mopUp

Read my previous experience to get more context

When I realized meal kits were just not going to cut it, I decided to go all-in on creating an aggregator for cooks. That’s when the Global Alumni Meet of NIT Trichy happened in Chennai. I decided to go there to pitch what I had been doing and see if something clicked.

But unlike others, as I was still experimenting, I didn’t have a set business model to pitch to investors. I also felt I was so far away from being able to raise a round.

Anyway, I did manage to go and pitch my idea to everyone around there, and here’s a video of it:

Thanks, Hasitha for taking this one! Appreciate it.

I did end up meeting an angel investor and he liked the idea of an aggregator of cooks. His reasoning was simple, nobody has done it in scale yet and Indians are suckers for home-cooked food.

He encouraged me to take it further and to be in touch. Enthused, I went back out to figure out how this would work. But there were 3 stakeholders, and it seemed a bit too much for me to handle:

  1. Nutritionists

  2. Cooks

  3. Clients

I decided to make it simple and switched the problem altogether, keeping your house clean.

Maids torment bachelors. They charge high, work very little, get extra money and take as many leaves as they possibly could. If we want to change our maid, they bring someone from their network and they are as bad as them.

After talking to multiple potential users, I did come across a couple of unique propositions:

  1. Fixed costs per plan

  2. Laundry care

  3. List where the maid lists down what’s required for the home like cleaning liquid.

I also had to think about an attendance method and some sort of way to ensure the safety of the clients.

Like before, I wanted to start simply with an Instagram page, keep posting until I received interest from a narrow geographical location, and then take it from there.

My friend, Adhiyamaan, came back to the rescue, and we created a really neat logo for the brand, mopUp.


These were the social media posts:


Things were heating up. Leads were pouring in. We created a simple QR code that we will stick on the doors of our client, which when scanned sends us a timestamp of the entry. I hired a maid on a monthly contract and got her a new Nokia smartphone.


When COVID stuck. BOOM. BAM.

Lockdown.

Learnings

Sometimes, some things are completely out of our control.