One on One With Gaurav Aggarwal of Sleek

1. How they came up with the idea and what are the objectives? 

After my bachelor’s, I went on to work for Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft. I led multiple projects for them, which made billions of dollars for these technology giants. After leading the projects successfully and making a good living in the USA, I was not somehow satisfied. I was always fond of technology, but I always had the dream of working for myself. My experience so far in companies has been really pleasant, and I have learnt a lot during these times, but somehow I decided to quit and work on my own. Hence, we came up with the app Sleek. The main objective of Sleek is that it provides people the option to be in line without actually holding a physical position in line.

2. What are the challenges they faced?

As an entrepreneur, I am responsible for everything. Anything that goes wrong is my responsibility. There is a 100X strong sense of ownership. Impact and rewards are high, and so are the responsibilities and risks. In addition, usually entrepreneurs also come from some specialty background, and they are learning about other features of the business on the job.

3. How difficult it was to convince restaurant owners and event organisers to use your app initially?

Sleek is an app that changes the way people stand in line. It has happened many time’s a person want to eat from his favourite place but because of the wait in long lines and busy schedule the person has not been able to eat his favourite dish. This problem has been resolved through Sleek. So, Sleek partners with Restaurants and event organizers. Through Sleek you can actually be in the line through your phone, which will offer you an update about the estimated time for your turn. At first it was difficult to convince restaurant owners and event organisers to use this app but with the COVID-19 situation it soon turned out to be a beneficial app.

In this pandemic situation it was necessary for people to go out to buy daily products and maintain social distancing and this app helped in doing so. It was not possible for retail outlets to maintain social distancing among the consumer’s, sleek came really handy at that time. One can just be in line by not being actually in the line and saving a lot of space.

4. Any new stuff they will be adding to it?

Sleek can be set up at your venue in just 2 minutes, and necessities no hardware setup. It factors multiple sources of data, to calculate customer wait times accurately down to the minute. During high demand or long lines, the dynamic fee adds extra revenue to your top line.

5. How much covid impacted their business and what they are doing to overcome it?

In spite of a few delays because of COVID-19, Sleek is at present live and serving several essential businesses as part of their partnership with Roaming Hunger. The COVID-19 Pandemic impacted live events severely. There were nearly no events after March 2020. We had to pivot from Live Events to essential businesses, which was a long procedure and took a few months. At the moment events are coming back as vaccines are rolling out, and we are working with key event organizers to be back in live events in late 2021. With great determination and positivity, we believe that Sleek will be a market leader in the live events space. We imagine a world where no one is waiting physically in line as we will expand into SMB space.  Sleek’s Artificial Intelligence’s adaptability is unmatched to its competitors, such as Clear, meaning it permits only a small percentage of users to pay for expedited line service, and the price goes up if several people are ready to pay the extra fee.