Security is a matter of concern, majority of crimes happening in city are due to simple negligence. For instance, how sure are you, about the unknown visitors who enter your apartment complex? Wherever we go, any office, or any society, the system is that we need to fill out details in a visitor book, which can be definitely tampered with or misled by filling in with wrong details and mobile number. What if a criminal tampers with this data and gets access to the premises and checks your house before striking it. You would not be able to trace back the visitors behind records, even if we had to view old records, we’d have to locate them among other entries.
Hitesh Malviya, a software Engineer, Hacker and Entrepreneur along with Ramakant (Web Developer) and Suraj Sunder who has held senior posts at various IT firms realized that there was lack of organization in the way things were happening and that some mechanism can be put in place to enhance it. Thus, Digital Gorkha was born.
“We replaced the visitor book with an android application. Digital Gorkha brings a paperless solution to make visitor registrations more swift and easier. It verifies the mobile number of the first time visitor, capture his/her image, gets his required information, sends a confirmation SMS/CALL to resident/recipient. They can only check-in once they get a confirmation from the recipient. Their data are instantly uploaded on a server, residents can view visitor information with their check in/checkout time from their dashboard”, Hitesh says.
Why Digital Gorkha?
Hitesh felt that wherever he went, any society or office, the front desk would ask him to fill his details in the Visitor register, he found that many people enter wrong details, and that no one bothered to verify the credentials. They just ask the visitor whom they’re meeting and send them in. He thought about this process deeply and found if some guy checks in and comes out cleanly after committing a crime in the premises. The authorities equipped with a tampered visitor book with false information and low pixel CCTV Camera, wouldn’t even have substantial proof to recognize him and investigate the case further.
“Without any clue, thousands of such incidents happen every day in every other corner of the world. I decided to make a solution to make this process more sleek and secure. Suraj (Co-founder) and I discussed and designed the concept of Visitor registration app and named it Digital Gorkha. Application was developed by team Ramakant Yadav and Vinay Thakar”, He adds.
Their Biggest Hurdle
Hitesh finds that being able to keep the Cash flow stable is very essential for small businesses’ survival, and it’s hard to do that while they’re waiting to receive their cheque from their clients. “You are liable to pay your employees or contractors, your mortgage and your grocery bill. Waiting to get paid can make it difficult to get by – and when a customer doesn’t pay, you risk everything. Even though cash flow is fine, it seems you never have enough in your budget to market your company to its full potential”, he explains.
Digital Gorkha strives to be a product which is easy to use by everyone, be it someone who has no experience or someone who is an advanced user. That, they believe was a key reason as to why they were able to successfully raise funds within few months of the beta version launch.
Hitesh says that there are no direct competitors in the Visitor management mobile application segment for now. However, they did come across Vizdesk, a Bangalore based startup which is non-funded and a web-based visitor registration software for Offices product.
They plan to expand their sales reach in the Real estate HUB of Mumbai. Digital Gorkha will soon be rolling out with an iPad version of the app for offices and hotels.
Their target audiences are all those premises which are using visitor book. Particularly Builders, Developers, Societies, Corporate offices and Hotels located in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.
The company monetizes through a SaaS model, and there are two tier offerings, at INR Rs.7500/ month ($120/ Month) and INR Rs.12500/ month ($200/Month) price point per society.
Visit http://www.digitalgorkha.com/ , to know more.