Want to know where you can get WiFi connection in Manhattan? Confused by the labyrinth of subway connections? Or just hungry for a great meal? Now, thanks to a team of Indian IT professionals, you can have all that information at your finger tips on your iPhone – and it’s free.
NYC Way is the name of this neat application and it’s got Mayor Bloomberg’s seal of approval. It got an honorable mention for the App of the Year but also won the Public Choice Grand Prize and the Investors’ Choice Award in the NYC Big Apps competition (www.NYCbigApps.com) organized by New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).
The winning applications had to use at least one data source from NYC.gov data mine, and NYC Way was a virtual grab bag of several data resources. It is available on the iPhone and the web, and bundles a variety of local details useful for residents and tourists alike
The winning team comprises of Puneet and Vivek Mehta, Archana Patchirajan, Sonpreet Bhatia, and Arun Arunachalam. All of them are from India, live in Jersey City, NJ, and work in IT in Wall Street firms. All of them specialize in social media and are web/mobile apps entrepreneurs.
Interestingly enough, it’s all about family and friends: Puneet and Vivek are brothers, Sonpreet is married to Puneet, and Arun is married to Archana.
The real value of their App they feel is that it captures the local flavor of New York City, and the goal is to connect people with people, places, events and experiences. As one of the users told them, “The value that NYC Way provides cannot be quantified by a dollar figure. It really becomes a part of you when you start using it.”
Patchirajan is from Chennai and moved to the US in 2003. She says, “I love technology and gadgets. My ultimate goal is to build products that add value to people’s everyday life.” Sonpreet Bhatia, who is from Delhi and moved to the US in 1999, says “I like to build technology solutions that serve a purpose and give people a richer life experience. Heavily involved in social media and mobile platforms, I aim to use that technology set for solving real life problems.”
Arun Arunachalam is from Chennai and came to the US in 2000. “I am tech savvy, and love to build teams that can come up with creative technology solutions. My goal is to make a difference in people’s lives via technology,” he says.
Puneet Mehta is from Chandigarh and came to the US in 2000. He says, “I believe that technology can transform lives, and want to work towards making it available in every part of the world – from my favorite city NYC to the remotest locations in third world countries.”
Vivek Mehta, who came in 2009, works with mobile platforms and is a gadget hardware expert and entrepreneur. Mehta, who happens to be deaf, uses ASL for communication. He says, “I love machines – whether mechanical, electrical or electronic. Being a computer and mobile device specialist gives me the opportunity to play around with and fix latest gadgets.”
He aims to invent gadgets that add value to people’s lives and so this NYC App was something which was right up his alley. He says, “I recently moved to the US and developed an instant connection with NYC – it is the only place that feels like home away from home.”
When all five of them got together and brainstormed about the app, the goal was to come up with something which would make life easier for both residents and tourists to NYC. “The users get to experience the power of 30+ NYC related iPhone apps packaged into one,” explains Puneet Mehta. “It has live traffic cams, restaurant inspection results, WiFi locations, NYC tourism, street food vendors, Free NYC and much more.”
“We just released an update to NYC Way – it now has over 50 apps in one bundle. If you already have NYC Way, don’t forget to delete and download the new one – we promise it is the only NYC App you will ever need,” says Puneet Mehta.
The team will be donating their prize money to the non-profit Art of Living Foundation (http://us.artof living.org/) to “help create violence free, stress-free society in NYC and across the world.”
Things are certainly looking rosy, with over 75,000 users of the app and lots of future monetization possibilities.
“We are already working towards a hyper-local mobile platform for India,” says Patchirajan. “Considering that India has the second largest number of cell phones in the world – it is a huge opportunity for us. This will be our contribution to bringing next generation technology to our homeland. It is definitely a lot more work as compared to building something for the US – but we believe that it can transform lives and make a real difference.”
They are in the process of building NYC Way on other platforms like Android and Blackberry, and also building apps for other major cities in the US and Europe. Says Arun Arunachalam: “We are extremely motivated by the response that NYC Way received. It is travel top 6 on iTunes- considering there are 140,000 apps out there, it is definitely a milestone for us.”
Do they find it a little ironic that there’s sometimes so much friction over outsourcing and Indians monopolizing software, and yet five Indian software professionals have come up with one of the winning apps, one that has won the Public Choice Grand Prize?
“In our opinion, innovation has nothing to do with geographical borders,” says Vivek Mehta. “You can see transformational innovation in parts of the world that do not even have electricity. We all need to work together to make this world a better place, and technology today allows us to do that like never before.”
Related Article: Mayor Bloomberg Announces 300K investment in MyCityWay
