A quiet evening in Kovalam and a difficult car washing experience creates Mypitstop
Ideas have the sneaky tendency to creep up on us when least expected. While some are forgotten or discarded immediately, some take root to create a solution. That's how Mypitstop was born.
It was a quiet evening along the poolside in Kovalam. Four friends, Rohit Mathur, Amit Thapar, Sanjeev Sinha and Tyna D'Cruz happened to discuss the idea of easy and simple car washes over beer. They had realised the amount of time and effort they would need to put in to get their cars cleaned, after their holiday.
The discussion started with an anecdote of Rohit's. It was a weekend, and he had decided to take his car to cleaners. He had had to leave it there and bring it back in the evening. Through the day, he realised that his whole free day had gone in the effort of leaving the car at the wash, getting it back, and then reloading his daily luggage.
Solving a common problem
Over the course of discussing their personal roadblocks in the sector, the idea of Mypitstop took root. Rohit, the founder roped in the trio – Amit Thapar as Head of Business and Strategy, Sanjeev Sinha as Head of Operations and Tyna D'Cruz.
They have one common goal - providing car owners with effective solutions, at their doorstep. For over 12 years, Rohit has worked in the entertainment industry and is even credited with setting up the first ten-pin bowling centre in the country. He says that one of the key members has over 30 years of experience in the automobile sector, and it was his passion that encouraged the team to create a new space in the sector.
Mypitstop uses steam to clean your car instead of water. The team says that instead of using close to 200 litres of water, which ‘eco-friendly’ car washes usually use, they use only around two gallons per car. Also, the car is accessible while the steam clean process is going on, which takes close to 30 minutes.
Hiccups and challenges
Today, the market for a more user-friendly and quicker car wash system is growing. One of the other players in the sector is Speed Car. However, car solutions, specifically the car washing and cleaning segment,are yet to become completely organised in India. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges the team faced was attracting skilled car cleaners.
Another challenge they faced, says Rohit, "People try to compare an Rs 400 car wash to our service. The second challenge was penetrating the traditional car wash sector. The biggest advantage of our start-up is that we are an asset-light company, as we only import or invest in only steamer machines.The rest of the equipment like the generators and MUV, are all outsourced currently."
Market and growth
While, the team has faced several challenges, Mypitstop has seen a 100 per cent growth month on month. "People are amazed to see how the steam technology works. It even gets rid of stubborn grease and grime in just a few minutes. We are definitely looking at repeat orders, and we are showing," adds Rohit. Mypitstop charges the customer per service.
With the growing dependency on e-commerce and its sudden boom, Mypitstop hopes to increase their reach sooner, especially with their doorstep service guarantee. Rohit says that with people realising the value of a steam wash over wasting gallons of water on the traditional car washing method, that too at their doorstep, they are bound to choose Mypitstop.
However, the task, they believe, will take time, as only 20 percent of the population in India has access to Internet; but the numbers are growing.
"We would like to expand geographically from Mumbai to various other cities, mainly where there a large number of working class families who do not have time to visit car cleaning stations. We would also like to start other auto ancillary services like changing of wheels, seat covers, tyres and other car accessories," concludes Rohit.
