In 2020, Harish Kolli, a highschool junior from Austin, Texas, was scrolling by way of TikTok when he got here throughout a viral development. The viral TikTok trend inspired girls to save lots of movies with faux conversations to make use of when feeling unsafe (for instance: when feeling uncomfortable in an Uber). These movies would have an individual speaking to you as in the event that they knew you and have been anticipating to see you quickly as a way to dissuade potential harassers.
Kolli later realized that what made the movies so common and helpful was their preventative and discreet nature. Greater than 80% of harassment crimes are dedicated by somebody the recipient is aware of, so folks usually don’t really feel comfy calling the police or utilizing deterrents corresponding to pepper spray. Understanding simply how vital these underlying ideas are, Harish determined to create an improved, user-friendly resolution that deters harassers earlier than they escalate their habits. Not lengthy after, he met his teen co-founders, Mahi Ravi and Kaitlin Tan at a summer season entrepreneur incubator program.
They created Guardial, a personal-safety app that permits customers to set off an incoming simulated telephone name that acts as a deterrent, each time they need. This name has a sensible caller-ID show display, a well-known ringtone, and audio with dialogue that deters, corresponding to “I’ve your location, see you quickly.” Moreover, color-coded buttons inside the simulated name permit customers to contact assist by way of providers corresponding to 911 and to file audio or video.
Regardless of the necessity for this app, the journey to deliver it to customers hasn’t been simple. “As highschool college students constructing a startup, we didn’t have entry to many sources,” Kolli stated. ”We needed to educate ourselves abilities like app improvement and UI/UX design utilizing instruments like InVision and Figma.” Together with a steep studying curve, the early days required plenty of time and power. Harish and his co-founders interviewed their goal market, younger girls, to raised perceive ache factors and get suggestions from Guardial’s early adopters and testers, who stated they discovered the expertise easy and straightforward to make use of.
In 2021, Kolli and Guardial skilled their first success once they posted surveys in girls’s on-line security boards and obtained overwhelming constructive suggestions with over 350 survey responses. Not lengthy after, the Guardial crew obtained $6,400 in equity-free funding from an investor who believed within the crew, their app, and the issue they have been making an attempt to unravel. Whereas Guardial isn’t the primary personal-safety app, its method is to be extra proactive and deter potential harassers, fairly than merely offering a solution to contact assist after issues start.
The pandemic gave Kolli extra time to work on Guardial. Now not needing to attend in-person college, the Guardial crew had extra flexibility with their schedule. Kolli made it a precedence to learn articles, watch movies, and join with different entrepreneurs to discover ways to finest function and develop Guardial.
In January 2022, the crew obtained nice information. They have been chosen as one in all 5 finalists on the SXSW EDU Student Startup Competition powered by my group, WIT, which helped the finalist groups with three months of teaching. This gave them the chance to pitch their enterprise from a stage at some of the prestigious conferences on this planet. It was a milestone second for the Guardial Workforce because it was the primary time they’d pitched Guardial in particular person. The chance validated their onerous work and offered them a platform to showcase their firm, and gave them alternatives to progress their journeys as entrepreneurs. The crew not solely benefited from the prospect to pitch at SXSW EDU, however the convention offered them networking alternatives, workshops, mentorship periods, and extra.
“We had lots of people come as much as us and inform us how highly effective our pitch was and the way vital they thought our app was,” Kolli stated afterward. “Having these real interactions with folks post-pitch made us need to work even more durable. One other factor I discovered was the significance of collaboration over competitors — everybody can win and really feel fulfilled if they’re targeted on uplifting one another.”
Not too long ago Guardial began working to launch their new model in app shops. The assessment course of dropped at gentle technical points that the crew is resolving to enhance the expertise. Kolli defined, “We aren’t giving up and can proceed to iterate our app design so Guardial will probably be obtainable for all to make use of.” The crew believes this persistence will repay and save lives.
To get notified when Guardial turns into obtainable in app shops, click here. To be taught extra take a look at @guardialco on social media.