Ishan Relan did Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Mechanical Engineering from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology. Soon after that, he went to pursue Post Graduate Diploma in Management from LalBahadurShastri Institute of Management in Marketing. Being an entrepreneur at heart, Ishan soon founded Acmme after taking admission in PGDM.
Over the years, Ishan has accumulated vast experience by working for companies like Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc and Knight Frank. One day, while booking a cab at midnight, Ishan and his friend, ShiwangSuraj, had to pay peak rates for traveling intracity. Upon realizing the need for a platform, where people can compare the fares of different cab booking service providers, the duo co-founded Zapplon.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
Working as a super-aggregator of taxis, Zapplon juggles different apps to find the nearest and cheapest available cabs, bikes and autos. The platform displays information to compare costs, and estimated time of arrival of all different cab services.
Zapplon provides cashback in the form of its own digital currency ‘Zapps’. Users earn Zapps for each ride they book on Zapplon, as well as for referring Zapplon to their friends. The trio got the idea of Zapplon on a particularly trying midnight when there were few cabs available.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
My co-founder and I were trying to book a cab on a midnight. There were few cabs available and were charging peak rates and then we faced the problem of price comparison among various players. Like Ola offered Rs 6 per km and Easy Cabs offering Rs 23 per km. We never really realize that we are keeping too many apps for intracity travel on our phone, and there were many more players present that we did not even know of.
What is your life mantra?
My mantra has always been to have zero regrets in life.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
Most challenging part of my life was finding a right team.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
We haven’t revealed our investments
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
We believe in making the expectations clear from people and ensuring that they are able to measure themselves. This enables us to keep our employees aligned and motivated towards the company.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
A person should be perseverant, Innovative, and out of the box thinker.
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
Facebook and Google
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
I always believe that you make habits and habits make you. Every night, before going to bed, I try to spend 15 minutes thinking about the day that went by and things I have scheduled for the next day.
Answer in less than 50 words
Perseverance with out of the box thinking
- One mistake you believe every individual must avoid
We must make mistakes thats how we learn.
- One most important lesson that you have learnt till now
Hire people with right attitude.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
Take Zapplon to Rs.100 cr and start making profits by end of 2018.
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“I failed in some subjects in exam but my friend passed in all and now he is an engineer at Microsoft and I am the owner ” Bill Gates