Quantz: Quantz is an AI-powered voice help center designed to enhance website conversions and sales. With a simple 10-minute setup, no coding required, it provides fast, natural-sounding responses to customer queries using proprietary voice AI technology. Quantz helps businesses streamline support, save time, and increase engagement through intelligent, automated conversations.
Arun: In this episode of BizTalks, Kazuki Otsuka, founder of Quants, shares his journey in developing an AI application that allows businesses to set up conversational customer support in minutes.
He highlights the unique features of Quants, emphasizing its commitment to privacy by not relying on third-party services.
As a self-taught programmer, Kazuki discusses the challenges he faced while building Quants, and the necessity for a user-friendly interface that requires no coding skills.
He also shares insights into fundraising, marketing strategies, the importance of manual outreach in the early stages, and building genuine relationships with potential users.
Packed with insights, this episode is a must-watch for entrepreneurs launching and scaling tech startups.
To begin with, Kazuki can you explain what Quantz is all about and what problems it solves for its users?
Kazuki: Imagine having an AI that talks to people on your behalf. You simply give it short instructions, and it handles the conversations, sending relevant links while you focus on your important tasks. The AI arranges meetings and delivers the results to your inbox seamlessly. Sounds fascinating, right?
This is exactly what Quantz offers—a fast, privacy-focused conversational AI that saves you time and creates more opportunities. It’s designed specifically for business use in the cloud, where users have full control over what it says and how it says it.
Quantz is easy to deploy—no coding required, and it takes just 10 minutes to set up. The response times are incredibly fast, and everyone who’s tried it agrees: it’s a quick and innovative experience.
Arun: Could you share a bit about your educational background and work experience before starting Quantz?
Kazuki: I’ve been a serial entrepreneur for about 10 years. I actually started my research team before I even entering university, focusing on pure science rather than engineering. Interestingly, I taught myself practical software skills along the way.
After graduating from university, I became a self-employed programmer. A few years later, I pursued pure research at Mac, driven by my larger vision. During my time there, I developed a mathematical model of a Turing-complete computer and its language, based on a unique structural logic.
Arun: What inspired you to start Quantz?
Kazuki: During my time as a university student, I conducted research on mathematical analysis and music theory, while also exploring the information density in voice signals. In 2014, before founding our company, I created a voice emotion analysis algorithm and submitted a patent in the US. From 2015 onwards, we began developing privacy-centric voice compositional AI.
By 2017, in addition to my work in research and development, I joined as CTO of external saries B class tech company and become known as a specialist in AI. I had already read over 300 papers on AI before launching Quantz.
I share many of these insights on my Twitter, which helps guide my decision-making in business. I predicted that AI would replace clerical communication tasks such as interviews, customer service, and business management. We believe privacy is crucial, and our ultimate goal is to create an autonomous organization where privacy-centric communication AI plays a key role.
Arun: What qualities do you look for in a developer when hiring for your team?
Kazuki: We value the concept of a general-purpose computer, specifically the Von-Neumann-type computer, where all that’s needed is a sequence of instructions and data. Quantz’s core voice stream engine operates without any external APIs, ensuring both complete privacy and a minimalism approach.
This design is intuitive, reduces dependencies, and brings simplicity and consistency to the codebase. We tend to prefer a scientific type of engineers—those who can create a lot with minimal tools—over engineers who focus on trendy tools. For instance, at Think X, individuals with degrees in physics tend to be more active and productive than those with computer science backgrounds.
Arun: You mentioned that your team is distributed across the world, with members in the U.S. and Europe. How do you go about recruiting them, and how do you effectively manage a distributed team?
Kazuki: To establish a presence in the English-speaking market, it’s more rational to hire a native English speaker rather than a Japanese speaker, assuming they have the same skills. For example, the English market is currently growing in Europe. I actually found one of our hires on Twitter and reached out with a direct message.
Our company culture is very distinct, almost cult-like, so when we hire, we focus heavily on what candidates say and what they like, which we can observe online. If we find someone we want to work with, I usually just send them a direct message.
