IndieDish was announced the winner of TOP 100 Fight Club Thailand at Echelon Thailand 2017, an enriching two-day tech conference organised by e27, in collaboration with Startup Thailand and the National Innovation Agency. Echelon Thailand 2017 is a digital insight, connections, talent, and funding platform crafted to connect people across Thailand, the gateway to Asia’s thriving tech startup community. Thirteen Thai-based startups were shortlisted from over 100 entries to battle for the coveted prize.
WINNER : Healthy Food Delivery INDIEDISH
Founded by two ex-Amazon employees, IndieDish not only delivers healthy food at a relatively cheap price of THB 89 per meal on average, it also makes the delivery process efficient in traffic-congested Bangkok.
IndieDish optimises its logistics algorithm by using a pre-order system. Based on the pre-orders it receives, which can be made a week in advance, IndieDish will work out the most efficient route for its delivery drivers. IndieDish has delivered over 18,000 meals so far. It doesn’t offer on-demand/same day delivery services but it is working on providing this service in the future.
The judges were impressed with how thoroughly the team had thought through the delivery process and were drawn to IndieDish’s mission to broaden healthier food choices in the country.
So I have a quick interview with IndieDish Co-founder/CEO Darin Suthapong via email. According to his LinkedIn: He used to be Amazon User Experience Lead. His work summary: “Leading design effort to revolutionize post-purchase and delivery experience at Amazon. My work spans across different platforms and devices, from a mobile phone to Fire TV“.
How did you come up with the idea Healthy Food Delivery?
– I and my co-founder had been living in the US for more than 10 years. When we came back we found that, despite all the food options that Bangkok has to offer, finding healthy options is inconvenient. Food from mom&pop shops is full of MSGs. Restaurant food is expensive and can’t be enjoyed everyday. Cooking ourselves takes time and effort. Therefore, we started Indie Dish because we want healthy food to be more accessible to Thai people.
What are the popular food categories?
– Thai classics like Pad-kra-pao and Kuakling are our top sellers, while healthy snacks are also doing well on our platform.
What makes your product different from other players?
– Unlike other food delivery platforms, we are focused on meeting the needs of healthy food eaters, that means:
1. We carefully select vendors into our platform, making sure that the food is healthy and, of course, delicious!
2. Healthy food eaters don’t eat healthy once in a while. They eat healthy everyday. Therefore, our logistics system is designed for planned delivery, not on-demand. Also, our food price per meal is more affordable than other platforms.
3. We have a wide variety of selections of healthy dishes, drinks, and snacks, more than any other platform. So our customers can enjoy our food without getting bored.
FAN FAVORITE PRIZE: PRIMO APP
Meanwhile, the fan favorite prize, based on a live audience poll, was awarded to Primo, an app that organizes and consolidates promotions from a user’s credit cards and membership cards.
The app then pushes personalised deals based on the user’s preference. Based on the user’s spending limits, Primo then recommends which deals best fit their budget. Even though the remaining startups may not have won a prize, they will be considered for qualification into the TOP100 Finale at Echelon Asia Summit 2017 this June 28-29 in Singapore and the e27 platform will continue to support them by connecting them to various stakeholders and investors in the regional ecosystem all year around
Brief bio of founders
Basically, we are a team of close friends who got to know one another at MIT Sloan School of Management 10 years ago.
- I, myself, (CEO: Vee Sirasoontorn) have extensive experience in quantitative analysis and consumer branding and marketing. I serve in risk management and consumer banking at one of the leading financial institution in Thailand.
- Our CTO (Pawin Paul Suthapong) is a technology startup expert. He co-founded and is running many technology startups in Thailand focusing on digital retails innovation and smart out-of-home advertising. He is also a part-time lecturer at Chulalongkorn Business School teaching and advising students in various entrepreneurship subjects.
- Our CFO (Naweeya Wongkidakan) works as a Relationship Manager at another leading bank in Thailand. She mainly takes care of multinational technology companies ranging from mobile phone manufacturers to fintech companies who look for cross-border expansion. She is an expert in deal structuring, business advisory especially cross-border market expansion.
How did you come up with this idea?
We came up with this idea because of a couple of reasons.
First of all, we are obsessed with promotions. All founders carry more than 10 credit cards and membership cards combined in order to ensure that we always get the best deals.
Second of all, we love numbers. We see the problem consumers are facing as fun challenge rather than boring or painstaking task. So, when we observed that consumers are having hard time figuring out the best deal for themselves, we would like to help them get the most of their shopping experience.
What are Primo’s popular product categories?
Please allow me to change your question to be where consumers are facing difficulties identifying the best deal the most.
Based on our survey, consumers are facing difficulties in choosing the best promotions the most at department stores followed by trade shows (e.g. HomePro Expo, Thailand Mobile Expo) and specialty stores (covering Home Improvement Stores such as HomePro and SB Furniture as well as Appliances and Electronics Store such as PowerMall, PowerBuy.)
Basically, consumers are bombarded by promotions offered by credit card companies and membership cards. Even worse, each promotion is extremely complicated. Each contains multiple steps, many options and several conditions. That is why it is extremely hard to compare across and identify the best deal for oneself.