ATLANTA, Georgia-based and Jamaican-born businessman Mark Hannah has embarked on creating a super app that can unite several sectors across Jamaica and provide world-class service through the app’s technology to both locals and tourists.

Hannah is the founder and CEO of Rydeum Technologies, a blockchain-based software company which develops an on-demand exchange platform that allows users to access on-demand services from multiple providers. Through Rydeum Technologies he has been at the forefront of creating the DO.GET.GO application that will allow Jamaicans to access professional services, request delivery of goods, and arrange transportation on demand, among other services.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer Hannah shared that he was inspired to develop the app while on vacation in Montego Bay, St James, in 2018, trying to visit his birthplace of Orange also in the parish of St James. At the time, though, he found it difficult to arrange transportation from his hotel using his cellphone since at that time there was no Uber or Lyft services available in Jamaica.

“So what I did, I came to the conclusion that this was something that needed to be fixed and so I went back to the US to develop a software. I had enough resources to go down this road,” he said.

With a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Alabama and years of experience in software engineering and information technology, Hannah set out with his team at Rydeum Technologies to design the platform that would facilitate deliveries and transportation of people, but soon discovered that the platform would become much more than he initially envisioned.

“As we began to write the software we began to realise that much of the core code was transferable — so not only could we transport people, we could also deliver goods and services — and so we came up with a concept that we would develop an application called DO.GET.GO where you could go ahead and get anything done and you could go anywhere and get things delivered,” he told Business Observer.

“So we ran that idea and we broke that one simple concept out into nine little apps, and we turned it into a super app,” Hannah continued.

Upon completion of the DO.GET.GO platform, Hannah realised it offered users up to nine different services: DO Ride (transportation), DO Pay (person-to-person payments), DO Tours (excursions), DO Mart (delivery of groceries), DO Food (restaurant deliveries), DO Shop (retail), DO Send (courier service), DO Task (professional services) and DO Med (medical services).

But while the app can offer several services, Hannah said Rydeum Technologies does not plan to launch all the services simultaneously. Instead, the company will embark on a phased roll-out of services across Jamaica, starting in July, before targeting other Caribbean jurisdictions.

“This is a 12-month process that we’re working with. We’re not going to launch all the products simultaneously. We’re planning on launching them in phases and the final phase will be DO Task and DO Med,” the CEO stated, adding that the latter will see the company onboarding both Jamaican and American doctors.

Already Rydeum Technologies has embarked on rolling out both DO Ride and DO Pay services in collaboration with JUTA Tours of Montego Bay as part of a pilot.

Back in 2018, Hannah had proposed the idea of DO.GET.GO to three tour operators in the tourism capital but only JUTA responded positively. Since then, he has worked alongside Simon Lawrence, who was then treasurer of the Montego Bay Chapter, to launch the application in Jamaica.

Even though DO Ride and Do Pay will be the first components of the platform to be launched, Hannah said he hopes that DO.GET.GO will unite Jamaicans through the services and value they can receive and offer to it.

“I have to be clear, while this is a tourism market-driven economy…the foundation of this application is not focused highly on tourists, it’s focused on Jamaicans and it’s changing the experience in Jamaica so that people can have a more up-to-date global experience — and that happens when you unite people,” he explained.

“There are just a few ways of uniting people…You can find that one thing that everyone can create value and receive value from, and even if you don’t agree on everything, if that one thing can create value for us and we’re able to get value, then we have to be united,” Hannah reasoned.