Rahul Verma

CycleCart started as a college dare: deliver kirana restocks on a bicycle faster than the wholesaler’s tempo. I had ₹8,000, a used cargo bike, and no GST. The first ten shops said yes to a trial and no to an invoice.

I ran as a sole proprietor for seven months. That was correct. I was the liability. When a phone smashed in transit, it was my phone. When a shopkeeper paid late, it was my rent. I would not have survived ROC filings at that volume.

The change came when a local brand wanted 80 stores and a monthly retainer. They asked for a GSTIN, a current account that was not my savings account, and a contract that was not a WhatsApp forward. We moved to a Pvt Ltd with a college friend as the second director. Udyam helped with a small mudra-style conversation at the bank. The brand still negotiated us down, but at least we existed on paper.

We never became a 500-EV fantasy. We became a 40-rider operation in two cities with ugly but real unit economics. The useful lesson is sequence: prove a route, then pick an entity that matches the next customer, not the one you saw on a podcast.

If you are doing physical ops, talk to the person who actually receives the goods. My first pitch deck had “dark stores.” My first rupee came from “we will show up at 7 am with oil and namkeen.”