By Bianca Silva
Scott and Fed Alcius are brothers that share one goal of providing United States immigrants the opportunity to stay connected with their culture back home through entertainment. They seek to achieve that with Nesvio, a streaming service catered to U.S. immigrants that allows them to view television programs from their respective native countries at affordable prices. The startup company in which they’re CEO and COO, respectively, was founded at Florida Atlantic University.
The brothers speak to The Haitian Times on the creation on Nesvio and the importance of immigrants being able to get access to TV shows from their homeland.
Congrats on Nesvio! What led the both of you to create it?
Scott: We worked with big telecommunication companies and global leaders in the industry. We saw a need to connect different ethnic groups back to their culture and share those roots with their families and loved ones. Therefore, we worked hard to accommodate the very large population of expatriates living in the United States with an affordable service catered to them.
Nesvio is specifically designed to help immigrants stay connected to their homeland through channels that one would otherwise pay extra under their respective cable provider. Why is it important for people to have such access for an affordable price?
Fed: We live in a world where the life of an immigrant is hard. I watched how hard my parents worked when they came to this country, so we know immigrants work hard to provide for their families and sometimes they cannot afford to pay hundreds of dollars to a cable company to stay connected to their homeland. We saw an opportunity to offer channels, for as little $20 a month, to a group of people that the cable companies weren’t providing.
How does Nesvio differentiate themselves from competing streaming services like Hulu, and Netflix for example, with the latter carrying shows from other countries?
Scott: We focus on connecting immigrants to their homeland by providing them the shows that they would watch if they were still living in their country of origin. They watch the same live channels that their friends and families are watching back home. Secondly, we are a one-stop shop solution, we offer TV, internet, phone service, high end technology and live customer service at a very low price nationwide.
What’s it like working together? How does your dynamic as brothers help in making Nesvio?
Fed: My brother and I, we are building a very professional corporation. We work directly with each other daily and it is a smooth and easygoing work relationship. I think because we are brothers, we try to work harder than one another and we trust each other explicitly when making decisions. I know my brother, so if he raises a concern with something in the company, it’s easy to understand where he is coming from and vice versa.
What have been some of the challenges you guys have experienced in developing Nesvio?
Scott: First, developing the software and hiring professional programmers was a challenge in the beginning. Although we had a conceptual understanding of where we wanted to go, we didn’t have a full architectural detail of the design aspect of the software. This took us a long time to develop because we wanted to build something revolutionary that the world has never seen before. Second, the hardest part of the journey is the ability to raise capital in the industry. It has been extremely difficult to get a meeting with a venture capitalist, although our product is mature in the marketplace and has demonstrated very good traction, it is really difficult meeting [with] a venture capitalist who can and will invest into our business model to expand our operation.
What advice do you have for those who want to make their footprint in the tech industry and create a successful startup company?
Fed: There are a few things I would tell someone wanting to start in the tech industry. The first thing is to create a plan. What is is that you want to do? Create a plan and visualize it. Second, have friends and family invest some startup/seed money so you can create a prototype. Third, have your target demographic test out your product, figure out the things that work and also what needs to be improved upon. The fourth and final advice I would give to someone wanting to make their way in this market I feel is the most important is to develop your resilience. There will be many times in this business that you will stumble and hit some road blocks. In our case, we hit many roadblocks, Sometimes we didn’t know if we were going to be open for business tomorrow, but we kept pushing forward. I am not afraid to admit that I have had doors closed in our face, but we keep pushing forward because even man cannot stop God’s promise. So for anyone reading this that is seriously thinking about going into the tech industry, I say don’t be afraid to fail because you will fail, but if you are able to get back up, you will make it.