ENTREPRENEUR Menu of information
Zomato.com is a successful restaurant listing website which launched in SA recently.
Every month more than 15m people worldwide visit the website to search for places where they can get a meal or home delivery, catch up at a café or enjoy the local nightlife, says Pooja Khanna, CEO of Zomato SA, which has over 20 employees. SA was always a planned expansion destination for the firm, which started out in India and now has a presence in Brazil, Indonesia and the UK.
Khanna says Zomato offers the value of convenience. “Apart from the website, we have apps for all major smartphones — Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry — which enable users to access Zomato wherever they are. We want to reach out to users across platforms and make the process of choosing what to eat and where as easy as possible for them.”
Zomato offers “exhaustive and updated information on all the restaurants across Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. This information is gathered manually,” says Khanna. When the company entered the market, it made a point of not hiring a consulting firm but doing its own feasibility studies.
“The revenue model is primarily based on selling advertising space to restaurateurs on a highly targeted platform.
The technology industry is known for high risk, fast money and international fame. Khanna, a finance graduate educated in New Delhi, India, was entranced with the sector.
Zomato recently received US$37m in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalist firm Sequoia Capital. This boost has given it more confidence about entering newer markets.
Khanna remembers starting at the firm in New Delhi in 2008 when it had only 10 staff. She has watched it grow to 600 fulltimers. But it hasn’t been easy as the company weathered organisational and expansion problems. It prevailed, thanks largely to passionate employees who think like co-owners of the company. “We believe we can grow Zomato only if we hire people who are better than us, who drive change and take challenges head on. You will burn out easily if you are not passionate about what you do,” says Khanna.
Tech, she adds, is experiencing innovation and “we see new business models coming up every day. You have the freedom to push yourself, learn new things every day and do it with the brightest minds.”
In what is largely a man’s world, Khanna is a bit of a rarity. She believes being a woman does not hold her back: “Only women can change this [industry perception]. I believe the sector offers immense opportunity to everyone alike.”
Her advice for success is to “pick up something that interests you. Like Wayne Gretzky once said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
“Figure out the next big problem and be part of the solution.”
The key to providing a service in a fast-changing sector is to stay ahead of the competition, she says.
“I believe luck has favoured us and, knock on wood, we’ve been doing all right so far.”
With a bold new idea, Khanna’s belief is: “Don’t be scared to take risks, and deliver what you have communicated to the market.” Khahliso Santho santhok@bdfm.co.za
@KhahlisoSantho1