O F F – S H O R E has been declared one of the startups to be in the third batch of Banglalink IT Incubator, along with six others namely ANTT Robotics LTD, Booktionary.com, Ghautaan, Karukotha Software LTD, Mess Book and Save Up IT. O F F – S H O R E is an e-commerce website for goods that are not readily available in the country.
Banglalink IT Incubator is a joint initiative with Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) of ICT Division and is designed to identify and grow innovative ventures. As a part of VEON’s (Banglalink’s parent company) group-wide program “Make Your Mark”, the incubation program works with high-impact early-stage startups every year and provides the selected startups (after thorough vetting) with their much-needed working space and mentorship. The top 7 startups of the third iteration has been declared on the 11th of February. Until now, Banglalink has worked with over 16 different startups from two of their batches.
What is O F F – S H O R E : The Journey
O F F – S H O R E took off as an e-commerce platform inside Islamic University of Technology (IUT). It all happened with a young woman’s fascination for noodles.
Saziea Afrin loved Kimchi-Ramen noodles, and she brought some home with her whenever she went to Thailand. She started living in university dormitories because traveling from IUT to Dhaka everyday proved to be a hassle. Women share everything while living together. Saziea shared her noodles. Everyone loved it. So, now when she was leaving for Thailand again, she knew she had to bring more for her friends.
This led to the thought of helping people out who are in need of goods that are not always available in the country. Coming from an engineering background, she and her friends have always faced the need to import parts for projects from China for more than double the original price excluding taxes.
O F F – S H O R E began to sell inside IUT, with the occasional two or three orders from outside. She would make friends traveling outside the country bring back certain things for other friends who wanted them and were ready to pay; for a small commission. The business began to grow. I thought of mixing up a little bit of what I learnt in engineering into the business. We formed a team of four people and sprinkled in a little data science into the operations. We formed a complete business plan and registered for Banglalink IT Incubator 3.0.
Operations: How We Work
People can register with O F F – S H O R E as travelers. While placing an order (as a buyer), one must provide an ecommerce site link or a link to the shop from which the good is to be acquired. We check whether or not the order is doable and the availability of a traveler in that country. We connect the traveler with the buyer, so that they can communicate between themselves and clarify small details about the product. We keep a small commission for the traveler and based on that, fix a price for the product, that needs to be paid in full in order to confirm order. The estimated time of arrival is fixed, and we are good to go.
We ensure product quality. Each product is hand-checked at our office before handing it over to our customer. We offer a 100% cashback policy for wrong products or delayed delivery. However, we have not had to face the embarrassment of a product replacement, misplacement or cashback till date.
Our Reach
Primarily, we are targeting the Asian market only. We however plan on diversifying out to the west as well, but that is for the long term.
How are we special? We sell noodles.
Our Inspiration
We come from a country where education holds no value. Your credentials are judged based on a number. Engineering students such as ourselves can relate when I say, nobody understands anything, but we pass anyway. People pay little heed to skills.
Coming from such adverse scenarios, we have seen few of our seniors trying to make a change with their skills, and failing bad. Few people get cooperation or mental support. The odds are stacked heavily against entrepreneurs, and it’s definitely worse in case of the younger ones.
We have seen people failing left and right, and every failure inspired us. We learnt from our fallen brothers and their inspirations. We tried to do something based on the little knowledge that our upbringing has blessed us with. We want to help the people around us with what we know. This is a tribute to everyone we have seen failing, our startup is meant for them to know that they helped fuel this to an extent they themselves do not know of.
As is said in Silicon Valley, “We want to make the world a better place.”
Our Team
Team O F F – S H O R E is a very humble one. Among the co-founders apart from Saziea as the Chief Executive Officer and myself as the Chief of Operations, we have two brilliant twins contributing with their knowledge on website and application development, Takia Mosharref Nobo as Chief Financial Officer and Tabia Mosharref Borsho as Chief Technical Officer. Besides, studying in my own department, we have a sophomore from Electrical, Tarvir Shahriar as Creative Director. He does our graphics.
I have been studying machine learning for quite some time now. I won’t say that I’m any good. I had been upset because even with the skillset, I lacked the means to do anything significant. I had been sitting alone in this place we call the tree park. Tabia brought me some noodles and said, “You could sulk over how much you suck, or you could accept your incapabilities (that is not the exact word she used) and start trying to make a difference from your position even if it means nothing. Because you suck either way; if you try, you are at least doing something while sucking.” That night I knocked Takia (partly because I couldn’t meet her in the evening due to the sexist laws on our campus) and asked her if they had any place in their tiny venture inside IUT for a data analyst. They didn’t. The customer base was too small back then. But I am pretty glad I asked.