-
-
A utility to add a listing for a business that you think everyone should know about!
-
Home screen that shows a list of businesses around you.
Inspiration
The lockdown imposed in India has been ongoing for close to 7 months now. This has taken a major toll on businesses both large and small. While the larger organisations are still being able to get by, the smaller businesses are finding it extremely hard to make ends meet, not only to keep the business running but also to put food on the table for themselves. This is majorly because they have limited reach because of not knowing how to publicise their services.
We were inspired to build this app by witnessing a recent event where an influencer on Instagram published a post about one such small business based in Delhi and the plight of the owners moved almost the whole nation. Within no time, people from all over the country flocked to the "dhaba" (Indian slang for a restaurant on a highway) and helped them emerge from this crisis. We figured a lot of other businesses could use this kind of help and come out of this crisis still punching.
What it does
The application solves the problem of business owners not having the means or know-how to get themselves noticed on the Internet. The app works by crowdsourcing information about businesses around people that they would like others to know about. Users can add listings to the app and other users can contribute to maintain the quality of listings on the platform. Users can also find businesses around them that would be of interest to them.
How I built it
The app is made with <3 in Flutter. It uses the Google Maps API to help with location based features such as picking locations, etc. The app also extensively makes use of Firebase for authentication, media storage, database, etc. FlutterFire is the library used to help the app work seamlessly with Firebase.
Challenges I ran into
A major challenge we ran into (still working on) is using Elastic's hosted service to help index the listings being added and their locations, services, tags, etc.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
With my brilliant team, I've built something that can genuinely help those in need around me (and far away).
What I learned
I learned a ton about getting Flutter to work with Firebase, Google Maps, and local files. This has added greatly to my skillset and I'm capable of building better apps than before.
What's next for Homegrown
We plan to add more features to make this a well-functioning social app that is driven by the community with a focus on quality and development of local businesses. We intend to integrate moderation and better fact-checking tools to help keep up the quality and help genuine businesses.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.