
Chaldal (YC S15) Wants to Become the Amazon Fresh of Bangladesh’s Capital - waseemalim
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/30/chaldal/
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waseemalim
Hi all, I am one of the founders of Chaldal. Happy to answer any questions
here -- about Bangladesh or Chaldal. :)

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gargarplex
What's the hottest Bengali song right now or recently?

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waseemalim
Way out of my expertise. But this went viral a few years ago:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blXydyJLkYY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blXydyJLkYY)

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Dwolb
I think your model is really cool and seems like it would work better for the
Bangladesh context than the US context (as a comparison to Instacart). Do you
think Chaldal will have a net positive impact on society? How do you envision
things may change in Bangladesh if/as your model dominates urban grocery
retail?

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tejasv
Thank you!

Actually we believe this can work in all contexts. The immediate value add for
the customer is lower prices, better quality, more convenience.

We have also seen a lot of inefficiencies in getting food from farm to
consumption. One example is wastage - the more data we have on consumption,
the better we can predict wastage, and the better we can redistribute food. So
yes, we are hopeful that this will have a net positive impact on society.

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powera
Was it useful to do YCombinator and be in the SF Bay Area for several months
while working on a product that is only available in Bangladesh?

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tejasv
Absolutely. That said, be prepared to take a lot of long-haul flights :)

YC is a value-add, no matter where you're based out of.

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kchoudhu
I hate to be that guy, but...

* Given the traffic in Dhaka, you'll forgive me for not believing your one hour delivery promise.

* The only way I can see to get around the traffic problem is to either go hyper-local (i.e. maintain warehouses in every neighborhood), or have delivery people walk/take rickshaws. Either way, this isn't going to scale to the entire city without a TON of startup capital. Which I'm not sure you have.

* How does YC feel about the inevitable "system loss" that's comes with doing business in Bangladesh?

I'm also very interested to hear how YC intends to maintain management
accountability in a business halfway around the world.

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waseemalim
Thanks, these are very good points. Below are our thoughts:

* We will be maintaining warehouses in every single area. We currently have 2 but plan to have 9 to cover the entire city. That is the only way to ensure 1 hr delivery. We are also offering this service for products which are fast moving (around 1500 SKUS). Slower moving products are sent from the main warehouse.

* We will need a bit of capital, but not as much as most people think, it costs us around $230k to start a warehouse and run it for six months. It is a lot cheaper than starting a departmental store in Dhaka, and you get far more efficiency per sq. ft as you are not optimizing for a "browse experience" for shoppers. Our shoppers are our employees and we can control their movement for maximum output/sq. ft. Theory is departmental stores can survive, so can 7000 sq. ft. warehouses.

* I don't see why accountability and management challenges should be any different in BD than it is in the US. Enough startups have thrived in India and China.

* Bangladesh also has a decent history of foreign investments with companies like Telenor and Microsoft managing local offices. So corporate accountability does exist in the country.

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marcell
I'm familiar with the Instacart model in the US, where they do shopping and
delivery but do not have any warehouses. Did you consider this model? Why did
you decide to own the warehouses as well?

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waseemalim
Few reasons:

1\. Inventory management is very poor in the retail stores around Dhaka. Most
(95%) of them are very small (carrying ~500 SKUs), and even the larger ones
have difficulty in ensuring supply of all products. We found that people would
get annoyed if we couldn't send them all the products they asked for (98%
fulfillment rate was not good enough).

2\. The prices don't work if you are a layer on top of the existing
infrastructure. People are a lot more price sensitive -- in fact, irrationally
so. They care about getting a "bargain" rather than the mathematical value of
the bargain. SO we couldn't survive by taking a mark up on products like
instacart.

3\. Part-time work is non existent and we couldn't trust the quality of the
workforce in an on demand model. We have to train people to understand the
difference between mayonnaise and mustard.

4\. Some Indian startups have gotten around the idea of on-demand workforce by
just hiring all their deliverymen full-time. Their unit economics should be
pretty tough.

5\. The warehouses are optimized for picking and dispatch. Real Estate prices
are expensive. We should be seeing much better revenue per square feet than
regular grocery stores.

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Killah911
How do you deal with the political volatility? I'm pretty sure Amazon doesn't
have to think too much about Hartal or their delivery trucks being burned.

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waseemalim
We will have to price it in as a systematic risk. Our competitors in the local
market face the same risks, and when Amazon does come in they will have to
face it too. For now we are focused on competing locally. Things have not been
all that bad for us in Dhaka -- we actually deliver a lot faster on hartal
days.

And insurance works just fine in Bangladesh once you figure out the claims
process.

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Killah911
Do you deliver in your trucks on Hartal days? It would certainly be awesome if
they didn't attack your trucks because you're simply taking food & essentials
to people.

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waseemalim
+1, hopefully we can make that happen.

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redwood
Bhalo atchen!

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waseemalim
Ji Dhonnyobad. Apni Bhalo aachen?

