When you want to book a cab, which service comes to mind? If it was either Uber or Ola, or possibly even Taxi for Sure, you are a willing customer of a market with just two main players. However, it may be time for these companies to step aside, thanks to brand-new Mumbai-based start-up Driven. BusinessLine on Campus spoke to one of the co-founders, Nikhil Tavora, about the venture’s history, current operations, and future plans.
Give us a brief history of how all of you came together to start this venture.
After graduating from BITS Goa, Shivalik (our CEO) began working in Mumbai at Crowdfire — a start-up in the social media space. During his brief stint there, he realised what a big inconvenience it was for car owners to use their personal vehicles in the city. Work colleagues and friends moaned about the gruelling traffic and parking hassles. It had got to a point where they would leave their cars behind and use the trains or cab services instead. Shivalik decided to delve deeper into this problem.
As people in Mumbai are accustomed to fairly long commutes, irrespective of mode of transport, why isn’t there an affordable way to get from Point A to Point B in your own car but without having to drive? This brought him to the driver/chauffeur market, an age-old service in India, which has always been highly disorganised and largely unreliable. He began speaking to other entrepreneurs as well as driver agents across Mumbai and brainstormed with a group of close friends and hostel mates from BITS Goa — Arun Gandhi (the start-up’s COO), Someshwar Dash (CTO) and me. The three of us immediately liked the idea, having experienced the tribulations of hiring a driver. More market analysis convinced us of the viability of such a business and the gap in the market we would be plugging, so we took the plunge.
This is probably a questioninvestors have asked you during pitch meetings: what sets you apart from cab and taxi aggregator services like Ola, Uber and Taxi For Sure?
Transportation in Indian cities has seen a seismic shift with the boom of cab-hailing services that have altered consumer behaviour over the past two to three years. However, owning a vehicle has been and will always be a milestone in peoples’ lives, and Indians will continue investing in a car as a personal asset. This is backed by statistics — with 16 million private cars on Indian roads with an 18 per cent year-on-year growth. Today, with the rates offered by cab companies, people are happy to leave their cars at home rather than being stuck behind the wheel in snarling traffic. Besides, finding a reliable driver at short notice is a problem and managing a full-time one comes with its own pitfalls — something all of us had experienced first-hand in our families.
Our objective with Driven is to change the way people in urban India use their personal cars. Our value proposition to the consumer is simple — we help car owners discover and hire verified drivers so they can travel in their own car, without the hassle of driving. For the drivers — we aggregate demand, optimise utilisation of human resources and add professionalism, credibility and quality to an indigenously Indian service that has been around for ages. You can use your time productively or just relax while being driven in the comfort of your car.
You launched Driven in December last year. What has business been like, both quantitatively and qualitatively?
We officially launched Driven on December 1 last year. We have already serviced over 300 rides, and are now doing 10 to 15 rides a day. With the app live on both iOS and Android, we have crossed 1,000 downloads collectively. We have 50 drivers on our system and are interviewing and screening more on a weekly basis. Given the operations-heavy nature of our business, we have two more core team members on board now — Aman Sancheti (Finance and Operations) and Gaurav Deshmukh (Operations and Business Development).
We have built a pool of loyal customers who use Driven every weekend and are seeing traction in the various use cases we envisaged. We are pleased to see users come in through referrals; this reaffirms our focus on the customer experience. The driver community has also been very receptive as they see the value we bring to them. By empowering them with technology, we help elevate them to proper service professionals and help them earn more.
Your start-up is based in Mumbai. Given that a significant number of e-commerce/m-commerce start-ups (including Ola) are based in Bangalore, what made you set up shop in Mumbai?
The reason to choose Mumbai was simple — the congestion in India’s most populated city. Everyday, thousands of cars are added to Mumbai’s decades-old road infrastructure and that has taken a toll on the traffic situation. A 15-minute halt at a traffic signal is the norm. Even taking the car out on weekends for leisure activities is a hassle for them. At the same time, the city has spread in all directions, with people living in places far from their work hubs. The average commute distance has increased, and so has the average time of commute, which is why people often leave their cars parked at home, rather than navigating through long traffic jams.
