Plug and Play’s CEO Corner: Aahlada Chennupati, ProductPlay

Plug and Play brings together retailers and start-ups who offer specific technology and expertise that can relieve merchants’ pain points. Customer Disruption highlights one of those start-ups in each issue with a brief Q&A. This issue, the spotlight is on Aahlada Chennupati, CEO and co-founder of ProductPlay.



1) What does your company do?



ProductPlay has developed technology that finds relevant user generated videos for any consumer product. We are working with retailers to provide videos for their products on their web sites and in-store.



We also built an app, ProductPlay, for iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, that users can download from app store to browse consumer product videos. You can download the app here.






2) How do retailers leverage your solution?



We are currently providing two solutions to retailers, one for their e-commerce site and the other for enhancing their in-store experience. Using our e-commerce solution, retailers can embed relevant user generated videos for their products on their website. With the videos, retailer's site engages the consumer, who would otherwise go to YouTube to check for video reviews. We foresee an increase in conversions with higher engagement.



We are also disrupting the in-store experience by providing relevant user-generated videos on a kiosk / tablet inside the retailer's store. A customer inside the store would scan the barcode of the product and watch videos, instead of reaching out to a salesman who may have inadequate knowledge about the product.



3) What is your background as CEO and/or what lead to the development of the company?



I have a Masters from Stanford University. I've been building e-commerce mobile applications for the last three years. I started working on ProductPlay in December 2013. I was constantly looking for videos of products before a purchase and felt the need for a platform to find product videos. We conducted a survey and 90% of the 600 participants said they watch videos before they buy products. So, it became clear that there was a rising demand for product videos. We then ran a study to find the number of new product videos uploaded on YouTube every year and saw an exponential trend. It also became clear that a platform connecting the demand and supply is needed since YouTube search is too generic for product videos.