Harjot Saluja, co-founder of Reach, shares his vision for disrupting the telecom industry and building a company with a personal story. "Starting something from the ground up is the story I want to tell my children," he says. Over the past five years, Reach has empowered its team to grow both personally and professionally, preparing them for the challenges of the future.
Reach’s innovative approach focuses on the power of open technology. By giving access to networks via APIs, Reach accelerates innovation, enabling rapid deployment of mobile and fixed wireless services. Saluja emphasizes that the closed nature of traditional telecom networks has hindered innovation, and opening them up is key to driving progress.
Saluja believes success in the telecom industry will depend not just on technology, but on the simplicity of packaging services for users. He highlights that consumers care less about the technical details and more about ease of use. The future belongs to companies that can deliver simple, seamless solutions that enhance digital lifestyles.
At Reach, this simplicity is central. The company is committed to making it easier for businesses and consumers alike to create and enjoy new telecom services, all built on open, accessible networks.
Dan Jones:
Why did you start Reach?
Harjot Saluja:
So aside from the fact that it's fun disrupting a big telecom industry, the other aspect of starting Reach is, what's the story I want to tell my children as they grow up. And I think starting something from the ground up is the story I wanted to tell. And as any company, I feel like Reach, we have done a great job, and people walking in the door, and I... We've seen them over the last five years grow both personally and professionally, and be ready for the professional world. So that's a big part of starting Reach for me.
Dan Jones:
So what are the pros and cons of open technology for this kind of system, both in terms of the technology and the network?
Harjot Saluja:
I think the openness to access the network is very important. I mean, if you look at the world today, we have hyperscalers, like Googles of the world, that have very modern way of bringing new things to market, Netflix of the world, and all the OTT. And I think opening up the network with APIs gives the opportunity to drive innovation at a significantly faster pace. And look at us, we have built a telco in a box. We can stand up a new mobile service or a fixed wireless service on a tier one major network operator in a matter of minutes. And it wouldn't be possible without having access to these networks in an open manner. So I think that it goes a long way to have that in the telecom world. If you think about all the innovation, a lot of it is coming from people using mobile phones, right? We're all using them all the time. And it is kind of bizarre that the mobile networks themselves have been so closed. And I think having that access gives the opportunity to innovate in that space as well.
Dan Jones:
So, easy question to finish. Who will win in the convergence wars?
Harjot Saluja:
So it's not an easy question, of course. I think there's going to be a market share for both the MNOs and the fiber and the MSOs. And I think a lot of it is going to be driven by technology. I think we get all lost into the deep tech of it, like putting the fiber in the ground, the fixed wireless. Of course that's very important. Without it, we don't have access or network. But I think the other part of it is packaging it, like how simple you make it for the user. And I think companies that innovate in a digital lifestyle type branding are going to do well, because at the end of the day, we are selling to a consumer.
Like for example, my wife, who's not from technology, from a medical sector, she doesn't know the bits and bytes. She doesn't want to. She wants to know how simple it is to use something. So I think that the companies that innovate in the simplicity of packaging are going to be in the forefront of it. And I think part of the reason we started Reach, to make it super simple for people to create a service on top of a network, and on conversion network, multiple services. So we are of course banking on the simplicity of packaging services.
Dan Jones:
Great. Thanks for your time.