Zerocrime Questionnaire 1. To anyone whos never come across Zerocrime, how would you describe it?

Answer: Zerocrime is an online crowd-sourcing application that allows citizens to report and view criminal activity near them. Using this application, victims or witnesses to a crime can submit a short report by providing basic details such as location, date, time, type, and description of the event. Reporters are also asked to provide a piece of advice for fellow users. This crowd-sourced data is put on a map and users can scan areas near them to view criminal activity. In the future, users will also be able to identify high-risk zones through heat maps. Subscribers will get location-based safety alerts on their smartphones. 2. Tell us a bit about your background and how it all started where did your vision for Zerocrime come from? Answer: The team Trycon Technologies came together in May 2013. All three founders of the company (Mukesh Gupta, Swapnil Jain, and Gautam Garg) are graduates of Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University). We were working on developing online software solutions for businesses when the inception of Zerocrime happened in the first week of October. We immediately decided to invest some time to this from our daily schedule. We began the development and design of Zerocrime, and launched the beta version of the Zerocrime web application on Oct 21, 2013. It was Mukesh who came up with the idea. I believe the idea struck him when one of his friends smartphone got snatched by two bikers in Noida Sector 63. There was no number plate on the bike. When the friend went to register an FIR, the Noida Police refused to file a case of theft and only agreed to register a case of lost phone. This happens quite a lot in Noida and the Police are not very helpful. So Mukesh thought why not create an application that lets people file an unofficial crime report and helps caution others about high-risk zones near them. I think all of us have been through such situations where we have felt frustrated becoming a victim of a crime and then even more helpless after experiencing the apathy of law enforcement agencies. The idea resonated well with the team and we immediately decided to invest our time into it. 3. How does it work? Answer: If you have been a victim or a witness to a crime incident, you can easily file an unofficial report on http://zerocrime.org by providing simple details such as location, time, date, crime, description, and a short advice for others. A marker of your incident will be placed on the map and residents/travelers can see the details. Over time, Zerocrime will aggregate these reports to create a crime rating index of neighborhoods and areas will be color-coded as per their crime rating. Crowd-sourcing is the back-bone of the social initiative. We will also conduct advanced analytics and longitudinal studies to generate meaningful insights for law enforcement agencies and media houses. We also plan to develop crime prevention tools such as prediction of crime through data analysis. Users will be able to benefit directly by downloading the Zerocrime mobile application, which will push location-based safety notifications when users are roaming in high-risk zones. 4. How can Zerocrime help in fighting the increasing rates of crime in the country? Answer: We think that to fight crime we must first completely understand it. And once we know the real picture, we can take the necessary steps to curb and eradicate it. Through Zerocrimes crowd -sourcing methodology, we can understand crime at the ground level and through advanced analytics, we can advise law enforcement agencies, media houses, and NGOs about the actual threat the country faces. Zerocrime is also a tool to help prevent crime by exercising safety. Through our mobile application, users can exercise caution while roaming in new places. 5. What is the biggest hurdle you have faced or are still facing?

Answer: I think it is too early to say that we have started to face any hurdles. But a hurdle that we do see in the near future is creating nationwide awareness about this initiative. Being a start-up, we have limited marketing investment but we are designing innovative ways to reach out to people. I think media houses can play a strong role here and I thank platforms like Startaholics for covering this. 6. Who would you say is your biggest competitor? Answer: I think the good thing about social initiatives is that the more the competitors there are the better it is for the cause. I believe there are other initiatives that are doing good things in this space. We believe Safecity is one of them. Safecity focuses on crimes affecting women. 7. Has Zerocrime got the feedback and growth you expected since launch? Answer: We have been live for about three weeks now and we are happy with the response. Many people have already come forward to help us in our initiative. Companies have offered to provide us with their premium services at no cost. The idea resonates well with everybody and we have received excellent ideas from so many believers. But execution is the key here and we hope we have the support of the people. They have a big role to play. 8. Do you have any new features in the pipeline? Answer: Definitely. The current version of the Zerocrime application is primarily focused on sourcing data from the people. Going forward, we plan to include the following features:

Accept reports through various other channels such as SMS, IVRS, and Social Media Analytical engine that aggregates data from users into a crime rating index for neighbourhoods Heat maps depicting high-risk zones around your neighbourhood/location Smartphone application for users that will act as Personal Safety Guide and cover capabilities such as SOS call/messages, location-based safety alerts, directions to nearest Police Stations, etc. Blogs and discussion forums Special safety related tips and advisory

9. How involved are you with fundraising? Answer: We dont have any external funding as of now and we are investing in this initiative on our own. We really believe in this idea and even if we do not get any funding, we are ready to invest on our own. As far as external investment (such as through VC or Angel Investors) is concerned, it is unlikely as we plan to register this initiative as a not-for-profit entity. However, we are in the process of designing a sustainable model where we bring on board companies and organizations that can benefit significantly from this initiative to support us. We feel many companies are quite concerned about the safety of their employees and would be interested in our application. Media houses can get advanced analytics from us for creating meaningful reports. In short, while the web and mobile applications will be completely free for the general public and government agencies, we might create a subscription model for companies interested in this data for commercial purposes. The revenues generated will be used to cover maintenance costs and excesses will be pumped back into the initiative for innovation. 10. What one piece of advice would you give to soon to be startup founders? Answer: Create a product or service that you personally would like to use and see in the market because it solves a problem that you are facing. Also believe in yourself.