‘An idea is worth only the amount of execution focus it gets’: Suraj Saharan, Co-founder, Delhivery, at TechSparks Delhi

The on-going TechSparks Delhi chapter began with an animated talk by Delhivery’s Suraj Saharan, who shared insights about his business with an enthusiastic audience. Delhivery is the largest e-commerce enabler as far as end-to-end e-commerce logistics go.

“We started Delhivery with motivation to solve the last mile delivery service in 2011. After testing the waters in Gurgaon, we moved to Delhi and slowly covered the entire NCR,” said Suraj. From the beginning, the Delhivery team stressed on designing its own processes and systems. “Once you get your basics right, follow-up will be easy,” he added.

“We always kept people from the logistics background out of the decision making body of Delhivery. We have people from logistics background but only for the execution part," Suraj stated.

Sharing the secret sauce of acquiring customers during Delhivery’s early days, Suraj noted, "We pitched to e-commerce companies to handle 50 shipments on a commitment that if we performed well they would give us more. After raising the first round we expanded to 20 cities, including Chennai, Mumbai, and Bangalore among others, says Suraj. "We always had a strong focus on technology. Manpower on ground can be replicated quickly but building a strong technology solution takes a long time."

Not having legacies is a big boon

"We don't have the burden of legacies like some of the large logistics players do. We are able to adapt quickly to new requirements and create efficient processes for our clients," Suraj said.

Suraj urged young and budding entrepreneurs not to stick to one idea, but adapt it according to the demands of the market. "An idea is worth only the amount of execution focus it gets," he said.

“Build an organization and the company will come together,” he said. He cautioned startups to look at failures as a learning experience and bounce back quickly.

A big thanks to all the sponsors and partners for supporting TechSparks 2014 – Sequoia Capital, AWS, Intel, DSOA, Verisign, Stanford Ignite, Target, Intuit, Brand Capital and Ola.

TechSparks is coming to Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai too. You can book your tickets here