S'porean Creates Bus App For Wife's Long Work Commute To NTU; Says It Saves Her 7 Hours A Month

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Some husbands buy their wives flowers. Others take them out for a nice meal. 

Singaporean business owner Jay Teo? He built his wife an entire bus app.

Jay, 38, who runs online snack business Airfryer Cookies, recently shared on Reddit how he created an iPhone app called LeaveNow to help his wife, who works at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), spend less time waiting at bus stops.

According to him, the app now saves her around six to seven hours of waiting every month.

And the reason he went to all that trouble is that he simply wanted more time with his wife.

Speaking to 8days.sg, Jay reveals that his wife, who's in her mid-30s, started working in NTU's wellbeing department in July this year.

Previously, she worked in the CBD, where her commute took around 30 minutes.

But her new job meant travelling a lot more. 

"My wife recently started her new job at NTU, and her travel time went from 30 minutes in her previous CBD job to over 1.5 hours. We had to push dinner back an hour to 8pm, and she has to wake up at 7am the next day. That left us very little time for ourselves," he tells us.

Now, before anyone asks why Jay needed to build another bus app when Singapore already has plenty, he says: "I actually showed her other bus apps first, hoping they would help. But she used them very infrequently and eventually stopped. When I asked why, she said they were too confusing, with all the bus stops, services and multiple arrival times fighting for her attention.”

Jay shares that his wife has mild ADHD, which makes planning ahead more challenging for her.

"It is the kind where she is very focused on the present but finds it hard to plan and act ahead of time. What she really needed was an answer to one simple question: when should I leave so I can catch my bus?" he says.

Instead of showing every bus service and arrival time, the app focuses on the user's saved routes and calculates when they should leave based on how long it takes to walk to the bus stop.

So if your bus is arriving in five minutes and it takes three minutes to walk there, the app tells you when to head out.

No need to stare at several arrival times while doing mental calculations. Because honestly, who wants to do a maths test before going to work?

The app also uses real-time bus arrival data from the Land Transport Authority (LTA), adjusting its recommended departure times when bus arrival predictions change.

Here's what makes Jay's effort even more impressive. Before running his online snack business, he used to sell software solutions to retail and F&B businesses.

But developing an app was something he'd never imagined doing.

"I'm not a software developer, so the thought of building an app didn't even cross my mind. But AI coding tools help turn ideas like this into reality," he says.

Jay spent around five to six weeks developing LeaveNow.

"When I showed her LeaveNow, she was very surprised and happy that I had built an app for her, and that I put her and our cat inside it," he shares.

Before using LeaveNow, Jay says his wife would spend around 10 to 20 minutes waiting at two bus stops each morning, sometimes longer if she missed a bus.

Then she'd face the same problem on her journey home. And with Singapore's heat, haze and occasional downpours, waiting around isn't exactly fun.

But after a month of using the app, Jay says things have improved considerably.

"After using the app, her bus usually arrives within a minute of her reaching the stop. That's about 10 minutes saved each way, or 20 minutes a day. Over a month of working days, that adds up to six to seven hours," he explains.

And yes, his wife has benefited from that extra time.

"She gets a little more sleep in the morning, feels less stressed about missing the bus, and we get to have dinner together earlier," Jay shares.

Encouraged by his wife's experience, Jay decided to make LeaveNow available to other commuters.

It's currently available on the Apple App Store for iPhone users, with a 30-day free trial.

After that, users can continue using a limited free version that allows them to save one bus stop.

Those who want the full features can subscribe to LeaveNow Plus, which Jay says costs around S$3 to S$4 a month.

"It's to cover the running costs of maintaining the app. I want it to be a token amount that also fairly values the convenience, joy and time saved. Hopefully it can help pay for my wife's bus rides," he tells us.

As for whether other commuters have benefited from LeaveNow, Jay says it's still too early to tell.

Fore now, his wife remains its most important user who has even started making feature requests.

"She requested NTU internal buses, so I added them in," Jay reveals.

And if enough people request an Android version, he's open to building one.

LeaveNow isn't the first thing Jay has created because of his wife.

"I started Airfryer Cookies because my wife frequently craves the smell of a freshly baked cookie in the middle of the night. I was surprised that other people had the same cravings, and it became a business," he reveals.

His wife craved freshly baked cookies late at night. He started a cookie business.

She wanted a less stressful commute. He built a bus app.

Umm... what would happen if she asked for a holiday?

Turns out, she already did.

"OMG, she did that and I relented. She wanted a holiday to the most exotic place on earth, so we spent almost three months going to Antarctica, Easter Island, Galapagos Island and South America in 2024," Jay laughs.

At this rate, we're almost afraid to ask what his wife wants next.