From Train Dispatcher to Startup Founder

What's your name and what do you do for work?

My name is Torrence Mays.

I currently work full time for the railroad, but I'm the founder of Vehicy, a booking app that connects drivers with local automotive service technicians.

Do you know how to code?

No, I don't know how to code at all.

How'd you come up with this app idea?

App idea came up, because I was involved in a hit and run vehicle accident and someone totaled my vehicle.

Had to buy a brand new vehicle here in Atlanta and then, I wanted to take care of it.

I'm brand new to Atlanta from Miami, Florida.

Don't know a thing about where to take my car to get it detailed or get my vehicle maintained.

So I decided, well, if there's no app to find the services needed, I need to create one.

So this was a problem that you faced yourself and now you're out solving that problem for other people?

Yep, that is correct.

Nice.

And did you try to hire a developer to build this idea out?

Yeah, the very first time I tried to hire someone on a software called Odesk, which has been bought out and acquired by Upwork, years ago.

And I lost about $3,000 of my savings.

I was only making about $7.25 an hour at the time, so basically my life savings until this application.

And then I decided from then on, because I had no oversight of my product and I, really wanted to create it myself, I pivoted to learn WordPress, I will call the OG of no code development.

And then because I built out the entire product in the web version of my product first, I began to pitch what I now know is called customer discovery for my potential top clients and customers.

And they told me they wanted a mobile app version of this.

So you interviewed your customers and your customers told you that they wanted an app?

That's right.

Once they told me I needed that, I didn't know where to begin.

I had no development experience and I stumbled across flutter flow and I started building out my UX UI there.

That's all I knew how to do.

I did not understand or know how to do back end development because I have no coding experience.

But then I was like, there had to be a way for me to basically boot camp my way into this development to get it from idea to an app into the App Store.

So what did you do next?

You wanted to take the matters into your own hands and not be held hostage by developers.

So what did you do next?

So I basically, literally, during my 9 to 5.

During the beginning phase of COVID I would be at work.

Work was slow.

I would sketch out every single page, maybe two or three pages per day during my nine to five.

And once I got home around 10:30pm, I would burn the midnight oil and stay up until about 4am Developing or taking all those ideas and wireframes from paper to Flutter Flow.

How did you find out about Dreams into Apps?

So I completed all of those pages.

Well, maybe about 80% of all my pages.

And, again, they were literally just UX ui had no clue how to connect every single page.

Once, a user pressed this button, how do I record the information and then pass it on to another page?

I had no clue how to do that.

So I was literally praying in my bed.

there's got to be a way for me to find a boot camp version or boot camp for version Flutter Flow.

Stumbled, across an ad from ambitious labs and got in touch with the lean to get me started with the process.

Did you launch your app?

Yes, I launched my app in August 2023.

Nice.

And do you have your first customers?

Got my first customer, first week I launched.

And we're now up to 21 technicians.

We hope to be by 500 technicians by the end of 2024.

And you built that entire app yourself Completely by myself with the help of now my co founders.

Seven, months into the process.

And you traditionally are a trained dispatcher.

You knew nothing about coding?

My background is law enforcement, 911 dispatching.

then I went into air traffic control.

Now I move trains.

And now you're an app startup developer.

And now I'm an app startup developer.

What happened after you launched your app?

After I launched my app, I was admitted into the Atlanta Tech Village.

It takes a village pre accelerator cohort to basically teach me how to be a startup CEO.

Nice.

Fantastic.

What's been your favorite part about Dreams into Apps?

My favorite part about dreams into apps is first Community.

I found my now two co founders through the Ambitious Labs cohort, the very first cohort we had gone through.

And, we have pretty much accelerated our growth because of Ambitious Labs.

Nice.

And, would you recommend Dreams into Apps?

I recommend it all the time.

talk to different startup founders all the time.

Those that want to create, those that, have sort of an idea but don't know where to start.

People from here in the US to people over in other parts of the world, from Australia to Africa, all these different students, they eventually reach out to me because of my now success because of the ambitious Labs and Dreams to Apps program.

And who would you recommend it to?

Those that are ambitious.

Those that, have an idea, but not too sure on where to begin or where to end.

And those that want community, those that have.

They want to be around other people that are just as ambitious as they are, but have no clue where to begin.

Torrence, did your friends believe in you?

Did they think that you could build this idea?

I didn't tell anybody I was building this, to be honest with you.

Maybe my family.

But I've always had ideas.

But once I began to develop this application and have a first paying customer and then subsequent paying customers, they now understand, okay, well, you don't really have to be a developer or have to have a computer programming degree to get your app created.

Thanks, Torrence.