Team RB - The Engine to our Enterprise

Back in 2015, we were just getting Royal Brothers off the ground as graduates of Mechanical Engineering. As co-founders, we were still floundering and figuring things out for our hatchling start-up that we thought was the coolest business model and had the coolest name - Royal Brothers Bike Rentals. Fresh out of college, we didn’t have prior experience working in an official environment. And with limited resources, we were formulating how to set up our start-up and get our 2-wheelers on the road. In fact, during the initial days, I used to sit in the RB office, brainstorm with myself and then work on maintaining our inventory on an Excel sheet!

As things began to grow and RB started getting back-to-back bookings, I decided that I needed to spend more time in the office making executive decisions. It started to hit real soon that business was more complicated than just renting bikes. You had to procure the inventory, market to potential customers, showcase the inventory that they were actually looking for, book the inventory so that bookings didn’t overlap...the list went on and on. 

And like any business, there was always a challenge to keep growing the business and entice prospective investors. In reality, dreams are only the first step in an endless cycle of pursuing successful entrepreneurship. Soon, I literally did not have the bandwidth to be able to juggle several roles as our business slowly started to take off. It was then that we hired our first ever RB employee, Kishore, for Operations. FYI, he’s still  today at RB and we are very proud to have him on board.

With more bike rental bookings taking place and RB expanding to different cities across India, it was time to lean on technology to take us forward. This would enable customers to rent on their own, and keep track of their bookings. That’s how the formation of the Tech team began, led by our co-founder Akash S. We began prioritizing the building of the Royal Brothers website and app. Today, we not only have these up and running, but our team recently released our back-end Ops app that has made daily operations seamless.

It is said that 50% of a company’s success can be determined by its customer service. We wanted to build a solid foundation of trust with our customers, so they knew that reaching out to RB could be just a phone call away. Road assistance is a tough but necessary service, which meant that we needed to build a customer support team that would run 24/7. And so, the next team built was the customer service department, led by Kamal. They are the backbone of what we do, the face of the company to our customers. The team consistently works to imbibe processes that help to service our customers in a more efficient way.

Now, as an established company with stakeholders, we have a Business Development team, led by our co-founder, Kuldip Purohit. Working tirelessly, they look for vital opportunities to expand RB. Our marketing team, led by our CMO Uday, works to find ways to build the RB brand name and connect with riders as passionate about biking as us. Annamalai leads our Ops team, supported by Afsar, Ambrish and team. Together they work in tandem to make sure that processes go on seamlessly. We still have far to go, but we’re moving together. 

At Royal Brothers HQ in Indiranagar, Bangalore, we have an open door policy, meaning that there are no walls to separate departments. The idea since the beginning was that we work as a team, exchange ideas and inspire each other to work together. When we hire someone at RB, it has more to do with their skill and potential. We have people from all walks of life, cultural backgrounds and dietary preferences (this might sound odd to add to the list, but people can be very picky about what they eat!).  Together we work towards the same goal - to make Royal Brothers the trusted name in mobility in the country. So far, we are on the right track.