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In Silicon Valley, even an Uber driver is a startup founder. Indian Meta employee's viral tweet
An Indian Meta employee in San Francisco unexpectedly promoted an Uber driver’s app, leading to 200 new users within 24 hours.
An Indian woman working for Meta in San Francisco recently found herself in the middle of a budding entrepreneur's journey during a routine Uber ride. Along with her friend, who had booked the ride through the app, she was surprised to find a poster in the car asking for help with a startup.
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The poster, attached to one of the seats, detailed a plea from the Uber driver, Frederico Coutrim, who was trying to gather 1,000 downloads for his app to attract investors. Intrigued by the initiative, the Meta employee named Resham Khanna struck up a conversation with the driver, who revealed he was developing an app to translate messages in real-time.
Driver launches app to translate messages in real-time
The app, called TransChatMe, eliminates the need for copying and pasting text into translation tools. Instead, users can type their messages, which are automatically translated. The poster in the car read: “Please, help me build my startup. It is called TransChatMe – the revolutionary free mobile app that translates your messages automatically! No more copying and pasting – just write your message, and TransChatMe handles the rest. I need 1,000 users, so I can share it with investors.” Coutrim also included QR codes for both Android and iOS users to download the app.
(Also read: 'Laid off by Meta twice': Woman shares how it impacted her mental health)
Take a look here at the post:
Moved by driver’s determination, Khanna shared a picture of the poster on X (formerly Twitter), hoping to help him achieve his goal. In her post, she wrote: “Chatting with our Uber driver who is building a startup and looking for feedback. If anyone works in adjacent fields please hit him up.”
The post quickly garnered attention, and soon after, the woman received an email from Coutrim thanking her for her support. “We have reached more than 200 new users in the last 24 hours,” he said, expressing how much the viral post had helped.
In the email, the Uber driver thanked Khanna for shedding light on his startup. “Your help has given us strength to keep moving forward,” he wrote, adding that her post had come at a time when he needed support the most. He concluded by expressing his hope of meeting her in person one day.
