The idea to start White Canvas Consultants (WCC) was a dream of its co-founders (Anshul Dewan & Ravinder Juneja) from long time, but it saw light when they left their well paying jobs at the MNC’s to officially launch the company in June 2016. WCC always wanted to have product development as its core. They explored and ventured into couple of ideas but the fanaticism to do something unique gave birth to their current product “
HIFYI”. This is a location based services product which works on BLE Beacons technology.
Apart from 2 full time co-founder, HIFYI has a mix bag of team consisting of freelancers and contractors. They have spent good amount of time in research, studying the current market & product viability. Being a product based company designing, development & testing will always be given top priority to build a robust product.
BW Disrupt interacts with Anshul Dewan, Co-founder, HIFYI and spoke to him
Excerpts:
Special Key FeaturesThere are very less or rather no key products available in Indian market that work on Beacon technology. The different markets we want to capture will change the dynamics of the flow of information to an individual.
Differentiation FactorsNo immediate competition is present in India, products like Bookmyshow & Nearbuy can look quite similar. Having said that, they both still don’t use Beacons to push offers and information to users in a close proximity. Our product is different as it gives information to users when they are indoor & near the beacons which constantly transmits campaigns.
Funding PlansHIFYI is currently bootstrapped and we spend each penny wisely. Once we have attained success in one city, we would go for seed funding to expand.
Challenges FacedRunning a business is a different ball game, we both come from private sector services background, we learn each day that pass by. So far we have not hired full time employees to save on cost and getting things done from freelancers or contractors is very challenging as they chew more than they can eat. You feel stuck, your patience is tested and funds are underutilized at times. But this taught us lot of things that we never thought we can do. We picked up half cooked meals by our contractors and with our own research and self study we have been able to complete tasks on our own, it might take us little longer to complete tasks but then we learn and save costs.
Traction NumbersCurrently we are in alpha testing phase of the app and in parallel we are focusing on marketing. Some meetings with industry veterans have been lined up to showcase our product, get feedback and chance to run the product with live audience.
Expansion PlansWe plan to expand with a module based strategy. We have few modules in the pipeline however we will make one module live at one time in a phased manner. We want to start with NCR or any major metro, prove our metal there and then expand city wise.
Market OpportunityThis has a huge potential to grow. We want HIFYI to become a household name & a must for every smartphone user. Our choice of modules will give a touch point with users from all segments. Starting with Retails & Events space first and then we plan to move to other modules like Sports, Hospitality, Airport, Schools & Hospitals. These are few to name, where we want to focus first but Beacon technology can be used in 100’s of ways once we have the base ready.
