Kitestring: Ensuring Safety of 100K+ People with SMS

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Cement
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Onsite Human Safety Management
Search & Rescue

The Challenge

Kitestring, a personal safety SMS app, was faced with the challenge of creating a reliable way to ensure people arrive at their intended destinations safely. The idea was conceived by Stephan Boyer, a grad student at MIT, who wanted to ensure his girlfriend's safety while she walked home through a risky neighborhood in San Francisco. Boyer aimed to build an app that would allow her to set the duration for her walk home and check in via SMS once she was home. The challenge was not just to ensure timely and reliable message delivery, but also to scale the service to the masses. The app needed to be reliable, scalable, and easy to use for anyone, regardless of whether they owned a smartphone or not.

About The Customer

Kitestring was founded in 2014 by Stephan Boyer, a grad student at MIT, with the aim of ensuring the safety of his girlfriend while she walked home through a risky neighborhood. The app was initially intended for family and friends, but Boyer soon realized the potential benefit for the public and launched the service to the masses. Within a week of its launch, Kitestring's customer base grew from a few friends and family members to 10,000, and surpassed 80,000 over the next few months. Kitestring is now live in the US and UK, and continues to expand into new markets.

The Solution

Boyer chose to use Twilio SMS to ensure timely and reliable message delivery. Users create an account on Kitestring's website, enter their phone number, and receive an SMS with a verification code. After setting up the account, users enter their emergency contacts' phone numbers. To use the emergency notification solution, users send an SMS specifying how many minutes a task they are about to embark on should take. If a user fails to respond to Kitestring's check-in SMS 5 minutes after their trip is up, Kitestring automatically contacts the user's emergency contacts using Twilio SMS. Boyer was confident that with Twilio's platform, he could scale effortlessly and build new features for Kitestring easily.

Operational Impact

The use of Twilio's platform allowed Kitestring to scale effortlessly and build new features easily. During one of its busiest months, Kitestring sent over 117,000 messages to users. The reliability of messaging and easy scalability were critical to keeping the company growing after its big user spike. Boyer didn't have to worry about updating any call center hardware or signing a new contract with an SMS vendor to accommodate his new users. The service is truly measured in reliability, with users expecting to receive text messages prompting them to confirm their safety the moment their Kitestring trip is up. The success of Kitestring is evident in its expanding customer base and its expansion into new markets.

Quantitative Benefit