Paarth Pareek

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
- Vidal Sassoon, Philanthropist

Zepto

(November 2021 - Present)

Senior Manager - Strategy, Quality and Training (Last Mile)

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Zepto is a pioneering quick-commerce grocery delivery startup in India, boasting a valuation of approximately $3+ Billion. As a vital member of the core team, I played an instrumental role in exponentially scaling our operations, catapulting our order volume from 10,000 to an impressive 150,000 within a mere five months.

Strategy
1) Profitability: I spearheaded the transformation of an existing store into a model of profitability and efficiency. This initiative was crucial in demonstrating the viability and success of our grocery delivery model to both current and prospective investors, securing vital resources for our expansive growth. This was achieved through meticulous process optimization, the introduction of environmentally friendly alternatives like cycles and e-cycles, and enhanced operational efficiency, which collectively led to a significant reduction in the cost per order.

2) Increasing efficiency: I successfully managed a project that resulted in a remarkable 55% surge in operational efficiency, measured in orders processed per hour. This milestone was accomplished by strategically recruiting new delivery partners, fostering a culture shift in work schedules, and revamping our incentive structures. The outcome was not only substantial cost savings for our organization but also attracted increased funding from investors, fueling our continued growth and success.

3) Rider App Development and Product Leadership: I led the development of Zepto's in-house rider app, from conceptualizing the scalable wireframe to overseeing the creation of foundational app modules. My role was pivotal in designing an app that was not only user-friendly but also efficient and robust, ensuring seamless operations and enhancing the overall experience for our delivery partners. This project demonstrated my ability to merge technical acumen with practical application, resulting in a significant contribution to the company's technological advancement.

4) Strategic Communications Management: As the lead for communications, I was responsible for orchestrating the entire communication strategy directed at delivery partners. This role entailed determining the content, tone, and channel of communications, ensuring they were effective, clear, and impactful. I focused on optimizing communication methods to enhance understanding and engagement among delivery partners, thereby improving overall operational efficiency.

5) Engagement Program Leadership: I spearheaded all engagement-related initiatives targeting delivery partners. My responsibility involved conceptualizing, developing, and implementing various programs aimed at boosting partner morale, satisfaction, and loyalty. These programs were instrumental in fostering a positive and collaborative work environment, leading to improved performance and reduced churn.

6) Drone deliveries: Led the entire project of delivering orders via drones, the first ever in the country to try and scale this to 3000+ orders.

Training
I led the integration of Zepto's delivery app with a third-party platform, crafting a comprehensive, course-based training program for our delivery partners. This program, featuring engaging animated videos complemented by assessments, was meticulously designed to provide in-depth education on crucial aspects such as order flow, quality guidelines, payouts, safety protocols, support mechanisms, and other vital operational areas. This strategic initiative played a pivotal role in cultivating a sustainable and knowledgeable fleet, significantly contributing to a marked decrease in attrition and churn rates.

Quality
I developed a sophisticated quality process framework, integrating advanced algorithms to pinpoint defaulting and underperforming delivery partners. This framework was pivotal in establishing an effective communication channel, enabling us to efficiently relay pertinent performance insights to these partners, coupled with actionable strategies for improvement. This initiative was instrumental in enhancing our customer experience, as evidenced by a substantial 10-point increase in our Net Promoter Score (NPS), reflecting a higher level of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Zomato

(July 2017 - September 2021)

Program Management - Central Strategy and Operations

Gurgaon, Haryana, India Zomato is the leading food delivery, search and discovery platform based out of Delhi NCR, India; also operational in markets outside the country. I have worked with diverse teams and functions in the organization - sometimes volunteered to build and evolve products across sales and operations. My journey across the organisation is outlined below:

Grew Net Promoter Score (NPS) for Delivery Partners (June'21 - Sep'21):

We were rated quite low on the Fairwork India Ratings 2020; an international rating system for digital labour platforms, based at University of Oxford - which meant that the delivery partners were not happy with the system. Worked to fix the problems and increase fairworks ratings along with NPS (internal rating bar) by building a system which empowers the field managers. Was involved with building an app for the field managers - which had the performance data for each delivery partner and a call function.

