All Posts in Interviews

|In: Cabto|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

How many times you have encountered a situation where you are looking out for a cab on your favourite on-demand-cab app but not getting it due to huge demands or due to circumstances which are not under your control. In such scenarios, you launch the next Cab app and repeat the same set of actions 🙂

Multiple App Hops is a common issue that many startups are trying to address across various sectors like Ticket Booking, Cab Booking etc. Cabto, a Bengaluru based startup wants to make booking a cab hassle-free for consumers so that they do not have to download multiple apps [like Ola, Uber etc.]

In layman terms, Cabto is a Vertical Marketplace in the Travel Category. Today we have a chat with Syed Hidayath [Founder & CEO of Cabto] about Cabto, On-Demand Economy, Marketing, Entrepreneurship & much more. So, let’s get started…

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Cabto is founded by Syed Hidayath. Syed has a BE in Mechanical Engineering from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore graduated in 2005. He comes with a decade of experience in IT industry.  A self driven professional having great passion for entrepreneurship.

He has gained enormous knowledge on the Cab industry over last 2 years and has been driving this ambitious project since inception. Syed is extremely passionate about solving the problems faced by customers in Travel industry & believes in providing a travel marketplace which will provide options to all categories in India.

When and how did your come up with the idea of Cabto ?

In end of 2014 I started using cabs instead of my car, the comfort of driver coming to your doorstep to pick me, not having to drive/looking for parking excited me  in addition to it being an economical option. But slowly as the demand started increasing, cabs got scarce. You had to hook into multiple cab apps to check cabs available around you.  This made me realize that we need a platform which lets us see all cabs available under one single platform. We started approaching Ola & other players in 2015 seeking for their data to address this problem to customers. This is how Cabto was born !!

Being a cab aggregator, what is the kind of partnership you have with on-demand cab companies like Uber, Ola etc. ?

Their API’s are integrated with Cabto so customer can get the information from all these companies in one single platform. We are on an affiliate commission model with our partners.

How does Cabto take care of customer complaints or discrepancies if any encountered by the customers ?

Cabto raises the customer issues to respective services providers & works with them to address the issues related to service.

What is the revenue model of CABTO [is it based on commission per ride] ?

Yes

How much has Odd-Even rule affected the entire Cab industry and taxi-aggregator startups ?

An odd even rule increases the demand for cabs greatly. With 50% private vehicles forced to stay out of the roads & these users have options like carpooling, public transport which are still not sufficient to serve such a demand. So great portion of these users switch to Cabs. There is a increase of 20%-30% in terms of bookings during odd even rule.

What is the Total Market Size of the Cab/Taxi aggregators or travel marketplace in India ?

According to Soft Bank, the organized taxi sector may be worth around $7 billion by 2020.

How is Cabto funded [Self funded, Angel, CV etc.] ?

Self Funded [Family & Friends]

What are some of the USP’s that Cabto has as compared to other taxi-aggregator apps available in the market ?

  • We are the first player to initiate talks with Ola on this model so we built this model working with our partners. So have deep understanding of this industry.
  • One of the top ranked app in play store with consist good ratings.
  • Fastest growing app in its segment. 2.3X growth month on month  in app bookings.
  • Aggregation of Outstation/Self drives/Ride shares/Women taxis/Shuttle/Auto/Bike taxis/Inter city
  • Plan to integrate public transport.

What are the initial challenges that you faced once you started working on the idea [or turned an entrepreneur]

Our biggest challenge was to convince the service providers for this model. We Spent over 6 months approaching out partners on this. Building a strong team covering all areas like technology, marketing, operations is really a challenge. We are glad over a period of one year we were able to build a great team which we believe can deliver to our vision of building India’s largest travel marketplace.

What are some of the growth hacking techniques that are being used for Cabto and some tips for our readers.

