560034 as you might have guessed is an Indian Postal Code, of what arguably is the startup capital of the county. 560034 is Koramangla, Bangalore, where most of the most successful Indian Startups have roots, where a startup opens (and closes) everyday, where every third door is a startup without a board, where every chaiwala (including Costa Coffee) and paanwala (or daaruwala) runs because of these startups.
The story in short first, questions later...and maybe some gyaan.
This happened specifically in Koramangla 3rd Block, which is one of the richest areas in not just Koramangla or Bangalore, but perhaps whole of India. You just have to take a walk along the many mains and cross roads to see the kind of wealth and power which resides here. Needless to say the Residents Association (Koramangla 3rd Block Residents Welfare Association or KML 3rd Blk RWE in short) has a lot of clout. This clout though is mostly used for the good of the residents and the area in whole, the area has one of the best parks a locality can have (with a library and open gym mind you), roads with barricades, police patrolling 24 x 7, a composting plant, a soon to be inaugurated lake and so much more. The people comprising are quite aware, proactive and mature.
The area has some shops, the oldest being Sheetal's Iyengar Bakery, run by a stern, no nonsense uncle. A pretty usual bakery, serving tea, coffee, yummy snacks and warm bread, but no cigarettes. "No Cigarettes" I emphasize. Lately some other shops had opened around the bakery, and they sell everything that uncle does, plus Cigarettes. Also a well funded startup in the food delivery space opened its office bang opposite the bakery.
So a couple of things happened, because the shops were selling ciggies, it started attracting crowds, am not commenting on what kind of crowds, but crowds for sure. And the food delivery startup, because of the kind of business it is in, also had a lot of employees (delivery guys basically) waiting around for their number to come, adding to the crowd. This particular addition to the crowds though, from some experiences I had, was surely not all of the right kind. And yea, lets not forget the bunch of college kids who every morning would bunk college, and loiter around the bakery for hours...
On a side note, Iyerngar Bakery uncle was approached by some startup to start stocking their ready to eat packaged food, biryanis and the kind. Uncle had agreed to it (the margins were high) and had already gotten the marketing material ready for the big launch...
Anyways, so now, you had this huge crowd just hanging around the bakery and its surroundings, dumping garbage all around, making noise and generally disrupting the quite calm environs of Koramangla 3rd Block. I knew it wouldn't take long for this to erupt and it didn't. One fine morning, the RWE asked all the shops, again, "all" the shops to put their shutters down, and close their business. Seems they had some police backing, because all shops had to comply, and its been a week now, the street is hauntingly deserted...the quite calm environs are back, but it has taken away the little good life which was there because of the Iyengar Bakery...
Long Story, but here are some questions??
- What was the fault of the Iyengar Bakery? Or was it just timing and the association?
- How much control should neighbourhoods have on the businesses that run in those neighbourhoods, especially the ones with legal approvals?
- What role did the two start-ups have in all of this?
For the first one, I think it was just timing. I also think that Uncle has earned enough good will for KML 3rd Block RWE to realise that he was not the root of the problem, and to make amends and let him open shop again...I so hope that they do.
I won't go into the second, I don't know really...any comments, your two paise of opinion is welcome.
But coming to the mudda, the third question...what role did the startups have. Shouldn't the startups, the food delivery one and the ready made food one, have been more socially conscious? The first one should have instructed its delivery people to stay 'in' office, and if not, at least behave. Maybe they shouldn't have established a office in a purely residential area, knowing that their under construction office won't accomodate their entire staff. The second one should have made sure that once sold and consumed, the packaging of their readymade food is correctly disposed. But all they did was woo uncle with a 40% margin...
And this is really a wider question, because this is the same questions which comes to mind when you hear stories of offices of startups such as NoBroker and ZipCab and Uber being vandalised by people who have lost their income. All great models, which solve a problem in an innovative way. But it leads to a clash of the new and the old, and the old will have to adapt or die, but shouldn't the new be conscious of the old and some how figure out how to be inclusive. Or at least help the old in adapting to the new. Take the example of Ola, because everyone started taking cabs, the rickshawallas started feeling threatened, and Ola just included them in the ecosystem. Consumers, rickshawallas and Ola, all profited.
So heres the gyaan for the startups, be a bit empathetic to the ones who's livelihood you are going to take, be a bit conscious of the environment you are going to operate in, because if these two are not happy, or at least ok with your business model, and the way you run your business, its not going to survive too long...
Signing off with a hope that Iyengars opens again...
Take care
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