How Jamaica’s seasoned entrepreneur grabbed Hugo’s space with Yelo

Meet Andre Brown, a seasoned entrepreneur from Jamaica. Andre, at a very young age, realized he wanted to do something big.

From making thousands of dollars in school projects to business gigs in college that went on to become major events in the city, Andre always got his kick out of business.

He says, “From a young age I’ve always wanted to do more. I used to drive past hotels and wanted to own a hotel, I used to see an airplane, I wanted to buy it. These are the kind of dreams that I had from early on.”

Recently, he started his own online marketplace in Jamaica by the name of OrdaJa. Orda Ja, in just a month, has grabbed a remarkable number of orders even without being fully operational.

With Yelo, Orda Ja

Launches super quick
Receives huge order volume
Grabs Hugo’s market space

Let’s dig deep into his success story and learn some secrets to launch a successful business.

Challenges before Yelo

Popular marketplace app Hugo recently announced that they would leave Jamaica. Andre was a supplier to Hugo and this news meant a lot of business loss to him.

Instead, he looked at it as an opportunity. He says, “Everybody was like, we are really sorry for you. But, to me, it was the happiest day of my life. Hugo spent three years in Jamaica and did all the groundwork. The pitch was ready, I just had to strike.”

And Andre wanted it to be very quick as he realised that timing was everything in business. He started looking for softwares to launch his Hugo like marketplace and after thorough research on review websites, he zeroed in on Yelo.

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“People did not believe me when I said, we will launch in a month. They told me it takes 4 months just to get on the app store but I ignored them. I knew, with your experienced team, we could do it and we did it.”

The biggest challenge OrdaJa faced was to launch in a month, before anybody else could.

He adds, “We are only 30% operational and the order volume is high. We don’t think it would have been possible to do it without Yelo. Your quick responsiveness and commitment made us ahead of everybody. When Hugo left, it was a great opportunity for everybody, but now it is too late for them.

Solutions offered by Yelo

Andre feels that the technology stack offered by Jungleworks is the go-to solution for entrepreneurs like him. He lists some specific benefits of the software below.

Hippo Chats: It makes speaking to our customers so easy. It is super interactive and engaging. It is better than most of the chat services in the market.
Tookan Integrations : It is an amazing plug-in, a simple to use platform with everything at your fingertips.
Marketing Tools: Readymade email templates, the ability to send push notifications really upped our marketing game as a new business. The data analytics in Yelo helped us make important business decisions such as where to remarket and why.

Payment Integrations: Having a readymade robust payment solution was of huge help to us. As a new business, it is one of the major concerns, but with Yelo, it was so smooth.
Integrations with Third Party Apps: Third-party apps which we are allowed to use such as Twilio, are the best in the business. It establishes us as a professional brand.

SaaS Vs Source Code

Entrepreneurs looking to launch their own business often face a dilemma. To build or to buy? We asked Andre about his experience and what made him go for SaaS.

Andre chips in, “SaaS is the future. Source Code might or might not give your gratification, but by the time you build on your own, you will be ten years behind in the game.

SaaS makes launching your business easier, it is key to keep your customers happy and it gives you peace of mind.

Advice to first-time entrepreneurs

After launching a few successful businesses, Andre feels finding the right technology with the right time and support is the key to success.

He happily quips, “You might find something shinier and bigger, but that might not be the best for you.”

That was Andre Brown and his success story with OrdaJa. If you too wish to be an entrepreneur or are looking for a solution for your business, contact us.

As Andre mentions above, Jungleworks Hyperlocal Stack can do wonders for your business and set you up for success.