The moment we heard that Odisha's own hyperlocal delivery start-up Grozip has been selected for eFounders Fellowship, which is jointly organised by Alibaba Business School and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, we knew we had to get in touch with Founder Anand Kumar Mishra. The entrepreneur will be travelling to China and will also get an opportunity to meet Jack Ma, the Founder of Alibaba Group.
Before we plunge into questions about the fellowship, we would like to offer a little introduction to Grozip, if you don't know them already. Grozip delivers all grocery items right at your doorstep. And before you think Bigbasket, let us tell you that it is much more than that. For instance, a home baker in Odisha was looking to promote her products. She partnered with Grozip and within a month, received as many as 60 orders. And in the success of people like this home baker is the success of Grozip. Apart from this, they also have 5,000 vendors on their platforms as a part of their B2C model. And we haven't even come to their USP yet. They operate in Tier II and Tier III cities like Puri and Cuttack as well, apart from the state's capital city. There are people abroad who order groceries for their old parents back home in their small city. "The happiness we see on the faces of these elders when their parcel is delivered is priceless. They bless us wholeheartedly," says Mishra, who knows this because out of the 15,000 delivers that Grozip has made till date, 800 of them have been made by Mishra. Not because of lack of delivery executive, might we add. Needless to say that they are doing very well right now. "This is because no one is catering to smaller cities, everyone wants to migrate to big cities and start something there," fumes the 29-year-old. And because they operate from a smaller city, getting funds is also slightly more difficult, though word of mouth is stronger here, informs Mishra. They also hire female executives, to the shock of many people. "I feel that women are more entrepreneurial in nature, they know how to care for a company and are great negotiators as well," says Mishra, who pursued his BTech in Computer Science from Orissa Engineering College. They have been bootstrapping till date and haven't raised any money so far. Mishra also leads the Bhubaneswar chapter of Google Business Groups, a non-profit community which comes together to share knowledge. Not only are they among the top five chapters, they have also conducted more than 200 events. "One of the secrets of entrepreneurship lies in helping others. It is only when you help others that help is offered to you when you need it," says Mishra.
Coming to the fellowship, Mishra informs us that from November 8 to 24, they will be trained on building customer-centric companies with sound logistics in place. Mishra is looking forward to mentorship because that's the push they need to take things to the next level. "I want to talk with many people and learn as much as possible," says Mishra. Another aspect he is looking forward to learn about during the fellowship is expansion, which is their next step. "In the next two years, we want to expand to other cities," says a determined Mishra.
Questions for Ma
The two questions that Mishra wants to ask Jack Ma are -
- What is the right time to raise funds?
- How does one go about building logistics network across the world?
For more on them, click on grozip.com
