SteppinOut to pubs and discs in Bengaluru? Check discounts here

While the newly elected Delhi government is all set to demolish VIP culture in the national capital, Bengaluru-based SteppinOut lets you enjoy elite treatment through entry, discounts and upgrades in over 75 restaurants and pubs in the city. It’s primarily an F&B membership program linked to a mobile app.

SteppinOut members are entitled to discounts and upgrades with its partnered restaurants, discotheque, and pubs etc. “The idea is to make luxury affordable to the youth of the city. Thus, our motto - access made affordable,” says SafdharAdoor, CEO, SteppinOut.

For the first time, SteppinOut launched a program where clubbers can enter a disco of their choice for free without being on the guest list. This has been the venture’s biggest USP. “It’s almost impossible to check-in well known discos without being on the guest, list especially on weekends; but SteppinOut allows you to have this luxury,” adds Safdhar.

Some of the common deals offered by SteppinOut includes - three cocktails and get one free, upgrade from a 330 ml of beer to 500 ml, free welcome drink/dessert on every meal ordered and discotheque walk-ins.

What’s in the name?

Explaining the name of the venture, Safdhar adds, “After a lot of brainstorming, we zeroed in on SteppinOut. Every time someone steps out of their homes/workplace, we’re going to be what they need.”

Team behind SteppinOut and revenue model

Founded by Safdhar, Sharath Rice, Neil Unadkat and Dawn Thomas, SteppinOut aspires to become the country’s best lifestyle app. Armed with a civil engineering degree from the MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology, 23-year-old Safdhar showed entrepreneurial promise right from childhood. At the age of 10, he led the Little Eco Friends in Bengaluru that took up an initiative to clean up the environment. Safdhar also represented India at the United Nations Environment Program for three years.

When Safdhar was 17, he met Dawn Thomas and later the duo met Sharath Rice. In mid 2011, the trio launched Rices Obliquity. They went ahead to co-produce all the concerts and joined hands with Sunburn. They started doing club nights and produced close to 10 events every month.

Going forward, the trio launched SteppinOut in December last year. Neil is one of the founders of Appacitive - a building platform for app developers. Dawn graduated with distinction as a bio-medical engineer from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology in 2013 and currently handles brand positioning and marketing at SteppinOut.

Sharath ventured into the restaurant business in his younger days. He assisted his father in the administration of the famous Tycoons. He then ran Desmonds in Koramangala for four years and now currently co-owns Bengaluru’s Desmonds on Lavelle Road.

The company targets young clubbers and IT professionals. It charges Rs1500 as annual membership subscription from individuals. At present, SteppinOut isn’t charging anything from businesses but in future it will snap up a cut from outlets on every transaction. “Since we only feature five outlets per category on our website, we will charge outlets to be featured on the website from the second year,” says Safdhar.

Besides this, the company also plans to generate revenue via ad space on membership card (as seen in certain debit cards).

The company had hit 750 downloads in the first month & processed 536 coupons availed at its venues. “We have thus increased revenue for our venues, giving all the more reasons for new venues to get on-board,” adds Safdhar. SteppinOut also intends to maintain a database of the preferred food and cuisine of its members. “This, again, will be a driving point for venues to reach out to us,” he outlines.

Bluebook is the only competition in the market. However, it has got an edge over them considering its already existing database of customers in Bangalore.

Road ahead

SteppinOut aims to have 50,000 users in Bengaluru by the end of this year. “We will expand our reach in five cities in the span of 24 months and spread our reach to South-East Asia and Middle-East Asia in the next 12 months,” says Safdhar. The company also intends to use collected database of users for future marketing by adding more outlets owing to database. “We will start taking commission from outlets for every sale made,” concludes Safdhar.

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