3 min read
Sometimes you look at people younger than yourself and wonder: What was I doing with my life at that age?! Mian Hamza is only 20-year-old and unlike the rest of us slackers he is already on to something. He is a second year BBA student at University of Lahore, and is working on something very cool that can remarkably change the course of his life and probably lots of lazy car owners!
What is AutoGenie?
How many times have we missed the date to change our car oil? How many times have we skipped car-wash because we were too busy with our work? How many times have we ignored maintenance of our car because we were being too lazy? Whether you are a university going student or a working individual, you would you agree your poor car has often been a victim of your sheer laziness, right? Mian Hamza wants to change all of this. Despite having the fortunate opportunity of joining his family’s established and successful business, his interest in car mechanics led him to create an enterprise that is apparently aiming to digitize the entire car maintenance experience.
Mian Hamza’s startup, AutoGenie is a young startup and LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship (LCE) incubatee that helps you keep your car maintained from the comfort of your home or office. As quoted by the startup’s website, the startup offers “virtual car maintenance services that are simple, cost-effective, time-saving and convenient”.
Services Provided by AutoGenie
AutoGenie works in a pretty simple and hassle-free way. Customers can book appointments via website or texts as per their needs and the car is then picked off and looked after by team. As far as security of the customer’s car is concerned, Hamza claims that trusted and trained employees will be charged with the responsibility of looking after the car. The services provided by the venture include but are not limited to oil change, car wash and tuning, AC and traffic ticket service. Both annual memberships (worth PKR 4000) and immediate services are offered to customers. In case of the yearly memberships, customers pay a meager amount one time and will get discounted (and some free services) round the clock throughout the rest of the year.
How big is the market in Pakistan?
According to research carried out by the AutoGenie team there are approximately 2.2 million car owners in Lahore, with an estimated increase of 100 cars each passing day. Hamza and his team are already in talk for investments with a number of organizations. Even though AutoGenie is currently only operational in Lahore and has already managed to get approximately 100 workshops on board and secured an impressive 30 plus customers in a few months, it aims to start smart workshops and expand operations to other cities in Pakistan in the future with incoming investments.
Considering the annual expenditure on car maintenance in Lahore is worth more than 4 billion, the startup has immense potential in terms of the available market for its services. Thanks to Hamza and his team, you can now evade the mental stress and time you devote to your car issues and can be “proud with your laziness” when it comes to auto maintenance. Definitely a win-win situation!