First & foremost build a great product. Once you accomplish this then it will sell on its own with little bit of awareness. Build a strong team by offering good perks/ESOP’s to keep them motivated to their highest levels, make your friends as your products marketing people.

Some insights into marketing [Lessons learnt while marketing Cabto] ?

Look for economical ways, Identify right target customer base and Spend your budget on this segment. Don’t overspend on offline campaigns initially as you may not be able to measure their results, research for best CPI options, focus on bringing awareness.

What are some of the qualities that entrepreneurs should look into while hiring their initial set of employees ?

Find initial hires who are self driven, masters in their job [You don’t need a team of coders if you can find a master coder]. Look for people who share same passion as you, who understand your vision & excited to be part of the process. At the same time make sure this is a job they are enjoying the most, a job they dreamt of. If not, they are already thinking of their next dream job & they may not be giving 100%.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]

Address customer issues on priority, Focus in increasing organic growth, Spend every penny wisely, target the right customer base, take care of your critics,  bottom-line is build a great product which you can market with minimum budget.

When should an entrepreneur look out for external funding ?

When you have reached some traction & need heavy funds to accelerate your growth which you cannot pool in your circles.

On-demand companies like Uber, Ola are facing the heat for Surge Pricing, Government regulations etc. Would this not curb the overall growth of the on-demand economy ?

It will affect the revenue generation to some extent.  I feel surge pricing has already been re-modelled to keep pricing within the prescribed limited by government. The demand in this industry has skyrocketed as people want a vehicle to their doorstep in click of a button so it will not affect the industry.

Some tips for aspiring entrepreneurs and something that keeps you motivated everyday for your startup ?

Don’t just build a product, work on building a solution to an existing problem which still doesn’t exist. You can sell a solution but not just a product. Look for new sectors as you may already have enough competition in existing sectors. Also important to look for your passion, what you would love to work on. If you are passionate you will never regret it working on your dream 18 hrs a day.  Focus on building a great team, Look for experts in their field, Delegate work efficiently and Make them responsible & accountable for work. Slowly you need to start building teams who handle their own tasks which lets you focus on  higher level tasks.

An entrepreneur should have relentless passion to build a great product. You will face challenges everyday which will test your mental strength to highest possible stage. Always remembering the dream & reading motivational videos/articles helps you to  pass those hurdles.

Do give Cabto app a shot and share across your feedback/questions in the comments section. If you have any questions for Syed Hidayath about the app, entrepreneurship etc., email them to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: Interviews|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Being a Mumbaikar, I really love local food especially Vada Pav but when I moved to Bengaluru; I missed it a lot 🙂 In Bengaluru, I found love in Idli Dosa, 99 Dosas etc. The best thing about India is that each city has it’s own uniqueness especially Local food. If you are a visitor to any city, you would have definitely wished to have “Famous Dishes” from local food joint 🙂 If you have any friend in that city, (s)he can guide you but if you are on your own, you have no option left – But to explore !!!

This is the gap ‘”Exploring local Food across India” that Bengaluru based startup – TalkingStreet is trying to address. It is part of the NASSCOM 10,000 Startups & is based out of the NASSCOM warehouse. Today, we have a chat with Maheima Kapur [Founder & CEO of TalkingStreet] about her entrepreneurial journey, Marketing, NASSCOM 10K startups etc. So, let’s get going with the Q&A…

[PS :  I in the article refers to Maheima Kapur]

Can you give a small background about yourself, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Local / Street Food is an important aspect of the culture of a city. It is something that interests many people. Travelers, local residents, foodies are all excited at the idea of sampling local food across the city, provided they are pointed to it by someone they trust. However, discovering popular street-side eateries and vendors is impossible without a local guide.

Talking Street is the local foodie friend that all traveling foodies wish they had in a city. The platform curates & showcases the best of popular, local eateries, so that foodies can hyper-locally discover delicious local food around where they are. This includes very popular eateries in cities as well as street food hangouts recommended by foodie contributors.

