Budding entrepreneurs' brush with junk

Most people would wonder what these two boys (in the picture) are doing standing in a room full of junk? They are certainly not into a ‘cleaning drive’ but are waiting to turn all this scrap into ‘hard cash’!

It was during his summer internship days that 23-year old Apoorv Chaturvedi called a kabaadiwallah to his place in Hauz Khas to sell off old newspapers. During a casual conversation with the scrap dealer, he discovered that there is no company working for systematic sale and treatment of scrap in the retail structure.

“Also, the whole chain had three to four intermediaries as local kabadiwallahs were not entertained by recycling plants in absence of sale receipts,” informs Apoorv whose mind had already started working on a global model to recycle household junk and rubbish, in a transparent manner.

He discussed the idea of launching a website with his classmate and friend Yogesh Sood and soon both the students of JRE School of Management – Greater Noida took up the task of setting up what is today known as ‘Kabaadivala.com’.

“We introduced digital weighing machines so that customers do not feel fleeced (such as in case of old kabadiwallahs), employed pick-up boys from Jaitpur village near our campus, and provided them with police verification,” explains Yogesh, adding that they decided pay Rs 10 instead of Rs 8 to the customer for a kilo of old newspapers and thus managed to capture a sizeable share of the household market in Greater Noida.

Within six months of launching their company Eco Green Recycling Pvt Ltd, their brand ‘Kabaadivala.com’ has earned almost 5,000 custo-mers and a monthly income of at least Rs 5 lakh per month. “The turnover of our company is Rs 20 lakh,” says a proud Apoorv who dreams to see his company’s name listed on the National Stock Exchange.

“Since the beginning, we wanted to go global and it wasn’t easy initially. We even slept in the loaded truck at night for fear of losing the scrap that we managed to
collect and pay for,” reveals Yogesh, as the intrepid duo narrate their dreadful
encounters with the mafia.

“Our delivery boys were also beaten up by the goons because we had captured almost the entire market. Since there is a 30-40 per cent profit margin in this business, the mafia couldn’t take the loss,” recounts Apoorv, revealing  they sought help from their University, which also financially backed their venture and even provided them with a warehouse.

The two entrepreneurs had not informed their respective families about their ‘junk enterprise’ until recently when they were pressured by their parents to accept “placements offered by the college since we are about to complete our PGDM in Marketing program,” Both the youngsters confess to being a little dissuaded by the reaction of their guardians and in all eagerness share with Metrolife that they plan to enter the Gurgaon market and equip their pick-up boys with palmtops in the near future.

“We can then have a cashless transfer of money and also explore saving four per cent once we get the ATI licence to do bill recharges etc.,” says Apoorv to which a confident Yogesh adds, “We already have top companies such as Wipro as our client and are getting into industrial scrap market. We know that there are a lot of challenges that lie ahead but we are prepared to handle them.” “We are businessmen not fighters,” both say in unison.