FOUNDER who failed,
learned, and got back up on feet
5. VISHAL
'We're looking to pay back our investors'
Vishal BM founded Bengaluru's first bike taxi, Hey Bob, in 2014 but shut down a few months ago after it ran out of cash. At its peak, Hey Bob had 200 bike taxis and 1,000 rides a day. It raised angel funding from high net worth individuals, but could not raise further rounds. Vishal now works with Giftxoxo as new products head.
"There are no regrets as investors had lost faith after Uber and Ola entered the market with subsidised rates. We tried moving from a consumer business to a business-to-business model, but it was too late and we ran out of cash. We were lean with just seven employees, including founders, and ran an efficient operation but investor sentiment was down. We sold our technology to four companies. We will get royalties and hope to pay back our investors. All the founders had sunk a chunk of savings into it. I got married last year and there was pressure from the family to get a regular corporate job. After we shut down, friends and family offered us money, but it would have been risky. We needed a big seed round to challenge deep-pocketed rivals."
Shalina Pillai, Anand J & Ranjani Ayyar | TNN |
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