When 23-year-old Angad Sahgal was born with Down syndrome, his parents made a vow to ensure that he always had the same opportunities as his older brother.
That led to Angad learning three languages, earning a black belt in karate and taking classes at Georgia State University.
So when Angad’s older brother left his job at an investment firm and joined a small startup, it was only natural that Angad would make his own foray into the startup world.
The result is Let Me Do It, an app designed by Angad and his father Amit that the two are now testing.
The purpose of the app is to “empower people with a disability,” Angad said. The app helps users make decisions with input from members of their support network.
Angad and Amit recently received a $5,000 grant for the project from the Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund at Georgia State University, where Angad is a student in the Inclusive Digital Expression and Literacy program for young adults with mild intellectual disabilities.
Synergies Work has also awarded $2,500 to Let Me Do It. Angad’s mother, Aarti Sahgal, founded Synergies Work to help disabled entrepreneurs build businesses.
How the app works
To explain how the app works, Amit listed the steps Angad must take each morning before he leaves to go to GSU. The app prompts the user for each step that is needed to get ready, from getting up and making breakfast to calling an Uber.
Let Me Do It can also help with weightier decisions as well, such as whether to live independently, Amit said.
While the initial target audience of the app is people with disabilities, Let Me Do It could have a much wider reach, Amit said. Elderly people who want to live independently, those with traumatic brain injuries, people undergoing vocational rehabilitation and, well, most people at some point in their lives could benefit from a little decision-making help sometimes.
“Let Me Do It, that’s a rallying cry for people who have been controlled and discounted. Let me direct my life with the tools and support I need,” said Dana Lloyd of the Georgia Advocacy Office.
Lloyd helps manage a youth ambassador program that aims to increase supported decision making among young people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Angad decided to design the app as part of that program, he said.
Angad Sahgal's plans for growth
So far, a pilot version of the app has been deployed to 45 people. These early users will provide feedback to Amit and Angad about what works and what needs changing. Angad and Amit plan to release a beta version of the app this November, with the goal of creating a community of 10,000 users within the first 18 months.
They aim to keep the app free since often people with disabilities live on fixed incomes. The app will bring in revenue by selling data and findings collected via the app to research centers and corporations. Amit and Angad predict they will need another round of fundraising to grow the app and build out its community of users, which would help in becoming financially sustainable over the long term.
There is a large and neglected market of people with disabilities, said Amit, and a dearth of information about how best to serve them.
Working-age people with disabilities have discretionary income of about $21 billion, and there are about 64 million American adults have a disability, according to a 2018 American Institutes for Research report.
Jumping into the startup world
Amit believes in the app so strongly that he left his career at Coca-Cola to work on the project.
“This is something which my son's passionate about,” Amit said about that decision. “I believe this has the potential of helping a lot of people."
Angad also has a second company in his startup portfolio: Chai Ho, a tea company.
“Chai Ho and Let Me Do It essentially embody the two core ideas which I believe in: Never be afraid to try and build a community to help you live a fulfilling life,” Angad said.
“Disabled people are inherently creative, adaptable, and strategic, sometimes out of necessity due to our surviving in an inaccessible world, so we really make the best entrepreneurs,” said Dom Kelly, co-founder, president and CEO of disability rights group New Disabled South. Kelly has been following Angad’s journey with the app and hopes to see more disabled entrepreneurs like Angad.
