Thanks to a viral tweet, the app called “El Niño de los Burritos” became widely known in Mexico. It was created by a student from Aguascalientes and its proof that the Mexican ingenuity (and hunger) knows no limits.
The app delivers burritos throughout the University of Aguascalientes. When they download it, students can choose how many burritos they want and the ingredients and price. Then they just go back to their classroom and their burritos are delivered right to where they are.
The app is only available on Android right now, and is gaining a lot of users, even from outside the university campus (which is the only place it currently operates in), mostly because people from other places in Mexico recognize the talent and entrepreneurship of the creators.
The business was created by Gerardo and Charly Murillo Ruelas, who started out selling burritos in their own classrooms and, because they were having a lot of sales, decided to create the app to offer a better service to their customers.
With a struck of luck that came in tweet form, downloads for the app increased, they went from 570 to 4,000 users. Their Facebook page had 300 fans and it now has over 5,000. Burrito sales have also increased, going in the last few weeks from 180 to 600 a day.
This is the tweet that made it all happen:
https://twitter.com/obed_47/status/898652806709616640
The app even tells customers how many burritos are left of each flavor, it has become the perfect option for the University’s students because they don’t waste time between classes to go eat something in the cafeteria, and its a more affordable option.
Murillo initially carried a cooler with the burritos to the campus and sell them, limiting the number he could store, but with the app he can now process a lot more orders and keep up with demand, as orders kept coming in through his personal Facebook and Whatsapp accounts.
The idea for the app came to Murillo while having a casual chat with a friend: “An app where [customers] could see how many burritos were available, what flavors, and where I was going to deliver them,” he stated. He asked his programmer friend for help to build it without having to spend a fortune.
Gerardo has expressed his idea to expand his operation: “We’re working to have our own proper place that’s closer to the university and that all the delivery agents have their own Chopper bikes,” he added. “We’re trying to figure out how to produce more, cover more space, so that no one goes without a burrito.”