Start-up sabotaged, but they fixed their fortunes by raising another

STORIES THAT INSPIRE

Neha Saini

Tribune news service

Amritsar, August 31

Just when the lockdown and its aftermath shrank the job market and ate into most of local businesses, especially the tourism and hospitality industries, city-based young entrepreneur duo, Rishabh (32) and Tushar Mahajan (29), have managed to find opportunities that might just turn things around for good. Rishabh, an IIT graduate and expat, had founded ‘City on Pedals’, a unique start-up that offers guided tour on cycles, in 2017, and had managed to grow his business considerably since, until the pandemic struck.

“We were still growing when in March, earlier this year, we could see what was happening in Italy and other countries got hit by the Covid. We knew that we would also have to halt our operations as guided tours were mostly pre-planned and catered majorly to tourists from across the globe,” Rishabh says. While the industry insiders in city were left cornered in a tight spot, Rishabh and his younger brother Tushar wasted no time and shifted their focus completely on another start-up, Statusbrew, a social media marketing platform offering digital solutions for businesses. Co-founding the two start-ups, both have fared fairly well as pandemic has given a boost to the IT and digital marketing segment.

“We are a global player in social media marketing and have expanded our business tremendously in this quarter as post-pandemic there is a big surge in local businesses shifting towards technology-driven practices. We have managed to double our revenue, absorb most of our staff and we are even hiring,” he says.

The suspension of activities regarding City on Pedals was disappointing, but the fact that they were able to retain most of their employees and team members is their oasis of positivity. “We now have a team of eight highly skilled professionals and are hiring professionals from other cities as we have plans for expansion. There is a push towards technology in most industry segments post-pandemic and it will definitely create new opportunities for local entrepreneurs who will re-imagine business space,” he adds.

From conceiving and designing guided heritage tours, food tours and experiences to tourists on pedals to working from a home space, Rishabh says the transition was not a big challenge. “It’s time that one has to look for viable solutions as business in a post-pandemic world. The gradual change in business has paid off well,” he shares.

Apart from this, Rishabh is also a co-founder of Amritsar Start-ups, an umbrella organisation comprising 27 city-based entrepreneurs, who have come forward to create a community to support each other constructively. “The members include entrepreneurs, small business owners, bloggers, artists, angel, and accredited investors, venture capital managers, crowd-funding experts, all looking towards exploring new opportunities the pandemic has opened up,” he tells.

Having learnt his lesson, he has a piece of advice to give, “I think the fact that the hospitality and tourism industry couldn’t wake up at the right time is because we have a habit of not doing anything until things go wrong. We should have seen this coming and accordingly adapt to a more technology-friendly operations.”

He hopes to revive City on Pedals when the time is right and normalcy returns.