Written by Adetiwa Olumide, founder of Sety App
I had an epiphany around June this year after 2 girls were sexually assaulted concurrently within the span of 2 days during the pandemic lockdown. As I read the article that provided all the gory details about the obscene incident, I was gobsmacked. It was atrocious, and everyone unanimously agreed that something had to be done. Just after the incident, a “StopRapingUs” hashtag began on twitter. It lasted for about a week, and then quickly disappeared, went into oblivion like the countless other social media campaigns. I realized right away that this was and has always been a vicious cycle. And to make my neighbourhood safe, I needed to find a way to create a permanent solution for crime prevention. That’s when the idea for Sety app was born.
The initial plan for Sety was building an AI that would provide preventive measures against sexual violence. But after discussing with others, I decided it would be best to make it very inclusive as we have a lot of other dangers that occur daily in different forms irrespective of the genders.
I have experienced harassment myself by the police, and that was dreadful. And who do you call when the police are harassing you, the police?
I officially started building Sety at the end July. And so far, it has been an exciting experience solving this enormous problem and getting incredibly encouraging feedback from others.
Sety app was built to keep you safe
Sety app takes your incidents reporting to the next level. It lets you report and broadcast any dangers to anyone around you. Sety also allows you to maintain a circle of emergency contacts of friends and family to receive alerts when you report an incident. The alerts will come as a push notification or a personalized SMS.
With Sety, your incidents are also shared with the relevant responders. Maximizing your chance of getting the help you need. Needless to say, the responders have an app and they get notified if an incident fits their profile. The location and the details of the incident are sent instantly, to ensure that the necessary support gets to users on time.
What Sety can do
- Broadcast Emergencies to your circle and people around you
- Send your incidents to relevant rapid response unit for support
- Alerts and keeps you updated when you are approaching a danger zone
- Frequently shares daily security and safety tips.
- Promote a community where everyone can look out for each other in times of need to ensure we keep each other safe.
Sety is now available on both iOS & Android. To learn more about the app, please visit my Product Hunt page.
My advice on how to build an app in just 2 months
It’s very possible to build a product in 2 months. It all boils down to effective planning. Creating a roll-out plan from the get-go puts things in perspective. I wouldn’t be oblivious to the fact that oftentimes, in the development of an app, things can fall out of schedule, but as the product owner, this has to be mitigated as much as possible. From the start, have a valid plan put in place for development, testing, launch, etc. You can also launch your app in stages as an MVP. This will allow you to analyze user behaviour and receive responses early, and then you can factor in all the valid feedback into the next releases.
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