Cost Optimisation Project (Feb'20 - June'21)

Reduced operational costsfor the company in terms of rider payouts. Streamlined processes and A/B tested various rules that helped the organisation make profit, and also, kept delivery partners happy. This project had a direct impact on company’s revenue. Brought the CPO (cost per order) down by 10% in 6 months. Also, reduced the time to roll out a specific rate card for a cohort of delivery partners from 2 days to 15 seconds through a product change. Constantly evolved processes and kept the cost under the target threshold.

Communications to Delivery Partners (June'19 - June'21)

Delivery partners need to be communicated about each update that we do internally - payout related, performance related or app related. Owned the entire process end to end - from requesting the communications, getting them approved and sending them to the correct target partners. Also, helped the team develop an internal tool that makes the process a lot easier and automated.

Feeding India (Dec'19 - Feb'20)

Feeding India (a NGO acquired by Zomato) had some operational issues with batching and order flows, since this was a CSR and we didn’t want the budget of the team to go high, I consulted them to build a supply chain system. Was deeply involved in building app for the truck partners and speaking with external stakeholders (Locus - a logistics planning and optimisation software company) for route planning and optimisation.

Churn Prevention and Control (Jun'19 - Feb'20)

We had an SOS call where the riders were churning out of the system at an alarming rate (~15%). Volunteered to solve for it and managed to bring down the churn percentage to half (~8%). Created ML predictive models to solve for this. Found out process gaps while solving for churn and fixed them.

Breakfast Category Growth (Feb'19 - Jun'19)

Took initiative to expand operational hours (7AM - 11AM) by featuring breakfast as a category for the emerging cities. Breakfast slot was the top growing mealtime then. Scaled to 4x orders in 2 months, with a 60% increase in the OTR (order through rate). Achieved this though increasing merchant supply and curating great feed on the consumer app.

City Launch (July'18 - Feb'19)

We had to expand our business to multiple geographies at an accelerating pace. I was involved in launching cities across the country - took ownership of the entire city launch, from sales and operations to hiring and training

Rider Quality (May'18 - June'18)

The main reason for decreased NPS score was frequent rider issues. Evolved processes of communication with the delivery fleet. Ensured that the disciplinary issues related to riders decrease overtime

User Experience (March'18 - May'18)

Was involved in fixing algorithms that hampered UX. Decreasing delivery time and upgrade the quality of food by increasing the AAAQ (Affordability, Accessibility, Assortment and Quality) score. Worked on NPS across three main legs - delivery, merchant and customer, and, found reasons for a bad NPS score and solved for them.

Order Growth on Zomato delivery (Nov'17 - Feb'18)

Made processes to smoothen the restaurant listing on online ordering platform. Achieved this with limited resources such as making a product on google suite (sheets, calendars).

3P Logistics (July'17 - Oct'17)

Managed 3rd party logistics services for cities Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Major KPIs included managing their payouts, service compliance, process and product changes. The partners were the leading e-comm delivery services in the country - shadowfax, Grab, Runnr (acquired by Zomato), Delhivery.

DriveLocus and BlueJack

(March 2017 - June 2017)

Business Head

New Delhi, India Drivelocus and Bluejack - was an on growing used car aggregator startup in addition to providing self-drive cars. I was looking after sales, operations, making robust processes, fundraising and legal. Was valued at about $10 million when it was sold.

Swiggy

(May 2015 - March 2017)

Sales Manager (Jan'16 - Mar'17) Gurgaon, Haryana, India Swiggy is a food delivery startup in India - we were short of restaurants during early ‘16, hence took an initiative to build up supply for New Delhi, India. Helped the company pull in clients which had a significant impact on the revenues. Also, worked across Product, Finance and Marketing teams to solve the technical glitches that Swiggy faced in its initial stages.

Assistant operations Manager (May'15 - Jan'16):
My basic KPI's were to ensure that there are adequate delivery executives in the area for the projected number of orders. Along with this, since the team was small - streamlined processes for hiring, sourcing and onboarding of delivery partners.

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