This startup allows you to vent out your feelings

Emotions, stress and disappointment– any negative expression suppressed within people leads to adverse effects like increase in the rate of crime, suicide, depression and lower productivity in life or at work.

The concept of Smash rooms and Break rooms, is lately in demand in India, by a class of the society who can affordto pay for releasing their emotions that usually cannot be expressed outright.

In similar vein, VentAllOut, a Delhi-based healthtech startup, offers an instant outlet space for anger and frustration. However, the service is not only free, but people who use it will also be rewarded.

Registered under parent company CrestlineBiz Solutions and recognised by DPIIT, the startup is the brainchild of Sumit Mittal, a payment industry professional with 19 years of experience. He is also the founder of another hyperlocal deal discovery startup.

"The genesis of the idea came from my personal experience of not being able to put forth my opinion on social media without any fear of being judged. Facebook and WhatsApp are for portraying an image what you know others would want to see.

Hence, I came with this space for venting out true emotions anonymously and moreover build a community wherein others can help each other to come out of their situation," Sumit Mittal, founder, VentAllOut, told The Hans India.

The platform has seven categories, that are, Politics, Current Affairs, Relationship, Daily Track, Entertainment, Confession and Grievance (mentioned in order of trending) wherein the startup has witnessed topics on Politics leading with it being 25 per cent of the overall posts.

A user can create a post of their own topic, take reference links from newspaper clippings and load an image. Also, the user can comment on others post and follow an interest or content.

"Smash Rooms are basically a facility for venting outfrustration by breaking objects. We here, are providing a virtual space for users who do not have to pay but instead theywill benefit with points which can be redeemed against gifts like free vacation, dine out etc., these are experiential benefits to relieve a person from stress. Besides, our categories cover 99 per cent of the emotions that affects a mind," says Mittal.

The reward engine which is yet to be enabled, will be active in the next 90 days. The points for rewards can be accumulated for any activity undertaken such as writing a post, sharing a post, commenting on others post, like or dislike an opinion etc.

According to the founder, the platform at present has 10,000 users with the mobile application and web portal combined. While the platform was on a testing period from 2018, it has been commercially active from March 2019.

Mittal claims they have global users from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya, the US, and UK. However, 92 per cent are from various states in India.

As VentAllOut is in the same purview as that of other social networking platforms, it falls under the IT Act 2000.

"We are just an intermediary providing people a platform only to express their thoughts, but yet if certain authorities have an objection to a content, the startup will support them by sharing any information required.

At the same time, we have certain checks and balances in place to maintain the quality of content. We mask abusive language on real time basis, do not permit religious hate speech and there is also a report spam option so that other users can inform about any content that a reader objects," the founder explains.

Mittal differs in terming the startup as a social platform, rather stating it as a mental emotional healthtech platform."We are creating a panel of experts which will include counsellors, psychologists, lifestyle coach, LNP trainers etc.

A panel of maximum 10 experts will be handling different set of problems, their opinions and blogs will be available for free, and live in the next 45 days, but professional advice will be a paid service, and this would be functional in three months," he informs.

Meanwhile, the platform will be enabled with artificial intelligence, churning out data about the kind of emotions users are displaying.

VentAllOut aspires to penetrate into deeper pockets for which the platform is being developed in eight regional languages. The regional language platforms will be rolled out in the next three to six months.

Also, it will be available in other non-English languages such as German, Mandarin, Spanish and French.

The startup, which was also registered in Dubai, is aiming at 10 lakh users in the next 12–18 months. VentAllOut has a team of 12-15 members who are into content writing, digital marketing and technical development.

Mittal plans to strengthen the team up to a total of 20 employees by the next one year. The startup which is in the pre-revenue stage, has not counted any revenue, till date.

The founder who has invested Rs 40–50 lakh utilised majorly for back end technology; plans to raise an undisclosed amount from investors, which will be put into enhancing the technology and marketing.

Mittal is confident of looking at returns by end of 2019; after raising investments he intends to get the Return on Investment in next two to three years.

Explaining about revenue models, he says, subscription base either from advertisements or referral programmes with experts are being considered.

Also,as the platform is for anonymous users, Mittal sees an opportunity of partnership with corporates for an employee survey and with government and universities for surveys.

Besides, polls conducted by the platform can be published as reports and results for insights into a subject not only in India but other countries too, as the platform is custom made according to the specifics of different countries, he adds.

In conclusion, Mittal says, as per World Health Organisation's data, 87 per cent of stress factors are in India, which means there are more number of frustrated people in India than anywhere in the world.

"By coincidence, platform like VentAllOut is the need of the hour that people should seek for a calmer mind and in turn for a productive life."