The Cupertino Courier

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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Reaching Out: Mahesh Lalwani has launched a mobile social networking system he says will connect people with like interests by phone.

Giving voice to personal connections

By Hugh Biggar

Mahesh Lalwani and his partner Karun Thaper hope to become the voice of social networking.

Last year, the two founded ccube.com to provide "a social network with a twist"--a chance to connect with people by phone.

"When you meet up with people you have been emailing online, often it comes as a surprise, and not always what you thought it would be," Lalwani says of websites that enable people to make connections online. "When you hear the voice, you have a better judgement about their personality," he says.

Lalwani, an electrical engineer, and Tharper came up with the idea while attending a speech technology conference in 2005. They developed the concept funded in part by money Lalwani earned as a consultant for technology companies. The company also plans to seek venture capital funding early next year.

Launched in November, ccube.com now has a website, www.ccube.com, about 150 customers and seven employees. The company plans to develop locally first, then go national and international.

In addition to connecting like-minded individuals, Lalwani describes the service as a kind of mobile Craig's List.

Individuals can search for babysitters, carpool partners, soccer players or plumbers. Unlike Craig's List, ccube.com allows individuals to connect immediately by phone.

"Immediacy is the key," Lalwani, 40, says. "If you are looking for concert tickets, or soccer buddies, you can get in touch with someone on the same day."

For now, ccube.com is targeting the 16- to 30-year-old crowd, particularly students at San Jose State University, De Anza College, Mission College and Santa Clara University. The company hopes students will use ccube.com to find such things as parties or academic help.

As a part of that process, ccube.com subscribers create a brief online profile of their interests--interests searchable by key words--and also list times they will be available by phone.

Users then connect by calling ccube.com, which stands for click, call, connect, and then are matched up with those available at that time.

"We don't give out direct numbers; we protect privacy," Lalwani says, adding that their service includes an abuse reporting system to filter out problem customers, and a ranking system created by users will also screen people.

At the moment, subscribers receive the first 30 minutes a month free. In the future, Lalwani plans to add five seconds of telephone advertising to the service. After the initial 30 minutes, individuals can subscribe for $7 a month and businesses can subscribe for $20 monthly.

"It cuts the wires to computers," Lalwani says, adding that online access is needed only for subscribing and creating a profile. "Ccube provides personalization and a searchable, single degree of separation."