Championing Hawkers With S$1.50 Supply Charges: WhyQ Co-Founder

The voice of Rishabh Singhvi sounded a bit tense the last time we spoke on the phone about a preliminary interview for the EOTM (Entrepreneur of the Month) function.

He complained that the WhyQ team had worked hard to bring new retailers to the platform and was busy increasing orders due to the nationwide ban on restaurants.

It was only the second week of the circuit breaker at the time, but the influence of Covid-19 was clearly visible. Now that the circuit breaker is extended for another month, there will certainly be deeper effects.

For us, it dampened our EOTM plans. We had already planned a personal interview, a video interview, a photo shoot – the entire work – with Rishabh, but they have inevitably fallen through the cracks.

While the circuit breaker has a negative impact on most companies, WhyQ – like many food suppliers in Singapore – offers a growing opportunity in the face of this Covid 19 crisis.

From India to Singapore

Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ / Image Credit: Vulcan Post

Rishabh grew up in Kolkata, India, where he lived with his close-knit family of four.

At home he attended a private boys' school and, like all other children his age, "didn't like exams", so it's no surprise that "he didn't have the best grades" either.

Instead, he described himself as a practical person. He was more involved in extracurricular activities such as Nature Club and Computer Club.

Though claiming to be a hard-working person, Rishabh sought to graduate and had his eyes on a particular university in Singapore.

Family members and friends who studied at Singapore Management University (SMU) "always had good things to say," said Rishabh.

He added that Singapore is also ideal in terms of its geographic proximity – it is only five hours flight away, so "not too far from home".

In 2008 he completed his studies in information systems in finance at SMU because the course focused heavily on entrepreneurial topics – which is his main interest.

The blood of entrepreneurship appears to be in the family – his father and older brother run a manufacturing company, while his sister-in-law runs her own advertising agency.

The now 30-year-old said that his grandfather, who runs a lubrication system production company in India, was his greatest entrepreneurial influence.

“I saw the satisfaction he had in running his business. I wanted to start a business because of him, ”he said.

He didn't know it wasn't long before his ambition came true. He is now the proud co-founder of the local Hawker supplier WhyQ.

Fall in love with Hawker culture and S’pore food

When he first moved to Singapore, Rishabh said that he had experienced a culture shock: Hawker centers.

The Hawker Center is a new dining concept for him because it doesn't exist at home. In India the closest alternative is the street stall, which is often not very hygienic or crowded.

When he was a market data analyst at American bank J.P. Morgan practiced, Rishabh said, that he was often hired by street vendors to buy food for 20 to 30 people at the Amoy Street Food Center.

While some people hated the idea of ​​"dabbing food" for others, Rishabh was just the opposite.

"I was happy, even excited. In fact, I was looking forward to the “Hawker Run” days every week, ”he said.

Rishabh, an avowed Hawker foodie, said that instead of the usual Hawker food like chicken rice or Char Kway Teow, the vegetarian's first taste of Hawker food was mixed rice (of course, no meat dishes) from a Malay stand.

He immediately fell in love with Hawker food – it was delicious and affordable, he thought. But no matter how much he loved Hawker Food, he is only willing to queue up for 15 minutes at the most.

For this reason, he found it “stunning” that Singaporeans were ready to queue for food, he added, adding that he had often seen office workers join an hour-long queue for a bowl of fish soup.

They can stand in line to line up for food on a busy day, so I thought they would be willing to pay a little more to deliver the same food.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ

Change the $ 2.5 billion Hawker food industry

At the time, the Hawker food delivery industry was an untapped business opportunity as food delivery apps were primarily intended for restaurants, restaurants, and cafes.

The industry is now valued at S $ 2.5 billion a year, Rishabh said. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), there are 114 Hawker centers and around 15,000 food stalls in Singapore, with the exception of hundreds of cafes, food courts, canteens, and stand-alone grocery stores and stands.

Rishabh noted a particular pain point of existing food delivery platforms: orders must reach a minimum amount.

Many people order food for themselves, but they cannot "order independently" because it is difficult for them to meet the minimum order quantity, he said.

His classmate and roommate at SMU, Varun Saraf, also faced the same situation when he worked in the Central Business District (CBD).

The young duo finally teamed up to develop an app that allows users to pre-order their meals or plan for delivery.

Photo credit: WhyQ

The business mission reflects the company name, which was inspired by a simple question: "Why queue when you can pay a little more to deliver groceries to you?"

The best thing about their platform is that it has no minimum order value and a flat delivery fee of S $ 1.50 – which is by far the cheapest in Singapore.

According to Rishabh, they had played with the options of offering delivery fees between $ 1 and $ 2, but their survey found that $ 1.50 is a "sweet spot" for most people.

Because Hawker groceries are inexpensive, WhyQ intends to keep this the same with delivery.

