Hi I'm Bosky, and I'm a Maker. I've been building products for the past 12 years, starting up twice as well as working closely with founders. I've worked for two sided marketplaces as well as started two of my own. In my last startup- an impact focussed fintech - saw $10M worth of credit offered to gig workers of two sided marketplaces. That's where I first saw a tremendous potential to switch from plastic as a primary payment form factor - to QR. Seeing the potential - on the side I launched a camera scanning app that went live on February 16th this year.
Qamera hit 2M sQR cans within a month - and reached #5 productivity in 15 countries with a simple 2 screen app. I am fortunate that my earlier Fintech had offers to acquire the team, technology and assets - freeing me to figure out the next challenge. I then applied to YC few weeks ago to work on QR.
Then Corona happened.
While figuring out what to do - my family, neighbours and community saw a lot of challenges getting essential groceries.
Shopping for groceries is a challenge everyone is facing. The elderly will need to have frictionless ways of ensuring sufficient supply of essentials that does not involve a steep learning curve. It is especially risky for the elderly to go out. And for everyone else - it remains a risk. There are also a large audience who will not know what needs to be purchased.
But at the same time we are required to:
This along with knowing about Wefunder's challenge is where the idea of Aisle came in.
It's a well know fact that in China and SE Asia - people are using their camera's as much for scanning QR/transacting as much as they do for taking photos. But this trend has spilled over to India as well. Mobility companies like Bird and security/identity companies, delivery & pickup companies have now started to experiment with QR.
Retailers/ businesses can earn a rev-share if they print out large walls and the community transacts. On a smaller scale, for users at home. you could print these out for use at home. (PS: these are all mocks)
If you are new to cooking - even adding groceries to a cart will be a challenge. Users on the platform can create collection of recipe's that can be scanned/ordered together. These Aisle's can be shared digitally and physically to allow anyone to organise their next meal better. A globally unique QR for every vegetable can help these span geographies and languages. eg: making pad-thai or podd-idli. Network effects can increase from wisdom of the crowd, and an open and transparent QR standard for each of the world's ingredients.
Real-estate agents, and landlords can sign up to setup a wall or print an aisle.Leading to more brands and customers pushing products on walls. B2C users can create their own walls to share and print at home.
Partnerships will be needed to search, inventory availability and delivery of goods.
Well managed inventory deals, strategically placed to get distribution while providing earnings and social good.
Real-estate, landlords or malls can earn rev-share on all transactions, thus earning additional income and turning empty space into essential buying walls.
Aisle as a startup, is just days old (beginning in April, so forgive me for the stock photo watermarks!) but it began with solving a key problem for me in my home. Coupled with QR expertise of millions of scans and spending most of my career working with various sides of the marketplace supply and demand - I see an opportunity, and I hope you do too.
Help us enable safe and convenient shopping for the community including the elderly in the age of the lockdown, while providing meaningful income for the real-estate industry and keeping the community indoors and well stocked.