We were lucky to catch up with Juni Mukherjee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Juni, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

Thank you CanvasRebel for having me. The best investment has been PalUpNow!’s philanthropic arm “PalUpNow! Charities”, through which PalUpNow! shares donations with nonprofits in India and Kenya that share our vision of serving underserved communities.

We’ve supported three nonprofits so far:

a. Cancer Foundation of India, where we support cervical screening of women and HPV vaccination of adolescent girls from underserved communities

b. Ethical Traveling in Kenya, where we improve online infrastructure like website development and internet connectivity to advance experiential traveling in underserved communities

c. Towards Future in India, where we address the socio-economic needs of kids from underserved communities

Through each of these international liaisons, PalUpNow! is able to:

a. find vetted Ride Pals on the ground in India and Kenya, who’re fully equipped to handle local conditions and challenges. PalUpNow! is based in the US and this approach proved to be an effective technique to scale and grow outside the US.

b. extend help to Riders, who need assistance with not just rides but with life essentials

c. validate the international user experience of our platform and address feedback to the best of our ability.

Juni, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Juni Mukherjee is an executive, who thrives at the intersection of Product, Technology, Finance, and Business. She designs and productizes affordable technology platforms to improve people’s lives, especially in underserved communities.

She is the founder of PalUpNow!, an online global marketplace that connects people who need assistance on flights and rides, with pals. PalUpNow! improves the accessibility of humans and creates economic opportunities for those who can help.

In the past, Juni has been a trailblazer in Continuous Everything (Integration | Testing | Delivery | Deployment | Analytics | Governance), Digital Transformation, and DevOps. She has authored books, white papers, and blogs on controversial and niche topics, and has evangelized at major global conferences.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

PalUpNow!’s product is an online marketplace that I’ve designed and invested in. I’ve leveraged industry-standard technology solutions to build it from scratch, and I improve on my own design regularly.

Unlike most traditional marketplaces that profit by keeping a (sometimes significant) percentage from their helper community, I’ve kept the PalUpNow! online marketplace simple and cost-effective, so that our Flight and Ride pals, can keep 100% of their hard-earned fee or gift.

Also, from lessons learned during the pandemic, our users can opt to go contactless, so that our Ride Pals can help via email, phone, or on audio/video calls when physical rides and meetings are unnecessary.

I’ve deviated from traditional advertisement-based social media platforms by:
a. designing a revenue model that doesn’t monetize anyone’s online presence by baiting them to click on ads

b. getting rid of user accounts, passwords, and other technology embellishments that regularly frustrate and eventually marginalize folks who aren’t tech-savvy

c. anonymizing user profiles to prevent PII (personally identifiable information) from floating freely on the web

d. normalizing the absence of profile pictures that typically cause anxiety amongst people with mental health issues, and cause teenagers, young adults, and even adults, to act irresponsibly.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We’re in the process of building an audience on social media.

Here are some thoughts:

a. Social media helps to build a brand and get the word out.

b. We discourage team members to spend too much time on social media, and they get ample help from automated agents. That way, they can take breaks and learn new skills.

c. We have a small team and so encourage team members to create content that can be reused across multiple social media channels.

d. Although PalUpNow! is based in the USA, we have a global outlook and try to create content in different languages used in our world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://palupnow.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/palupnow
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/palupnow
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/palupnow
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/palupnow1
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@palupnow
• Other: a. https://pinterest.com/palupnow b. https://palupnow.quora.com c. https://www.tumblr.com/palupnowdotcom d. https://continuity.world/gallery

Image Credits
Team photo by Kaushiki Sen