Oshme is a platform that helps people choose the best establishments in the city.

Taufik Khisamov, PR Specialist, CEO of Oshme startup.

How We Started

@Oshme_bot is a guide to restaurants, cafes, bars, and pubs in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, with the ability to book tables at establishments and receive discounts.

The project was launched in April 2022 in Uzbekistan amid a large influx of relocators to Central Asia. Many were poorly oriented in local establishments and did not have SIM cards for communication, and the guide helped with finding a venue and online table booking.

To simplify communication, we chose the Telegram platform, as in Uzbekistan, Telegram is the main means of communication and information search. The goal was for not only newcomers to use Oshme, but also locals.

Local restaurants supported the project, and we launched special discounts from establishments. This led to growth and attracted the first audience. Oshme was created not for the purpose of earning money, but to offer people a convenient tool for finding and choosing venues.

The project was launched with personal funds: at the start, we invested about $4,000. By the end of 2022, Oshme reached break-even. And in March 2023, when we introduced the SaaS model, we started making money. Now we need investments for scaling.

Target Audience

Oshme positions itself as a restaurant guide. Its task is, on the one hand, to help users choose a venue, book a table, and on the other hand, to help restaurants increase awareness and attract customers.
Additionally, we help establishments sell at higher ticket sizes through our marketing tools. For example, we conduct gastronomic festivals that help restaurants advertise themselves, offer exclusive offers to visitors, and allow users to discover culinary delights in their city at a discount.
Idea Behind the Product

I was born and raised in Tashkent, so many friends and colleagues often turned to me for recommendations on where to try plov, drink coffee, or have breakfast. And when there were many requests, I decided to accumulate all this into one product.
Thus, we created a bot to automate the process of choosing venues. Initially, all well-known and recommended venues by me were added, and then, as we studied the market, new ones were added. At that time, the Oshme gastronomic club was also created, where everyone interested in gastronomy could gather together, explore new places, and leave reviews about them. We only add verified restaurants.
Achievements in 2023

In early 2023, we entered the accelerators of the IT Park and Aloqa Tech Lab in Tashkent, where we improved our skills in management and planning. In addition, we won the prestigious startup competition in Uzbekistan Tumaris.Tech and reached the semi-finals of the Astana Hub Battle competition in Kazakhstan.
The last success in Kazakhstan had a strong impact on us, giving a boost to launching Oshme in Almaty and Astana. We went to the competition in Almaty and decided to demonstrate our product in practice, showing how it works. We agreed with several restaurants, and among those who supported us was the pizzeria Roni Pizza, where we ultimately held an after-party following the competition.
On Difficulties

The main difficulty was communication with restaurants. Not everyone understood and took us seriously. The restaurant market is very pragmatic; everyone is used to standard marketing mechanisms for attracting customers. We offer new tools and for the first time in Uzbekistan conducted a gastronomic festival in the European format of Oshme Gastro Festival. Those who supported us won: they earned extra and gained an increase in regular customers.
A dozen restaurants earned more than $10,000 in a short period of time. For bars, we came up with the format of Oshme parties, which helped introduce the audience to interesting evening venues. But not all establishments were receptive. For instance, our first event was almost ruined by the owners of the venue, who demanded additional payment from us. To save face and reputation, we paid. We also faced cyber-squatting, when our unique name was attempted to be stolen and money was extorted from us.
Plans for 2023

We are preparing to launch a website, where we will develop several more interesting niches that will increase our capitalization. And attracting external investments would accelerate this process. For example, the global market leader OpenTable initially attracted $38 million, and its revenue is about $300 million per year. But we are looking for Smart Money, where we could be useful to our partner, and he to us. In Russia, for example, table booking services are integrated into banking applications.
Currently, our task is to increase the client base in the form of restaurants, launch the web version of the product, simultaneously implement several interesting ideas that I cannot talk about yet, and fully enter the markets of Kazakhstan and other countries of Central Asia and the CIS. We have already been offered to launch the service in Argentina and Brazil, but we are cautious; we want to refine everything first in our own country.