Case 041Company pitchWarm up
In a superday pitch round, pitch Dakvik Logistics Cloud in 60 seconds: shipping software used by 3,000 online brands at Rs 4 a parcel. Then handle the two follow-ups, why now and why the couriers will not build it.
1The situation
Dakvik Logistics Cloud sells shipping software to direct-to-consumer brands. A brand plugs Dakvik into its online store once, and Dakvik prints the labels, picks a courier for each parcel from the five or six it is connected to, tracks the parcel and chases failed deliveries. 3,000 brands use it and together ship 90 lakh parcels a month. Dakvik charges Rs 4 a parcel. A typical courier charges the brand about Rs 80 a parcel, and roughly 12% of parcels come back undelivered, which costs the brand about Rs 120 each in return freight and a lost sale.
The interviewer gives you 60 seconds, then asks two follow-ups: why now, and why will the couriers not build this themselves.
2Your task
Deliver the 60-second pitch with the revenue stated early, then answer the two follow-ups with a number or a mechanism in each.
Quick check
What is Dakvik's annual revenue, and where in the pitch should it appear?
Worked solution
Try it on paper, then open one step at a time.
30-second answerThe answer to give first
Open with the number: 3,000 brands, 90 lakh parcels a month, Rs 4 a parcel, Rs 43.2 crore a year. Then the reason brands pay, one plug into every courier for 5% of the courier bill, with fewer failed deliveries. Why now: brands ship through several couriers at once, so choosing one per parcel is a daily problem. Why not the couriers: a courier cannot be the neutral referee that sends parcels to its rivals, and neutrality is what the brand is buying.
Step 1What goes in each of the four blocks?
Think of recommending a restaurant to a friend who has 60 seconds before a train. You do not describe the cuisine of the whole city; you say the name, what it costs, the one dish, and why to go this week. A pitch has the same four blocks: what it is with the number, why customers pay, why now, and why it will not be copied, and the number comes first. Dakvik's number is Rs 3.6 crore a month, Rs 43.2 crore a year, from 90 lakh parcels at Rs 4. Said in the first ten seconds, it earns you the other fifty.
Block two is why brands pay. A brand shipping 3,000 parcels a month pays couriers about Rs 2.4 lakh for freight and Dakvik Rs 12,000, 5% on top. For that it gets one integration instead of six, and a routing engine that learns which courier delivers to which pin code. If routing cuts failed deliveries by just three points, from 12% to 9%, the brand saves Rs 3.6 a parcel, Rs 11,000 a month, which is almost the whole Dakvik fee back. The product pays for itself out of returns before anyone counts the convenience.
| Pitch number | Figure | How it is built |
|---|---|---|
| Parcels a month | 90 lakh | 3,000 brands at about 3,000 parcels each |
| Revenue a month | Rs 3.6 crore | 90 lakh x Rs 4 |
| Revenue a year | Rs 43.2 crore | x 12 |
| Fee as a share of the courier bill | 5% | Rs 4 on about Rs 80 of freight |
| Freight flowing through Dakvik a year | Rs 864 crore | 90 lakh x Rs 80 x 12 |
| Return saving if failed deliveries fall 3 points | Rs 3.6 a parcel | 3% x Rs 120 a failed parcel |
Step 2How do you answer why now?
With a change in the customer's day, not a trend. Five years ago a brand had one courier and no choice to make; today it has five, with different prices by weight and pin code, and must decide for every parcel which one to use. That decision did not exist before, and a human doing it 3,000 times a month gets it wrong. The second part of why now is the brands themselves: thousands of new online sellers appear every year and none of them wants to build courier integrations. Say that the brand count should be confirmed from industry data rather than quoting a figure from memory.
Step 3Why will the couriers not build it?
Because the product's value is neutrality, and a courier cannot be neutral. The brand wants a referee that sends each parcel to whichever courier is cheapest and most reliable for that pin code; a courier's own tool would send every parcel to that courier. Brands know this, so they will not trust a courier's software with their rivals' rates. Add the second reason: couriers earn on freight, where Rs 80 a parcel is at stake, and a Rs 4 software product is a distraction for them. The honest limitation: a courier could buy a neutral player rather than build one, and the biggest brands may build their own routing. Dakvik's defence is scale, since routing rules learned from 90 lakh parcels a month are better than any single brand's.
Close the pitch with what Dakvik can become. Rs 4 a parcel can grow: cash-on-delivery reconciliation, parcel insurance and return pick-ups can take the fee to Rs 6, which on today's volume is Rs 64.8 crore a year before adding a single brand. That is the sentence a partner wants to hear last: the number you opened with, and the specific way it grows.
Where candidates lose it
The common loss is spending the first thirty seconds on how big Indian e-commerce is. The partner has heard that in every pitch this year; what they have not heard is 90 lakh parcels at Rs 4, and a pitch that reaches the revenue figure at second forty has already lost the room.
The second is answering why now with a trend word rather than a change in the customer's day. The strong answer is that the brand now has five couriers to choose between for every parcel, which is a problem that did not exist when it had one.
What the interviewer asks next
- A large courier offers Dakvik's brands free routing software. What do you tell the founder?
- Dakvik's top 50 brands send 40% of the parcels. How does that change the pitch?
- What would make you raise the Rs 4 fee, and what would make you cut it?
Asked at General Atlantic, Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT), New York, 2016 (Wall Street Oasis): Mostly behavioral questions and some pitches. Make sure to have a few pitchable companies in mind
Company names and figures are illustrative.