It offers self-guided food tours and organizes food events to bring popular food, stall owners and foodies together. An example is below

Talking Street is a sole founder startup. I have around 9 years of work experience across different FMCG organizations. I am a Physics graduate from Sri Satya Sai University and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. My core area of expertise and interest is consumer insights and marketing mix development.

The core team @ Talking Street consists of Naganand Doraswamy and Siddharth Mathur, apart from me. Naganand Doraswamy is a mentor to the startup. He has around 25 years of experience and is president of TiE Bangalore. He is Co-founder and EVP of SPAN.

Siddharth is the Technical Advisor to Talking Street. He is the founder of Fastah, an app with a mission to make mobile internet more fun and enjoyable.

Talking Street is a lean startup. We work largely with consultants and interns. Here are some more details about the team that has made this startup a reality https://talkingstreet.in/meet-the-team/

How different is Talking Street different from other food-tech companies like Zomato etc. ?

At Talking Street our attempt is to help travelers experience the food culture of different cities by helping them eat at the most popular local eateries. So we take the help of foodies to map and share the most famous local eateries across cities. (It’s not just street food but popular eateries, which are often a mix of small eateries, iconic outlets as well as street food stalls).

Zomato is a listing platform, whereas as Talking Street is curated. We ensure that all the eateries on Talking Street are popular, hygienic and highly recommended by local foodies. Also, we don’t cover fine dine restaurants. To give you an example, there is a small eatery in Gandhinagar (in Bengaluru) who makes very good bhajji’s / pakoras (and is doing so for the last 20 years); you would probably not find it on Zomato but on Talking Street, eateries such as these are what we strive to list. Hence, Zomato offers a different value proposition as compared to Talking Street.

In out attempt to help users experience the food culture of a city, we like to cover eateries by including the stories of the people behind them. That adds hugely to the way people experience the food and understand the underlying cultural nuances.

Also, when we say that we are a curated platform, we do not list each & every local eatery on the platform. Only those outlets which meet our criteria are listed. The focus, is thus, on ensuring that our users have a superlative food experience whichever outlet they pick.

Is Talking Street bootstrapped, VC funded or Angel Funded ?

We are completely bootstrapped. We plan to go slow and build TalkingStreet organically 🙂 When time is right, we would definitely look out for funding but the current priority is on building the best experience for TalkingStreet users.

Talking Street is more about Local Food Exploration, so is it an aggregator of vendors who have fixed shop ?

We cover local eateries that make awesome food. We are aware that many of them do not have fixed locations but we track them. In case the vendor moves to a different location, we update his where-about on TalkingStreet.

You can refer this link to get more insights on how we choose the right vendors. Would like to share this video that gives more insights into the entire process.

Currently Talking Street is operational in how many cities in India ?

We have covered major part of Bengaluru. Though we are covering Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur etc., we are constantly adding joints to our respective city database. We are also open for suggestions of places from Foodies since they have the right taste buds and know-how about the food joint.

When someone suggests a place, we do not directly list them but our team checks on all the parameters like food, food quality etc. before listing them. We are also working on TalkingStreet mobile app that would be very useful in such scenarios.

How many vendors/joints have signed up with Talking Street & is there any sign-up fee for the vendor ?

We have more than 500+ joints present on TalkingStreet. There is no sign-up fee for the vendors. If the vendor makes awesome food that is loved by foodies, they definitely deserve a place on our platform.

Can you throw light on the revenue model of Talking Street [Free/Freemium etc] ?

Right now, we can skip this question 🙂

Any plan/tentative deadline to release the mobile app of Talking Street ?

We are working on the app and it should be there on the Store soon. Cannot comment on the deadline at this very moment 🙂

What are the major changes that you experienced when you became an entrepreneur ?

