JOIN USIndian female app creators take lead to improve people's lives
Smartphones have become indispensable gadgets in our lives. Beyond texting and calling, the phone offers various other benefits such as getting work done faster, ordering food, hailing a cab, and doing much more stuff.
Besides the convenience of ease of doing things, mobile phones create an avenue to generate jobs for people. Though it has long been a male bastion, women entrepreneurs are also making great strides in this field.
As we mark International Women's Day (March 8), DH interacted with promising female co-founders of app developer companies-- Neend and Language Curry--, two of the most promising 'Made-in-India' apps on Google Play Store.
Neend: Relax, Sleep, Meditate
Neend (meaning sleep in Hindi) is a wellness app developed by Surbhi Jain and their team.
An alumna of IIT-B, Jain has over eight years of experience in the startup ecosystem and has worked in Holachef xto10x and other firms, before setting up the Neend.
Neend promises to offer a professional guide on improving sleep, developing inner balance, practicing mindfulness, and relaxation.
How Neend app was born
The idea of Neend was conceptualised when founder Surbhi Jain herself faced sleep issues at the peak of the Covid pandemic and all the stresses that came with it.
"After some research, I found out that India is the 2nd most sleep-deprived country in the world where 15-20% of the population are regularly insomniac and 30% are occasionally insomniac. These sleep issues can cause major physical problems like low immunity, poor cardiovascular health, memory loss, and eating disorders. Sleep is also linked to mental well-being lack of which can cause emotional disorders, anxiety, depression, or loss of motivation," Jain noted.
"Despite the high demand for sleep remedies, there were not enough non-medical solutions that could provide relief or cure. Especially so for the population that does not speak English. Hence I launched Neend to address this pain point and started off with the content vertical. In over a year we developed 1000+ sleep stories in 5 languages. The content was initially hosted on just YouTube as a pilot and with the traction, we got within 3 months, we got confident about launching our App. The Android App now has 5L+ downloads," Jain added.
Neend offers content in regional languages such as sleep stories, music, and meditations. The motivation section has one-min stories, inspiring quotes, and sleep tips to help users get into a positive mind space and build healthy habits. Professional help is available as a separate offering where users can book consultation sessions with sleep experts through the App.
In the early stage, Google offered a helping hand to the Neend team to launch their content publicly as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to customers. The company received valuable feedback and build a community, which lay the ground to build their own App.
Besides the easy entry to Play Store, Neend was offered access to its ecosystem of Google tools such as Google Analytics, Google ads, and more, which helped them better shape the strategies and products.
Now, Neend has registered more than 500,000 downloads with an 80,000 plus monthly active user base. Even on YouTube, it has managed to garner a little over two lakh subscribers.
The company has now set a bigger target of 30 percent month-to-month growth.
Jain also revealed to DH that Neend has plans to expand English content on mental wellness and also has three new products in the pipeline and two more in the R&D stage along with a sleep-tracking mechanism.
Currently, Neend offers consultations starting at Rs 99 and plans to improve this further and make it super easy for people to get sleep therapy if needed.
Message to upcoming female entrepreneurs and app developers
"My advice to fellow entrepreneurs is to never get limited or defined by their gender. Move beyond the title of 'women entrepreneurs' and just focus on being entrepreneurs. Expect challenges but do not accept them. Expect favours (at times!) but do not accept those either. Stay true to your cause and focus on building skills, building teams, and building a life that you're going to be proud of!" said Surbhi Jain
Language Curry
Knowing multiple languages in a metropolitan city like Bengaluru is a boon. As a newbie in the city, learning the local language Kannada soon will help you settle and socialise in the neighborhood and at the office faster. Also, most importantly, it will be easier to bargain with local businesses and also skillfully handle auto rikshaw and cab drivers to get to the places with less hassle.
It is the same for South Indians in metro cities in the North, West, and East and vice versa.
If you are an introvert and need time to settle in, then the Language Curry app can help you leap over that mental barrier.
It can help people master Indian regional languages such as Hindi, Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Telugu, Assamese, Odia, and Gujarati.
The curriculum is said to be designed by empaneled language experts, wherein the user is exposed to robust learning concepts and an interactive gamified interface, which not only help you master the regional Indian language, but also learn a thing or two about local culture in a fun and engaging manner.
Language Curry is the brainchild of Aneesha Jyoti, Puneet Singh, and Vatsala Sharma.
The co-founder Aneesha Jyoti is an MBA graduate from ISB Hyderabad who has worked with one of the leading telecommunication companies and also lived in Canada for over a decade and there, an idea was born. Read below to know how Language Curry was conceptualised.
"While staying and working in Canada, I realized that the NRI community longed for one thing – the need to connect with their languages and culture. Many of them, who had grown up in an English-speaking environment, was also keen on learning their native languages. While searching through different language learning platforms, I found that there were several leading global players, but none of them could comprehensively unite the Indian languages. Sensing an opportunity, I moved back to India in 2011 for MBA from ISB Hyderabad and launched Language Curry in 2019 along with Vatsala Sharma and Puneet Singh," said Aneesha Jyoti
Like the team Neend, Google offered hand-holding to Language Curry to enter Play Store and it was able to garner two million downloads in no time and currently has around 150,000 monthly active users, of which 20–25 per cent are from countries other than India.
"Urban migrants and people who are interested in learning about Indian culture and have a flair for maintaining relationships exhibit the highest levels of engagement in their studies. Outside of India, the NRI population and non-Indians drawn to Indian culture take language study very seriously," Jyoti noted.
In January 2022, Language Curry was also part of the Google for Startups Accelerator programme. The company is developing a freemium model for monetization which will be launched in the next quarter (April-June 2023).
Furthermore, the company is building AI (Artificial Intelligence) based fluency test that will help subscribers to learn to match their proficiency level. And, it is creating many self-based video courses for language as well as culture.
Message for upcoming female entrepreneurs and app developers
"Do spend ample time in research prior to starting up. Network and seek mentorship as much as you can as the relationships you build through your network will help you immensely in your journey," said Aneesha Jyoti
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