The Team: Junaid Gulzar : 16100059@campusmail.lums.edu.pk Maarij Tahir: 16100084@campusmail.lums.edu.pk Abdullah Bin Nabeel: 16100050@campusmail.lums.edu.pk Hashaam Mehboob: 16100196@campusmail.lums.edu.pk Ahsan Abbas: Hashim Anwaar: 16100137@campusmail.lums.edu.pk Zeeshan Abid: 16100128@campusmail.lums.edu.pk
Lahore is infamous for it's traffic. Whether you are a CEO of a multi-national firm, an employee just starting his or her new job or students like us, chances are you guys have probably been stuck in traffic more than once in your lives. With the increasing population, this problem is only going to get worse. Lahore in specific and Pakistan in general can't afford to keep investing billions on infrastructure. Every minute saved on the streets is a minute you can work, relax or just be with your families. The problem is clear, the solution is ingenious.
We at LUMS decided to tackle the problem of traffic congestion head-on with our idea of an app called Raastey. It collects data from (hopefully) Pakistan Traffic Police but more importantly, you. it allows users to update traffic states of a particular street or road allowing other users to steer clear. It also allows other stake holders like restaurant chains to monitor the influx of customers in their particular area. With an app that can monitor future traffic levels as well, the possibilities are endless.
The features we are providing and the uniqueness coupled with a dire need will propel our app to success. We can facilitate vehicle drivers, food chains even residential areas by reporting as well as forecasting traffic levels in a particular area. It will basically be all audio so that the drivers wont have to check their smartphones for live updates. Road blocks? We got you covered. VIP's passing? Alternate routes at your disposal. Who wouldn't want our app.
The great thing about our idea is that the infrastructure and the technology required is already present. With 3G and 4G, Pakistan has finally entered the information age according to us. Smartphones are becoming wildly popular and very feasible. With increasing popularity our app will hopefully be downloaded by thousands. We are using near flawless algorithms to perfect our model so that alternate routes don't just route you to a traffic free area...they make sure you save time and fuel too. The Technology is there for us to avail.
Perfect fit the market we are targeting. Basically everyone who can afford a decent smartphone and has to scale the torrid roads of Lahore, Karachi and/or Islamabad. Our app's promise of shaving time off your schedule is bound to appeal to the working middle class, the upper class as well niche markets like Students, supply chain managers etc.
Our competitive advantage is we are market pioneers so we have around 6 months to a year to really grind our feet into the market and establish a monopoly so if multinational behemoths like Google turn their attentions to us...we will have some ground beneath our feet to meet them on an equal footing.
After hopefully developing our app and rigorously testing it for bugs and improvements, we will market our app on social media to create awareness. Once the app takes off, users will be able to avoid traffic with ease all while decreasing the load on specific major roads.
Through social media. about 70% of our target market actively engages in social media so it's a cheap and effective way to hopefully make our app viral. once it does go viral and cash starts flowing in, we can put our marketing plan in motion by targeting the Television, radio and newspaper media. Our slogan of "Raastey Khol" will become a regularly heard phrase when we are through.
We intend to reach 10,000 downloads by the first 2 months, 70-80,000 by the next 2 months and 150,000+ plus downloads by the first 6 months.
Our team consists of 5 Computer Science Majors, 1 Accounting and Finance major and 1 Marketing Minor from Lahore University of Management Sciences. We have members from different cities as well so we have the whole "diversity" part covered. We are a well-organized, motivated and well-oiled machine that is raring to go. We were assigned great mentors here at Pakathon so we have pretty realistic idea of what we have on our hands and what the future might or might not hold.
We didn't collaborate globally since it's Pakathon so we were basically nationally oriented. If we find the success we are hoping for, global expansion won't be a distant possibility.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.