  • The need to manage and stretch time. There’s just never enough time in a day to get everything that needs to be done, completed.
  • The buck stops here. Everything stops at the founder. If something has to be done, I’ve got to do it. It’s especially stark with solo founders. In a bigger organization the responsibilities are divided.
  • There goes my work-life balance. I believed in a sharp work-life balance and avoided carrying work on my mind when I was away from my laptop. That changed significantly with entrepreneurship. I’ve often caught myself being totally wired into work over weekends, holidays, days-off. It’s not something I like and I’m working to change that.
  • Holidays have become work-actions – there’s always something to cover or research for Talking Street when I travel and while it’s fun for the most part of it, there are times when it’s like work following you even on a vacation 🙂

How much has NASSCOM 10K helped in accelerating your startup journey ?

NASSCOM 10,000 startups has been an amazing experience. Right from the very helpful startup kit that they give all the shortlisted companies, to the co-working space with all the startups who are ready to help at short notice. The NASSCOM team is super helpful at all times – they make huge efforts to connect the startups to relevant mentors, investors and experts. They also help the startups with media outreach and PR.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

  • Be clear about why you want to startup. A startup is hard work and while it might look glamorous from the outside, it’s actually far less shiny once you’re in. It calls for a high degree of commitment and perseverance. So be sure of why you want to do it. You see your idea solving a huge pain for users, you want to make an impact with your product, create jobs, want to build a large organization, want to be independent – know your reasons and recall them ever so often on your journey. Your reasons will guide you on whether to apply for funding or whether you should bootstrap, on what you should build and how you should build it.
  • Research your idea/concept before deciding taking the plunge. Make sure that there is a need and that someone will pay for what you are planning to build, at some point. Too often we startup without doing the necessary ground work to ascertain the need/use case for what we are creating. Doing the work required on understanding the user and his problem (for which you intend to solve) will help you understand whether that problem exists, whether it is important enough to solve and if yes, what is the route to solving it.
  • Enjoy the journey. Yes there’s a destination but it is going to be a tough, uphill climb getting there so there’s no point unless you are having fun along the way.

Importance & Role of mentor in any startup

Very important since a mentor is able to approach the business from a distance and thus sees things differently from the founder(s) who are right in the middle of it all. So (s)he brings an objective perspective to the business and growth. A mentor also brings deep knowledge of the ecosystem and thus is able to kick-start thought processes which aid decision making. My mentor gives me the space to chart a route that works for me while being very firm on the business deliverables. Conversations with him help me think clearly. He also holds me to the metrics that we lay down and it helps to have someone ask the tough questions, as he puts it.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up and Customer Acquisition ?

Businesses need to be very careful about scaling up. Technical products which scale easily without much physical infrastructure or manpower are different from businesses which require people and infrastructure to scale. Ensuring a delightful user experience has to be the key concern while taking scaling decisions. That means hiring the right people and making the required investments in process and infrastructure, both of which take time. Hence a 6 month, multi-city operation expansion can only lead to trouble, in my opinion.

There have been many examples of organizations needing to scale back or having to close down altogether in the last 6 months, because they scaled too fast in this mad rush to get more users. Getting more users cannot come at the cost of delivering a poor experience.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs [especially the core team] ?

Find people who have a high degree of commitment. It helps to have a team which doesn’t need supervision because they are as motivated as you are. For the core team, get people who share your values and vision, in addition to commitment. Teams break up and startups slow down or close because the core team does not see eye to eye. A deep trust and compatibility will always make journey interesting even in the tough patches.

Seed/Bootstrapped/VC funding ? Your thoughts on the same.

