Easy tracking your heart

Navratri In 2007 when 27-year-old Ashwin Roy Choudhary started his first venture SaleKhabri.com as a platform to collate all the discounts, offers and sales in Mumbai for apparels, footwear and accessories, he could not have asked for a better kick-start. But he soon moved to the mobile industry. “We got to 16,000 registered members in a couple of months, and scaling it without external fund was an issue. We were fairy early in the game and closed shop in a year,” says Roy Choudhary.

Today he runs the successful mobile application development firm Bombil in Mumbai. He launched several successful applications including M-God (Mobile Sales Force) that won them The Best Mobile App 2012 at a recent M-Bilionth Awards. The company also designed the Digital Menu App, an interactive menu app on tablets which allows the diner to check details and images of food items, place orders, share food reviews on social media and even check and pay bills from the app with very little dependency on the hotel staff. His app AGASTAY for Android users has seen 13,000 downloads across app stores in a few months. AGASTAY allows people to access and control their phone remotely from another phone. “To our knowledge, it’s the only app of its kind and has seen overwhelming ratings on app stores,” he says.

With all these already to his credit, Roy Choudhary has now launched an app which allows diabetic patients to calculate their risks of coronary heart diseases over a period of 10 years. “It takes a few inputs like age, diabetic duration, smoking habits, blood pressure, etc. to calculate the risks. The app is built for TAZLOC brand of USV Limited and works on Android or Blackberry and iPhone, and is a boon for the doctors who had to earlier depend on clumsy web systems,” says the founder and chief executive officer of Bombil. The download process is fairly simple. The iPhone users can text a message TAZLOC 1 to 575758, while the Android users can text TAZLOC 2 to 575758, and the Blackberry users can text TAZLOC 3 to 575758. “Once you text the message in the prescribed format, you will receive reply with the download link. You can click on the link and download the app on your phone,” he says.

Launched in 2010 after a gap of three years from his previous company, Roy Choudhary took two years to understand the market before venturing with Bombil. He says, “I always wanted to start my own company. The thrill and passion for creating value, offering products that make customers smile and fun of working with a team driven by common goals is unparallel. But money still remains a motivating factor.” This year, he says, was the perfect time to establish himself as a serious entrepreneur. “I spoke to my family about my intentions to launch a start-up. They were positive about it. My wife gave me a two-year buffer to test my dreams. Fortunately, we are sailing well,” says Roy Choudhary.

Having worked in the digital domain for seven years, Roy Choudhary started his career working for an Internet company and then moving to mobile. “When we started selling mobile apps to companies two years back, most people and companies were non-receptive and completely ignored us. It was natural as a mobile application for brands was an alien concept and Bombil was a new name,” he explains. Roy Choudhary then changed his strategy and started pitching low-cost mobile marketing and SMS solutions. “Brand managers were familiar with it and could easily understand this. We soon started getting clients on our mobile marketing platforms, and then once they got comfortable and trusted us as a company, we pitched in with mobile apps. The strategy played out. All companies for whom we have built mobile apps engaged us for our mobile marketing services,” he says.

Interestingly, the only capital put in Bombil was to get the company registered. “In fact, we got our first deal and received our first cheque before we had a bank account for the company ready. We now serve 160-plus clients and work with some leading companies in India across verticals,” says Roy Choudhary.

He believes that with several players in the e-commerce ventures, there will be lot of consolidation in this industry and only three to four larger players will survive. “With Android now allowing Indian developers to list their apps as paid, and with high Smartphone penetration, the app industry looks blossoming. And with shrinking call revenues for operators, they are now looking at app developers to to increase their Average Revenue Per User,” he says. 

HOW IT WORKS

■ The application is built for TAZLOC brand of USV Limited and works on Android or Blackberry and iPhone.  

■ The iPhone users can text a message TAZLOC 1 to 575758, while the Android users can text TAZLOC 2 to 575758, and the Blackberry users can text TAZLOC 3 to 575758. They receive a link from which the application can be downloaded.

■ Provide few inputs like age, diabetic duration, smoking habits, blood pressure, etc to calculate the risk of coronary disease.