{"628125":{"#nid":"628125","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Queues takes the waiting out of lines","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYou\u0026rsquo;re starving and you\u0026rsquo;re going to be late for your exam unless you grab food quickly. The problem? It\u0026rsquo;s 11:45 a.m. It\u0026rsquo;s the busiest time of day at the Student Center. All the lines for restaurants are huge. Which one is the quickest?\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThere is a solution. You grab your phone and open Queues, an app that tells you wait times for all dining locations on campus. Now you don\u0026rsquo;t have waste your time in line \u0026ndash; instead you get to make sure you\u0026rsquo;re fed before taking your exam.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EQueues was created by Samuel Porta, a third-year Computer Science student from New Zealand. Porta has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. He started his first business selling candy on the school bus after seeing that his classmates were hungry on the way home at the end of the day. \u0026ldquo;I would find a problem and fix it.\u0026rdquo; Coming to Georgia Tech was his opportunity to create something bigger that would solve a problem.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPorta took the Startup Ideas course Fall of 2017, took Idea to Prototype Spring 2018, and was admitted into the CREATE-X Startup Launch program as a freshman for the summer of 2018. Every Tuesday he would meet with coaches and provide a weekly progress report and in turn receive feedback.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDuring the week, his team spent hours at the Georgia Tech Police Department (GTPD) looking at footage of students waiting in line at dining locations on campus to figure out wait times. They realized a few obstacles:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Col\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EIt takes too much time to filter through all the footage.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\t\u003Cli\u003EThe wait times during the summer are drastically different than wait times in the fall and spring semesters.\u003C\/li\u003E\r\n\u003C\/ol\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe data collection process was too labor intensive and subject to change based on term, weather, day of the week, exam schedules, etc. They began looking into alternatives to collecting data for determining wait times.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EQueues figured out that the best way to provide accurate wait times was by crowdsourcing the information. By adding an iPad with a few buttons to indicate how long you waited in line at the beginning of the line, Queues would have much more data to work with. Adding buttons to every dining location would not have been possible without a contract with the Georgia Tech Dining provider.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAt the same time, the team also shifted their revenue model and focused on receiving money from the users of the app versus relying on consumers to pay for Queues. Queues learned through customer discover that providing wait times to consumers is a convenience and it is not something they absolutely need and would be willing to pay a premium for.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EQueues started negotiations with Georgia Tech dining services. Porta took initiative to give a call and ask for the person in charge. With his passion, respect, and gratitude he was able to speak to the person in charge and began negotiations. But they were soon faced with another obstacle \u0026ndash; the food services vendor changed during negotiations, slowing the process down considerably. \u0026nbsp;Typically, with contract negotiations, the general word of advice is if it takes longer than six months, it\u0026rsquo;s not going to happen, and it is not worth pursuing. But Porta was persistent. His negotiation with Georgia Tech lasted more than a year. If he hadn\u0026rsquo;t been, then Queues would have folded. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter Startup Launch Porta decided to pursue Queues full time for a semester. \u0026ldquo;I was excited about Startup Launch and motivated by the energy of the program. I continued app development, figured out our first customer and how to deploy [Queues].\u0026rdquo; In spring of 2019, he returned to be a part-time student and part-time CEO of Queues.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESince last summer, the team has expanded from two team members to five. Porta found employees through WRECK camp, an Idea to Prototype event, a reddit post for android developers, and an old friend that took classes with him.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EQueues currently has 100 users that provide feedback and they hope to have a few thousand testers and users by the end of the Spring 2020 semester.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EQueues is now up and running on campus. So, what now?\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We are doing a trial period with the food service provider on campus,\u0026rdquo; said Porta. \u0026ldquo;If all goes well, the vendor already has other sites identified to deploy Queues.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPorta reflects on his time in CREATE-X.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The most important lesson from Startup Launch is learning to think differently about startups,\u0026rdquo; said Porta. \u0026ldquo;Startups are generally portrayed as \u0026lsquo;you have this great idea and then you immediately create a solution and it is perfect.\u0026rsquo; That everyone will become the next Facebook or Microsoft. That\u0026rsquo;s how the stories are told and immortalized. But of course, it misses all the actual learning that happens along the way.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EQueues is now looking for someone with experience in Firebase or databases and data processing. If you are interested, please contact Samuel Porta at \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:samrossporta@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Esamrossporta@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E. You can download Queues now for both Android and iOS and visit their \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.queuesapp.com\/\u0022\u003Ewebsite\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAvoid staying hangry by using Queues, a CREATE-X alumn company, to know how long wait times are at campus dining locations\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Avoid staying hangry by using Queues, a CREATE-X alumn company, to know how long wait times are at campus dining locations"}],"uid":"34825","created_gmt":"2019-10-28 14:01:48","changed_gmt":"2019-10-28 14:07:58","author":"joliva7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-10-28T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-10-28T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"628128":{"id":"628128","type":"image","title":"Queues","body":null,"created":"1572271585","gmt_created":"2019-10-28 14:06:25","changed":"1572271585","gmt_changed":"2019-10-28 14:06:25","alt":"","file":{"fid":"239197","name":"Webp.net-resizeimage (3).png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Webp.net-resizeimage%20%283%29.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Webp.net-resizeimage%20%283%29.png","mime":"image\/png","size":5560562,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Webp.net-resizeimage%20%283%29.png?itok=Aad6Q0oR"}}},"media_ids":["628128"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/queues\/id1402712414?ls=1","title":"iOS Download"},{"url":"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.queuesapp.queues","title":"Android Download"}],"groups":[{"id":"583966","name":"CREATE-X"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"}],"keywords":[{"id":"137161","name":"CREATE-X"},{"id":"166994","name":"startups"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJoanna Oliva\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMarketing and Event Coordinator\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["joliva7@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}