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MBN USA

April 15, 2024

Qcast’s app is a video-based social network and engagement tool

By Genny Hom-Franzen

Today, there are apps for almost every entertainment, utility, educational, productivity or lifestyle activity one can think of. Tayo Dada and Shabazz Graham hope to encourage anyone “with a question to ask, an idea to share or with a little bit of curiosity in their soul” to download he app they co-founded, Qcast.

Dada’s and Graham’s company — Qcast Ltd. — owns the video-based social network and engagement tool based on questions. It launched on both Google Play and the Apple Store in 2022. Qcast is short for “question cast.” Qcasters — as the app’s users are called — can share and respond to insightful questions, creating shareable video streams called Qcast conversations. Ultimately, the goal of Qcast is to open up new conversations and spark fresh ideas which can generate both personal and commercial solutions.

“We created Qcast as an ethical platform that invites people to engage with each other and educate one another in a meaningful way,” Dada said.

What sets Qcast apart from other video apps is its innovative interactive video feature. Also, rather than just reading received comments, Qcasters can receive video responses, enabling them to not only hear the feedback, but read the body language and gauge the tone of voice of the Qcaster.

Graham said many Fortune 500 companies and international organizations have used the app’s software and Qcast’s professional services, including EY, Cambridge University, Salesforce, to name a few. So far, companies have used Qcast for employee and community engagement, organization-led mentorship programs, event engagement and conference audience interaction, vox pops — short videos made up of clips taken from interviews with members of the public — and conference interviewing, feedback assistance, career interviews and training, virtual recruitment interviews and human- centered supplier portals.

The spark that ignited the duo to launch Qcast in 2014 was Graham’s untimely loss of a good friend. He said he began asking himself repeatedly how technology can help people when one becomes absent.

“I realized I needed to create a tech platform which would be the embodiment of the answer to my simple, yet existential question. Qcast was my answer,” Graham said.

He and Dada are “old-school friends” and make “a formidable team,” he said. They have divided up the business duties by playing up to their individual strengths. Graham brings 30-plus years of expertise in video direction and storytelling to Qcast, while Dada brings more than 30 years in software development with a history of leading high-performing teams.

As for the future of London, England-based Qcast Ltd. — an active member in the Minority Supplier Development United Kingdom (MSDUK) organization — Graham said he and Dada hope it will “grow ethically and remain ethical.”

“As much as we see a place for artificial intelligence, we believe human-led insight is essential and is going to become a more valuable commodity, as the world becomes oversaturated with chatbots and artificial sentimentality,” he said.

More importantly, Graham and Dada also hope their innovation expands to as many industries as possible and ultimately impacts how people use social media.

“Over 10 years, our goal and hope will be to influence social media with our tool, encouraging people to have more honest ‘face-to-face’ conversations through a 1-2-1 platform like Qcast,” Graham said. “The moment that ‘Qcast it’ becomes like ‘Google it’ or ‘WhatsApp it,’ making its way into modern language, coupled with meaningful insightful discussions en masse in our platform — would be a great indicator of progress for Qcast.”

To learn more about Qcast, visit qcast.io.