Finlatics Investment Banking Experience Program

Project 1

Arjun’s Driving Force:

Arjun is an Engineer with an MBA degree, and has previous experience of working in
Information Technology and has created Zomato type application that lets consumers order
through safe and hygienic street food vendors. Currently, the application is operative only in
the city of Mumbai. Though he knows that he is targeting a mass market, he knows how
competition can be massive. Hence the best fit combination would be Arjun being an
Engineer with MBA degree and having a previous experience of working in Information
Technology would act as a cherry on the cake.

Reasons for Picking this profile-idea combination:

• Engineer being a good profile for making application like Zomato

• Prior experience in Information Technology would be helpful as already has worked on

making such applications.

• Degree in MBA would help in running the business successfully as one of the
challenges he is facing is massive competition along with getting street vendors
onboard and delivery executives at the same time keeping low cost.

Building a core team:

As we know “Tough times don’t last but tough teams do” hence building a core team is
required making the right person do the right job. Building an application like Zomato won’t
be a cake walk and being from IT background he can help in developing the software and
also selecting the right candidates for developing the software. Because the main model of
software like Zomato is the user interface and the customer experience, it has to be smooth
and handy and if Arjun is able to make it then half of the battle is already won. The other half
comes to customer satisfaction and the discounting strategy which will be supported by his
MBA degree. As he has learnt how to run the business from 2 years of MBA degree and
knowing all the core cost cutting and profit maximizing areas.

Business Model:
In the early stages of business, the founder i.e. Arjun must not focus on earning money
but rather than focus on getting on more customers and making them the habit to order online
and then focus on per unit profit and in long run it will be very profitable. The higher the cliental
the business owners i.e. restaurants would wish to get listed on their app and in turn can charge
a fee to them once the app has a huge cliental base.
 In the long run with help of higher audience base the company can monetize their
platform for advertisements and earn advertising revenue.
Making the payment process simpler by accepting all the ways of payment and coming
over the old traditional payment of cash because people spend more when they are paying
digitally rather than paying in cash.

2. Unlike regular loans from bank whether it is secured or unsecured, private equity or the
venture capitalist offer more then just funds to the organization. This really adds value to the
company with the help of their valuable advice in decision making because of their previous
experiences and how they have overcome those. It helps in getting advisory benefits and
stamp quality. This gives reason to select this combination of profile-idea combination.
Hard Knowledge
Having an investor, who can also act as a mentor with certain level of experience in the
same industry can help Arjun scale up his startup. A mentor can help him navigate the turbulent
waters of tech startup with hard knowledge of convincing the restaurant owners. This can
consist of payment statistics, ensuring compliance and security, building efficient user
management models amongst others. With help of mentor Arjun can also learn to mitigate risk.
The risk can be operational risk, Financial risk etc. Operational risk can be mitigated with the
valuable experience of the investor.

Soft Knowledge
Being an MBA, he has experience in soft skills and leading a team with help of his top- notch
management skills. Creating a strong organizational culture by setting up value and goals
aligning the team and building the incentive-based reward system for delivery executives to
timely delivery because it is not just about delivering the food but delivery earlier than expected
time which will lead to customer satisfaction. Seeking advise in decision making of a fresh
start-up because it is essential in shaping the present and future of the company.
A combination of hard and soft knowledge can act as a binding force for flourishing start-up
and help Arjun to expedite his journey to success. Hence Arjun’s optimum PE Investor would
be an individual with experience in the same domain by mentoring him, and imparting the
above mentioned hard and soft knowledge because the domain is quite complex and this is the
best reason to reap advisory benefits which are currently more important to Arjun.