Chennai men creates Howdydo app for sports enthusiasts

Chennai-based startup Howdydo is a one-stop solution for sports enthusiasts..
Two Chennai-based men, Sudhakar Raja ad SK Choudhury, started an app called Howdydo in 2016.
Two Chennai-based men, Sudhakar Raja ad SK Choudhury, started an app called Howdydo in 2016.
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CHENNAI: To popularise local and national sports, two Chennai-based men, Sudhakar Raja ad SK Choudhury, started an app called Howdydo in 2016. This is a one-stop solution for all sports enthusiasts to know about upcoming sports events in and around their locality. From creating an event to status updates, the users can do it all with a single click.

The duo came up with the idea when they noticed a difference in popularity of local and national sports. “SK Choudhury is our CMO and MD, who looks after the marketing and sales. I take care of the technical aspects of the app,” says Sudhakar, a graduate of Loyola College in Chennai. Sudhakar, who was working with an American firm, had noticed this difference during his stay in the USA. “In India, we don’t have a platform to connect and popularise any local sports tournament. That’s why we don’t perform well in Olympics and Commonwealth Games,” he says.

With Howdydo, anybody can create and promote a game that is scheduled to take place. What’s more? “People can post invites or messages to all members of the group. The app automatically creates a chat group once someone expresses interest in any of the events listed on it. Every chat group can have around 10 lakh people,” he says, adding that the user can also create fan groups, and write blogs. All fan groups are personally verified by core members of the team. The content is user-generated and can be read in 19 local languages.

Talking about challenges, Sudhakar says, “Initially, it was difficult to find investors as it was a new concept, and the market we were targeting was also new. Most investors wanted to invest only in tried and tested concepts. They were not convinced to fund a local sports-oriented venture.”

Apart from this, another challenge that the team faced was to collect data on local sports. So, they made it user-based. The company raised around `4 crore during the seed funding through branding and quick cash. “KK Jana and Xavier Britto are two major investors. We are currently looking for the next round of funding,” he addsTeam Howdydo wants to focus only on South Indian market for the next six months. 

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