Four years after its quiet pivot from a cloud kitchen to quick commerce, Zippee is marking an anniversary built on persistence. In a founder’s note shared to commemorate the milestone, Madhav Kasturia traces the journey from a 90-day stretch of silence in the company’s first dark store to a network that now runs 80+ dark stores and powers 150+ brands across 13 cities.
Zippee: A pivot that started with an empty floor
Kasturia recalls shutting down his cloud kitchen to launch Zippee’s first dark store, a move that didn’t immediately click. For 90 days, he writes, the floor stayed empty while the clock kept ticking. The company had raised capital and had a plan, but demand did not show up on command.
“Experts” he consulted were blunt: “Customers don’t care about speed. You’ll never make money. Q-commerce is just hype.” In that phase, he says, self-doubt crept in. What persisted, however, was what he calls “1% hope.”
The grind behind the first win
That 1% translated into action: week after week, Kasturia says he cold-called 100 brands. Most said no. One said yes, Baskin Robbins. That early anchor partnership became the foot in the door Zippee needed.
The sequence is instructive. There was no sudden virality, no instant product-market fit. Instead, a weekly, methodical outreach cadence compounded into traction.
Where Zippee stands today?
On the company’s fourth anniversary, the founder highlights the scale Zippee operates at today, numbers that sketch a business that has moved well beyond proof-of-concept:
- 80+ dark stores
- 150+ brand relationships
- 13 cities
Kasturia frames these as milestones on a longer journey rather than a finish line, adding, “we’re just getting started.”
Speed, Trust and Time
At the core of the story is a simple bet: that speed does matter to customers, and that brands will value a reliable quick-commerce partner. Zippee’s approach, as described by its founder, combined speed-as-proposition with patience-as-process, absorbing months of low demand, absorbing skepticism, and steadily assembling brand trust one call at a time.
The first yes (Baskin Robbins) is notable not just as a logo win but as a signal. In partner-led businesses, the inaugural deal is often the hardest; it establishes referenceability and makes the second, third, and fiftieth conversations easier.
Much of the anniversary note reads as a thank-you: to the internal team that built the operating backbone; to the brands that took an early chance; and, interestingly, to the “no”s that forced sharper pitches and tougher resolve. It’s a founder’s perspective, but it also sketches a culture, one where rejection is treated as a data point, not a dead end.
Quick commerce is often reduced to a headline about minutes-to-doorstep. Zippee’s four-year mark, as told by its founder, adds needed context: behind speed is an infrastructure of dark stores, brand integrations, and daily operational discipline. Behind growth is a long runway of unanswered calls and an empty store that stayed empty, until it didn’t.
“To the team that built this, most importantly to the brands that trusted us, and to every ‘no’ that eventually became our next yes, thank you.” – Madhav Kasturia, Founder, Zippee
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