How TaxiForSure built a successful marketplace by combining data with intuition

Building a marketplace isn’t just about having the most capital, it is about finding harmony. Harmony between supply, demand, market and your team. That’s the ultimate product-market fit. In this chat, Raghunandan G of TaxiForSure and Anand Daniel of Accel, dive deep into the process of building TFS.
How TaxiForSure built a successful marketplace by combining data with intuition
How TaxiForSure built a successful marketplace by combining data with intuition

1Hr 15 Mins
Available on your favorite podcast app
Guests
Anand Daniel
Anand Daniel
Partner, Accel
Anand holds an MBA from MIT, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue, and a BE in Computer Science from the University of Madras. He joined Accel in 2010 and focuses on investments in Consumer Tech and Marketplaces. His investments include Blackbuck, Emeritus, Swiggy, and TaxiForSure
Raghunandan G
Raghunandan G
Founder and Director, TaxiForSure
Raghu completed his Computer Science engineering degree from NITK and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Since graduating, he has worked in engineering and consulting roles before going on to become a founder at TaxiForSure and Zolve. He's also an avid runner and fitness enthusiast, having participated in and completed several Ironman Triathlons.
About 
TaxiForSure

TaxiForSure, founded in 2011, was the outcome of a drunken conversation in a Bangalore pub between friends Raghunandan G and Aprameya Radhakrishna, who had both been to National Institute of Technology Karnataka and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. Raghunandan was 33 and Radhakrishna a year older.      

Three-and-a-half years after it started up in a 100-square-feet office in a Bangalore suburb. TaxiForSure was acquired in March 2015 by bigger rival Ola Cabs, which paid $200 million in a cash and equity deal as it attempted to fend off competition from Uber.   By August 2016, TaxiForSure was gone after Ola integrated its service with its own and fired hundreds of its employees.    

Today, Raghunandan and Radhakrishna, who both worked briefly at Ola as advisors before walking away, are successful people and have funded a string of startups. The former has founded fintech firm Zolve and the latter is co-founder of Koo, the Indian version of Twitter. WasTaxiForSure a failure?. Not so if the experience and insights they gained into running a startup in a space like mobility shaped their future roles.

We’re looking for the next generation of successful Indian marketplaces. If you’re an early-stage marketplace founder, apply now here or learn more about the #DecodingMarketplaces Startup Hunt.
We’d love to hear about your experiences with marketplaces. Let us share our learnings and build a better and stronger ecosystem. Write to us at seedtoscale@accel.com to be a part of the Accel family.
1Hr 15 Mins
   •   
November 2, 2022
SHARE :
This is some text inside of a div block.