Sophomore Neil Anand’s school days and weekends are busy with homework, sports practices and social commitments. But he has one commitment most students don’t: He’s part of helping his family’s local small business succeed.
Anand’s family owns JustCreamery, a gelato shop located inside the YogaSix yoga studio on Big Basin Way downtown. The location offers an assortment of milk gelato ranging from flavors mango to hazelnut.
Anand often visits the shop and operates behind the scenes after school all while he tries to build a new app for it.
A lot of effort goes into running the operations efficiently while maintaining quality in its service, Anand explained, so he decided to start building an app in order to make the checkout easier for both his family and customers.
“I go there to work part-time, and I used to work at the register a lot. Now, I do more behind-the-scenes stuff,” Anand said.
His dislike for physically being at the shop and customer service motivated him to work with his computer science-focused cousin to build an app. Along with the aid of his cousin, Anand has learned how to create and scale his app, despite lacking the software skills prior to this effort.
“It’s still a work in progress, ” Anand said. “But we’re planning to develop it into a tool for my dad’s company to make it easier to interact with the stores.”
While still in the process of being built, the goal of the JustCreamery app is to ease the workflow for Anand’s family within their shop, the app is meant to automate checkouts since the store is often left unattended by staff. Powered primarily by artificial intelligence, the app connects to a camera and will notify Anand or his cousin when a customer walks in, allowing them to offer assistance with an online checkout process.
The past year taught him how to identify problems, create tangible solutions and manage his time in balancing sports with his academic pursuits.
Typically, Anand spends two hours after school at soccer practice and returns home later in the evening. Along with soccer practice, he dedicates after-school time to his participation in Science Bowl.
With all this on his plate, Anand stresses the importance of time management in his schedule and using resources available to their fullest extent. Anand is still unsure how the JustCreamery app will land with customers; he expects it to launch later this year.
While Anand is already preoccupied with his own academic and athletic interests, he’s still considering using his newfound app-making skills in other ways. For now, his intent with his app production is to make his and his family’s lives easier, though he hopes to help other communities in the future.
“I think that the skills I’m gaining while making the application along with what I learned about time management opens up a lot of opportunities for the future,” Anand said.