Interview with Sofie Di Bartolomeo, CEO of Delate, the first app that turns the train delay into advantageous offers.
The train is a great means of transport, there is no doubt, but like every good thing, there is always a small downside. How many times have you been desperate for the umpteenth delay?
Well, if you fall into the category of those who love the train but “with reserve”, this article and interview are just right for you! We are talking about Delate, the first application that turns the minutes of delay of your train into advantages to discover.
What is Delate
Delate is a platform through which you can plan your long or short haul train journeys. Once on the train the platform monitors the progress of the travel, recording any minutes of delay of the train. Every minute of delay is converted into “points” spendable on the platform marketplace, to access offers on services and products. How to start earning money from train delays right away? It’s very simple:
First of all,download Delete:
Once you have downloaded the application you can start planning your trip choosing between the trains available on the dates indicated.
Delate, from now, will start monitoring your train and at the end of the route will calculate the minutes of delay accumulated.
The delay minutes are converted into D-Points and will be associated with your account, ready to be used in the platform marketplace.
The Marketplace
There are many brands that provide offers and rewards to convert your Delate Points, we mention some:
Amazon, Asos, Benetton, Camper, Douglas, edreams, Foot Locker and many more. To discover them all? Let’s hear from Sofie Di Bartolomeo, CEO of Delate, today a guest of our Startupper area.
Hi Sofie, nice to meet you and thank you for your time. Delate: tell us about it
Thank you for this interview. Delate is a free application that is aimed at commuters who travel every day on trains to work, study and go home. Passengers are not always compensated for the inconvenience of a delayed train, it happens only when the train exceeds a certain number of minutes of delay and this only if the ticket exceeds a certain cost. Even just 5 or 10 minutes late can be a frustration, maybe it’s those minutes that make you miss a connection with a bus or another train. In general, if you are a commuter, you don’t even realize how much time you waste during the year because of the small or huge delays caused by the train. Delate then becomes a way to value lost time.
How and when was Delate’s idea born?
Delate’s idea was born while waiting for an unexpectedly late train during a holiday in Sweden: an annoying delay that would have seemed normal in Italy. As a commuter, I have been used to think that the time lost due to delays is not data that is analyzed to find a solution, but a simple fact. Almost as a joke, during the rest of the trip, I tried to calculate the minutes lost in a year of commuting and the result led me to create Delate.
How long did it take to shape the project?
The idea was refined with the other creator, Roberto Paura, during 2019. Thanks to our background ( we both graduated in Industrial Design and specialized in Service Design) the development was quite fast, thanks to a clear objective: to convert a discomfort into an advantage through a smartphone app.
We defined the features by inserting only the necessary ones, developing a business model that offered a win-win-win relationship between users, brands and us. To do this we expanded the team with iOS and Android developers and business development experts, together with whom we founded the innovative startup in December 2019.
Delate is still in its beta version, what answers are you having from the target audience?
The downloadable version from the Store is a very advanced beta in that we have developed all the main features that we had planned for this first phase. This was possible because during the time of the pandemic, when train travel had been drastically reduced, we decided to do even more to offer a complete experience for commuters and travellers.
To date, through word of mouth and social media campaigns, we are rapidly expanding our catchment area. The message we want to communicate is: for the train travelers there is a total advantage in using the app.
Galileo: tell us more about this collaboration
At the beginning of 2019 we participated in the selection for the MyGalileoapp competition promoted by the European GNSS Agency ( the European Agency for the management of the global navigation satellite system) and we were chosen among 148 participants from all over Europe as one of the 30 most innovative apps to integrate the advanced features offered by the Galileo satellite network. The experience was exciting because we presented our project in Prague, were supported by experts from the world of development of Google Maps and also because it was the first international recognition of the work done until then.
How did you launch your project? Did you use crowdfunding campaigns?
One of the things that makes me very proud is that, thanks to the commitment of the whole team, we carry out the project autonomously and independently. Through our time and work, we carry on Delate trying to offer users a free solution that always puts them at the center of the project. With this goal in mind, today we can boast the offerings of over 50 brands including Nike, HP, Huawei, Samsung that are added to the totally free Gift Cards that we personally provide.
Curiosity: do you also use Delate to turn train delays into advantages?
Absolutely yes : we created Delate because it’s the app we would have liked to have during all these years of commute.
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