The Veews story

I first put my fingers down to code Views in May 2017. Yep, Views. In fact, the original name was CampusChat but I soon thought that was a bit unwieldy. Vibes was next and then Views eventually became Veews. All the while I was going through what was probably the toughest period I’ve experienced personally. This coincided with my involuntary pullback from social media and Veews was filling in as a worthy distraction keeping my mind on the “bright side”.

What followed was weeks, months and then years of blood, sweat and laughs. We got to work and made several iterations to the product. A product that would help better navigate campus life by providing access to resources beyond what the prevalent chat apps did. For example, it would allow students conveniently and efficiently learn what services their barber collegemate offers and at what price a fellow student will get their make-up done for the weekend. One that will leverage machine learning in highlighting what the hot topic of discussion on campus was at any moment from raw group chat data and also eliminate bot-ridden chats.

In May 2018, the app launched - delayed by a complete redesign in Jan. 2018. It was a milestone moment for us not dimmed by the latent bugs and other challenges closely tied with product releases and introducing new features. A never-ending cycle that gets better over time but never truly disappears for any product that will thrive in the wild.

Looking back, there were some great moments - like when I, together with a friend, Damon, went around campus interviewing random students, asking questions around what they would appreciate in an app to help with campus life. I enjoyed listening to them pine about what they would have their ideal app do but overall just conversing with open-minded people was fun. I also enjoyed the pitches and presentations we made to others along the way, the unrelated discussions and laughs that erupted in our brainstorming sessions. I will go as far as adding missing my flight after spending time driving around discussing the future of the product and stopping to grab snacks. And how could I forget the thrill of seeing users recommend the app to others without being prompted? - these were the moments that defined the journey for me. And yes, I also reveled in the technical hurdles we had to overcome.

“Alright bro, what would success look like for this?” a friend had inquired when I started. I remember responding that developing the app, releasing it onto the AppStore and having it in the hands of users will be fulfilling for me. I have always maintained that time spent towards anything is never sufficient justification, in itself, for pouring additional time into it and so, I finally decided to call it quits in Jan. 2021. Would I have been pleased with more? you bet! However, I am content with how things panned out and I sincerely have no regrets. I have lessons, added experience, new skills and new friends instead.

I’d like to give a hearty shoutout to everyone who contributed to Veews. Particularly Daniel, who built the Android client from scratch, Praj, for all of the backend work and ad-hoc scripting, Ezana, for innovative evangelism of the product, Emmanuel, for server-side work ensuring the mobile clients kept running and Thi, for the amazing UI + UX. I will forever remain appreciative of your efforts and I hope the experience provided some utility for you.

Take less ✌🏽

Behind the scenes: “Huge grin”