My Story of Starting, Successfully Running and then shutting down Qasai App is a journey full of things to learn. Many potential founders can learn from my journey so I decided to pen down these learnings.
Qasai App was a chapter in my entrepreneurial journey that began when I was in University (Jamia Millia Islamia) and had began my career as a web developer at Idea Quotient Labs.
The name.
Me and my colleague were discussing the fact that even the randomest word you can come up with are all booked. So to test that we started typing things like “kawwa”, “Billi”, “Qasai” and yes, the .com were indeed booked.
Somehow the word Qasai clicked. The name “Qasai” (قصائی) means butcher in Urdu. and I checked whether qasai.in was available and it was indeed available, so I booked it initially thinking I’ll make a blog or something.
But the idea and thought started taking roots and I thought why not built an app on it in my free time.
So I started designing app screen and logo for a meat delivery app in photoshop.
Created the app overnight in phonegap
Since I wasn’t focussed on app development I chose the tech I knew – HTML, CSS, JQuery and built the interface like an app – complete with swipe gestures and tabs etc. in phonegap – a tech adobe used to host.
The Idea: Qasai App
Thus idea became this
- Hyperlocal meat delivery
- Clean, fast, reliable service
- Mobile-first ordering experience
- Halal Products since it’s important for people in my area
At first, it felt like a no-brainer. I would connect local butchers, ensure quality control, and let users order meat just like they’d order anything online.
Finally uploaded the app
I uploaded the app to playstore and put it on my whatsapp status.
- Some 10 to 10 People installed it
- Got 2 orders on the first day even though I didn’t have any such plans to deliver or make it a business really
Seeing that I got order on the first day I got encouraged. I knew nothing about meat business.
Partner and Team
By chance a friend who was in the same university as mine ‘Sultan Qureshi’ needed a website and met me at Idea Quotient Labs to discuss the project. In the meantime I told him of how I created an app and I knew nothing about meat business. He showed me a keen interest in joining it and making it a business.
I got hopes high since “Qureshi” families are known for their meat business in India. I told him that the logistics and advertising door to door are things I can’t handle, neither going store to store to make partnerships. He offered that he has contacts for door to door thing and also that he will take care of delivery for 30% equity of the business. We shook hands over the deal. My partner brought another guy for delivery who worked truly very hard and was honest. One day my partner asked me to give him equity which I refused saying you can give him equity from your own.
Later another friend of mine was added to by me from my equity for his expert advise.
Started Delivering
At this point we learned how complex the meat supply chain is. We had to coordinate with butchers, provide packaging, maintain hygienic standards, track deliveries, and handle customer queries — all in real-time.
Working with local butchers was a tragedy
- Most butchers were not honest people in our area – some would deliver rotten meat some day and fresh some other day
- Overcommit and under delivery – most butcher would say things that didn’t came to fruition in real time. e.g. “I can deliver you 200kg at a moments notice, I have farm” yet when the time came they didn’t even try to deliver
- Quality was not their concern or commitment – their main motivation is to make as much money as possible without giving much thought about consumption, hygiene, or returning customer – business mindset is not there
Trusting Delivery Boys was another tragedy
Since most delivery persons didn’t have a bike, we provided them our own bike. And to get the bike running it needed petrol.
We trusted our delivery boys to get their bike refilled with petrol and give us receipt of the billed amount which we reimbursed them. After few months during audit we discovered that they provided us with fake receipts obtained from petrol stations which were not even in our service area.
Also our model was that if we take cash from our customer, we asked delivery boys to pay it directly to the shop where order was fulfilled. Later we discovered that the delivery boys had opened credit line with the shop keeper in our name and left the job with the money. It was nearly impossible for us to recover our losses made this way.
You can’t depend on few delivery boy
If your business depends on few number of delivery persons you are in for a surprise on how fast they form group and plan their leaves together and you are left with no one to take care of deliveries.
