Three students at the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar have teamed up to create a new web-based app that promotes affordable tech help.
The students, part of an international 5-member group, unveiled Fixnation 's beta version on Monday, according to Doha News, due to their participation in the European Innovation Academy, a 15-day accelerated startup competition in France.
The competition's tight deadline allowed the team's two developers to finalize the app's code in about 90 hours.
Speaking to the website, CMUQ Business Administration student Sampriti Jain, 20, spoke about a rising demand in technological support as the world becomes increasingly digital. Fixnation, which brings together an international team of five students, will provide tech-savvy "fixers" the opportunity to offer their services to a reachable market for an affordable price.
Jain explained that the appeal of the app, whose prototype is available for public use in Qatar, comes from customer's current lack of power to choose the kind of help they're looking for. The app allows workers to market themselves online by listing their skills, essentially putting "the customer in charge." This would "ensure rapid response to the customer’s issues since the customers directly contact the workers and can set up an appointment instantly."
The app functions like Uber, whereby a map shows the locations of nearby technicians. After being selected, technicians, in turn, will receive a notification with an upcoming task from the customer with a small description of the technical problem.
The team set the service price to $12/hour, and while the transactions so far have been face-to-face, it hopes to implement a Paypal payment system.
With 10 technicians already registered, the group hopes to encourage more people to sign up as they work on the finishing touches to the project before a final pitch round. Winning apps receive up to 100,000 euros in funding. Jain added that Fixnation hopes to expand to Android and iOS.