When I first submitted Classent, it was a working prototype designed to bring sanity to my own car wash business. Since then, it’s become much more: a real, growing product with bold ambitions, unexpected lessons, and a path that now goes beyond just one location and just one business.
From MVP to Movement
Classent was born to solve my chaos of unlogged cars, missed payments, zero visibility. But as I tested it daily at Central Classic Car Wash in Kenya, something shifted.
Customers noticed the professionalism. Staff became more accountable. I was finally running the business, not being run by it.
That’s when I realized: this isn't just a tool for me but it’s a platform for every small car wash operator trying to level up.
Startup Mode Activated
After the hackathon, I stopped treating Classent like a side project. I started treating it like a startup.
- I polished the UI based on real user feedback (especially from non-tech staff).
- I tested mobile-first workflows and simplified login flows.
- I started planning for multi-tenant support so other car washes could onboard.
- I made the hard decision to rewrite parts of the system to scale beyond a single business.
What I've Learned Since
1. Shipping fast is good — shipping for real users is better
Building for yourself is easy. Building something that others can understand, use, and trust? That’s harder and more rewarding.
2. AI is only valuable when grounded in the field
Voice AI sounded cool. But only when it helped busy staff in a noisy outdoor setting, without slowing them down, did it become essential.
3. The real work starts after you build
Launching is exciting. But adoption, bugs, training, retention — that’s where the founder work begins.
What Classent Has Become
Today, Classent is:
Live and used daily at Central Classic Car Wash- Equipped with AI-powered number plate recognition
Voice-enabled for status updates, via ElevenLabs
Integrated with mobile payments through RevenueCat- Available at classent.com and platform.classent.com
More importantly, it’s now designed as a scalable SaaS platform and will get started to testing with early users in other similar businesses.
What’s Next: From Local Ops to Pan-African Platform
Here’s where I’m steering the ship:
- Train a custom ML model for regional plate and vehicle recognition.
- Build native mobile apps for staff and customers.
- Expand to Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia and Ghana, targeting underserved car wash businesses.
- Add multi-tenancy, subscriptions, and dashboards that make sense even to first-time tech users.
Personal Growth: From Car Wash Owner to Tech Founder
Before the hackathon, I was just solving my own problems.
After the hackathon, I became a founder solving other people’s problems with the confidence to scale it, pitch it, and grow a team around it.
This challenge helped me:
- Sharpen my product thinking
- Balance tech with real-world ops
- Think beyond a build and start building a company
Want to follow the journey or try Classent?
🔗 classent.com
🛠️ platform.classent.com
Let’s turn service chaos into structured, scalable operations — one car wash at a time.
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