We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rossana Jeran. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rossana below.

Rossana , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Risk involves pushing boundaries and trying new things that can lead to novel ideas and groundbreaking solutions. Whether it’s technology, business, science, medicine or the arts, all innovation and breakthrough comes from taking risks. Without it, potentiality and progress would stagnate.

But let’s face it, life itself is one big risk. Life exposes us to new experiences, change, challenges and more. Life can be rich, full of meaning and beautiful, but also push us out of our comfort zones for lessons, personal growth and evolution.

One of the best things we can do to navigate AND mitigate risk and this thing called life, is to begin or deepen a meditation or spiritual practice on a consistent basis.

Having walked a meditative and spiritual path myself for years and becoming certified as a Meditation Teacher through the Chopra Institute in 2022, I’ve found yes, taking risks is scary, but we must learn to accept that successes and failures from those risks contribute to valuable lessons and experiences that shape our reality, future decisions, and behavior, carving out neural pathways, architecting our character and the story we choose to live.

But even spirituality involves taking risks! Traversing the caverns of the mind, the chambers of the heart and the somatic experience of being human is not for the faint of heart, but it pays incredible dividends. A sense of peace, connectedness, deepened awareness and faith.

In the words of Denis Waitley, “ Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.”

So, after many years with great jobs spanning social work, film production, office and arts management, private equity, the late 90’s tech industry and Hollywood, it was time to take a big risk, change my story and upgrade my experience here on Planet Earth.

I wanted to be my own boss, work for myself. And not only did I want to work for myself, I wanted to make a difference in the world and be a role model for other CEOs and companies to do the same. We are a global village and if we ban together and each do our part, we can bring many essential resources to the places and people who need it most.

With that said, I believe stories should always have a dash of rebellion, a sprinkle of magic, and a dose of “I can’t believe I just did that” so here I am running my tech startup and dancing on the ineffable edge between risk and faith. To me this is where the magic happens and if I crash and burn, well, I’ll know there is a life lesson in there somewhere and it’ll be good for the memoir!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m the Co-Founder and CEO of Hello Computer, Inc., a social purpose, technology startup that is passionate about making a positive impact on the planet and her people. We are dedicated to using technology for the betterment of humanity, creating innovative digital solutions that enrich, educate and inspire people and children on a global scale.

As a woman and a social entrepreneur, I’m committed to revolutionizing the world of business to be more conscious and balanced with tools that make it possible for anyone with a smartphone or tablet to fulfill their highest potential, regardless of geographic location, language, race, economic status or internet access. For this reason, our first product was StoryTime International.

StoryTime International, the brainchild of and created by my Co-Founder and Developer Christopher Taylor is a dynamic ‘storytelling’ mobile app that enhances literacy, inspiring children to be passionate about reading, writing and imagination.

But StoryTime International is actually much more than just a reading app, it’s a story content GENERATOR and a dynamic story engine that never tells the same story twice. Now, every child has the opportunity to read and HEAR stories in their native language, because it also translates the stories into 137 languages, and reads aloud from any tablet or Smartphone. The current version, created for early readers, can be downloaded free from the Google Playstore. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hellocomputer.storytimeint)

StoryTime International is a great English as a second language tool and perfect for Immigrant parents who want their children to retain their native language. StoryTime International also houses an activity center that fosters creativity and literacy so early readers can explore language, vocabulary, creativity and writing with never ending stories, games, puzzles and other fun, educational activities. AND it doesn’t need the internet to use once it’s installed.

After speaking at the World Literacy Summit at Oxford University in the UK last year, we partnered with the World Literacy Foundation to distribute StoryTime International as its official mobile app for their Sun Book digital initiatives in Uganda, Kenya, S. Africa, Colombia and Guyana with more countries to come.

The Sun Books initiative is their groundbreaking project that relies on solar-powered tablets to bring educational content to regions with limited access to electricity and internet. The collaboration perfectly aligns with the mission of both of our organizations to leverage technology for positive social impact, offering literacy tools in these regions, and communities that have long been underserved. Seeing the delight and awe in these children’s eyes as they read stories and play educational games, warms my heart.

Literacy begins with parental or teacher involvement with stories playing an essential role in a child’s development. In fact, storytelling was one of the first forms of education.

Reading aloud to children plants the seeds of language development, laying the building blocks for the reading, writing and learning process, but in today’s modern world, educators are stretched thin, and parents are too busy to read aloud to children or illiterate themselves. StoryTime International bridges this gap and ignites an interest and love of language by providing endless story content in any language. After all, technology is just another form of literacy. Our educational Mobile Apps have been downloaded many times over, as well as nominated and awarded nationally and internationally three times.