But if they charge such low fees, are they really monetizing?

(Our model allows) customers to pre-order or schedule their meals for delivery, which significantly reduces our delivery costs. This makes our single economy much better than other actors.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ

He explained that their economies of scale model ensures that they can optimize their delivery process, employ fewer resources, and deliver to multiple customers at the same time. This in turn helps to remove minimum order quantities and keep shipping costs low.

How they got their first $ 150,000 funding

Varun Saraf (left) and Rishabh Singhvi (right), co-founders of WhyQ / Image Credit: WhyQ

Rishabh and Varun were still in business when they started WhyQ in 2016.

Rishabh in particular was a project manager at J.P. Morgan. He even applied for permanent residence here to start a company in Singapore.

The two invested $ 100,000 of their savings to realize WhyQ.

They then ran a successful closed beta at Changi Business Park, which prompted them to finally open their app to the public.

At that point, they decided it was time for them to pay full attention to WhyQ's growth. Rishabh chose an appointment for his last working day, submitted his four-month notice, and never looked back.

The following year, in January, they received $ 150,000 from three angel investors – their first round of financing.

We met her at a networking session of BANSEA (Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia).

We talked to them about the problem that despite the high demand in Singapore, delivery (service) focusing on Hawker foods is not available, and suggested a solution that could be kept affordable through a batch aggregation model that kept delivery costs low .

They were delighted with our passion for the project and that we took the plunge to work on it all day.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ

The app was launched in February 2017, shortly after he exchanged his suits for t-shirts and jeans and received the angel investment. The first order came in the same month.

Photo credit: WhyQ

They have also successfully brought on board the first two Hawker centers on their platform: the Amoy Street Food Center and the Maxwell Food Center, each with around 10 Hawker stands.

The owner of the Amoy Street Food Center's spinach soup stand was the first Hawker partner to be on the platform, and he was one of their standard bearers from the start.

Rishabh quickly recognized him as the man who built trust for other street vendors to follow this example – through powerful word of mouth.

Over time, their platform grew exponentially and included more Hawker centers and Hawker partners.

Celebrate Hawker Heroes Of S’pore

Bringing street vendors on the platform was no easy task. One of the biggest challenges for the duo was not knowing Mandarin or dialects, which could have helped them reach more retailers.

They were mostly on site in the early days of business, helping with deliveries so they had to communicate a lot with street vendors and many of them didn't speak English. Nowadays they have "Hawker captains" to deal with Hawkers who don't speak English.

But it was also at this time that he saw the hard work that street vendors were doing day by night.

Most of them are family-run businesses and come to the Hawker Center at 3 a.m. to start preparing meals for the day. Only in the evening after cleaning and washing.

Photo credit: WhyQ

While foreigners have praised our Hawker centers as a melting pot of cultures, the Hawker food business is not as glamorous as it sounds – people avoid the long hours in which they are above the stove in humid conditions.

This prompted him to launch an initiative called #HawkersOfSG in 2017, inspired by #HumansOfNewYork to tell the untold stories of Hawker Heroes.

An interesting story is how a street vendor used to sell and ride Harley Davidson bicycles, but now sells black pepper rice bowls. Another story is how a street vendor did his job from advertising to one of the most popular street vendor stalls during the 2008 recession.

Acquisition of the customer and Hawker partner base from Competitor Plum

By 2018, they had raised S $ 1.2 million from angel investors and other investors who are supporters of GuavaPass and Caarly, the used car app company acquired by Carousell.

While they have their profits, they also have their fair share of losses like any other startup company.

After the Hong Kong grocery company Plum pulled out of the Singapore market in 2018, WhyQ took over its customer and Hawker partner base, but Rishabh said this was not as significant as expected.

He argued that this is very likely because, unlike WhyQ's business model, which is only for street vendors, Plum's database is a mix of street vendors and restaurants, hence the misalignment.

Mistakes are inevitable on any business trip, especially for someone who has no business experience but was unaffected by Rishabh.

Photo credit: WhyQ

In the same year, they expanded their delivery zones from the CBD inland because "nobody wants to use an app that can only be used Monday through Friday," Rishabh considered.

WhyQ reached another milestone: the following year, a monthly subscription was started in Singapore to replace the Tingkat service.

By the end of 2019, WhyQ had over 2,200 Hawker partners in 35 or more Hawker centers. They have plans to add more centers and stands to their network.

The company has a customer base of 200,000 employees and generates annual sales of S $ 9 million.

Scoring partnerships with well-known companies

As proof of its success, WhyQ has partnered with big names like DBS Bank, Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and foodpanda.

One of their angel investors introduced DBS, which focused on helping the local Singapore food scene. DBS helped sponsor, market and connect them with key parties such as NEA.

Since last year, they have also been working with ESG to bring raw material suppliers together on a single platform.

