These Indian teenagers have come up with a queue management solution for retailers to ensure people don’t crowd stores

• The group of six people all 14-18 year olds have built WhyQ.
• The idea behind WhyQ is a WhatsApp chat-bot based social distancing/queue management solution.
• The bootstrapped startup also won the first prize at a young entrepreneurship virtual competition at TiE Delhi NCR.

A group of teenagers randomly met at a series of entrepreneurship workshops held by the Delhi division of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE Delhi NCR). And as lockdown happened and schools were shut, the group of six people all 14-18 year olds decided to take their ideas ahead and form a startup.

Today, Jai Relan, Jasraaj Puri, Sara Kothari, Tejas Mehta, Aditi Aggarwal and Prithvi Oak run WhyQ. The idea behind WhyQ is a WhatsApp chat-bot based social distancing/queue management solution.

Through WhyQ, users can place orders for groceries from their nearby stores and receive a particular time to visit the store, eliminating the need to stand in a queue or in a crowded market.

“We are currently testing the product in Green Park, Delhi with 100 consumers. In these current times, people are scared to step out and social distancing is the new norm. But people didn’t know how to go about it. We also hope to partner with companies like Zoho to help shopkeepers digitize their inventory,” said Jai Relan, the 14-year old CEO of the startup.


The bootstrapped startup also won the first prize at a young entrepreneurship virtual competition at TiE Delhi NCR. While the students are not gunning for profits right now, they are hoping to turn this into a revenue driven venture soon.

“What we are hoping right now is to create a habit with people to adhere to these new ‘social distancing’ rules. In the future, we hope to bring Resident Welfare Associations on board. We saw in a focus group of 150 people that the majority like to go out and value the social aspect. India is a social community, so people like social interaction and walk down to their store to buy products,” he said.

They are currently getting 30-50 orders a day. Currently, they don’t have a payment gateway but instead have the shopkeeper’s Paytm numbers through customers can pay online.


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