Arunabh & AbhiudayaCEO & COO at Boibanit Published On: Monday, January 25, 2016 Views 2311

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, the dream of it, live on that idea."

Be it a long fancied business dream or a real need, every ecommerce venture has a story behind it and Arunabh’s and Abhiudaya’s Boibanit sails in the same boat. The duo identified a problem themselves and decided to create a solution for the people who were facing it. Both of them felt the need of last mile food delivery system that was missing in certain parts. This is why they launched Boibanit, a food delivery service, that enables restaurants to serve their food to distant locations while consumers can bundle and combine orders for their food from restaurants all over the city. It has grown immensely over time and is serving more than 700 consumers daily.

Arunabh started his career as a project consultant after completing his B.Tech in chemical engineering. He was a production engineer in Vadodara refinery of Indian Oil. Abhiudaya, on the other hand, has a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering and worked as R&D engineer at Toyo Springs. Both joined hands and created this online service to deliver food at distant locations. Read the complete interview to know more about their journey.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

In the chain of execution, the order is received at Boibanit’s platforms and restaurants’ commitment on order & time is conveyed to the customer. Then the order is delivered through its nearest available delivery boy in the committed time.

The software which is being used to manage the orders has been developed in-house and is in an evolving stage. This software, when matured, should also technologically help restaurants who need it.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

While in college, Abhiudaya used to visit Vadodara, where Arunabh was working in Gujarat Refinery IOCL. There were times, especially when Dominoes refused to deliver over 3 km a couple of times. Then we used to think why can’t there be someone who can deliver food of choice from restaurants in the city, located more than 5 Km from the Refinery Township. That is how the idea of building Boibanit came to us.

What is your life mantra?

To quote swami Vivekananda, “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, the dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

After we neared the breaking even point in our 1st couple of cities, the most challenging part came in…deciding whether to go out raising funds for a faster expansion or continuing in the way we had been working for the past 2 years and expand only when the business revenue gave enough money. The above decision and hiring employees who have a connection with the company’s vision & passion has been the toughest.

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

Boibanit has raised $150,000 in an angel round of funding. The investment came from Arunabh Parihar, Varun Ahuja (R Kumar Textile Group) and Anubhav Verma (investment banker).

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

Till now we’ve managed to keep 100% of the employees we hired, including the delivery boys for the past 2 years.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

Focus, trust colleagues, belief in self

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

Google maps, Gmail, Google drive, Slack have really helped us keep things sane at Boibanit. Highly recommended!

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

Something that Arunabh learnt & practised at P&G, planning the day/week & month very clearly by each individual. This helps in focusing, following up and achieving goals set in past

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Starting the day early, around 6 am is something that we are really working on

Answer in less than 50 words

One tip to success:

Focus

One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Keeping everything to your chest mostly hurts, share, collaborate & grow.

One most important lesson that you have learnt until now:

Collaborate to grow, because at the day’s end, it is the business that needs to grow & be profitable at the earliest.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

In the next 3 years, we intend to serve most Indians, living in more than 150 cities. Other than this, the startup also wants to be the best delivery service provider in the subcontinent and looking forward to exploring collaboration with Chinese food delivery services to learn the ways to delight huge volumes of consumers.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

That’s a long shot, still in early stages of our career so probably we’ll answer this in about a couple of decades

What are your top three getaway destinations?

Vadodara, Noida & Indore. We really love to visit these places where the employees have put the business on an impressive growth track.

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

Swami Vivekananda’s: “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, the dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

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