HYDERABAD: While on a long haul flight, ever wished you could sit next to a person who is as passionate about ColdPlay as you and you could discuss their music?
Did you feel the need to connect with someone familiar from your city when you were travelling to another city late night so you didn’t have to blow up money on a cab? Now, a new app promises to connect you to a like-minded person when you are on the move too.
“So if you are an Instagrammer who wants to network with another or you are a doctor who is looking at connecting with another doc while on the way to a medical convention, you got it,” says Roy Kodali, one of the creators of the PowWow travel app.
Whether you are the kind who hates to be disturbed or someone who likes to talk or play board games, it connects them to the right travel mate.
“The app is not just fun, but useful too. For instance, if you are interested in social and business networking while travelling, we enable you to do just this by matching users based on your Facebook or LinkedIn profiles.
Stressed out about how to get to the airport, bus station or train station? We match you with people from your area who need to be at the airport at the same time as you so that you can carpool with them. The app can also show you people from your area who are leaving the airport at the same time. This way, you can carpool to/from the airport/bus station/train station,” he explains.
Roy, 35, born in Rajahmundry and grew up in Visakhaptnam, studied MS in Finance in Chicago and returned to Hyderabad a year ago to pursue his dream app. He collaborated with his college buddy and friend of 15 years, Adarsh Atluri, 33. Adarsh, also from Visakhapatnam, studied Masters in Computer Science in Seattle and returned to India two years ago.
“That both of us are frequent flyers may have sparked off the idea,” says Roy. The duo discussed the idea for over a year and finally decided to take the plunge. “It took almost a year to get the product market-ready with a lot of design changes and add-on market features. We wanted to create a product-like app where safety is not compromised upon,” says Roy.
What about the safety of those who sign up for the app? How comfortable would a person be if he became ‘friends’ with someone they he just met at the airport? Explains Roy, “Safety is of prime concern to us. We are veteran travellers ourselves and know the importance of safety.”
The app is available for iOS and Android users and has a website too.