Not all startups are successful. We have all encountered cases of startups being prosperous which also indicates the fact that every business venture is a startup at the beginning. There is a lot that goes into the process of transforming dreams into actuality.
Factors including the right investment, consistent performance, setting strategies, and meeting the company’s objectives, all are responsible for building the idea. This is the phase where a startup’s journey flourishes or disrupts. Along the same lines is the story of Yumist, a startup that was set up to fulfill its objective of providing home-cooked meals through Zomato and Swiggy.
Yumist was founded by Alok Jain and Abhimanyu Maheshwari in the year 2014. Yumist quested to establish a system of homemade food for people who desire the same. The startup was in Gurugram and started its services via Zomato and Swiggy with charges starting from INR 100.
The food tech company focussed on doing well in the food tech industry, by integrating the goodness of homemade food with the facility and having it delivered to one’s doorstep. The startup’s perception of extending and serving the working sector appeared to be possible in the beginning but instead came to a halt.
As optimistic as it seems, every theoretically ideal concept includes certain formulae that lead to its success. From Yumist’s perspective, funds became the adjudicating factor. The plan gathered a substantial amount of investors and was nearly a strike amongst them. The subsequent step included enforcing the right approaches to expand the idea.
Yumist thrived to partner with Zomato and Swiggy for delivering affordable cozy and warm meals. They had even engraved an ideal position for themselves in certain parts but that did not pave the way to getting a permanent place in the market. It would have cost them beyond just consistency to achieve that.
The reviews for Yumist were identical to the ones that any food tech startup would obtain which is a blend of good as well as bad reviews. Even though reviews get deleted or removed there are still some reviews one can find. These reviews originated from places where Yumist wasn’t operating, and indeed never distributed in those regions regarding them as nullified and canceled out.
The crucial factor following Yumist’s fall was its unsuitable time and an eventual financial crisis. The food tech startup misinterpreted definite characteristics and couldn’t secure its position in the industry ultimately ushering in the closure of the company.
Yumist’s evolution wasn’t as extensive as the company anticipated and the startup was functional in some areas. In the year 2016, in May, operations in the city of Bengaluru were suspended due to the deficiency of a kitchen in the city. This was succeeded by the institution of a 12000sq ft. kitchen for the Delhi NCR.
This took place while the company was still recuperating from the forfeiture sustained due to the collapse of its operations in Bengaluru. This resulted in an epic failure for Yumist’s profits. The major factor responsible for the shutdown was the lack of facilities for food preparation. Since the operational rates were increasing and the profits weren’t, the company had to shut down all its operations in the year 2017.
Another prime reason that led to the cessation of the startup was the shortage of funds. Investors who had delegated the startup with its reassuring vision could see it losing steam. The startup had raised funds but was insufficient to continue its operations.
The founders were confident that the health of the startup would eventually get better and by June 2018, they would’ve emerged as a successful company. Incurring losses at every step not sufficient to support the company made this conviction seem more impractical with every passing day. The decisive stroke hit in the year 2017 when Yumist had to finally shut all operations and renounced the vision they had set in motion.
Conclusion
As Yumist couldn’t become independent and relied on investors for almost the whole and thus crumbled under its own weight. What we get to learn from the case of Yumist is that grabbing the attention of investors is not enough to run a successful business. Setting goals, meeting these goals based on the timeline, funding, and finding a position in the market are all important factors behind a flourishing business.