Bootstrap as far as you can go. Build an MVP and get to a stage of having a few paying customers. Then look for funding to scale faster. Funding at earlier stages comes at terms which need not be favourable and will bring unnecessary stress.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

  • Do live research with users at every step so that you spend time on the right aspects of the business/product.
  • Be firm in your belief and plough on, the road will emerge. Keep your burn low so that your runway is long and you can sustain yourself even if the product takes time to blossom.
  • Entrepreneurship is like an accelerated road to self-discovery. It brings out traits that we often didn’t think we possess – both positive and negative. In my case it has helped me become more aware of my insecurities and failings

We hope that you enjoyed the Q&A since it had lot of learning for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you have any questions for Maehima or the TalkingStreet team, please leave them in the comments section. Do give TalkingStreet a spin and leave your feedback here or email it at hello@talkingstreet.in

|In: Interviews|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

How many times have you encountered a situation where you are looking for Quotes from famous people or everyday quotes etc. and when you eventually search on Google (or Search Engine of your choice), you are bombarded with tons of websites, you might find the Quote but it would again be from an un-trusted source. The information around contemporary quotes is completely scattered and this is the problem that Paris based startup Storyzy (a Trooclick brand) is trying to solve for Information hungry internet consumers !!!

Today we have a Q&A with Stanislas Motte, Co-founder & CEO of Storyzy. We discuss about various aspects of Storyzy, Importance of Content, Entrepreneurial culture in Paris and much more.

StoryZy-new-logo

Can you give a small background about Storyzy and it’s founders ?

Storyzy is a Trooclick brand. Trooclick was founded in November 2012. The original goal of Trooclick’s founders was to create an automated fact-checking algorithm. The created and launched a plug-in that would fact check financial news articles, but the results were surprising – there were almost no voluntary errors. The team realized that, although errors are interesting, it’s omissions that are even more juicy. What people say, and what they don’t say, are quite revealing. So the team decided to make a pivot in late 2014 to the extraction of reported speech (quotes).

Trooclick was founded by a team of four. For, Stanislas Motte (CEO), Trooclick (Storyzy) is his second company. His first, Diora News, was one of the first news agencies that specialized in mobiles (in 1999). He sold DioraNews to Buongiorno, the world’s third multimedia mobile service company, owned by NTT DoCoMo. Pierre-Albert Ruquier (CMO) has 15 years experience in digital information and news distribution; he was also co-founder and associate CEO of Diora News. Arnaud Jacolin (CFO) is the former financial controller (French subsidiary) turned CFO of Buongiorno where he oversaw a more than $46 million growth in 2010. Ramón Ruti (CTO) contributed to the launch of iTouch Movilisto, a publisher of mobile content listed on the London stock exchange. In 2008, following the purchase of iTouch Movilisto by Buongiorno (bought out by NTT Docomo), he was given the direction of an international team of 15 engineers.

Can you explain about the features of Storyzy and how it can help content publishers with their content ?

Storyzy is the only systematic source for contemporary quotes. It searchable by keyword and topic and always provides source information for each quote (the article, or articles, where the quote can be found) and a date (publication date of article). There is no other quote database (that we know of) that specializes in the systematic indexation of contemporary quotes. For content marketers, Storyzy is helpful for content curation.

Currently, how many sites (approximately) does Storyzy index in order to extract the quotes from the articles ?

The Storyzy algorithm indexes more than 60 thousand publisher websites on a regular basis.

How does your back-end service ensure the genuineness and originality of the quote extracted from any particular website.

We have integrated a sort of automated editorialization into the Storyzy algorithm, which is divided into essentially 3 parts. The first part is all about grammar : The algorithm discards any speeches (quotes) that are not syntactically correct. With the well-formed speeches, two things happen. On the one hand, the speeches are giving an “interest” score. To this the algorithm identifies instances of subjectivity, informativity, comparison, forecasting, etc… the presence of these elements in a speech gives the speech points. This point system allows the algorithm to essentially “rank” quotes based upon a set of assumptions – it can raise to most interesting quotes to the top of a list.

On the other hand, the algorithm is capable of categorizing a speech as being either subjective or objective. In other words: is the speech primarily informative (i.e. “The sky is blue”)? Or is the speech more opinionated (i.e. “I think the sky is beautiful”)? Using the “interesting quotes” points system and the subjective/objective categorization, the Storyzy algorithm is able to highlight the most original and interesting quotes out of a large group.

