20-year-old wins entrepreneurial event for his ‘discount deals’ app

GSEA is an Entrepreneurs’ Organisation program for undergraduate or graduate students above 18 years of age who have been running businesses successfully for at least six months. The winners also receive mentoring to succeed in their chosen business, create a positive impact in their field and do good for their community.

So, what is Kaching? It’s a free app – a platform, via which discount deals from restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs across the city can be available – just by downloading the free app, says Shiv, who is a college dropout from Loyola. “It took me around two years to get it going, and we have been functional for exactly a year now – as of now, we have around 80,000 users and work with over 350 brands. I participated in the GSEA for the previous two years as well; in 2016, I just had the concept idea and in 2017, my working product took me to the top three. 2018 was my lucky year finally!” says Shiv.

The Entrepreneurs’ Organisation in Chennai has incubated myriad ideas with GSEA, such as print apps, private research for launching satellites, low-cost water treatment equipment, augmented reality, home-based baking business with a difference, and so on.

Next up, Shiv plans to take Kaching to the next level by bridging the gap between offline and online businesses.

“When a customer walks into any store, the interaction with the brands available and the mobile will begin – that’s the exciting concept our app is headed towards. As of now, we are operational only in Chennai and exploring some brand collaborations in Coimbatore.

Eventually we want to go nation-wide and hit the European and south Asian markets,” says the youngster confidently.