Man has developed a great deal in past years. With the increased exposure to the internet, the lifestyle services are now abundantly available over this cloud world. There are websites and startup for every possible service that one might need or even think of. Convenience is the key to a good life, especially when it comes to everyday things. And in today’s perpetually active lifestyles, where people are always on the move, life often falls out of rhythm and becomes difficult. While there is assistance (in the form of apps), it does not offer ‘complete convenience’ at a single point. Jumping between apps, wasting time in doing so, often leaves the user disillusioned and perplexed.
This is where DudeGenie steps in as a chat-based and self-search equipped discovery platform that helps users with everything – from buying groceries, booking travel tickets, to sending flowers and gifts, home deliveries and more, with addictive ease.
So we people at Pixr8.com brings you the Exclusive interview of the newly launched DudeGenie.
The Concept and USP behind the company:
The central concept or theme of the service behind the startup is to make people’s life hassle-free. As of now, it has their own discovery platform that’s designed to make the consumer’s shopping experience more convenient and less like finding a pearl in an ocean. DudeGenie has some really cool benefits. They are always in a stage of constant evolution, innovating, and imagining new ideas and working on them. That’s what is currently unique about them.
What will be unique about them tomorrow? Well, that’s a secret for now which will surely be better than yesterday.
The Road Traveled so far:
It has only been a journey of 60 days since the launch of DudeGenie android app, but they claim to have come a long way from the start.
For one, the team has grown bigger (from 5 to 45 & still counting). And with more minds on board, the system gets more convenient. The DudeGenie app has received a tremendous response from users, so much so, that the customer base has grown manifolds (from a couple of hundreds to 20k+). With such a great response, it’s safe to say that their confidence in their ability to redefine convenience is on an all-time high.
The idea origin and execution:
The founders Abhinav Agarwal, Rikshav Borah and Shaunak Das understood that the market was flooded with too many vendors, making it difficult to find well-curated reviews and managing accounts across vendors, they launched DudeGenie as a pilot project on WhatsApp.
The trio started out with a keen understanding for the need to aggregate the dispersed hyper-local market for users and developed a chat-based assistance, that is currently evolving.
Services provided:
The DudeGenie app provide info on services as Retail, FMCG, Essential Professional Services, Information, Hospitality.
It provides a 24*7 chat based assistance and easy to use discovery platform.
Targeted Customers:
Just like most other startups the app targets the smartphone users. The app is available for free over the Google’s Play Store and once downloaded, its easy and user-friendly interface makes it quite simpler for its user to search for the query.
“We encourage a culture that supports positive teamwork. Whether it takes impromptu fun sessions or working together on a project; we make sure that our team members understand and value each other and each other’s work. We firmly believe in a culture that celebrates individual expression but isn’t limited by it” exclaims the founders.
The Team:
Being IIT graduates, the founders have more in common than not. They believe that the product belongs to everyone who’s working on it and encourage interns and senior employees alike to participate in the app building process. The founders are very clear in their vision and how they want DudeGenie to redefine convenience. And this clarity is passed down to the entire team with ease. The team is young and fun and believes in working hard to make DudeGenie a success. The team comprises of:
Rikshav Bohra: Has worked with CISCO at a senior level. Loves challenges and has a great passion to make the world a better place.
Shaunak Das: Has worked as a senior employee at Sony Ericsson. Known for his unflinching focus, Shaunak believes that technology, when used well, can bring about important changes.
Abhinav Agarwal: Has worked with corporates like Flextrade, Bewakoof.com. Likes to solve problems and believes that with conviction every obstacle can be overcome.
Three people set out to redefine convenience via a chat-based and self-search equipped discovery platform and soon more joined in. That’s hierarchy at DudeGenie. We believe that to get the most out of people, such segregations aren’t necessary. We like our employees to work in multiple departments and try out different things.
Challenges and Goals:
“We have faced a few challenges during this journey, the major one being changing the user mindset on how easy and convenient this service is. The past 3 months have been a process about educating the users and slowly changing their behavior. Also, the idea that one app can cater to all types of services is something new and it take time to establish trust with the users” quotes the team.
Current Competitors: Helpchat, Lookup, Haptik and Goodservice.
Future Strategies:
Their aim is to become the lifeline of every city and each customer, a one-stop-shop for everything. To accomplish this, we plan to improve response efficiency, strengthen back-end support to aggregate the hyperlocal vendors into one single platform, and finally cater to and engage more customers by expanding to other cities.
On one hand their self-search, discovery program enables users to conduct their search the way they want and create a distinct social profile, while on the other hand our chat-based assistance is always there to help them whenever they need help, whether to find what they need or for hassle-free transactions.
So, we the team at Pixr8 wish them luck and hope that their uniqueness and dedication would serve their purpose and provide the smartphone users a much interactive and convenient platform.