How many times you have encountered a situation where you are looking out for a cab on your favourite on-demand-cab app but not getting it due to huge demands or due to circumstances which are not under your control. In such scenarios, you launch the next Cab app and repeat the same set of actions 🙂
Multiple App Hops is a common issue that many startups are trying to address across various sectors like Ticket Booking, Cab Booking etc. Cabto, a Bengaluru based startup wants to make booking a cab hassle-free for consumers so that they do not have to download multiple apps [like Ola, Uber etc.]
In layman terms, Cabto is a Vertical Marketplace in the Travel Category. Today we have a chat with Syed Hidayath [Founder & CEO of Cabto] about Cabto, On-Demand Economy, Marketing, Entrepreneurship & much more. So, let’s get started…
Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?
Cabto is founded by Syed Hidayath. Syed has a BE in Mechanical Engineering from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore graduated in 2005. He comes with a decade of experience in IT industry. A self driven professional having great passion for entrepreneurship.
He has gained enormous knowledge on the Cab industry over last 2 years and has been driving this ambitious project since inception. Syed is extremely passionate about solving the problems faced by customers in Travel industry & believes in providing a travel marketplace which will provide options to all categories in India.
When and how did your come up with the idea of Cabto ?
In end of 2014 I started using cabs instead of my car, the comfort of driver coming to your doorstep to pick me, not having to drive/looking for parking excited me in addition to it being an economical option. But slowly as the demand started increasing, cabs got scarce. You had to hook into multiple cab apps to check cabs available around you. This made me realize that we need a platform which lets us see all cabs available under one single platform. We started approaching Ola & other players in 2015 seeking for their data to address this problem to customers. This is how Cabto was born !!
Being a cab aggregator, what is the kind of partnership you have with on-demand cab companies like Uber, Ola etc. ?
Their API’s are integrated with Cabto so customer can get the information from all these companies in one single platform. We are on an affiliate commission model with our partners.
How does Cabto take care of customer complaints or discrepancies if any encountered by the customers ?
Cabto raises the customer issues to respective services providers & works with them to address the issues related to service.
What is the revenue model of CABTO [is it based on commission per ride] ?
Yes
How much has Odd-Even rule affected the entire Cab industry and taxi-aggregator startups ?
An odd even rule increases the demand for cabs greatly. With 50% private vehicles forced to stay out of the roads & these users have options like carpooling, public transport which are still not sufficient to serve such a demand. So great portion of these users switch to Cabs. There is a increase of 20%-30% in terms of bookings during odd even rule.
What is the Total Market Size of the Cab/Taxi aggregators or travel marketplace in India ?
According to Soft Bank, the organized taxi sector may be worth around $7 billion by 2020.
How is Cabto funded [Self funded, Angel, CV etc.] ?
Self Funded [Family & Friends]
What are some of the USP’s that Cabto has as compared to other taxi-aggregator apps available in the market ?
- We are the first player to initiate talks with Ola on this model so we built this model working with our partners. So have deep understanding of this industry.
- One of the top ranked app in play store with consist good ratings.
- Fastest growing app in its segment. 2.3X growth month on month in app bookings.
- Aggregation of Outstation/Self drives/Ride shares/Women taxis/Shuttle/Auto/Bike taxis/Inter city
- Plan to integrate public transport.
What are the initial challenges that you faced once you started working on the idea [or turned an entrepreneur]
Our biggest challenge was to convince the service providers for this model. We Spent over 6 months approaching out partners on this. Building a strong team covering all areas like technology, marketing, operations is really a challenge. We are glad over a period of one year we were able to build a great team which we believe can deliver to our vision of building India’s largest travel marketplace.
What are some of the growth hacking techniques that are being used for Cabto and some tips for our readers.
First & foremost build a great product. Once you accomplish this then it will sell on its own with little bit of awareness. Build a strong team by offering good perks/ESOP’s to keep them motivated to their highest levels, make your friends as your products marketing people.
Some insights into marketing [Lessons learnt while marketing Cabto] ?
Look for economical ways, Identify right target customer base and Spend your budget on this segment. Don’t overspend on offline campaigns initially as you may not be able to measure their results, research for best CPI options, focus on bringing awareness.
What are some of the qualities that entrepreneurs should look into while hiring their initial set of employees ?
Find initial hires who are self driven, masters in their job [You don’t need a team of coders if you can find a master coder]. Look for people who share same passion as you, who understand your vision & excited to be part of the process. At the same time make sure this is a job they are enjoying the most, a job they dreamt of. If not, they are already thinking of their next dream job & they may not be giving 100%.
Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]
Address customer issues on priority, Focus in increasing organic growth, Spend every penny wisely, target the right customer base, take care of your critics, bottom-line is build a great product which you can market with minimum budget.
When should an entrepreneur look out for external funding ?
When you have reached some traction & need heavy funds to accelerate your growth which you cannot pool in your circles.
On-demand companies like Uber, Ola are facing the heat for Surge Pricing, Government regulations etc. Would this not curb the overall growth of the on-demand economy ?
It will affect the revenue generation to some extent. I feel surge pricing has already been re-modelled to keep pricing within the prescribed limited by government. The demand in this industry has skyrocketed as people want a vehicle to their doorstep in click of a button so it will not affect the industry.
Some tips for aspiring entrepreneurs and something that keeps you motivated everyday for your startup ?
Don’t just build a product, work on building a solution to an existing problem which still doesn’t exist. You can sell a solution but not just a product. Look for new sectors as you may already have enough competition in existing sectors. Also important to look for your passion, what you would love to work on. If you are passionate you will never regret it working on your dream 18 hrs a day. Focus on building a great team, Look for experts in their field, Delegate work efficiently and Make them responsible & accountable for work. Slowly you need to start building teams who handle their own tasks which lets you focus on higher level tasks.
An entrepreneur should have relentless passion to build a great product. You will face challenges everyday which will test your mental strength to highest possible stage. Always remembering the dream & reading motivational videos/articles helps you to pass those hurdles.
Do give Cabto app a shot and share across your feedback/questions in the comments section. If you have any questions for Syed Hidayath about the app, entrepreneurship etc., email them to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com