because oftentimes customers have the most tremendous insights. And then moving from that tip to the next tip, which is looking for patterns, I think I know for myself I want to be moving towards a data driven decision making.

0:23:42 Thyagi Delanerolle: Right. And all of the data is always right before us. So take time to analyze and look for the patterns that are already in front of us. That's part of the reason why Oot exists. I took time in my own life to look for the patterns that were emerging and really trying to be in tune with what I was feeling, but also making sure that I talked to people so that I wasn't just doing this in my own head. I was actually engaging with folks to make sure that I was synthesizing the data accordingly.

0:24:17 Amanda Stassen: That's so good. I love it. I love it. Talk to people.

0:24:21 Thyagi Delanerolle: Talk.

0:24:22 Amanda Stassen: Basic. Basic. But it's analyze the patterns, right? Talk to people and analyze what you hear. Analyze the patterns. I love those two. Simple and powerful. Powerful. So where can people find and connect with you and learn more about Oot? What's your website handle?

0:24:42 Thyagi Delanerolle: So oot. You can find us at WW Dot Oot. L-I-V-E so oot live.

0:24:52 Amanda Stassen: Fantastic.

0:24:54 Thyagi Delanerolle: And on our website we have all of our social media handles as well.

0:24:59 Amanda Stassen: Sweet. That's awesome. Tiagi, thank you so much for sharing your story and your learnings. And thank you for all you're doing in and through UT to make the world better for all.

0:25:10 Thyagi Delanerolle: Thank you.

0:25:14 Amanda Stassen: Hey, thanks for listening to the Purpose Power Brand podcast. I'm Amanda Stassen: . If you liked what you heard, be sure to share and subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We'd also love to hear what resonated with you. Or if you have a guest suggestion, drop us a line at Info at Bizoo Co. Special thanks to Mark Salam for original music and lead podcasting for production. Lastly, if you're ready to purpose power your brand to grow, win, and impact at scale, let's talk.

0:25:40 Amanda Stassen: Visit www.bizu.co. Bye for now.