Years ago, when I was a little boy, growing up in Srirangam (Trichy, Tamil Nadu), I used to wait for the soan papdi wala. He used to have a small’ish bell-jar on his cycle’s carrier. Besides the fact that it was the best soan papdi I have had in my life, another interesting fact I found while buying his product was that he was riding a rented cycle. The cycle used to have a number that I recall seeing in the cycle-rental store I used to rent cycles from!

The idea is very efficient – street-to-street soan papdi sales, without the hassle of owning the mode of transportation.

Many years later, I recall seeing many ‘Hiring-now’ ads for delivery personnel for assorted restaurant chains – Domino’s, Pizza Hut etc. One of the main criteria used to be, ‘Must own 2-wheeler’. That they later changed it to branded 2-wheelers is a different story. The ‘Must own 2-wheeler’ was also a criteria for sales professionals, and was used as a plot-point in the Tamil film, Polladhavan, starring Dhanush (who gets a sales job because of his Bajaj Pulsar bike ownership; which eventually gets stolen…).

Here’s a scene from Indiranagar that I noticed last week.

A Swiggy delivery person, on a Drivezy bike!

This goes all the way back to my Srirangam story! Vehicle ownership is perhaps no longer a criteria – just land up for the delivery job, get the order, hire a vehicle from Drivezy (perhaps hire it for on a monthly basis to avoid not being able to find one when you need it the most for a delivery).

Another way to look at it – the VC economy. A delivery personnel from a food delivery brand funded up to its neck with venture capital, riding a 2-wheeler rented from a venture capital funded vehicle rental start-up.

If he was delivering to a person employed with a start-up funded by venture capital, the VC economy cycle is complete 🙂

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