BY ANKIT MEHROTRA
Co-Founder, Dineout.co.in
27th September 2015 was a milestone for the Indian Digital dream. The sheer grit and determination to bring about a change in the way India lives and interacts with technology was palpable in every statement made by our Hon. Prime Minister during his town hall address at Facebook. His passion to go beyond the ordinary and do something breakthrough stirred me to reminisce about the time I started Dineout.co.in in 2012.
I had been living in London for the over 10 years and advancing very well professionally as an Investment Banker. One fine day, while talking to Sahil Jain, Co-Founder, dineout.co.in, I felt that we weren’t doing anything very constructive with the way we could impact an emerging India with technology. Sahil, an IIM graduate, was well settled in Seattle, working on a project with Microsoft.
Having just returned back from a holiday in Delhi, I realized that every time I went out with my friends, it was to the same places I had already been to previously and did not actually go to any new place. I figured this was due to a number of reasons, mainly; the lack of information about any new place; once you reach a place, the waiting time is daunting; and the lack of a truly unique, independent service which a person could use to find out about where to dine out in the city, and reserve a table.
Sahil also agreed with me as he had faced similar problems during his trips to Delhi as well and I just blurted out, “why don’t we try to change this?” We both left our jobs and started dineout.co.in. This I believe was one of the best decisions I made in my life.
My advice to anyone wanting to become an entrepreneur, “The time to do it is now. Go for it.” And thus began the long and rewarding journey. With both of us back in India, the hard work began. On one side, we were very busy conceptualizing the website and our service. On the other hand, we were out and about meeting different restaurants trying to convince them about the idea. We were soon joined by two of our school friends; Nikhil Bakshi who was heading the institutional sales team at DSP Blackrock Investment Managers and Chief Officer Vivek, who sailed with BP for over 13 years across the world. They both also quit their jobs and joined us full-time as they also strongly believed in our product and vision.
Thus the quartet was formed and we believed that we could change the way India dines out!
Today, after 4 years almost of having pioneered the Table Reservation Industry in India, and building a team of over 120 people across eight cities, I can safely say that I am tougher and more patient than when I started. I have learnt to respect differences, setbacks and compliments with a sense of humility.
There have been moments of great success, like being acquired by Times Internet in 2014, or recently acquiring inResto, a Bangalore-based startup that has an open platform for restaurant management. All these are decisions that took us a while to take, but they have definitely enabled us deliver a better experience to our diners, and as we see it, push for a stronger adoption of the digital ecosystem for an emerging India.
A few weeks ago we got an email from one of our regular diners, and it said, amongst other things “your app has changed the way I dine out now”, and that I believe is enough for us to keep at this journey, no matter how difficult it may be.
Feedback: Ankit.Mehrotra@timesinternet.in