When it comes to the genuineness of a quote – whether it is correctly attributed to the correct person – our system is only as accurate as the journalists who write the articles from whence the quotes are extracted. Every ounce of information found on Storyzy is extracted from the context of news articles. We are not in the business of fact checking [not anymore], our job is simply to generate structured news data directly from the text of news articles, and to compile data into a user-friendly interface.

Twitter has changed the way news/information is consumed, how exactly is Storyzy different from services like Twitter

Storyzy’s approach to news is unique because it is quote-focused. There are dozens of websites where you can go find motivation or inspirational quotes. The difference between Storyzy and these types of websites is that Storyzy is focused on the the quotes of today. On Storyzy, every quote comes with a date (publication date of associated article) and also with a source (or sometimes many sources) – two things that you don’t find on your typical “find a quote” website. This is important because it allows users to find contemporary brand-relevant quotes to curate and promote their brand message. We like to think of it as a new spin on reactive marketing : Inserting your brand into the buzzing conversational topics of the day [on social media, in the news, or elsewhere].

Can you touch base on the StoryzyAPI [it’s Usage, Pricing, etc.] which can be used by 3rd party dev’s, organizations, bloggers etc.

The Storyzy API has essentially 2 functionalities. The first gives users access to all of Storyzy’s data : quotes, people [plus their affiliation and photo when available], organizations and more. Users can recuperate information from the database via a keyword search or they can recuperate a 24 hour news cycle all in one go. The second gives users access to Storyzy’s engine : they can input news articles [one or more at a time, in almost any format: raw, binary, or a url] and the engine will extract and consolidate, all the news data from each article. The API is available on Mashape under a tiered pricing plan. User can make a small number of calls for free each month, the price goes up by a function of usage and difference endpoints have a different weight (in terms of pricing), due to the fact that the amount of data they deliver varies significantly. Storyzy is open to discuss pricing solutions and can be contacted at api@trooclick.com

Can you explain the revenue model of Storyzy ?

Storyzy’s revenue model is freemium. In 2016, use of the Storyzy interface [and all associated features and functionalities] will be free and use of the Storyzy API is paid. In 2017, premium features and functionalities will be added to the Storyzy interface, possible examples include: historical information, analytics and data visualizations, customized image and video creation, etc… These ideas are all presently being tested with our early adopters.

Can you touch upon Storyzy’s association with GEN Summit that is scheduled for June 2016

To give you some background, the Global Editors’ Network is a cross platform community of editors, committed to sustainable, high-quality journalism. We are delighted to be working in partnership with the organization at this year’s summit, which will bring together the trends set to define journalism in the year to come. We will also be exhibiting beside a number of industry leaders, including Google, the Knight Foundation, Russia Today and many others.

Is Storyzy/Trooclick bootstrapped or funded (angel/VC funded) startup ?

Storyzy [Trooclick] is not yet venture-backed, but does have the financial support of the three French banks. Trooclick’s founders personally invested $1 million in the company since its founding.

What are your thoughts on the way Digital Media is consumed [and future of Digital Media]

At Storyzy, we think it’s clear that it’s important for media companies and publishers to “go with the flow”. Things are changing, new social platforms, new content formats, new everything – every few months. The media companies that survive and flourish will be those that are willing to adapt their methodologies quickly to changing consumer habits. The companies that fail will be those that cling to the past.

Importance of Video in Marketing & Digital Media Consumption

The importance of video marketing cannot be overstated. We have a instagram account. An average photo post gets about 40 likes. The average video post get more than 1000 views and hundreds of likes. Need we say more.

Some thoughts about the startup eco-system in Paris ?

The startup ecosystem is Paris is great. The number of startups in the neighbourhood has grown tremendously in recent years. For example, Storyzy’s office is located in one of the many, brand new startup incubators in Paris. We share the building with probably close to 50 other startup companies.

