Want a freebie? Up your mojo

After setting up various successful businesses, Kalyan Manyam finally came up with a mobile application that doubles as a game and offers great deals as well

Who doesn’t love a freebie? Be it pop corn on the house at a multiplex or a green apple soda at your favourite coffee shop, everybody loves a little treat once in a while. That is exactly what Mojostreet caters to. A free mobile application, Mojostreet helps you bag exciting deals from 85 merchants at various locations in the City.

All one has to do is check in by clicking on the Mojostreet app and the offer pops up on the screen. “The customer then has to show this at the counter before billing to avail the free goody,” says Kalyan Manyam, founder and CEO, Mojostreet.

However, a lot of hard work goes behind putting together these offers for customers. Great businesses cannot be built overnight. It takes a lot of time, money and above all patience by the investors to keep it going till they finally begin reaping profits. And this is exactly what the investors JA Chowdary and Srini Koppolu, who helped Kalyan and Vishnu Manyam set up the business, abide by.

Mojostreet was founded in 2011 with an initial investment of `1.5 crore. The second round of investment process is on with an amount of `2.5 crore. Kalyan says, “We are investing all our time and money to build a product which will bring high returns over time. Our investors are extremely supportive on this front.”

Talking about the business, Kalyan says, “Mojostreet is a location based mobile game with real world benefits. The user can check in at various places they visit on their phone. They can virtually own the properties and earn points when they check in regularly. My Mojostreet office is not owned by me virtually but some other employee, because he visits office more regularly than me. People can enjoy the ownership (virtually) of any asset including Charminar and can collect virtual rent (points) when somebody visits that place. The users can compete within themselves with the points.

It’s not just about the game. This application helps the user to find various nearest locations like ATM centres, restaurants and cinema halls and also see the discounts offered by any of those places. We have around 5.5 million locations on the list from around the world. The user can share his location and get his friends to know where he is at that particular time by checking in. The user can also give feedback of the place he has visited. Based on this collective feedback, the app will shortlist the best place for users.”

This application will not only benefit customers but also the merchants. Merchants can list their location and attract customers by offering discounts. They can also get valuable feedback of customers from the app and reward their regular and loyal customers based on the number of times (check ins) he has visited that place.

The application is available across all mobile platforms across the world. “As of now, the users in the Middle East, Malyasia, Singapore and UK are using the game part of it as there are no offers in those countries. We are planning to take it global in terms of offers. The first move in the direction is finalising a deal with a merchant this week, who has 300 outlets in the Middle East, India and other South East Asian countries. The company is also coming up with location based ads for the merchants very soon,” says Kalyan.

However, not all was hunky dory initially. “There initial challenges like convincing merchants to come on board as there were not too many users at the time. But as we got more users, merchants came to us by themselves by filling out online forms without any sale effort,” he beams.

Currently, the 28 employee company is concentrating on making the application stronger to give better value to the customer and merchants rather merely than immediate returns. “More and more merchants will be interested in joining the bandwagon once they see a huge user base. These merchants will be our principal sources of revenue over time,” Kalyan explains.

On the personal front, Kalyan receives immense family support when it comes to his work. “Work would invariably follow me home, resulting in dinner table discussions with my brother Vishnu (co-founder). I even dream about work. In fact, I was so wrapped up with my business that I remained unmarried for quite some time. It was only last year that I married Shilpa. Currently, she is trying to figure out how to be a part of my life, without taking my attention away from Mojostreet,” he laughs.

You’ve heard about it, now download it

• Total Members: 77,000
• Members in AP: 13,000
• Members in the City: 10,000
• Merchants around the country: 350
• Number of merchant locations:2,500
• Merchants in the City: 85

Tags: featured, full-image, Kalyan Manyam, mobile application

Category: Business, Interviews