Five Questions With: Polar Mobile CEO Kunal Gupta

Kunal Gupta is co-founder and CEO of Polar Mobile, which develops proprietary content for mobile devices for a range of businesses, including Time Magazine, The Street.com and Sports Illustrated.  The company’s applications are used in more than 100 countries, and are available in 14 different languages. As CEO, Gupta has forged strong relationships with Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM), not surprising since Gupta graduated in 2007 from the University of Waterloo, where RIM is headquartered. At the University of Waterloo, Gupta founded the Impact Entrepreneurship Group and started Polar Mobile with Rahul Argawal soon after.

Digital Puck: What problem does your company solve?

Polar can broaden a content publisher’s presence and maximize consumer reach by delivering their content via app across all Smartphone devices – Apple, BlackBerry, Android, Bada. Polar delivers an engaging user experience by offering quick loading times, simple and direct navigation and real-time push alerts. Our apps promote social and community sharing; users can share articles through email, twitter or Facebook, as well as inviting friends to download the app or send feedback to the publisher.

DP: How did you come up with the idea to start Polar Mobile in 2007?

The original idea was influenced by being in Waterloo – aka BlackBerry’s backyard – for five years at school, having traveled/lived/worked/studied in the UK and Asia, where at the time mobile penetration and technology was far more advanced than in North America. I also have a software background. This all led to the creation of our platform that enables content-delivery across mobile devices.

DP: Can you talk about notable customers or partners?
Our first two customers were Macleans and Business Week. Since then we’ve grown significantly, and continue to deliver apps to more than 50 global companies in the sports, finance, news and entertainment verticals.  A few of our other customers include, Sports Illustrated, TIME, the Street, The Hockey News, as well as other global customers, such as Kompas, MingPao, Shanghai Daily, Yonhap and more. Polar has a very strong relationship with BlackBerry. Our partnership has given us access to industry-leading resources in development, marketing, sales and training

DP: Any key lessons learned that you can share with Canadian entrepreneurs?

A key lesson I’ve learned is to be confident when approaching massive potential clients and telling your story. We have been successful in creating a well-respected customer list due to the fact we did not hesitate before calling them. We also gave them a reason to see us. As a small, young, Canadian company, it is easy to be intimidated by large U.S. customers. However, it is worth taking the risk because the value gained by forming a partnership opens up other opportunities.

DP:  You recently offered a free World Cup App for the BlackBerry Smartphone, available in five languages. Can you discuss how these sorts of apps help expand the company globally?

Polar’s had huge success with our World Cup App; featuring more than 265,000 downloads from BlackBerry App World, and over 26 million page views served. Sports fans expect sports apps to offer an engaging experience, which Polar continues to deliver. The success of WC2010 furthers our reputation as a leader in providing mobile solutions on a global scale.