Vaughan teenager creates app to solve lineup problem

Thestar.com
March 22, 2021

When the lockdown began in March 2020, Ananya Vishwanath remembers seeing Instagram posts with photos of people lining up everywhere -- including at Costco and other stores.

Vishwanath thought she could help by designing an app to allow customers to join a line remotely.

“Customers can relax in cars. You don’t have to stand outside stores,” said Vishwanath, who is 18 and in first-year computer science and business administration at the University of Waterloo.

The Vaughan resident began working on developing a line queuing app -- now called VQueues -- that eliminates the inconvenience of store lineups using a mobile-based platform.

Vishwanath started working on the app in April 2020 and officially incorporated her company in June of 2020.

Vishwanath spoke earlier this month as part of The Future of Women panel at the eleventh annual Women to Women Symposium organized by Vaughan’s Chamber of Commerce.

One of her biggest challenges at first in building up VQueues was marketing. She had planned to go door-to-door to hand out flyers and ended up printing hundreds of them. These flyers were undesirable to many during a pandemic.

“No one wanted to take them,” she said.

So, she and her team built a website and created promotional videos for the website. “We worked on search engine optimization so that upon searching queue management, our website would be easy to find,” she said. The Ontario Summer Company program (an Ontario government program) also provided her with connections and as a result, she was able to give demonstrations to potential clients such as major hospitals.

Vishwanath encountered plenty of other obstacles. She found that many businesses were not open to buying software from a small company or a student. Despite this fact, Indigo really liked VQueues.

A lot of people ask why there’s no man on my team, Vishwanath said. It’s a big issue being a younger girl. People don’t think you’re as credible.

“Believing in yourself has helped me a lot,” she said. Other women have also served as inspiration.

“There are many women around me who inspire and motivate me to continue with this venture. My mother being one of these major inspirations as well as my team members. Looking at successful female leaders, such as Indra Nooyi remind me that if these women can be successful in male-dominated spaces, I can as well,” she said via email.

She signed an agreement with Indigo Books & Music Inc. for VQueues to be used in more than 89 stores across North America. VQueues has been designed for use in hospitals, clinics, spas and salons, grocery stores, restaurants, service centres and schools.

Vishwanath spoke at the eleventh annual Women to Women Symposium, which took place from March 2 to 4.

To learn more about VQueues, visit: https://www.vqueues.com

Go to https://vaughanchamber.ca/ for more on the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce.