Vikram Joshi
Vikram Joshi SEAS'12 is an Entrepreneur. Vikram started an online restaurant named Desi-Columbia specifically targeted for overseas students while he was still a student at Columbia University. Not being a passionate foodie, Vikram moved to his next adventure, Military-Value, an online general store for US military personnel. The basic idea of Military-Value was to make luxurious items in reach for young military personnel, who either have no credit history or have credit history not good enough for normal merchants to sell them on installments. As per Vikram, he saw great potential in Military-Value, but could not relate to it on ethical basis.
Next venture by Vikram was WorkKafe.[1] WorkKafe is a Software Consultancy based in New York City.[2]
The basic concept behind WorkKafe is to fill the gap between big IT firms and freelancers.[3] Vikram coined a new term WorkLancer, which is a subset of freelancers who qualify to be a part of WorkKafe. The testing algorithm takes into account a freelancer's educational background, her/his projects and employment history among other factors. Latest work carries more weightage comparatively. This algorithm generates a number for each freelancer, which is called WGPA (WorkKafe Grade Point Average - another new term coined by Vikram). To qualify as a WorkLancer, a freelancer has to have at least a certain minimum WGPA.
When not in front of his computer, coding and making strategic plans for clients as well as for WorkKafe, Vikram can be spotted in the city with his camera. He publishes some of his photographs on his personal webpage[4] and his blog.[5]
