Rishabh Singhi Reveals Reasons for Failure to Maintain DishServe

In the course of his career, Rishabh Singhi had the experience of working and building startups to quite a large level. However, as an entrepreneur, he ensures that he never gives up on starting again to build a startup, even though he has failed.

In the discussion together Co-Founder & CEO of KeTitik Bipin Mishra, Singhi reveals why his startup "DishServe" failed to survive; and how profitability plays a key role for startups to survive.

Too late to make changes

Before building DishServe, it is known that Singhi served as COO of RedDoorz for almost 5 years. DishServe itself has actually secured funding up to the pre-series A stage from a number of investors. Some of their fund injections include Genting Group, Insignia Venture Partners, Stonewater Ventures, Ratio Ventures, Rutland Ventures, 300x Ventures, MyAsiaVC, and several angel investors.

Although time do pivots and focus on providing operational automation solutions for restaurants, cafes, and cloud kitchen, but the company failed to be able to run the business because it was starting to run out "runway". The limited operational fund reserves make it difficult for the company to continue operating, while the company is unable to convince investors that this business can grow positively in the long term.

"Conditions have started to change, making it difficult for us to raise funds. It has become difficult for us to scale-up without any capital, even though we have started to approach profitability. But we couldn't do that scale-up before achieving profitability. Judging from these conditions, we then decided to close the company in March 2023," said Singhi.

He added that it was too late for the company's decision to do so pivot until launch private label brands is also one of the reasons companies fail to survive. Singhi emphasized that it is important for businesses to focus on the company's fundamentals and make changes immediately, when the company is constrained. Those who do not immediately make changes, will experience difficulties that can end in failure.

"Macroeconomics is also one of the reasons why fundraising is difficult. This condition also makes it difficult for companies to recover, the current conditions affect everything. What I have learned from this failure is that companies that want to be successful in the next 5-10 years must can achieve profitability," said Singhi.

In the dynamic and highly competitive world of startups, achieving profitability is a fundamental milestone for long-term success and survival. Although startups often focus on growth, attracting investors and building customer base, profitability should remain the main objective.

By achieving profitability, startups can position themselves to become stronger, grow, and have a sustainable future in a competitive business landscape.

Want to build a startup again

After building DishServe, in the future Singhi still wants to rebuild his new startup. However, he still doesn't have an idea or inspiration, what kind of startup he wants to build next.

One of the reasons why Singhi wants to return to the startup world is, he sees that currently there is no ideal job for him. He also does not look forward to working as an employee at the company.

"Until now there is no plan for what startup will be built, I am still evaluating and do not have the right idea at this time. It is possible that new ideas will emerge in the next few weeks," said Singhi.

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