Kannauj lies about 80 km from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and is home to nearly 85,000 people, fitting the traditional description of a small town. But for entrepreneur Sandeep Deshmukh, it is an important and a sizable geography. So are the neighbouring towns of Bilgram, Tirwaganj and Bangarmau, each with a population of less than 30,000.

For the longest time, consumer goods companies and distributors drove past India’s quietest corners without a second glance as the cost of selling there was higher than the projected returns. Deshmukh, born in a farming family in Maharashtra’s Pimpalgaon Raja village, experienced the skewed market dynamics early in his life. 

“Why would someone go to a remote village in UP when the topline can come so easily from a Bandra store (in Mumbai)?” said Deshmukh, who was a part of Amazon India’s launch team in 2011, focusing on formulating and executing its logistics networks.

In 2015, Deshmukh sought to spotlight the demand in underserved rural India by co-founding kirana commerce startup ElasticRun.