What pointers could you give students/B-schoolers looking to launch start-ups, especially on obtaining funding, hiring people and other relevant aspects?
Being an entrepreneur is more about the journey than the actual destination. Experience comes with time. The most important thing that we have learnt in this short while, is that there are no shortcuts.
If you think you want funding just because you are starting off, you are being presumptuous. First, try without funding. Try executing every single aspect of your plan with your limited resources. Sure, funding might be easy to secure in today’s market, especially if you have an elite college tag, but first, live the struggle. Struggle to live. And only then go looking for funding. This will teach you about the importance of money, more than anything else ever will. Smart investors will recognise that you have this know-how.
As for hiring, our experience has taught us two things: first, do it yourself. Once you realise your limitations at a particular task, you will be better placed to judge other candidates on it. Second, work with someone for a while, however brief, before hiring him or her. This is more important than one might imagine.
Launching your business is extremely challenging and nothing can really prepare you for this rollercoaster ride. There will be hurdles, there will be unforeseen roadblocks and there will be times when it seems like everything you touch turns to ashes. Such times can make you doubt yourself and your business, but this is when you need to stand resolute and believe in what you are doing. Having the right people to support you and keep you motivated goes a long way — in our case this has been family and the incredible team we have.
Which are the cities you have launched Driven in so far, and which cities do you plan to target in the future?
We have launched Driven in Mumbai, and are currently operational pan-Mumbai, including the suburbs. In a year’s time, we want to be in five major Indian cities and want to expand to all Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities as well.
What are some of the perks (and challenges) of running a start-up like Driven?
The perks are what come with every start-up — being able to create a product/service that directly impacts peoples’ lives everyday. The responsibility of the business is on your shoulders and you reap what you sow. Being our own bosses and waking up every day to learn new things and solve new problems while we improve and grow is what drives us. The satisfaction at the end of each day (if it ends, that is!) is very different from what comes from a regular job. You get to connect with some of the sharpest business minds around who could end up as friends, mentors or business partners.
The challenges are easily overlooked. Running a start-up is not glamorous or sexy — it is hard; it consumes your life and is a 24-hour job. You will find yourself juggling tasks under various verticals, some that you have little or no experience with. The highs are exhilarating and the lows can be devastating and demoralising. How do we acquire our first 50 customers? How do we market our product to get maximum bang for our buck? Do we stick or twist? Every step is a learning curve, and most steps are very steep.
Given recent concerns about the safety of passengers, how do you ensure this is a top priority?
Quality control of drivers is a cornerstone of our service and we have a stringent screening process before hiring drivers. This includes filtering (only those with over five years of driving experience in Mumbai are eligible), a personal interview as the first point of interaction, collection of documents (driving licence, proof of address, name and address of two personal contacts for reference, police NOC if done, birth certificate, etc plus a referral from previous employer), police verification, background check by a third party agency, a driving test, where we corroborate the driver's claims of the types of cars he is comfortable with (as we provide customers with most compatible driver for his or her car type), and a training session where we teach the drivers basic etiquette and other soft skills.
We hold regular sessions with the drivers, where we convey feedback from customers (taken on a daily basis) with a view to constantly improve the experience of the service. Another precaution we take is that drivers are only allowed to service night rides on our platform after they have successfully fulfilled five day rides with us with positive feedback from the customers. In case the customer faces any issues, there is an instant call icon on the app which connects directly to our customer support team.
What are your plans for Driven’s future?
The most immediate plans for the future include geographical expansion as well as expansion into parallel services such as valets and tie-ups with car rental companies. We have barely scratched the surface of the problem of driving in India, which is getting worse faster than any existing solutions and attempts to alleviate it. Bringing our solution to all corners of the country will be a big task, but is something we definitely want to do.
Other plans include using machine learning to help optimise our driver movement logistics and demand prediction and, in due time, help our drivers drive better.