Funstore

Come up with an idea, walk away with a product

Problem Statement:

The future is connected and internet enabled and it demands people to be skilled to build products. The awareness to re-skill and up-skill oneself is an increasingly important skill in itself. The software is seeping into every type of products we see around us; physical or virtual.

To future-proof the workforce from the technological disruption, workers need to be taught to teach themselves up. Unlike MOOC, online Videos or Podcasts DIY approach to learning is found to be more effective, immersive and engaging. Thus a platform which gives people access to building products for today and tomorrow will require a community-driven applications building approach.

Solution:

Funstore is a platform which hosts instructable about various applications (from IoT, AI, Blockchain to mobile apps, micro-services and webapps), their codes, single click compile and deployment and visualization. These applications are created by users with different skill-sets and are shared with others on the platform to build additional features and use-cases on top of it.

For a novice, funstore provides instructions to build compile pre-built applications (assembly instructions in case of IoT or hardware) and a single click deployment button. For expert, an integrated IDE is provided to code to the developer. Dedicated SDK is provided to deploy code on any hardware, and a dedicated API is provided to connect build or connect to various microservices.

How does funstore work:

Imagine
No idea is a small idea. Imagine watching your baby at home from your mobile phone without buying an expensive gadget, or a camera that monitors that no one steals your packages from the front door, or measuring pulse quickly. Imagine what you want to build or take the idea from 100s of applications that are pre-built by the growing community on the funstore platform.

Build
Follow the instruction to assemble the hardware and use the funstore online editor that recognizes all major languages, to build the application you need. Code in Python, JavaScript, C, C++ or whatever you prefer. Moreover, install whatever libraries you need with a line of code, right on the cloud. You can even take inspiration from lots of applications pre-built by the community. Tweak the way you want or change the way it suits your fancy. What best, you can connect to any API service available worldwide and convert your ideas to smart products; even power them through Artificial Intelligence or Blockchain examples.

Connect
Connect all type of devices, from a simple microcontroller to powerful SBCs to funstore straight out of the box! No complicating programming required, no messy wiring! Just need to install a client software (one-time) on your device that connects your device to your funstore account.

Deploy
Deploy your app to your device, wirelessly from anywhere. Yes, anywhere! And voila! You have your imagination running instantly on the device.

Visualize
Funstore inbuilt visualizations widget let you visualize any data coming from your device on the mobile application, quickly and instantly.

Impact / Progress:

We have onboard more than 10,000 people over the last three years

Our solution is an application of existing web technologies and is aimed at reskilling and upskilling the future workforce. Future of work will require a highly technical workforce and our platform funstore.io does the same, helping the workforce of the future learn about technology and product development using technology and community. The platform is built in a way that both a novice as well as an expert can learn from any of the 100s of existing projects hosted on the platform and can contribute in building further products to be made available for other users.

Technology is an integral part of funstore.io. Being an online platform funstore.io is built on the latest web technologies and in-order to achieve scalability uses technology to the core. 

We also use technology regularly to reach out to our audience and conduct workshops, meetups (meetup.com) and social media (Whatsapp groups) to educate people on using the latest technologies to build products.

Technology:

We aim to add AI modules to funstore.io to help users learn to make smarter products. We already rolled out vision AI (for object detection and automated captioning) to limited early adopters and will add more modules to the platform in next 12 months.

Bootcamp:

Currently, we run 5000+ members tech community focussing on IoT and AI in Delhi (India), and in next 12 months, we aim to start similar communities in at-least five more cities in India. We also intend to use social media efficiently.

Business:

We aim to reach 100k users in next one year.

We intend to reach at least 1Mn users actively using our platform in the next three years. We envision that people will learn and build products using funstore.io as well as will use our APIs to integrate their solutions on their web-portal, mobile app, and applications. We also intend to have at least one community of educating and on-boarding users on newer technologies in 10 cities each in the US, UK, and India in the next three years.

From this year we intend to use social media and digital technologies to reach out and retain our customers. We also plan to launch some modules on our platform to maintain the existing customer base and incentivize them to build more products.

We have on-boarded more than 10,000 users in the last three years using our platform, offline education, workshops, and meetups. This onboarding happened while the product was also shaping up. 

We aim to serve 100k users in next 12 months and around 1M in the next three years. Currently, we run 5000+ members tech community focussing on IoT and AI in Delhi (India), and we conduct boot camps, workshops, meetups, etc. to share the knowledge. In the next 12 months, we aim to start similar communities in at-least five more cities in India. In the next three years, I see that growing to 1 such community in at least ten cities in India, the UK, and the USA. We also aim to use social media efficiently.

MIT Solve is a marketplace connecting innovators with resources to solve Global Challenges. I believe that through MIT solve peer network and partners I will be able to reach to a broader audience and like-minded individuals. This network will help me further grow and solve the problem of the future of work at a much faster rate. 

Also, just like any other business I also occasionally need mentorship, advice, and support and MIT solve can help connect me to leaders from the tech industry, philanthropy, business and civil society who can help me achieve the goal quickly.

Any such idea and the scale where it can make a tangible impact requires like-minded stakeholders, complementary skills, partners, capital, and massive technology. I believe MIT Solve can help us here with their extensive network by connecting us to the resources with expertise, human capital, technology, and also funding.