Vincentian innovator Cenus Hinds will today launch TAPP, a mobile app which allows users to purchase deals and event tickets within their country straight from the mobile app using their credit/debit card.
Learn more about TAPP from the interview below.
News784: Tell us about the Company’s Background.
Hinds: Tapp is a mobile app developed and managed by KONSERVI Inc.
KONSERVI (Esperanto for ‘Save’) was conceptualized in 2014 by Founder Cenus Hinds Jr and with assistance from FLOW SVG (LIME SVG at the time) was launched with the team of Cenus Hinds Jr. Ayodele Pompey, Rotasha Medford & Zonelle Pierre.
The project was then joined by Co-Founder Zarir Bhesania in 2015 who is also the Chief Technology Officer. The Project was represented at numerous competitions such as TICAmerica Innovation
Competition – Panama 2015, Caribbean Returning Nationals Innovation Competition – Trinidad 2016 and Caribbean Innovation Challenge – Dominican Republic 2016 (Konservi won this competition.
In 2016, Konservi was incorporated as a Company in Deleware, Silicon Valley – USA. With this, the company was able to send and receive digital transactions as any other USA company as it uses the same platform for digital transactions as Facebook, Lyft and even Amazon . This platform is called Stripe.
News784: Tell us What’s interesting about TAPP
Hinds: Since the conceptualization and early launch of Konservi, there have been a number of others coming to the market with similar interests.
News784: What exactly does TAPP do?
Hinds: We decided that we didn’t just want to show deals, stores and events; we wanted to do something that NO OTHER mobile app offers while also making it appealing to both businesses and users – which is, online purchasing.
News784: How do users & customers benefit?
Hinds: Users can use the app, purchase an ongoing promotion and state what time they would be coming to collect. A unique code – both as an image and text – would be generated. They would have this code scanned to verify payment (businesses have their own separate app to do this).
News784: How does it work
Hinds: We wanted to make things as simple as possible; users would see a deal on the app and purchase.
When purchasing from a restaurant, they would have to state what time they intend on coming in and if they’d be eating in or taking out; they would receive a unique code & barcode which would be stored within the app for easy viewing; Upon arrival, they would give the unique code to a cashier/waiter/customer service individual.
They can also choose to have the barcode scanned; they collect what they purchased.
News784: How secure is the platform
Hinds: We knew that it’s a big risk whenever something new comes to the market that directly deals with the finances of others. With that, Konservi (the company) is working closely along with Stripe Inc. and Silicon Valley Bank to provide a very secure platform, which means, very little possibility of fraud – as credit card information for buyers would not be stored and cannot be viewed by us. All processing takes place on Stripe’s servers in the US.
News784: What’s next?
Hinds: When I founded Konservi, I always wanted it to be something that would save people time and money.
This started out with deals and promotions, and it’s stayed that way. We’re sticking with deals and promotions (and later event tickets) because it’s easier to manage. We want to get comfortable with the logistics of allowing persons to buy online.
I’d love for Tapp to be present in all Caribbean countries. I’d love for more businesses in SVG to take advantage of the platform, because it’s a way for them to generate new revenue.
Some persons have already approached me concerning moving away from just deals, promotions, events and allowing businesses to sell their entire inventory on the platform.
The possibility is there and it’s something we’ll seriously look at after we’re comfortable with what we have currently. There’s still a lot to learn.
News784: what else do Vincentians need to know about the App
Hinds: Well, you have covered just about everything, However, I would like to say this is a historic product offering in St. Vincent & the Grenadines and brings the island on par with first world nations in this regard.
There are MANY other features and opportunities that can develop from here onwards. However, we decided to get the basics right first, then – we plan to allow persons to reserve seats at restaurants, buy event tickets and many other features. Paypal isn’t fully integrated as yet, but we’re working on getting it done.
News784: Thank you and all the best. Hinds: Thank you for having us.
TAPP would be launched on 3rd October, 2017 and would be available on both Google and iOS App Stores.
Cenus Hinds – CEO & Co-Founder
AS Information and Communications Technology
- Diploma Social Media Marketing
- Deals with all business, Marketing, Public & Investor Relations
- Assists with graphical designs along with Co-Founder
Zarir Bhesania – CTO & Co-Founder
MSc Software Engineering
- Deals with all technical aspects of the platform, developing backend, developing user app, developing business app and more
- Assist with graphical designs along with Co-Founder
More information can be obtained here