Imagine that you’re just out of college and you’ve landed a fancy corporate job. Now would you dare to give up the first few years of your career to develop a football app? These three NITians did just that. These three NITians did just that. TerraPlay, their startup, is a sports solutions company and ‘I am Play’ is its flagship product, which intends to push the city’s street football scene to another league.
“It’s pretty common to see players not being able to play because the ground was unavailable, they were unaware of a tournament, or that there were not enough players on their side. The communication is scattered when it is passed through messaging or WhatsApp. So that’s how it all started. We wanted to create a dedicated go-to platform to pass on information digitally. Our intention was to give every footballer in the city a personalised experience to cater to their needs,” says Sai Sathvik, the 24-year-old CEO of TerraPlay.
When asked how the app would be customised to each player, the company’s co-founder Mathew Jose steps in and explains that their idea is to create a network, so that the app user can create a player card for himself and also add other players to create a deck on his profile along with peer appreciation. Aside from this one can check ground availability, book a time slot, get notifications of tournaments and even host a game. Anirudh Ramanathan, their marketing lead adds with a chuckle, “People in the regular football circuit already call it ‘Tinder for football’, which is true in one sense.”
It wasn’t surprising when Sathvik said that he saved up for almost two years with meticulous planning to catch the ‘UEFA EURO 2016’ games live. The app is designed by self-confessed football fanatics so they hope it would give any footballer a definitive experience. It is evident to see their love for the game and their passion to promote this sport in a country which is obsessed with cricket. The app is set to launch this month and the crew hopes it is the start to create a solid football community in the city.
You can reach out to them through their Facebook page or Instagram handle https://www.facebook.com/iamplayindia/
