Satisfy your appetite with Guyana’s first mobile food app
By Gibron Raheem
AN idea is only the first step in the process of starting a business. Indeed, it takes a great deal of determination to turn an abstract idea into a functioning business. And establishing the business itself only marks the beginning in a continuous process of growth and development. This is the case with Guyana’s newest business, Foodmonkey.
The Pepperpot Magazine sat down with Foodmonkey’s founder, Nigel Carter, who explained that he has had the idea for the business for quite a long time. A computer programmer with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Carter explained that he had always wanted to create something that Guyana did not already have.
He recalled that, back in his days at the University of Guyana, he and one of his friends had come together and decided to create an online mall. The website was weonlinemall.com and unfortunately was not well accepted since he noted Guyana was just not ready for a venture of its nature at the time.
Carter and his friend returned to the drawing board. They realised that there was an opportunity in the area of entertainment and the entertainment website they created lasted for a few years. “But I always felt like that wasn’t it, we needed to do something else,” he said. “I needed to do something that would have more of an impact.” He originally thought of a taxi app for Guyana, similar to Uber. Unfortunately, someone else came up with the idea first. At that time he had already been doing his research. He decided to take what he already had and focus on food. Foodmonkey was born from this idea.
Creating the application at the heart of Foodmonkey involved using an existing framework, and building on top of it along with a lot of programming. The intention was to launch the business last year according to Carter. Unfortunately, it was not ready then. It was launched this past September instead. Of the name of the business, he said, “I wanted to come up with something that would be catchy.” He recalled having come up with several names that turned out to have already been used elsewhere. The name “Foodmonkey” turned out to be the best fit.
Much like Uber Eats, Foodmonkey is essentially a directory of restaurants which allows the customer to access menus, place their orders and have the food delivered to them. “What it does is give the user the ability to interface directly with the restaurant,” Carter explained. “The delivery charges are automatically calculated based on your location,” he said. He noted that he also added a time estimator to the app that gives a rough estimate of the time between ordering and delivery, taking traffic into consideration. He pointed out that, though traffic conforms to a pattern, it is still unpredictable, however. The traffic at any of the given restaurants is also unpredictable, he said. Carter has also established a live chat in the app to address queries customers may have.
The customer has one version of the Foodmonkey app. “The restaurant receiving the order will have another app, the delivery guy has another app,” Carter related. “So it’s three apps synchronised and they speak to each other.” The customer places the order through the app. The restaurant receives and accepts the order, estimating a preparation time. The deliveryman also receives a notification that an order was placed along with the order details. He accepts the order and gives an estimated delivery time. The customer receives all of these updates on their version of the app. The app is available for both customers and businesses to use free of charge, Carter noted.
He explained that establishing a business, the nature of which had never been done in Guyana before, required a lot of groundwork. “I took a lot of things into consideration,” Carter said. He acknowledged that there are many delivery services that have already been established. His goal in establishing Foodmonkey was to eliminate the middleman, as it were. The app allows customers to interact directly with the restaurants and have their food delivered without having to first contact a delivery service. Carter revealed that the delay in the launch of Foodmonkey was due to him needing to finesse and ensure that he had taken everything into consideration.
There is always room for improvement according to Carter. It is constant work keeping track of improvements that can be made in future upgrades of the Foodmonkey app. “The coming months will be really exciting, you’re going to see a lot of new changes [and] a lot of upgrades,” he said. Though there have been a few hiccups, thus far, Carter is sure to communicate with valued users and update them on any difficulties being experienced with their orders. In some instances, he has waived delivery charges when orders take an especially long time. “I’m not looking at profits right now, I’m looking to get this app out there.”
Carter programmatically tests the system as much as possible. He looks for common errors that users might make and corrects them. “I test the system daily,” he said. “It’s user-friendly but there’s always room for improvements.” He also tries his best to get feedback from users. Carter has an aim in mind. “What I want to do is make this app a one-stop shop,” he affirmed. He hopes to be able to someday soon offer groceries and bakery products through Foodmonkey. He is also working on an addition he is keeping under wraps, one that he said will require legislative changes and is in keeping with a ‘green’ Guyana.
