After watching a movie with friends, how many times have you wasted your time searching for cabs available from the gazillion apps downloaded on your phone? “Far too many times,” echo in unison three students from IIIT-Hyderabad, Ravneet Singh, Nikhar Agarwal and Vennela Miryala.
“With a pocket money of only '2,000 per month, hamare sapne hazaron the (we had many dreams)… We would want to watch all the newly-released films, but to get back home, we would spend far too much time looking for the cheapest cab,” says 21-year-old Vennela, who also admits that she and her friends have also made numerous fake accounts from all of her relatives’ numbers in order to avail discounts.
And it was an ingenious solution to this very basic problem that gave rise to their collaborative app — Bucker.
“As students, we are always strapped for cash. Our parents, on the other hand, face quite the opposite dilemma. While they can spend money, unlike us, they don’t have the information about offers with the best deals,” she says.
Bucker, derived from the word “bucks” or money, brings together these two diverse spectra under one platform. For the past eight months, these three have been working on an app that gives you a “pop up” notification based on your mobile activity.
So if it’s a cab you want, the pop up gives you numerous options without you even logging on to Bucker’s data base.
“When we first pitched the idea, we were called overambitious and many claimed that companies might not partner with us,” says Vennela, adding, “The first to get on board, that too within less than two months, was Food Panda.” Soon to follow were Uber, Ola and Paytm.
Previously, the group has also won the Hyderabad round of Angel Hackathon and qualified for the finals in San Francisco. “But the expenses were around '3 lakh per person which we couldn’t afford,” says Vennela.
The only solution in sight seemed to be heading to the CM’s office. “I had only two minutes with the CM as he was heading out for an appointment. He was so impressed with our idea and I remember telling his team, ‘Do whatever it takes to help this girl’. Within two days, everything was arranged for and we were headed to the Silicon Valley,” she adds.
The app was launched in November last year and currently boasts of 10,000 users registered within two months.
“For our parents to understand why we didn’t want to get a regular job and do this was difficult. Nikhar, 23, quit his job to be a part of Bucker; and Ranveet, 23, and I never sat for the placements. It was risk was worth taking and thankfully now, we have proved ourselves correct,” she says.
