They said
About 28% at the time. For some restaurants that was more than their own margin.
I said
So the case was never the fee. It was the orders: customers they did not have, and would never reach from the counter.
Zomato · City Growth Manager · Bhavnagar → Mahuva · Dec 2021 – Jul 2022
Why would a town of four or five kilometres need delivery?
Zomato wanted to be in more than a thousand cities. I was sent from Bhavnagar to Mahuva and lived there for about three months, building the restaurant side from the ground up.
I came in already selling: IndiBlenders, a dessert brand with friends, and then Kridai Oils, selling groundnut oil in local markets.
The pitch, one objection at a time
Everyone was sceptical, the restaurants included. Pick one.
They said
Most owners had never sold through one.
I said
I explained it from scratch: how an order arrives, how the menu shows, what being visible means.
They said
"These people are not my customers."
I said
They are. Would you charge them extra in the store, or send the wrong order? Treat them the way you would at the counter.
They said
Small things decide whether a town trusts the app.
I said
Do not cancel orders. Mark items out of stock. Keep the menu true.
Mahuva, in one quarter
Orders a month. A team result: opening the town and the growth were the team's; restaurant supply was my part.
Zomato30–35restaurants signed a quarter
Zomato~28%commission, the hardest part of the pitch
What it became
Once the money started coming in, delivery was a new revenue stream for a lot of those restaurants: customers they would never have had without it.
I had never had an experience like it. I had the time of my life.
What was mine, and what was not
- Opening Mahuva, Palitana and then Diu was a team effort.
- The order growth was the team's result. Restaurant supply, the signing and the trust, was my part.