Abu Dhabi-Based Giisty Is On A Mission To Restructure How Organizational Communication Works The tech startup replaces inefficient communication and knowledge-sharing channels with short interactive audio and video messages.
By Aalia Mehreen Ahmed Edited by Aby Sam Thomas
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"We got started in the first place based on a simple observation that inefficient communication and knowledge sharing cost companies 20-30% of their annual revenues!" With this statement, Giisty co-founder and CEO Mohammed Alami encapsulates the essence of the concept of his tech startup. Built with the sole aim of fostering interactive communication within corporate offices and teams, the Abu Dhabi-based startup offers to replace emails, meetings, and typical knowledge sharing methods with short peer-reviewed audio and video messages.
"In our daily lives, we send tons of video and audio messages to friends and family to share information and experiences, but almost none at work," explains Alami. "And despite knowing the negative effects of miscommunication, many companies continue to "make do' with their current applications, while they might not be the most suitable solutions. Through Giisty's services, corporations would considerably improve knowledge sharing, access to information, engagement, and overall workforce productivity."
Initially launched as Tuitify in 2018, the organization rebranded as Giisty in early 2021. "We started off with my co-founder in Paris with only an idea, and decided to come to the UAE to develop it and make it grow as a business," recalls Alami. "Since then, we have hired over 20 collaborators and signed industry leaders such as AXA, Sanofi, and HSBC. Our solution is used in 15 countries and across four continents."
Alami believes that what was launched in 2021, through Giisty, were brand-new offerings that were much more in line with what the corporate market was in need of- particularly in light of how the ecosystem had changed in the aftermath of the global coronavirus crisis. "With the pandemic, communication and knowledge sharing had been disrupted, and corporations had an urgent need for a solution that would help their teams keep their productivity or even enhance it, and that's how we came up with Giisty," he explains.
One of the platform's many offerings is the somewhat unfamiliar concept of video emails. As an approach that the Giisty team says can increase productivity by up to 30%, this feature encourages team members to send short videos to quickly summarize what they intend to communicate, thereby leaving little room for misinterpretation or confusion. Another interesting feature the platform offers is a Centralized Communication Hub wherein questions that are frequently asked to managers and team members can be reduced by up to 70%.
Giisty's platform also provides a Partners and Customers Portal where companies can share short video content with just their partners and customers with the aim of improving their understanding of the products and services they offer. While there were a few hurdles that had to be overcome during the startup's journey thus far, Alami insists being located in the UAE has played a major role in elevating their success rate. "Once the business is all set, being in the UAE gives us access to several markets and positions us in a technology hub that allows us to spread across four continents, as we are pretty much in the middle of all of them," he says. "The vision of our leaders about the importance of technology and innovation is a locomotive that is helping us convince corporations to use a solution like ours."
Being part of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) accelerator program also helped the enterprise a lot, Alami notes. "The MBRIF team, contrary to other programs, created a tailor-made experience for each one of the startups to target our needs and help us overcome our weaknesses," he says. "We worked with several mentors to better identify our core values and re-rewrite our pitch deck, and we are already seeing great feedback and tangible results from clients and investors. The high level of commitment from the team and the knowledge of each mentor made us grow faster in three months than we would have on our own in a year or more vices, corporations would considerably improve knowledge sharing, access to information, engagement, and overall workforce productivity."
