1. Let’s start with a brief introduction to yourself and the idea behind forming Munchies. 

My journey in the delivery scene initiated way before the idea of Munchies struck my mind. We initially started with medical emergency supplies during the pandemic. Through this service, we used to help the frontlines and covid affected individuals. We started it as a business model, but observing its positive impact, it became something beyond business to us. We used to deliver all over Dhaka within 30 minutes which established a new standard in the delivery market since delivery services used to take at least two days delivery time back then. Express delivery is now a common scenario due to the shift in consumer behavior, but it was not the case 3 years ago, and we wanted to be the trendsetter and introduce this service. Through this journey, we developed a fantastic logistic team capable of providing the best delivery service. The initiative was quite successful, while the entire world was struggling, our team was able to help the community and provide for their families through this initiative. But after the lockdown lifted, the demand for medical equipment significantly decreased, but we wanted to keep the momentum, switch the products and keep bringing impact. Since we already had an established delivery team, we started as a B2B delivery service after the pandemic. We started our food delivery service with Chillox as their white collar fleet partner and later expanded to over 90 restaurants in the tri-state area. We used to assist them with their online and hotline deliveries since most of these did not have delivery channels. 

Gradually figured out this model was not feasible as we were not controlling the sales and were entirely dependent on the restaurants. That was the time the idea of Munchies struck our minds. Back then me and the co-founders, Anit Kumar Das and Nafisa Anjum used to stay up late at night, and we often used to crave food and beverages. Although there were a few existing late-night delivery platforms, the quality of the service was not up to the mark. We acknowledged the necessity of this need and initiated Munchies to serve this increasing demand. We launched our pilot project within ten days of planning to observe how the market responds. We started taking orders through both hotline and social media. We intended to make our service easy to access and make them feel they are talking to their friend. Our society still goes through various taboos, and we wanted to make sure our users feel comfortable when they reach us to get what they need. Although we initially struggled with low order volumes, gradually through word of mouth, people came to know about us and the quality service we provide, and there was no looking back after then. We never did any paid promotion because we believed that if we ensure quality service, our customers themselves will promote our brand. Within this two-year-long journey, We have completed over 1,00,000 deliveries as the first company that covers the entire Dhaka throughout the night. 

2. Which one incident do you consider as the turning point for Munchies?

The idea of late-night deliveries was something that many thought about even before the initiation of Munchies, but since the execution was challenging, nobody took the attempt. One of the unique selling points we offer is that a user can order both food and essentials in the same cart, which other delivery platforms and restaurants do not offer. We have observed these things from real-life problems and integrated these features into our platform. I would not highlight any particular incident that worked as a turning point. The continuous integration and our attention to real-life problems helped us in platform development, and things took a turn gradually. 

3. Briefly describe the services provided by Munchies and how it is helping its users.

Till now, we are working primarily with food and essentials and planning to introduce more services down the line. Despite that, there are many instances of delivering products out of our offerings during various medical emergencies as we always hold the value towards helping everyone in need. There was a time we delivered medicines for a child whose father lives abroad, and her mother could not manage the required medicine that late at night. These stories inspire us to work harder and have greater impacts on society through our work. Starting with a team consisting of 3 members to expanding it to 200 individuals and being able to impact the lives of them and their families is an inexpressible feeling as a Founder. In the beginning, we only had 2 restaurants with us where currently the number is now increased to 258, and we are also working on onboarding more brands with us. We currently operate through 4 warehouses to expand our operations and give a seamless experience. We went through several trials and errors since there was no established standard in the market. Therefore, we created our standard to provide our customers with the best possible experience. 

4. Munchies is one of the first platforms to fill in the market gap of the online food delivery service during late nights. Tell us a little about your experience regarding first movers’ advantages and challenges.

We had competitions even at the initial stages of Munchies, although we have always focused on improving our services instead of our competitors. We wanted to solve a problem people faced across the city. We intended to stand out with service that would initiate word-of-mouth promotion. I wanted to offer our customers one platform that offers everything so they do not have to look for other alternatives. Furthermore, we are gradually expanding our services to make our platform more restaurant friendly for restaurant owners. 

5. How do you maintain rider safety since they have to deliver very late at night?

This is something we have faced the least struggle in since till now, we have received incredible support from the law enforcement authorities. Till now, we did not receive any negative feedback about our riders from any restaurants, customers, or law enforcement authorities. To ensure such clarity in our operation, we onboard riders on a regular payroll instead of hiring freelancers. This way, we can closely regulate and groom. Currently, we are gradually adapting a hybrid model that consists of both full-time and freelance riders. We designed this in a way where we can closely monitor the activities so that we can ensure the safety of both parties. Unavoidable circumstances are rare, but they do occur, and we always take immediate action to resolve them as soon as possible and compensate our riders immediately in case of any damage. We also incorporated reflective materials behind the delivery bag to ensure their safety on the road and reduce accidents. We also provided them with raincoats, helmets, bags, and other accessories to maximize their safety. 

6. Share your experience regarding utilizing technology to improve the efficiency and customer experience of your service.

In this regard, I wanted to share an interesting insight. The readers might get surprised to know that we did not launch our “Official” application yet! We launched our beta application after one year of operation, and within this phase, we have redirected 70% of our users to our application. It was a long process of resolving bugs and refining the features according to their preference. To ensure this user-centric approach, we developed our tech products from scratch instead of purchasing them from any external source. We developed our tech team and developed the capacity for data collection, implementation, and execution. We are currently putting special focus on time optimization, and to maximize our efficiency, we have already established four warehouses and onboarded most restaurants in those areas to provide the best service possible. We are planning to set up two more warehouses to make our services more prompt. Currently, our Munchies store consists of over 1000+ products and delivers products within 20 minutes all over Dhaka, and we intend to take this experience further. We are continuously working to improve the user experience by optimizing our version tool. Also, we have always included the widest variety of products putting brand biases aside so that people can choose according to their preferences and have the freedom to purchase what they want. We want to expand further in the coming days and cater to as many people as possible.

7. What is your long-term vision with Munchies? 

As I previously mentioned, we are highly interested in integrating medicine and healthcare equipment into our platform, considering the incidents we have encountered in our journey where people desperately needed assistance during late nights, and we went beyond our services to assist them. We are already under discussion and trying to figure out the most feasible way to introduce this service to our customers. We also plan to expand beyond Dhaka and Bangladesh in the coming days to provide the best possible service to our valued customers.