The brick and mortar industry is constantly faced with challenges of high costs involved in the business which can be a challenge to many entrepreneurs. Rohan Duggal is the owner of Columbia Wine Company in NYC and the founder of the on-demand delivery platform EpiFruit, designed to help meet the growing needs of brick and mortar retailers struggling to keep their costs down and satisfy the ever-growing demands of customers. Duggal is a NY native and entrepreneur with over 12 years’ experience as a business owner in the retail sector from wine to general merchandise. We had an opportunity to interview Rohan and asked about his story, how he started his business andd the future of Epifruit.
Tell us your story. Why did you start your business?
We started this business because it was a problem we faced. Being in the retail business myself it was very difficult to find reliable people for deliveries, and it required a lot of attention that I didn't want to focus on. The major issue was that it was becoming a big part of my business-30%-40% of my sales were coming from deliveries and with the cost of wages going up I knew this was going to be an expensive to continue operating in the same way.
How did you come up with your business name?
EpiFruit-I was inspired by listening to music and getting the idea I wanted the word fruit in my name-it represented abundance too me. We put it into a word generator and EpiFruit came up-which when broken down is above abundance-I loved that and it made sense as we see the platform as a win-win-wine
Tell us about your products and services. How do you help clients?
We are a market-based platform that connects businesses in NYC with couriers to deliver to their customer. It's a B2B app that allows a business to find couriers instantly and potentially cheaper than an in-house member.
What makes you unique? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
There's a bid process. There's no set price the delivery partner and business agree to a set price prior which gives ownership to both parties as far as the job is concerned.
Where do you see your business in the next 3-5 years?
Scaling into different cities
Any advice you would give to entrepreneurs and business owners?
Do the research of what's available as far as technology goes and market research in general and take small baby steps in the beginning of the process which will allow you to accomplish this big task at an even keel pace.
What is your favorite business quote and why?
Just do it-Nike–it's a slogan-but really at the end of the day we all have ideas–it's about the one's we implement-whether it's done successfully is up to the individual analyzing the business–however no one can ever take away from the business operator that you did it if you simply just do it-whatever that may be pertaining to implementation
What have been some of your achievements that you are most proud of? Why?
Whenever I can be of service to another I truly appreciate that
Anything else additional you want to tell our readers?
The best education you can have is the experience you acquire in life and what you do-so keep doing!