Arun: who is your primary target audience for Quantz?
Kazuki: Quantz primarily targets individuals or businesses that need to communicate with many people while saving time, or for those who find this task challenging. This includes e-commerce sites, hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, or any service that requires daily customer interactions.
For instance, you can quickly set up a voice guidance system by simply entering the details of what you want the AI to say. Then, copy and paste a piece of code into your HTML deployment—no coding required. Quantz is designed for both non-programmers and programmers looking for a shortcut. The usage is simple and intuitive.
Arun: What kind of marketing strategies do you want to acquire more users at Quantz?
Kazuki: I enjoy marketing books by authors like Marcus Sheldan, Donald Miller, or Allies. However, I believe that manual marketing is crucial, especially in the early stages of a business. As Stephen points out, I agree that this is particularly true for web products—unless you’re selling through a platform like the App Store.
In other words, we can’t bypass the process of actively seeking out users. We’re constantly trying to meet potential users and engage with them. These conversations provide us with valuable insights.
Arun: Has Quantz raised funds from investors? If so, what was the fundraising journey like?
Kazuki: When we last raised funds, we had already been accumulating speech and NLP technology for many years. Although our product was in the same technological field, the market and concept had completely shifted. Interestingly, the investors said they chose to invest based on my personality. Even when we changed our product plans after the rise of LMH around 2022 or 2023, they didn’t question it—they just supported us.
I feel very fortunate because, in my experience, building a healthy, trusting relationship with investors is far more important for startups than it’s often perceived to be. That’s why we never approach fundraising from the perspective of “all we need is funding”.
Arun: I see that there are multiple products listed on your website, aside from Quantz. Do you manage the development activities for all of these products on a daily basis?
Kazuki: We’re not just building a company that produces a single AI product; we’re creating a system designed to continuously develop and ship AI products. Our 1 million lines of AI system code are optimized for that vision.
More specifically, we’re developing a common library and a group of microservices that can be used to quickly create advanced, scalable AI-based systems. These components are highly abstract, simple, and have low dependencies on specific frameworks, allowing even developers with limited implementation experience to efficiently build advanced systems using our codebase.
This approach functions like a software factory, enabling us to consistently release new products. The services displayed on our corporate website are part of a larger goal—to build an autonomous organization that continues to evolve and innovate.
Arun: Let’s move on to a few general questions. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Kazuki: This is the advice I would have given myself when I was young. It would have been, you’re young. Since the present self is always younger than the future self, this is probably always valid.
Arun: What is your, favorite non-fictional book that you would suggest to our viewers?
Kazuki: It’s hard to choose just one, but if I had to, I’d say Karl Popper’s Logic of Scientific Discovery. I believe that if people stopped drawing easy conclusions based on unscientific methods, discrimination, and prejudice would eventually disappear. In time, this could lead to the realization of a truly effective democracy.
Arun: What is your favorite hobby or nighttime activity?
Kazuki: About 20 years ago, when I was 10 years old, I was asked about my hobbies during a part-time job interview. I remember saying I didn’t have any hobbies because I’ve never liked the concept. I approach everything with my life on the line, and I still feel the same way today.
If we fill our lives with meaningful activities, there won’t be any time left for hobbies. But if I had to mention one, I often go to the mountains. Walking in the mountains helps me come up with important ideas. I usually walk for 10 days at a time to recharge, especially when I need to make significant decisions.
Arun: Alright, Kazuki, I think we’ve reached the end of the interview. It was really nice talking to you, and I’m sure our audience will be very interested in hearing what you had to share. Once I post the link in the description of this video, they’ll be able to listen to the full interview. Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule, and we wish you continued success for many years to come.
In conclusion, Kazuki’s journey with Quantz showcases the potential of AI to revolutionize customer communication. With a focus on privacy, simplicity, and efficiency, Quantz offers businesses a seamless, automated solution. Kazuki’s insights on leadership, innovation, and marketing strategies provide valuable takeaways for entrepreneurs and AI enthusiasts alike.
