QuickGhy – Empowering Blue-Collar Workers

We cannot really contribute towards the economy by discarding the idea of empowerment of the blue-collared workers. Therefore, our vision of the company has always been to find how to empower the blue-collar work force. Although we are in the space of providing maintenance services, we actually focus more on the training and upskilling of these blue-collared workers who are associated with us

How would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

I, Drishti Medhi, am the co-founder of QuickGhy. I did my engineering from Assam Engineering College in Electrical Engineering. I would like to call myself an accidental entrepreneur because jumping into entrepreneurship was not my plan of action post engineering. It all started when my brother, conceptualised the idea of QuickGhy in 2017. He is the founder of QuickGhy and in 2019, he asked to me to join him as an intern. I was in my third year of engineering at that time and I thought that maybe it was a good time to explore the entrepreneurship domain, which would also help me gain hands-on experience. That is pretty much about how I joined QuickGhy as its co-founder.

Give us a little insight into your educational background

I was born and brought up in Guwahati. I did my schooling in Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Silpukhuri and I graduated in Electrical Engineering from Assam Engineering College, Guwahati in 2020. Engineering was more of a period in my life which I spent in exploring. Since school days, I was never the kind of student who would limit myself to just classroom experience. I would always try to see if I could engage myself in different extracurricular activities. These activities kept me going and inspired me to seek more from life. I was an NCC cadet in school. I even went to the Republic Day camp when I was in school. In addition, during my Engineering, apart from being aware of my core subject, I came to know about the existence of an Entrepreneurship Cell that every engineering college has. I realised that I could enhance my skills and keep myself updated with the knowledge that I would require after my graduation, through the opportunities provided by this cell. AEC has a very strong set of alumni who has made a major impact in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. With all of this, I could form a strong foundation to walk into the startup ecosystem. Since my first year of engineering, I have spent a considerable amount of time interning with various startups.

I have been working full-time since my third year of engineeringas an entrepreneur.

Introduce our readers to QuickGhy

QuickGhy is essentially a service aggregator platform in the space of consumer services. We try to unify all kinds of services that you need for your homes or offices. In addition, our services are also available for any enterprise in case they own an industry or office. We provide them the solution of end-to-end manpower-management. The mission and vision of the company has always been to empower the blue-collar work force. If you actually look at the numbers, India currently has more than an 80 million blue collared work force. Theirrelevance as regards the job market is relatively less.Nowadays there are a lot of ad-tech startups coming up where they are focusing more on the upskilling of the white collared industry. We cannot really contribute towards the economy by discarding the idea of empowerment of the blue-collared workers. Therefore, our vision of the company has always been to find how to empower the blue-collar work force. Although we are in the space of providing maintenance services, we actually focus more on the training and upskilling of these blue-collared workers who are associated with us. That is a feature, which we are working on currently and will roll out very soon. We are giving them an access to upskill training through our platform, where they can learn from the comfort of their homes. We act as a platform that can make the market accessible for them since it is an on-demand daily need kind of thing that we operate in. We act as a mediator between this blue-collared work force and the market access.

How did the idea of QuickGhy come up?

It was a very small influence. My mom was in search of a plumber and it was an emergency. However, it took her two to three days to find one. It was then that my brother thought it was a situation that he could solve. It started out small. He went out to the neighborhood, met friends and family and collected a very small amount of data to figure out if this problem actually existed, in the place that we belonged to.

After conducting his own market research, he thought that there was definitely a problem in the market, which we could solve. We started initially with two or three service partners from our network, which eventually led to the inception of QuickGhy in 2017. However, we officially launched it in 2019.

How many service-providers did you start with and what's the present number of service providers and services available?

Like I mentioned we were just starting out with our own personal network of these service partners. It was in the range of 5-10 people that we started with. Now it stands with a database of more than 100 service partners, who are operating in Guwahati, Tezpur and Nalbari. At present more than 100 partners are providing services in homecare, personal care and maintenance.

Who are the service partners?

These are people essentially working in the Gig economic sector. These are like on-demand jobs. They might have full-time jobs. They pick up on-demand jobs through the platform and cater to the needs that arise from the consumers. They are essentially service partners who are associated with us. Once we are associated with the brand, we also look out in contributing towards their overall welfare. We are not just using them for the market access but also trying to ensure that these people have the right access to financial resources on our platform. This is one of the primary reasons why we builtQuickGhy. It is not just for the blue-collared workforce that get market access but also once we start doing this gig work, they get the right access to financial resources.

Can you name some of the services available in QuickGhy?

