SpeedForce Startup solving problems of 2 wheeler service.
Startup Name: SpeedForce (www.speedforce.co.in)
Founders: Deepen Barai, Kapil Bhindi, and Mohan M.Vaidya.
Let’s move into the discussion.
Give a brief info about your start-up?
We are into the Franchisee and development of Multiband Two Wheeler Service Stations\Workshops across the country.
With the increasing numbers of two-wheelers in India and growth rate of almost around 20% year on year from the last 5 to 6 years, this is high earning potential business.
With added features like doorstep service, vehicle pickup & drop facility, on-road breakdown support, AMC, accidental service, insurance renewal and support it’s becoming fast popular and more convenient among new generation with a single-window service.
Low investment and high returns are the key success of this business. Our online and offline support and training boost the confidence of the business owners.
What made you start your start-up and what problem does it solve?
(Deepen Barai) Founder
After working in telecom, insurance, and networking industry for more than 18 years I decided to start a venture wherein I would enable myself to create Young Entrepreneurs and via them generate more and more skilled employment in my area and with this would support my nation.
Being from the business family and serving in the corporate sector I decided to create a holistic model in the two-wheeler service industry and started walking on this path where I found out my old friend and now colleague.
We both got together and developed a chain of individual workshops in and around Baroda which gave services to customers on their doorstep and would help them with breakdown support on the road this included all the other services related to two-wheelers under one roof.
After creating almost around 70 entrepreneurs and more than 210 skilled employees I found out that this noble profession should be carried forward in the form of a professional startup company and then we together founded a brand SpeedForce.
(Mohan M Vaidya) Co-Founder
I was working with one of the leading two-wheeler companies for 36 years in the after-sales service department. Owning a business was always a dream.
Three more friends were of the same opinion. So it was a joint decision to form a new company. The other three partners are from the same file.
In current market situation service provided by the available channels has own limitations, where has customer’s expectations are increasing day by day. With a new approach to service, we are trying to bridge a gap.
(Kapil Bhindi) Co-Founder
With a vast experience of over around 16 years in Banking\Finance and insurance industry and have worked in middle management level there came a time at the juncture of an age wherein I felt a need to start a business in the service industry because in today’s time service industry plays a huge role in Indian Economy.
In this endeavor and search of a service industry business, I found out that there is a huge vacuum in the two-wheeler service industry as there were majorly 2 types of service providers (OEMs & logos).
With these providers, the customer of the industry was either dissatisfied or less satisfied due to various factors like time\costing and trust factor. So I started the survey amongst the local public of Baroda about the need that they actually want.
With this, I and one of my old friend and a current colleague developed the innovative idea in two-wheeler service industry wherein we started giving Free Pick Up & Drop Facility, On-Road Breakdown Support and all the two-wheeler related services under one roof for working on this model for around five years individually and after developing a good satisfied customer base we decided to form a start-up and established a company under the name of SpeedForce.
Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this start-up?
Deepen Barai
Belonging from a small town I joined the telecom industry and then subsequently moved on to the insurance and network industry I have worked with different geographical peripheries of the country and have established and developed a good potential network of various genres.
In my professional journey of more than 18 years and starting at a very basic level I reached onto a substantial height of management level.Related:-9 Productivity Hacks To Get More Done As A Startup Founder
During this experience, I have worked with companies like Vodafone, Idea, Airtel, Bajaj Allianz and Reliance Life. My core functioning area included the Recruitment of Dealers, Agents, and Business Associates.
Mohan Vaidhya
I am an automobile engineer. Worked with Bajaj Auto Ltd for 26 years in the service department as a service engineer and then regional manager for Maharashtra, Gujarat and MP & CG.Last 10 years in Network development.
Job involves extensive travelling, service infrastructure development, training, spare parts management, customer handling, customer satisfaction, and product feedback.
In-Network development, dealer’s performance monitoring, Reviews, new appointments, terminations were the nature of the job.
Kapil Bhindi
A commerce graduate I have worked in various fields of banking\finance and insurance industry with companies like Standard Chartered Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Future Generali, and Bharti Axa & Dlf Pramerica and reached from the lowest level to a middle management profile in my last assignment.
During my tenure, I looked around the sales, recruitment & development of various departments. My core competency was man management and team development.
Where is your start-up based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?
Our start-up is based in Baroda (Gujarat). After the survey we did in the local market as the first workshop we developed was in Baroda and there was a huge potential for the services that we provide in the automobile market.
More so the local public of Baroda are major of service (Job) class and does not have spare time to service their vehicle. After the success of our first workshop, we developed the entire chain in an around the city and today we are very successful to develop the same in entire Gujarat.
As a start-up founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?
What I promised I must deliver.
Strong base Foundation with steady growth.
Create a good brand image in the industry.
Franchise Growth is our growth.
Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?
If we see specifically the kind of business we do there is as such no competition in the market which provides the entire package to a business prospect or to a customer.
Also if there is a competition it is only limited to private business and the model that they provide is very costly as compared to our business solutions.
How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a start-up founder and how do you manage it?
It is always difficult for a businessman to balance work and life not only start-up but a good old businessman also because one of the factors of the key success of any business\businessman is the availability to the internal and external customers.
But we as a team are able to give equal justice to the family and work as we plan our tasks and we have a specific entity in our team for a specific task to be performed. So the time devotion on each job is decided planned and executed very well till now.
Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.
Currently, we are managing through our own funds. We are expecting a tie-up with a leading brand. After this tie-up, we may need funding from outside.
What are the biggest misconceptions people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?
Our business model is based on the new generation and young customers. In markets both young and old customers are available. While young needs services on one click & transparency, old need to get the vehicle service in front of them. We designed the process in such a way that both will be satisfied.
Old and existing garage owners are not ready to change and do not want to invest in new ideas while new young & qualified people are slightly hesitant to go for this business.
At first sight, they feel it may not get the required profitability.
But this is not true as our recently opened franchise started making a profit from the 1st quarter itself.
What gets you excited about this company?
Great satisfaction of providing a solution to edge old business. It’s a completely new approach to this kind of business. We are creating business opportunities for the new entrepreneurs and via this generating skilled employment opportunity.
We are sure of a successful business for any non-technical person through our guidance and continuous training and mentoring.
Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.
After finishing the daily personal routine we start our day at 9:00 a.m. sharp with this we gather at our office and start following up with the team in the first hour regarding the franchise development and franchise tasks for the day.
We have dedicated business development as well as a technical team to help the franchise in their day to day routine throughout the tenure. After that we ourselves on our own start meeting the prospects of the day which are already scheduled a day prior.
The sales meeting prospects is being done till 3:00 p.m. and after that, we break for lunch till 4:00 p.m. After that, we start meeting different vendors\opportunities of upcoming time which we can accumulate in our model and help the franchise to increase their revenue.
Because we believe we should keep changing with the time by adopting the new changes. After finishing the day by 7:00. We again get to gather with the team and discuss on an entire day with the franchise if found some major points we try and clear those.
After reaching home by around 8:30 we spend our entire time with family till we sleep on our individual schedules.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more entrepreneurship, business, corporate solution videos and Like Facebook Page