A Friend Indeed -GrabOn’s roaring success at the August fest 2015
9 years ago Varun RastogiI got my pass verified and walked in to The August Fest 2015  . I was greeted with an array of startups exhibiting and a hall abuzz with people and realization draws upon me – I arrived at the right place!
Through the crowd parting  I could see Grabon and wondered what and why are they exhibiting?
With 1.4 crore page views per month, 4 million unique visitors per month and 5.5 million coupons being redeemed monthly Grabon is way past its initial struggles .
Hmmm… this makes no sense.
Intrigued, I walked up to their stall to check it out.
I was greeted by the smiling exhibitors and then the mystery unravelled.
They are here to support every student who had come to august fest spending his pocket money on the entry pass , to support young budding startup entrepreneurs dealing with the uncertainties and hardships of starting up, to support each an every cost cutter at saving more for himself.
Armed with interesting coupons such as 15% off on Paradise biryani  (which is a first in the history of Paradise) because according to them “Hyderabad mai aake biryani nahi khaya toh kya kiya ji”  aimed for all the people who had landed in Hyderabad from other cities , flat 15% discount on any car hired from ZoomCar and various other attractive discounts on electronics, grocery, etc  they captured the crowds interest in a jiffy .
Keeping in mind the students  coming to the August fest they also offered water bottles and chocolates  complimentary which got them a lot of fans. Also a innovative venture to motivate entrepreneurs they converted the stall they had into an “entrepreneurial wall” where every entrepreneur was encouraged to write a few lines about the lessons they had learnt or a few thoughts about his/her startup or where they wanted to be in a few years. They also answered various questions regarding the challenges they had faced and how they developed into a nationally recognized brand
Chatting with us at the end of the day they told us about the varied crowd that had come to their stall like speakers, investors and about the interesting interaction  they had with  police officers from Gachibowli police station who loved the free coupons they offered. People taking selfies was a common site at the stall and the coupon redemption rate was 70% .From observing the way they conducted the proceedings their core value as company stands right out to help its customers save on everything.
Meeting the folks working at GrabOn , interacting with them and understanding their challenges was a totally mind-blowing experience. Their wall was a super hit with the crowd. They came. They saw. And they conquered.