Investment memo: Buncha

Company: Buncha

CEO: Bharat Pulgam

Stage: Seed with revenues in 7-figures scaling rapidly

Thesis

I have to admit, I had no idea what to expect when I took the meeting with Bharat.

On its face, buncha sounds like a competitor to instacart, or another player in the crowded delivery space.

In some ways it is, but its so much more.

To the consumer, buncha is social commerce. Get predictable, super cheap delivery from places like target or costco.

But to the store themselves, buncha is so much more.

To the store, buncha acts as a single customer. Usually the biggest customer. The store can work with buncha to have the order packed during a time when the store is most empty (helps the store). And the software buncha has built for store managers and the "packers" is amazing. And lastly, buncha enables stores who don't have delivery, to have delivery.

And I love the growth model.

Since buncha groups orders from multiple households together, they end up becoming that stores biggest, most predicatable customer. So let's say buncha operates around Boston at the nearby costco.

They end up building a relationship as a super duper VIP customer with that costco's manager.

Then maybe they're expanding to new hampshire, and the influence the existing costco manager has in seamlessly bringing buncha into the NH costco, is hard to understate.

I also loved Bharat's figure it out mentality. He used to, maybe even still does deliveries with his team, as a way to better learn the model, and build better software.

This one is exciting because it combines consumer social commerce, with retail store profit optimization and a fantastic go-to-market.