Tunga has been working on the development of the Niluk app since the beginning of this year. Niluk is a mobile app to combat loneliness. Elena Köstler, the founder of Niluk, explains:
“Loneliness is consistently on the rise in our society. Scientific research has shown that socially meaningful contact with others helps you feel better when you’re lonely. Niluk is a social network app to make it easier to have meaningful contact with people with the same interests as you. And by meaningful, I mean: in a way where the content is more important than the form.”
Who wants to go skateboarding in the park? I’m going to hot power yoga after work; who’s joining me? I’ve got an hour for coffee, are you coming?
Elena: “Doing things you enjoy with nice people, in small, personal activities. Niluk app was developed by and for the user. It is about the small, fun, personal things in life. We believe that small steps can lead to something beautiful. With our online platform, our goal is to bring people together offline.”
Niluk app
Users create a profile in the Niluk app, or login with Google or Facebook. You can search for events posted by others, based on categories or based on your location. In addition, you can also create events yourself. Futher, you can add existing or new friends to your friends list. So you can easily find them again. And invite them to your events.
Ask Tunga!
Elena: “At the beginning of this year, my developer moved to Portugal. It stressed me out; the app was not ready yet, but the pilot with all the municipalities in the Amsterdam region was coming up. No money, but now, very motivated. I needed good developers who were skilled with, particularly, node.js. As it turned out, they were hard to find. Fortunately, Prof. Dr. Davide Lannuzzi of the Free University in Amsterdam gave me a great tip. We have our office space there. Davide knew what the solution was right away: ‘Ask Tunga!’ I phoned them and a week later we started with the development. It all went very smoothly.”
“Finish the Niluk app”
Elena’s assignment to Tunga was short, but powerful. ‘Finish the Niluk app. Sooner rather than later.’ “By now we are in ‘sprint 3’. I have complete faith in Tunga. They are not only professional, but they greatly appreciate the work and the collaboration too. Just like we do! A match made in heaven!”
Long-distance communication
The developers from Tunga that Elena collaborated with are located in Africa. When we asked if that made the communication difficult, Elena shook her head. “Tunga uses Slack: a business communication platform. Slack makes the difference. We are constantly in contact with each other. ‘Distance is only an illusion’. That sounds cliché, but it is true. I talk more with my developers at Tunga than with my previous developer who lived in the same city I live in.”
Respect and appreciation
By now, Elena has experience with developers all over the world. “Many developers have a particular ‘attitude’. They often gave me the sense that I should consider myself lucky that they would work for me. The African tech talents at Tunga have the technical knowledge and experience, but a lot more respect and appreciation for the client. They immediately told me they loved working for a great product like Niluk app. The collaboration is very professional, with respect and appreciation from both sides. If deadlines can’t be met, this is communicated. I really appreciate that. I trust them 100% and would recommend Tunga to anyone.”
