The people (and dogs) behind DigiDoGG.
Three co-founders, Pelican's co-founder & CEO and its chairman, three Product Architects from Kodaikanal, and five neighbourhood dogs.
Kountinya Sai (Kount)
Sales and marketing, and the gamified products Pelican builds on.
As co-founder and Head of Sales & Marketing, Kount leads how DigiDoGG, Agent Spyder and Pelican reach locally owned businesses and the neighbours who shop with them.
Tamizhan, born in Dindigul; U.S. citizen; ICF-credentialed coach. Three decades in digital media, from the team that built sify.com and sifymall.com in the late '90s, to global ad sales for Cricbuzz, to co-founding harmoney.ai, the gamified wallet for teens whose earn, spend, save and give design became Pelican's three currencies.
His LAKSH-YA framework is the human OS beneath the Mitty curriculum. He splits his life between Carlsbad and Kodaikanal. unleashthefiero.com
Mahima Chandra
Building products that matter. Helping people grow.
As co-founder and Product Head, Mahima leads product for the Bhairav platform and the Pelican app for Carlsbad and Encinitas, working with DigiDoGG's Product Architects. She also coaches them, as the Mitty Sisters, toward emotional fitness.
She brings 18+ years of building products, most recently nearly seven years at Grab in Singapore, leading Mobility products and the GrabFood driver experience, after Practo and close to seven years at Mu Sigma, from Bengaluru to Manhattan. An IIT Bombay chemical engineer, she is an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and founder of Coaching with Mahima.
Rohan Sambabu
Empowering young entrepreneurs from Tier-B and Tier-C cities and towns in Tamil Nadu to launch their products and innovations in the U.S. and UK.
As co-founder and Head of Strategic Business Development, Rohan builds the partnerships that carry DigiDoGG from Kodai to Carlsbad and Encinitas.
He is Director of St. Peter's International School, Kodaikanal, carrying forward the legacy of his father, J. Sambabu, who founded the school in 1985. An alumnus of St. Peter's and of Loyola College, Chennai, with an MBA from London, he was recently appointed an Executive Committee member of the CBSE Schools Management Association.
In Kodai he leads by example. As President of the Kodaikanal Football Welfare Association he runs charity tournaments that pay school fees for underprivileged students, and he champions drug-awareness drives and community service for young people. During the pandemic lockdowns, the association helped about 200 Kodai families get through.
That same period produced his open letter, Kodaikanal needs special attention, a roadmap for a town that cannot keep living on two summer months. Read Rohan's roadmap for Kodai ↓
Bret Schanzenbach
The civic anchor.
Bret has led the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, the largest chamber in North San Diego County, as President & CEO since January 2019, after nine years as CEO of the Vista Chamber of Commerce.
Before chamber life he helped start Technical Difference, Inc., an HR software company, in 1992, and has worked across software and residential real estate. He is an executive in residence at Cal State San Marcos's College of Business Administration and a founding member of San Diego Tech Hub. A native Californian in North County since 1971, he leads Pelican in Carlsbad and Encinitas.
John D. Sanders
Investor, engineer and builder of technology communities.
John chairs Pelican's board. For more than twenty years he was an investment banker specialising in equity financing for emerging technology companies: the principal in the initial public offerings of a dozen companies, with more than forty private placements of equity capital organised through his efforts. He has served as a director and advisor to public and private technology companies.
He was Chairman and CEO of TechNews, Inc., publisher of Washington Technology, which was sold to The Washington Post Company in 1996. He founded the National Technology Fast 500 program and the Association of Technology Business Councils, chaired the Washington DC Technology Council, and in 2008 founded the Grand Strand Technology Council in South Carolina. In 1992 he was named a “Titan of Technology” at the Greater Washington Region High Tech Awards.
An electrical engineer with a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon, he began his career at General Electric, RCA Research Laboratories and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he lives in Carlsbad with his wife, Carole. johnsanders.com · LinkedIn
His book, Parables for Entrepreneurs, sets out his philosophy of making companies attractive to outside capital: why, how and when to promote a business to investors, and what to do once the capital arrives. It is free to read as a PDF or to hear as a podcast.
The Product Architects.
Three young women from the Government Arts and Science College for Women, Kodaikanal, the first cohort of the Mitty Sisters. They work with Mahima building DigiDoGG's platforms, Bhairav and Agent Spyder, and its first app, Pelican.
Nasrin Mubina
Founding cohort lead. Self-taught through YouTube and sheer will, she turns care into craft. As a Product Architect, she shapes how DigiDoGG's apps look, read and feel.
“If I grow, I want to help five more girls grow. Those five can inspire fifty.”
Sherin Fathima
From St. John's, Kodaikanal, to a business degree. She connects classroom theory to real practice. As a Product Architect, she builds the models that make each app work for businesses and residents.
“To build responsible organisations that create room for small-town girls.”
Azeema Farzana
Raised on the belief that education is the family's biggest hope. She keeps the numbers honest. As a Product Architect, she turns each app's economics into something families and local businesses can trust.
“Knowledge and hard work change the future — for my family, and for girls like me.”
A Kodai that works all year.
During the pandemic lockdowns, Rohan wrote an open letter, Kodaikanal needs special attention, and signed it simply “A Kodaikanal Citizen.”
Unlike Ooty and the towns around it, Kodai earns about 90% of its living from seasonal tourism, most of it in April and May, the months families count on to pay loans and school fees for the year. Its young people stay because they love the town, then find few options beyond a chocolate shop or another business built on tourists. The lockdown proved that isn't sustainable. His answer was a roadmap.
Work that lasts all year
Diversify employment so Kodai's families don't depend on two summer months.
A small IT hub in the hills
Remote teams and support units for major IT and services companies, run from Kodai's cottages by its young people. Cheaper than a big city, and a reason for visitors to come.
Enterprise rooted in the hills
Plum and pear jam, beekeeping, strawberry picking, and festivals built around seasons like cherry blossom.
Education close to home
A government university for boys, so more young people can study without leaving Kodai.
Growth without concrete
No large structures that harm the hills. Use what already exists, with the municipality's support.
“Kodai needs a clear vision for our future … I implore you to dream with me for the future of Kodaikanal.”Rohan Sambabu · A Kodaikanal Citizen
DigiDoGG builds on that roadmap. Its Product Architects are young women from Kodaikanal, building products for Southern California's locally owned businesses from Kodai itself: work that doesn't follow the tourist season.
It is the kind of small, talent-first set-up Rohan imagined, run by the young people of Kodai.
The Carlsbad Floofs.
Koda
The host
Karadi
The explorer
Kuberi
The deal finder
Spikey
The business dog
Snowy
The coast dog