[waseemalim]

Thanks, these are very good points. Below are our thoughts:

* We will be maintaining warehouses in every single area. We currently have 2 but plan to have 9 to cover the entire city. That is the only way to ensure 1 hr delivery. We are also offering this service for products which are fast moving (around 1500 SKUS). Slower moving products are sent from the main warehouse.

* We will need a bit of capital, but not as much as most people think, it costs us around $230k to start a warehouse and run it for six months. It is a lot cheaper than starting a departmental store in Dhaka, and you get far more efficiency per sq. ft as you are not optimizing for a "browse experience" for shoppers. Our shoppers are our employees and we can control their movement for maximum output/sq. ft. Theory is departmental stores can survive, so can 7000 sq. ft. warehouses.

* I don't see why accountability and management challenges should be any different in BD than it is in the US. Enough startups have thrived in India and China.

* Bangladesh also has a decent history of foreign investments with companies like Telenor and Microsoft managing local offices. So corporate accountability does exist in the country.