Hello Computer, Inc. is a member of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP) Palm Springs iHub for Entrepreneurs, the International Trade Council and a Founder Catalyst Techstars program alum. We are partnered with the World Literacy Foundation and distribute StoryTime International across the globe for their digital initiatives.

Hello Computer, Inc. will also make its VR game debut this year with the upcoming release of our first title, “Abby’s Garden”. Our world needs more conscious gaming experiences that foster critical thinking, puzzle solving, engagement and higher consciousness.

Hello Computer, Inc. is dedicated to creating revolutionary content that educates, enriches and inspires people and children on a global scale.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, risk taking has reached a whole new level in technology where the quote, “Evolve or die,” seems to pack even more of a punch than ever these days.

Artificial intelligence AKA AI is a branch of computer science focused on creating systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. This includes learning from experience (machine learning), reasoning, problem-solving, understanding natural language, and perception. AI encompasses a wide range of applications, from virtual assistants and autonomous vehicles to advanced data analysis and decision-making systems.

Last year, Hello Computer, Inc. completed the sixth annual Founder Catalyst Program through Techstars and in an incredible ‘evolve or die’ moment, embarked on a big company pivot: Our story engine, StoryTime AI.

Techstars is the world’s foremost pre-seed investor in partnership with J.P. Morgan, a global leader in financial services. The Founder Catalyst Program is dedicated to nurturing innovation and fostering excellence for women founders working in technology. With invaluable resources, mentorship, and access to a global network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and corporate partners provided by Techstars and JP Morgan, Hello Computer, Inc. has added generative AI features into our proprietary story engine and our work is now changing the landscape of content creation and delivery.

Why is this important? Because we are no longer in the information age, we are living in the age of experience and interactivity and AI is ready to deliver.

There’s no turning back. The generative AI market value is expected to reach $44 billion this year and $207 billion by 2030 with content generation and mobile apps among the major trends.

Ready to revolutionize your content?

Static content falls short in today’s experiential age and AI is becoming an essential tool for businesses looking to innovate, formulate ideas, produce engaging, ongoing content, scale production and keep costs low.

Our StoryTime AI platform can create and deliver content for ANY brand, program or franchise including: entertainment, gaming, education companies and more.

Authors, content creators, educators, health practitioners, program administrators can now step into the age of interactive, customer and client experiences with our cutting edge AI driven technology and bring a program, characters, art and story concepts to life with ever-changing interactive content powered by StoryTime AI.

For authors, stories write themselves in endless variations, using your characters, brand, voice and style.

For health practitioners, the interactive AI works one on one with clients like a personal coach encouraging content engagement and user retention.

For educators and program administrators, our dynamic testing and training platform creates endless possibilities for everything from leveling the playing field of education to managing and retaining your company’s workforce.

Don’t get left behind in this paradigm shift of content creation and delivery. If you are interested in taking your content or program to the next level, get in touch for a free consultation.

The future is here.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We bootstrapped StoryTime International and StoryTime AI into the marketplace. With B2C strategies in place, our mobile apps reach a global audience to affect change, improve literacy through storytelling and offer guilt free screen time in or out of the classroom as well as bring revenue into the company. The current version of StoryTime International, created for early readers, can be downloaded free on the Google Playstore. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hellocomputer.storytimeint)

We also wish to connect with other companies, Strategic Partners and non-profit organizations to offer mobile devices and low cost educational licenses of StoryTime International to schools, libraries and other educational institutions that need it most. We are also exploring opportunities to partner with a media or toy company to continue development for StoryTime International to include older children, teens, adults and even seniors.

Although a seed round of capital might be nice at this point to scale the business, keeping the company equity in the nest is just fine with us right now. I know it’s a risk, but so is putting Hello Computer in the hands of investors.

We believe in our product, Generative AI technology and our B2B business model to create the revenue we need to take Hello Computer, Inc. to the next level. I’ve always loved unicorns.

So, with our mission, clear vision, mind blowing technology at our fingertips, and a massive paradigm that’s about to shift, we are excited for the next chapters of this incredible social purpose story we’re writing.

Evolve or die, right?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hello-computer.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rossana_jeran
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rossana.jeran
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossana-jeran-9861108/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rossanajeran
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/k8qFQDOzM2Y
• Other: http://www.rossanajeran.com

Image Credits
Aphrodite in the Desert – by Aydra J. Swan Sagittarius Rising by Marcy Mendelson Rossana Jeran Business Headshot by Ed Zabel Chris Taylor Bio pic by Rossana Jeran STI logo courtesy of Hello Computer, inc. Rossana AI photo by Lensa AI WLF – Sunbooks Students Africa by Charles Munwangala