VIU_Magazine_Summer_2017

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Holly Jones is the Communications Manager at VIU.
She graduated from the Florida State University with
a BA in PR and a MA in PR from Kent State University.
VIU ALUM EKIM KAYA:
CHANGING THE BOT GAME
BY HOLLY JONES
Ekim Kaya, CEO and founder of
Botego, built his company on
recognizing the need bots were
able to fill - 3 years prior to Apple
acquiring the digital assistant Siri.
Back then, the only mainstream
bot was Microsoft’s MSN Bot -
which was answering questions
based on terms from the Encarta
Encyclopedia.
“Kaya is a true
believer in taking a
step back to look
at the situation
from a broader
view of everyday
problems before
achieving a
creative solution.”
Ekim Kaya is the man behind the
scenes, responsible for changing
how bots are used to streamline
business in an ever-increasing online
world. A Virginia International University
alumni, Kaya focuses on building
conversations through the bots his
company Botego creates. The key to his
success? Perseverance.
Prior to attaining his master’s degree
in Management Information Systems
at Virginia International University,
Kaya worked as a call center agent for
an internet service provider circa 1997.
This experience led him to realize that
there was a systematic problem with
phone-based customer support: 80% of
the questions represented only 20% of the
whole knowledge base. Customers were
basically asking the same questions over
and over. Nearly all of the problems were
about account credentials or computer
or modem settings. It was the perfect
candidate for a self-service tool to solve.
Bots have proved to be perfect tools to
increase customer satisfaction while
reducing customer service costs; they
have the ability to give human features
and interactions creating a new user
experience.
Kaya isn’t a developer or even an
engineer, even though he studied
electrical engineering as an undergrad, he
is an entrepreneur at heart and it shows.
His company, Botego, was not always the
successful, highly regarded bot company
it is today. Founded in 2007, Botego,
almost went bankrupt not once, but twice;
having made huge mistakes, incorrect
assumptions, and missing crucial
opportunities. Kaya devoted so much
time and effort into the organization that
he refused to see it fail. He wanted to
see if all the disappointment was worth
it- would he be able to pull it off? For
Kaya, the third time was a charm, and his
persistence paid off through new clients
and a research and development project
that helped the company pay the bills.
Statistics show that 96% of businesses fail
within 10 years, but thankfully Botego is
one of the 4% who survived. Fate would
have it that tech-start up Facebook,
helped Kaya’s dream take hold in the
business world- and only weeks prior
to Facebook’s bot announcement, he
was considering closing Botego’s doors.
Kaya focuses on the needs bots fill for
businesses to be successful and recently
published a book on it entitled Bot
Business 101.
Technology continues to grow at a rapid
pace and his company is no different
operating with three different teams
in three different countries, spanning
two time-zones and boasts clients
from 81 countries. 20 years ago this
would have been unimaginable to some
degree. Where there is a need, there is
imagination, and Kaya is living proof of
that concept- having identified a solution
to a common problem in 1997.
Kaya credits much of his success to his
overall educational journey. Stating things
like, “formal education should never
satisfy any student in the information
age.” Encouraging everyone to become
aware of their strengths and weaknesses
as early as possible; create their own
external stream of information, focusing
on those strengths to be able to gain new
skills. The acquired skills help create
personal value and value for others
allowing for future success in life and
in business. Hands-on experience and
discussion are just as important as any
lecture or textbook.
30 University Magazine, VIU Summer 2017