HelpUp BD
Building an on-demand errand app that connects people in Bangladesh with nearby runners who get things done.
Everyday errands in Bangladesh still run on phone calls and favours. If you need a parcel picked up, groceries brought home or a document dropped off, you either go yourself or ask someone and hope they show up. There was no simple, trusted way to hand a task to someone nearby and know it would get done.
HelpUp BD set out to change that with a task marketplace app built around three ideas: post what you need, run to earn, deliver with care. People post a task, a nearby runner accepts it, and both sides can follow it until it’s delivered. Runners earn money doing it.
Algoverse designed and built HelpUp BD from the ground up as a cross-platform mobile app in Flutter, backed by a Node.js API. We took it from first screens to a working product in about three months.
- Client
- HelpUp BD
- Industry
- On-demand services, gig marketplace
- Platform
- Android & iOS (Flutter)
- Backend
- Node.js
- Timeline
- ~3 months
- Services
- Product design, mobile app development, backend & API
- Market
- Bangladesh
The Challenge
1. No trusted way to delegate small tasks. People relied on calls and personal contacts to get errands done, and had no visibility into whether a task was moving.
2. No easy way to earn from short, local work. Students and part-time workers who wanted to earn running nearby errands had no platform built for it.
3. Two very different users in one app. Requesters want speed and certainty. Runners want clear tasks and reliable pay. The app had to serve both without feeling like two products.
4. A small budget and a short runway. It had to ship on Android and iOS quickly, without building and maintaining two separate codebases.
Our Approach
Map both sides of the marketplace.
Map both sides of the marketplace. We designed the requester and runner journeys separately, then joined them at the moments they meet: posting, accepting, delivering and getting paid.
One codebase, two platforms.
We built the app in Flutter so HelpUp BD could launch on Android and iOS together and ship updates once.
A backend built for matching.
A Node.js API handles task posting, puts open tasks in front of nearby runners, and manages the task status from posted to delivered.
Visibility at every step.
Live delivery tracking lets the person who posted a task see exactly where it is, which removes the “did they actually go?” anxiety.
Make earning feel worth it
Runners see what they’ve earned inside the app, so the reward for each completed task is clear and immediate.
Outcome
HelpUp BD went from concept to a working cross-platform app in about three months, giving people in Bangladesh one place to post an errand and get it done by someone nearby.
For runners, the app turns spare time into income with clear tasks, live navigation and earnings they can see. For requesters, it replaces guesswork with a task they can follow from start to finish.
- Full app delivered in ~3 months, from first screens to a working product
- One Flutter codebase running on both Android and iOS
- End-to-end task flow: post, match, track, deliver, earn
- Live delivery tracking built in from launch
- 100 tasks completed or 300 runners signed up
1 October launch date, Khulna , Dhaka cities HelpUp BD currently serves.
Key Takeaway
In a gig marketplace, trust is the product. Showing both sides where a task is at every step, and making earnings visible the moment a job is done, mattered as much as any single feature.