Five thousand MBA students. Twenty-one years as a visiting faculty. Yet as I walked on stage at KREA University, I was nervous, as though it were my first outing.
Strange, isn't it? Experience is supposed to calm you. Then it struck me.
When a pendrive is empty, it can store more. The human brain is no different, except that the mind carries its load of past information in the intellect.
Perhaps nerves are just the mind making room.
The topic was quick commerce and its impact on the distribution channel. The room held over 100 students, 20-somethings who have lived on ten-minute delivery since Covid. They did not need an explainer. They needed a story.
So I told them mine. In October 2015, I started OyeThere in Chennai. The promise: delivery in 30 to 300 minutes.
We began with tender coconuts bought from a roadside vendor, then added groceries, books, baby products, Rajinikanth T-shirts before Kabali, and clay Ganesha idols at Chaturthi.
The seed money came from a few friends, and it lasted about two financial quarters.
Four delivery boys. Up to ten orders a day. 25 different retailers whose goods we delivered. Expenses covered with the seed capital from day one, with no marketing dollars to burn.
Investors who had promised immense support backed out after the initial tranch, citing market conditions. We went dry in less than 18 months. New Investors asked, "Why so fast? What is the hurry?"
We had traction and break-even, but no one willing to wait.
I was ahead of my time, and I had no patient capital. Quick commerce, as I realised much later in life, needed years of losses before the habit forms.
On 1 November 2016, I suspended operations.
Failure? I call it tuition, self-funded and worth every paisa. While I learned a lot earlier this year at Harvard Business School with my year-long Senior Leadership Course, the ground learning remains unmatched.
Today the same habit has over 60 million monthly users in India and about USD 9 billion in sales in half a year, according to Redseer.
India's dense cities, UPI and kirana habit gave the idea a home. Timing matters. So does geography.
But the rest of the West is unable to catch up - Getir shut its instant delivery in Europe and the US in 2024.
The auditorium answered with energy.
The 100-minute session, with its Q&A, was clearly enjoyed, and the students' kind acknowledgements and network requests on LinkedIn afterwards said so.
I walked in nervous and walked out lighter, like an empty pendrive, ready for more.
Thank you, KREA University. You taught the teacher.