Never provide your vehicle
We learned that everyday there would be a broken clutch, punctured tire or broken stand and what not. It was all because we reimbursed for the repairs. That led to this scam where we were reported bikes not working and thus hindering deliveries and making us double loss for reimbursements for repairs
We made a mistake taking restaurant order
One day we cracked a deal with a hotel that would take around 50kg of chicken a day. We carefully delivered and customer was happy. Next day we found out that the vendor that said “I can give you 200kg on moments notice” had their “truck seized by police”, meanwhile we saw him fulfilling his other orders – a deliberate attempt to sabotage our newly acquired client – maybe due to fear that our ‘computerised system will take over their business’. We met and decided not to take up restaurant side of the work until we figure out our main business
Surprises
- At the surface it looks like a low margin business but if planned well it can give you 50-80% margins
- We learn’t that even though mutton is costlier – it sells more than chicken when sold online
- We learn’t that customers are ready to pay more for parts than whole – for example you could sell ‘chicken breasts’ for twice the price of a whole chicken
- We got a lot of orders in Ramadan and Eids
- We learn’t that chicken loses 100grams a day in weight
- Some people were offended that we address them as Qasai instead called themselves Qureshi
Changes we made
- We picked a single store from all with best feedback from customer
- We hired multiple part-time (6 hour shift) delivery persons instead of full time
- We made our packaging and branding better with T-shirts
- We marketed aggressively by promoting in University Fest, Banners etc.
Results We Got
- At peak we had around 100 deliveries a day
- We recovered most of the cost of delivery persons etc and only had to pay for advertising at our end
- We had 4.8 Rating and Our customers were happy and we built a successful brand that ran for 2 years.
A breach of trust
A breach of trust happened wherein one of our partner got engaged in secretly delivering meat to different restaurants in our name. We fired him from the team after giving him a fair chance and conditions to fulfil which he didn’t meet.
…then covid hit
It could have been best time for our growth but unfortunately we didn’t have our own store so we couldn’t step outside without license.
We opened our own store
Once covid quarantine was relaxed we opened a store – arranging equipments and supply was a big headache. Then finding skilled labor was also a big problem in pandemic.
We got scammed being noobs, on first day at store
A guy who lived in front of our shop came and talked us into giving a ‘fixed’ price of chicken in advance. (We suspect he knew that price was going to rise)
Due to inexperience we committed to the price but the day it was to deliver the price got increased to 2x. We made a very big loss – for every kg of 200kg that we gave him we made a loss of Rs. 120 (~$2 at the time)
Skilled labor is on shortage
It was really a surprise for us. We had so far seen the butchers skilfully make chicken ready in 5 minutes. But the guy we had hired, would take half an hour over a single chicken.
The owner of the property where our store was located, was another breed
The guy was such an unprofessional and impatient man, that I wondered how he accumulated all his property (probably inherited?). He would start asking for rent 7 days before due date, not politely but like a boss, and kept asking, calling and nagging until we paid. We got so fed up of his tantrums that we decided to shut the shop and move elsewhere just three months later.
We never opened again.
What I Took Away
Qasai App taught me more than any degree or job could. We did it all while each of us was maintaining a full time jobs. It built a solid understanding on people, trust, logistics, margins, and human behavior. While we never opened again, the experience continues to shape how I approach business, partnerships, and risk. Would I do it all over again? Maybe differently — but absolutely, yes.
Future
Although the original operations have stopped, I’ve held onto the domain and the website, which still receives occasional orders. Now, I’m rebranding Qasai App as Qasai Halal — shifting the focus from a delivery service to a trusted halal meat brand.
The vision is to build a supply-side brand that partners with quick commerce platforms and third-party delivery services, allowing customers to get high-quality halal meat reliably, wherever they shop online. Instead of managing the last-mile delivery ourselves, we aim to become a recognized brand in halal meat — with quality, hygiene, and trust as our core pillars.
This new direction is leaner, more scalable, and aligned with the lessons learned from the first phase of Qasai.