Across homecare category, we are currently operating in more than fifteen categories. It starts from your basic plumbers, electricians to carwash services, pest control services, etc. For personal care services, we are providing home beauty care services. For enterprises we are offering subscription-based services to which they can subscribe for daily maintenance services for their offices or whenever they are in need. It is available on a yearly subscription at an affordable price. The manpower hiring is end-to-end which starts from hiringthem to tracking the performance of all these blue collared workers that they are hiring and also making sure that they are upscaling from time to time, so that they are able to be relevant in the job that they are placed in.

Tell us about your partnership with ASDM

We launched the app QG Daksha in partnership with ASDM. We partnered with ASDM in order to facilitate the process of getting more manpower. As a startup we definitely had our shortcomings in terms of scaling up. ASDM's vision of contributing to skill development and QuickGhy's vision of trying to empower the blue-collared workforce, found a common ground. We went into partnership and launched the app in February 2021 as QG Daksha where we uploaded all the services and access to it. However, the app is being upgraded and will be relaunched as QuickGhy by end of November 2022.

How do I choose a service in QuickGhy?

You can directly download the app from play store and then place your requirements according to the category of service that you are looking for. Once the order goes through, the service partner will be notified and your order will be fulfilled according to the estimated time that is shown in the app. However, as the upgraded version of the app is not live right now, one can avail our services through various social media platforms. We are available everywhere as QuickGhy where you can just drop us a message. At present we are receiving about 70 percent of our orders through WhatsApp.

Is QuickGhy profitable?

When we launched in 2019, it was in an ideation mode. Then 2020 was the period of pandemic. We had to do a lot of pivoting in order to understand what business model would help us sustain as well as scale up. So, 2020 was comparatively more about sustaining and focusing on growing. We are expecting to touch break even by early next year. Post that we are expecting to be profitable.

What are the challenges that you faced?

Firstly, when you are starting you need access to the right kind of resources. When I say resources, it could be monetary, human resources or infrastructure. The biggest challenge initially was that people weren't accustomed to the idea of placing an order for aserviceman at the touch of a button. The idea was alien to them. So being able to convince our first few customers that we were providing a service from a trusted verified professional was a milestone. People were more comfortable in getting access to a serviceman through work or phone calls, which has always been the case. So initially changing the belief system of the first few customers was the biggest challenge. Secondly, hiring the right talent for the team was another challenge. Although there is abundance of talents here in the northeast, they don't have the right market access. So, I feel that there is a huge gap between the startups that are operating in this space and the institutions or the academies where these human resources and talents exist.

Price range of various services

Basic day-to-day maintenance services start at a price as low as Rs 300 to Rs 500 and it can go up to Rs 1200 to Rs 2000 depending on the job.

Tell us about being incubated by IIM Calcutta

We were incubated in 2020. It was during the time when I was working as an intern with my brother and he asked me to put the application for incubation. While you are working on your startup, that whole period of incubation is very important to get access to the right fundamentals of business. If you don't get your fundamentals right, growing and scaling would be a huge problem. Initially even we did not have any idea about whom to approach and how to build a business. We only had an idea, which was a pen-paper show. We did not know how to operate and brand. Finally, the application went through and we had multiple rounds of interviews and pitches. We got incubated in February 2020, which was a one-year incubation programme. We were given right access to mentors across various domains. Therefore, that was an important period for setting the right foundation for QuickGhy.

Financial Support

We have raised funds externally through Startup Indian early this year and we have raised another round of funds through IFCI Venture, New Delhi.

Major milestones of QuickGhy

In 2020, we got the award for providing 'Exceptional Services during the Pandemic' by Rotary Club, Guwahati. In 2021, we were one of the top three startups recognised by US Consulate Office, Kolkata. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India recognised us early this year in 2022, as one of the top five innovators across the country, which was our first national award. We were also one of the top 15 startups across the country recognised by Startup Nexus, which is a programme run by the US Embassy in partnership with ACIR.

Best thing about being an entrepreneur

The thrill that comes along with it is that you get to do what you want to do every single day, after you wake up. For me it is the ability to create impact from ground up. I am able to meet many people. Their stories really inspire me. Although uncertainty hovers above us every day, creating a positive influence and seeing the changes that you visualised coming to life gives me immense contentment.

Advice to Fellow Women Entrepreneurs

These are exciting times to start up. This is because access to resources is abundant. One should definitely work on buildingones personal brand, both online and offline. If you are able to build your credentials right, people will get to know you. Always seek out opportunities and be open to explore. I feel that diverse experiences eventually lead you to identify that one thing that you are extremely good at.

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