TIRUVANANTHAPURAM : It was a dream Anish Kumar S S has been nurturing ever since he was in college - to do something for the city he grew up in. And last July, he took the first step as he journeyed from Paris to Thiruvananthapuram, taking leave to work on the dream of his. And after three months, he stands tall with a venture of his, he had developed the framework for an e-commerce platform. He quit his well-paying job and at 30 and has launched the e-commerce platform- ‘Sughelp’. And on Monday, the first product will hit the state capital - ‘SugTaxi’, an online cab service.
“It was always a passion,” Anish says, “To do something for the city. Even whilst doing my studies, I wanted to start something of my own. And when I zeroed in on starting an e-commerce platform, the first product I thought of launching was the cab service,” says Anish.
After completing engineering from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Anish took the plunge into the IT sector. But starting a venture of his own continued to loom in his thoughts until he decided he was equipped with the expertise to start one. It was a one-man army effort and it still is. Sughelp is registered as a one person company. “All my friends were employed in well-paying jobs and they were not willing to start something from scratch. If I didn’t do this now, probably I never will. So I didn’t think twice and started this,” he says.
SugTaxi has no surge pricing. “The rate is fixed so you will not have to pay exorbitant rates during peak hours. Moreover, the customers have the option to choose the driver,” explains Anish. Once the customer enters the details, She/he is sent the details of the nearby drivers along with the model of the vehicle. “They can then choose accordingly. This helps them choose the driver based on their ratings,” he adds. Presently more than 100 drivers have attached themselves to the service. Hatchback, Sedan and SUV variants are available.
“The main challenge, for a newcomer like me, was convincing the drivers as most of them weren’t ready to take a chance. Now we are good to go in the city. We will be launching this in Kollam,” says Anish. “I have designed the platform such that you can plug any service into it. After this I intend to launch other services,” says an optimistic Anish.The cab service will be launched by Mayor V K Prasanth in the city on Monday.