I remember this scene from an old Tamil movie. The comedian of the movie while walking down the street, finds a coin and immediately picks it up and places it in his pocket. He walks a few steps further and then finds another coin. This goes on for a while till he realizes that he has enough money to buy himself a plate of Idli and Sambhar (Yes, those were the days). He walks into a restaurant and victoriously orders for his dream meal. After eating as he fishes into his pocket looking for his stashed treasure, he realizes his pocket is torn and he was actually picking up the same coin. Why am I telling you this story? Because you no longer have to worry about going empty “pocketed” to a restaurant . Our second venture in the Technology section provides you with an app that will take care of it all. Please meet “MOMOE”
MOMOE (pronounced MOMO) simply stands for “Mobile money everywhere”. Let’s get to know a little bit about the founders.
Utkarsh is the person behind the “Momoe Experience” has studied design at IDC – IIT Bombay and has led design and Strategic Marketing at Honeywell and earlier at BPL.
Ganesh who looks into customer acquisition and analytics also studied at IIT Bombay. He then moved to the US for work and also completed his MS at Penn State. He also has an MBA at IIM Bangalore. He has worked with Bain & Company and Honeywell.
Karthik who looks into Operations & Product at MOMOE, is from IIM Ahmedabad and College of Engineering, Guindy. His previous experiences include strategy consulting at Bain & Company, and also had another venture called Free Energy before Momoe.
Neelesh is from IIT Kanpur and IIM Lucknow, and looks into Business Development & Partnerships. He has previously worked with Honeywell and Texas Instruments.
Aiman Ashraf from University of Chicago and Delhi College of Engineering looks into the technology at MOMOE. He has previously been a part of the TopCoder community and a founder of his venture Grephouse.com.
Would it sound too clichéd if I wrote at this point “Great minds think alike”? Well, they do.
So when Utkasrsh and Ganesh crossed paths after fifteen years, they realized it was time to start listening to the entrepreneurial voices in their head. They started with a different venture, which they closed before Karthik joined them and the three took a plunge into MOMOE with the rest of the team. The ideation and market research for MOMOE began in Dec 2013. A soft launch with a few restaurants and private user groups was done in June 2014, and after improving the product, a formal launch was done in August 2014.
I think it’s time to move the spotlight to the product itself. What is MOMOE? MOMOE simply helps you to pay through your phone when you eat out/ shop/or commute. I know the foodie in you is looking up with piqued interest. There are more than 175 restaurants in Bangalore that now accept MOMOE. If you look at their website you find names like “southindies”, “Upbeat”, “Toit” and many more. They also have about 30 grocery stores where payments through MOMOE is accepted. They do plan to expand to other cities in the coming months.
The rationale behind MOMOE, they say is simple. “Everyone is carrying mobile phones and people are constantly buying and paying for things online. If you give them the option to pay at a real world store or restaurant, won’t it make everyone’s life easy?” Well, the response that MOMOE has gotten does show that it makes people’s lives easy. More than 70,000 people have already downloaded this app, and they have 25% repeat users. Not only users, restaurants have also been very receptive to this idea. MOMOE has signed up almost 330 restaurants of which 150 are live. The repeat users for MOMOE is increasing on a daily basis as they add more restaurants and people find more avenues where they can use the app to make payments.
MOMOE raised its seed funding in Dec-Jan 2014 from IDG ventures, Jungle Ventures and India quotient.
The team at MOMOE say they have mostly faced infrastructural challenges so far. For e.g., issues with internet at the merchant or the customer end which can disrupt the payment process. MOMOE is also trying to address these by seeing if they can work towards providing wifi options to the customers and suggest proper internet connections for the merchants. To ensure that customers realize that the place they enter accepts payments through MOMOE, they have put up standees and tent cards. In fact, even waiters are trained to give customers the option to pay through MOMOE. The team even enabled the owner of a small tea shop/ bakery near their office to use and get payments through MOMOE. Now, even he accepts payments through the app, and it eliminates the whole hassle that he has to go through with getting change. This goes to show it is that simple.
What advice does this team have for future entrepreneurs- “Be Passionate and don’t do the math”, they say. “The key is to be absolutely sure that you want to do it, and do it with passion. Family support matters, because you will be seeing less of them when you embark on this journey”, they add with a touch of honesty. The team also emphasizes that you have to focus, and do one thing, and do it well. “When passion and not money drives you, more people will join you, because they see how invested you are in the idea. If people start comparing money to their corporate salaries, it will never work out. Hence, don’t do the math.” The team also adds that there are many interesting entrepreneurial ideas out there. The key is to execute them well and show it works.
I have cheat sheet here for you. I asked MOMOE what they look for in potential employees. Well, the team looks for people who are self-starters and are highly motivated. They feel employees who have start-up visions for themselves, will fit in well because they will be driven by the want to do and learn more.
MOMOE is here to make a change for the better. The next time you walk into a restaurant instead of reaching out to your wallet, you will reach out to your phone. We wish them luck for this vision.
Visit MOMOE for more details on the app. Get started today.
Images Courtesy of MOMOE