Moksha Srivastava, Co-Founder, & CMO, Wheelstreet.com
Moksha Srivastava is the co-founder and CMO of Wheelstreet.com. This first generation entrepreneur is in her early twenties and a bold risk taker. A native of Uttar Pradesh, she is a journalism graduate from IIMC, New Delhi. Prior to starting out at Wheelstreet.in, she was a reporter at Times of India, New Delhi and a Radio Jockey at 92.7 FM in Jhansi.
The hassles that she faced with a rented two – wheeler in Delhi and the entrepreneurial mindset of cofounder, Pranay Shrivastava who used to rent his personal bike to fellow students is what prompted them to start their own venture. An avid reader, her passion is singing and heading out for long road trips on her trusted Avenger.
In conversation with Dominic Rebello, Moksha reveals her vision of becoming a one stop solution for all motorcycle tourism related needs.
What is the idea behind Wheelstreet.com?
Inspired by the sharing economy driven by millenials that is fast catching up in India, Wheelstreet.com was launched in November 2014. The company is headquartered in Bangalore and has a presence in most major cities (25 cities and 160+ vendors) across India including Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Jaipur and Hyderabad. The company was founded by Moksha Srivastava and Pranay Shrivastava, two friends in their early twenties.
Wheelstreet.com is a B2C company that works mostly with vendors who have been in the two wheeler rental business for the last few decades. Qualified professionals from the company conduct rigorous checks on these bikes and only those that are found to be satisfactory are displayed on the website for the customers to choose from. Wheelstreet takes a commission on each booking from the vendors. The company accepts bookings even an hour prior to the pick up time basis availability. There are two products offered for customer and vendor.
a. The site (www.wheelstreet.com) is utilized to take bookings from the end user and provide other necessary information.
b The vendor app through which vendors who is working with the company can maintain their fleet and do their accounting. It also reminds them when a service is due or the bike with the particular vehicle being shown as unavailable at the time to customers. Vendors can also accept or cancel bookings through the application.
How big is the potential for a business like yours?
We have calculated the market size of this segment and it is definitely a burgeoning opportunity. The trend is evident in our very growth when we started in Bangalore with only 200 bikes and now we have listed more than 4000 two wheelers on our platform. The market size has grown in terms of vendors and in terms of customers as well. People have now started going on road trips with their friends, and the options available have made the bike grow into style statement rather than an asset. We see ourselves on a very unique platform as we were pioneers in this segment that is bike rental aggregator.
How do you plan to scale up?
Wheelstreet.com is currently operational in 25 cities in India with 160+ vendors actively operating on our platform. Our experience over the recent months has shown us a massive potential residing in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India. We believe that there are over 40 cities in India which currently have an unorganized two wheeler rental market and we plan to expand our presence to cover all these cities by this year end.
Your vision for the company?
We want to build Wheelstreet.com as a large and trusted destination for bike rental in India. We aim to bring in quality and efficiency in every product that we deliver. We believe that Wheelstreet has been riding the wave in tandem with emerging trends in the market place and we plan to grow the company in a phased manner that suits the market and it’s potential. We believe that we are now better placed to raise funds and in turn grow much faster than we have been doing. We are now also actively opening up more sourcing locations and going aggressive on expanding across cities in India. We have also been focusing on building brand out of Wheelstreet.
Where do you see yourself five years down the road?
We have a vision to become one stop solution for all motorcycle tourism related needs. It will include bike rental, accessories, motorcycle gears, highway help, bikers club and tours. Being started by a biker our major focus area will be only related to two wheelers this will include everything related to motorcycle.