Three young entrepreneurs speak about their tech startup, Scanwich, which started as an idea to make a difference
Being an entrepreneur is about an idea, a vision and action that translates into a product that can change lives.
Scanwich is a tech startup founded by Adrian Menezes, Vedant Shah and Devesh Prabhu started amidst the covid-19 lockdown in August 2020. Scanwich has a computer engineer, designer and restaurateur onboard. Scanwich started as an idea to scan a QR code and get a menu. The three young men, have their roots in Goa and were students of SharadaMandir School. They went on to pursue their education from the State’s most prestigious colleges, which includes the Institute of Hotel Management, Goa and Goa Engineering College.
To add to their portfolio, the trio have had educational exposure from ISD Rubika, one of the finest design colleges located in France and Carnegie Mellon University, which consistently ranks amongst the top 50 colleges worldwide and is a leader in the fields of computer science, information technology management, as well as artificial intelligence.
With Adrian coming from a software background, Vedant and Devesh, each having a degree in design and hotel management, they make an enterprising team to deal with the core aspects of a business that includes technology, design (user experience), financial and operational aspects.
The idea of Scanwich struck when the three of them decided to bring about a positive change in the basic ways of how ordinary restaurant menus are being used and to solve five main problems.
- Give restaurants an online website presence that could help feature them on Google
- Give them additional visibility in an online space that goes beyond just the big food delivery aggregators (Swiggy and Zomato)
- Save on menu reprinting costs
- Make menus interactive, engaging and visually appealing
- Provide a contactless solution to cope with covid-19
Furthermore, during the pandemic plenty of homegrown businesses were born. At Scanwich, the three youngsters saw this as an opportunity to make a difference. They created an entire section for all the ‘Home Creators’ to support them and wanted to play a significant role and make a noteworthy contribution to society. In less than a year, the startup has grown and put itself on the map. Not only does Scanwich have some of Goa’s leading restaurants as its partners, but also other businesses like homecare brands, pharmacies, clothing brands, retail stores, spas, and the list is growing. Scanwich has already become a local name as not only does it have a good rhyme to it but it also has partnered with 100+ clients not only in Goa but in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, too. They also have a deal lined up with a Bangalore based food court which aims to use Scanwich as a one-stop complete solution for all its guests and provide online menus in an extremely effective and cost efficient manner.
Scanwich works in 2 broad areas – the first being a QR code solution for dine in / in-person guests at a restaurant/café/pop-up stall/retail store to scan a QR code and view the entire list of products/services offered by a business. The second includes a website, wherein businesses can also use the web link provided, which functions like their very own website
Scanwich provides businesses with all the tools required to get themselves running in the online space comprising of a website based front end, attractive user interfaces, ordering system, receive payments online, PoS/billing system integration and a discount coupon system. Moreover, there is the feedback / review system, analytics and links for social media. Scanwich’s USP is that it is a web-based solution that requires no download. In addition to providing a wide range of services as described above, they also provide any and every business a powerful end-to-end online solution with the main focus being value-for-money with price competitiveness, and customer satisfaction, above all else.
Over the past year Scanwich has worked with various Goan brands like Petisco, Goenchin, Snip, Brewed Blak, Soi, Cafe Bodega, Joseph Bar, Lounge Terminal &Spiriit at Caculo Mall, Tesouro, O’Pescador, Cafe Rasa, Pastry Cottage, Navtara and Cafe Central.
When asked about the response to their startup, the founders say, “The response so far has been simply outstanding! We are glad to see with more businesses realising the need for an online avenue, both for visibility as well as to transact, combined with our increasing familiarity with customers and businesses, we seem to face less resistance as we did compared to when we first started out. It is simply great to see businesses and your earlier mom-and-pop stores keep up with the times with our simple solution that gives them everything that they need in an online world that they may not understand much about.” Like all other businesses, the trio has had their fair share of roadblocks. “Despite giving businesses the online platform to receive orders, one area we do not touch upon yet is order deliveries. Order fulfillmentand deliveries is a highly resource-intensive sector which we do not plan to get into for now. However, we do provide businesses the tools and a solution wherein they could use their own staff to fulfill orders and save `4 to `8 lakhs per year.”
Regarding their future plans, the trio plans on bringing all businesses in Goa online. “Our goal is to and create an ecosystem without them being left at the mercy of third party aggregators. Further, they do not have to pay `40,000-`50,000 for a website/app to website development agencies and can get a complete solution at just `4,000 (one-tenth the cost). Lastly, we want to leverage key technologies in the fields of Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to produce extremely valuable insights and analytics to businesses.”
The three budding entrepreneurs conclude with a message to aspiring entrepreneurs: “Start small and chase an idea that you believe in, do not be afraid to fail; and remain patient.”