Hawkers typically had different suppliers for different raw materials such as vegetables, meat and dry goods, so WhyQ saw the opportunity to aggregate them.

In a "backward aggregation of raw materials", this would coordinate the delivery of products to street vendors and work with suppliers to deliver them in an efficient and cost effective manner.

The solution is expected to be introduced sometime in the second quarter of 2020 (this may be delayed due to a circuit breaker). It is made available through the app, where retailers can select multiple suppliers to work with and order their deliveries.

Photo credit: WhyQ

Their successes continued when they started a Series A financing round with Delivery Hero, the parent company of foodpanda, at the beginning of February this year. Part of this funding included whyQ acted as a Hawker food panda aggregator.

As part of the partnership, they worked with foodpanda to bring on board another 80 Hawker centers across the island by the end of the year, representing more than 1,000 Hawker stands, in addition to the 300 Hawker stands already on foodpanda are.

Our API is linked to that of foodpanda and every order from foodpanda is forwarded to WhyQ. Our WhyQ driver then picks up the order from the street vendor.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ

With this partnership, WhyQ saw a 70 percent increase in orders from street vendors as they continue to generate more traffic and help street vendors grow their businesses.

With the additional Series A funding, the total funding amounts to S $ 5 million.

Aid to street vendors and health workers during pandemics

The Foodpanda partnership proved to be timely when the government announced two months later that Singapore was going into a circuit breaker, with F&B retailers and Singaporean apps turning to food delivery.

Rishabh knew that they had to work quickly because their biggest break so far dangled in front of them. The team wasted no time and only needed one day to set up the online registration portal for retailers so they can quickly get started with the app.

According to Rishabh, the app "exploded" – the number of incoming requests was almost four times higher than with a dedicated email.

They saw gold with the overwhelming response from the hotline supported by Covid-19 and the online registration portal. Their number shot through the roof with an increase of 300 to 400 percent in users and orders.

Due to the increase in orders, everyone in the business has focused on two aspects: acquisition of street vendors and operations.

They also worked with NEA (which owns most of the Hawker centers in Singapore) to obtain "a special permit to operate during the circuit breaker period."

They also launched a public “Gift a Meal” program for healthcare workers that “received such an overwhelming response that they had to pause it”.

Public donations and sponsorships totaled 15,000 meals, with each meal costing $ 4. In addition to these donations, WhyQ sponsored 50 meals a day.

Photo credit: WhyQ

In March, they began delivering meals to healthcare workers in various hospitals such as Changi General Hospital, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, and Singapore General Hospital.

It was not easy – collecting nutritional preferences was challenging and they had to get permission before they could send food to hospitals.

Despite the challenges, Rishabh saw this initiative as a form of appreciation for the front workers. Not only have they done good, they have also inadvertently contributed to strengthening battered F&B businesses by buying meals from them.

Entrepreneurship is about eliminating risks

What's next with WhyQ?

Rishabh admits that while the rest of the food industry may seem tempting, Hawker Food remains their primary focus as they recognize the extent to which they can help digitize Hawker stands.

There are some food delivery apps on the market, but none designed for street food delivery. We want WhyQ to show up in people's minds when they think about delivering Hawker food.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ
Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ / Image Credit: Vulcan Post

Despite the successes of WhyQ so far, Rishabh admitted that he has a lot of worries, such as getting legal problems or running out of money.

When asked if he wanted to give up at any point on his startup journey, he said, "All the time."

For her it was not a smooth sailing. Their lack of business knowledge and experience led to a "difficult" transition in running their own startup.

He knew that running a business wasn't a walk in the park and that there would be a steep learning curve at the beginning.

Overcoming risks goes hand in hand with steering a startup's wheel, and he has good advice on risk reduction.

Ask yourself what you can do to avoid as many risks as possible so that you have the best possible chance of being successful in business.

Starting a business is about calculating the distance, checking the safety net and parachute, and making sure you eliminate all the risks before going all-in.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ

He is definitely a man in charge of the conversation.

For this reason, he didn't choose to quit his full-time job to start a company headfirst – it's like jumping off a cliff without safety equipment, he said.

He added that by sticking to his full-time job, he could help build his finances and invest the money in WhyQ to grow the business. In this way, customers can continue to support and patronize their preferred street vendor stands without long queues.

When asked to bid farewell advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, Rishabh said his business mantra was inspired by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

When you have a great experience, customers tell each other about it. Word of mouth is very powerful.

Entrepreneurs should focus on adding value to customers and the overall customer experience, because if you do it right, the product will sell itself.

– Rishabh Singhvi, co-founder of WhyQ

Entrepreneur Of The Month is a monthly Vulcan Post series that identifies the “unsung heroes” of the business world by addressing successful entrepreneurs who stand out. From pioneers to disruptive startups, this series gives us an exclusive insight into their business trip and what it takes to be a game changer.