Page 16 - The 20 Most Promising Co-founders in Business Industry 2019
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oldest sector amongst the three and The shared economy industry previous experiences and skill sets
the impact of technology when it will move to the next level with and hence it came very naturally to
comes to bulk shipments has been many new players emerging in me.
phenomenal. But somehow there the space and this sector would The first and foremost important
is a huge chunk of unmet shipping also see a major enablement using task in hand was to develop a
requirements when it comes to technology to create transparency platform that gave equal weightage
individuals and SMEs. The normal and binding the community closer. to the traveler and the shipper and
courier mode is an expensive, rigid Being a sector which thrives on that’s why you would see that our
and time consuming mode for the trust and used cases, the first mover website is divided in two parts.
end user and SMEs. So here lies advantage is a big advantage in We, as a team, unanimously agreed
our untapped market. the sector. The used cases, loyal that we would spend enough and
Travel as an industry has grown customer base and user experiences more time on the product before
are all the ammunition to succeed
leaps and bounds in the last couple in this sector. we went live and so we tested and
of years. This industry also boasts tweaked it several times. Also as
of high spends and one of the key Strengthening with Time Co-Founders, we wanted to keep
factors that differentiates player For me the journey as a Co- the core of BECKFriends.com
A from player B here is the cost Founder for BECKFriends.com strong by ensuring the key skill
effectiveness. According to me, the started right at the time when I sets like strategy, finance, tech,
next phase in the travel industry found it so difficult to ship a simple and operations were driven by the
would see major consolidation stuffed toy to my niece. I mark it founding team.
when it comes to larger players and as the beginning of a new chapter No entrepreneurial journey is
many midsized travel agents with in my entrepreneurial journey. My smooth and it is a constant graph of
better offers would spring up. Price excitement and enthusiasm knew ups and downs. We ventured into
coupled with unique experiences no bounds when I realised that the a completely unchartered territory
will impact the travelers decisions. solution to this problem could be with BECKFriends.com and hence
This is where lies our opportunity derived from the travel industry, an demystifying the concept and
to enable travelers to cover a part industry I was deeply associated how it works is a key part of our
of their travel costs and also for with in my previous avatar. So daily roles. The key was to build
the travel partners to explore an as a Co-Founder, BECKFriends. something that a user would come
alternative revenue stream and com was an amalgamation of my back to again and again. We strive
increase the customer stickiness. hard to maintain our 75% repeat
customer rate. Our or rather the
biggest struggle of the business is
to maintain a balance between the
demand and supply. We understood
this early on and consciously
worked towards building the
business in a manner that would
be appropriate to build a long term
sustainable business.
What I think was one of our
biggest and probably toughest
decisions was to be bootstrapped
until and unless we had figured out
how to build the business, tested
the marked and earned our early
bucks. And we are glad we took
that decision because it helped us
move ground up and look at more
cost effective ways to building the
business.
The journey for me has just begun
and as a serial entrepreneur, that is
the feeling one never wants to let
go of…
