BeTheHope - First Glimpse [1]

Hey everyone, I’m Abhinav Chawla from Toronto, Canada. FYI: This is my first post here at DEV.to, and I won’t lie, I didn’t know about this platform before I came across this hackathon. So thanks to Twilio for bringing me here; I have been quite impressed with the community (somehow, I’m getting a strong feeling that I’ll be liking this over the ‘blue’ social platforms 😉)

So, what’s my project?

….Wait, wait. Before explaining my idea, let me tell you how I came up with it in the first place.

Story 1: It was my sister’s birthday back in January, and I decided to donate on her behalf. Once I started exploring options online, I realized that it took me an average of about 20 clicks before I could reach the “Donate” button (including finding the Call-to-Action button, account registration, personal information, payment details). If I’m in a mood to drop $25 from my pocket, you better take it ASAP before my brain forces me to buy a pizza (I’ll take pineapple on it, oops) with it.

Story 2: Before the social distancing laws came into effect, I noticed a friendly rally held by animal activists in Toronto. I approached a volunteer and asked them how I could donate. Since I didn’t have cash on me (btw, who still carries bills?), they handed me a website to go home and open and donate. And of course, that never happened!

Yeah, yeah, but what’s the idea?

Since then, I always thought what if donations could be quicker, even instantaneous as these decisions are impulsive; especially within the millennials. So, with all the motivation (hackathon’s push) needed, I decided to build out my solution. BeTheHope provides short URLs and QR codes, which can be distributed via texts, emails or social media providing an elegant user experience with an option of one-click payments integrated via Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Let me show you guys a quick glimpse (I promise I’ll share more soon), here’s the teaser:

How does it solve the problem? Well, I would finish donating by the time my brain wanders off and takes me to Dominos website. Plus, what if the volunteers at the rally wore a t-shirt with the QR code printed? Things could have been much simpler.

Lastly, I came up with the name BeTheHope for the project.

[Another FYI: I am a master procrastinator when it comes to writing blog posts, so sorry for not putting this up this sooner. Keep an eye for updates in the following days, before the final submission.]