When the first-time entrepreneur founded Travelkhana, he knew he had a first mover advantage in this newly discovered segment of travellers especially train passengers. Travelkhana acts as a managed marketplace where restaurants are connected to travellers. But, it also meant that Travelkhana had to overcome a lot of barriers, as there were no competitors to follow or learn from, and especially so, since the service involved entering a dreaded space that was, until then, operated solely by the government or government-backed players. The train food market is estimated to be worth about INR 2000 Crore annually. And, with more than 23 Mn passengers travelling every day, the Indian Railways definitely presents a huge market for the food-tech industry. Currently, the company is busy channeling most of its energy into what Pushpinder calls a Virtual QSR model. Pushpinder says, “On seeing how effectively big QSR chains like McDonald’s and Domino’s work, I started wondering why can’t it be replicated with the standalone eateries in India. He started working on creating a virtual QSR space, wherein he imparts training to vendors. Pushpinder and his team are in the process of creating guidelines and norms on how to improve the quality of food and services. Now it claims to deliver about 3000-4000 meals per day (individual and bulk) in 160 cities, although the logistics responsibility rests on the vendor. Travelkhana uses its technology to make sure that the delivery happens on time and without any hitch. Although Travelkhana had a first mover advantage in this segment, other companies like Mera Food Choice, Trainkhana, Yatrachef, Railtiffin, Travelzaika, Idlywada, Khanagadi have also entered the market. On basis of the above case study identify the concept referred.

Strategic Positioning Problem identification Market assessment Idea generation

Market assessment