I wanted to ask Tshidiso about the journey of Mapha Foodshare (now Mapha Logistics) & how he & the company co-founded by his brother are navigating the delivery startup climate.
Thanks for doing this man, and if anyone read this till the end, sorry for the thread in mobile view 🙃feel free to comment & ask Tshidiso questions. Tshidiso please just post your details on how people can get to know more about Mapha I know there's some info on the posted picture & possibly what areas you guys operate in. 🙏🏾
Thank you again for having me Ububele. You can find me on LinkedIn as Tshidiso Vatsha for all Mapha related content. If you have any questions or you just like to chat my email is tvatsha@gmail.com or you can email info@maphalogistics.co.za and we will get back to you as soon as can. All the best , keep up the great work with the blog, I’m a big fan.
Hey man, so I wanted to learn more about 3-sided marketplaces but I wanted to learn publically with others & what better way to do so than asking someone doing it. You, your brother & business partner(s) started one of these new grocery delivery startups maybe you could educate me a bit. But let's start at the beginning, how did Mapha logistics come about?
Thanks for having me. So we had a bunch of motorcycle’s on the road that we would rent out to drivers servicing ubereats and MrD but we saw a big opportunity when the pandemic started. People were locked up and scared to go out so we started out in our neighborhood just offering the service to our neighbours then yeah we started scaling out and branching into other businesses like courier services and servicing small restaurants who don’t use Ubereats or MrD
You guys started trading almost immediately when the hard lockdown hit, using Whatsapp as the main channel of communication, how did that help with building trust within your community? and how did you get your first set of customers?
Well we started with our organic network of friends and family (and ofcourse WhatsApp groups). From there the word started spreading like wildfire. Facebook and WhatsApp groups were the best form of getting clients for us but referrals always worked the best especially on the trust building aspect. We also we’re very strict on the customer service front as we saw that as large flaw on the competitors side, if you give customers great service they will almost always refer you to their friends and family. So that’s how we got off the ground using solely WhatsApp.
Yeah we know that if your business can’t operate without a platform then you don’t really have a real need for your business now do you🙇🏽♂️...
Our business seems to change every week hey. We learnt not to be too stringent on the vision here. The business has largely been shaped by the market. Our assumptions have been proved and disproved over and over again and in just 8 weeks it feels like we have built a business that would usually take 3 years to build. My comments on being a founder are that I never knew one would eat, sleep and dream their business day in and day out😅. Essentially you are the business so if you don’t perform the business won’t perform but it has truly been exciting and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I didn't take you for the "I grind while they sleep" entrepreneur 😂. But business doesn't seem to turn out how you envision it on a spreadsheet, I wonder why 🤔. Tell me, grocery delivery seems like a tough business the unit economics don't make sense, there are so many moving parts for minuscule margins. How does one make it efficient whilst scaling?
Thanks for doing this man, and if anyone read this till the end, sorry for the thread in mobile view 🙃feel free to comment & ask Tshidiso questions. Tshidiso please just post your details on how people can get to know more about Mapha I know there's some info on the posted picture & possibly what areas you guys operate in. 🙏🏾
Thank you again for having me Ububele. You can find me on LinkedIn as Tshidiso Vatsha for all Mapha related content. If you have any questions or you just like to chat my email is tvatsha@gmail.com or you can email info@maphalogistics.co.za and we will get back to you as soon as can. All the best , keep up the great work with the blog, I’m a big fan.
Hey man, so I wanted to learn more about 3-sided marketplaces but I wanted to learn publically with others & what better way to do so than asking someone doing it. You, your brother & business partner(s) started one of these new grocery delivery startups maybe you could educate me a bit. But let's start at the beginning, how did Mapha logistics come about?
Thanks for having me. So we had a bunch of motorcycle’s on the road that we would rent out to drivers servicing ubereats and MrD but we saw a big opportunity when the pandemic started. People were locked up and scared to go out so we started out in our neighborhood just offering the service to our neighbours then yeah we started scaling out and branching into other businesses like courier services and servicing small restaurants who don’t use Ubereats or MrD
You guys started trading almost immediately when the hard lockdown hit, using Whatsapp as the main channel of communication, how did that help with building trust within your community? and how did you get your first set of customers?
Well we started with our organic network of friends and family (and ofcourse WhatsApp groups). From there the word started spreading like wildfire. Facebook and WhatsApp groups were the best form of getting clients for us but referrals always worked the best especially on the trust building aspect. We also we’re very strict on the customer service front as we saw that as large flaw on the competitors side, if you give customers great service they will almost always refer you to their friends and family. So that’s how we got off the ground using solely WhatsApp.
Thats interesting. What normally happens in these situations is people will first go out and built an app before even testing the market.
How has trading been over the last 8 weeks? what are you learning? not just about the grocery delivery market but being a founder as well.
Yeah we know that if your business can’t operate without a platform then you don’t really have a real need for your business now do you🙇🏽♂️...
Our business seems to change every week hey. We learnt not to be too stringent on the vision here. The business has largely been shaped by the market. Our assumptions have been proved and disproved over and over again and in just 8 weeks it feels like we have built a business that would usually take 3 years to build. My comments on being a founder are that I never knew one would eat, sleep and dream their business day in and day out😅. Essentially you are the business so if you don’t perform the business won’t perform but it has truly been exciting and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I didn't take you for the "I grind while they sleep" entrepreneur 😂. But business doesn't seem to turn out how you envision it on a spreadsheet, I wonder why 🤔. Tell me, grocery delivery seems like a tough business the unit economics don't make sense, there are so many moving parts for minuscule margins. How does one make it efficient whilst scaling?