Some marketing tips for startups ?

Curate news quotes of course! 😉 But quite frankly… curation [either on a blog and/or social media sites] is an excellent solution for the time-poor start-up. We all know that content marketing works – but content creation is usually a large investment. Content curation is a great compromise. In fact, we have written a post about it and you can Marketing Tips for Startups Our golden rule: Think hard about your target audience. What matters to them ? What would be useful to them ? That’s what you should curate and create.

If you have any questions for the Storyzy team, please leave a comment or email your request to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: Bounty|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

As a customer, what if you are paid just for checking-in or walking into a mall or a shopping outlet 🙂 It sounds exciting since you are incentivized for doing a small act !!! This is what Bounty mobile app has in store for it’s users and that too without your phone’s Bluetooth or GPS being turned ON (so you gain points without loosing any battery juice).

Bounty is a Bengaluru based startup founded by Satish Medapati. Today, we have a brief chat with him where he shares details about Bounty, his startup journey, entrepreneurship, funding & all things related to startups 🙂 So let’s start with the Q&A…

Image Source - Bounty App
Image Source* – Bounty App

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

Satish Medapati is the founder of bounty. He has a total of about 12 years of varied  experience across analytics, portfolio management, banking, entrepreneurship.  The other founder has similar level of experience in core data sciences. The core team also has Anita and Sandeep who manage Engineering and Growth respectively.

Bounty is a hassle-free mobile app that rewards users for just walking into a business location. Every time a user walks into a place, be it a restaurant, pub, saloon, spa, retail store etc, the app automatically recognises the person and location and alerts him/her to check-in. You have to just tap once to collect the reward points. These rewards can then be redeemed against a host of offline and online gift cards with no conditions and no coupons. Bounty works even without your GPS being on or when your internet is switched off too. Bounty app’s ‘Intelligent Assist’ feature automatically recognises your location and alerts you to collect reward points.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger of starting Bounty ?

Bounty began its journey on Feb 8th, 2015. The source of inspiration behind bounty is – How knowing and understanding a simple activity like eating or a weekly activity of visiting a mall can be so powerful in driving consumer experience that also results in businesses targeting efficiently without spamming the consumers with what they do not need..

How did you come up with name Bounty [is it somewhat co-related to Bug Bounty] ?

No its not related to bug bounty. We initially came up with lots of names and most were taken in this field. The idea was it’s a frictionless rewards app that gives you a lot and since we wanted it to be sweet and short, and not a hassle for people to remember either the spelling or the name, we came up with ‘Bounty’

Can you detail on the technology used in development of Bounty [i.e. Is it BLE based/Beacons based ?]

No, we do not use any hardware. In fact, bounty’s superior positioning in business circles is also due to this fact that there is no effort from a business to do business :). We do  indoor positioning to give automatic check-ins through intelligent assist. This patent-pending indoor positioning technology works without GPS or even without 4G/3G/internet.

Who are some of the existing partners of Bounty [Stores & redemption partners] ?

In terms of redemptions, we have more than 30+ brands including Flipkart, ebay, Amazon, movie vouchers etc. where you can redeem bounty points for gift cards or physical products without any conditions/coupons. In terms of physical stores, you can earn bounty points across 7500+ places in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Can you list the cities in which Bounty is currently operational ?

We are currently in Bangalore and Hyderabad though we have a small presence in Chennai too.

Can you take us through the entire process of redemption ? [Right from entering the partner store to process of redeeming points]

When a user visits a partner place, bounty app will automatically detect and send a notification alert. User clicks on the notification to check-in and collect points. User gets anywhere between 2 to 20 points (1 point = 1 rupee) depending on the store and other factors. Users needs a minimum of 100 points (pretty easy to get) to redeem for gift cards/physical products. The hardest part is select the gift that he/she wants to redeem. It could be amazon, flipkart, ebay vouchers or products like earphones, bags etc. Also, there is no social posting or anything for the check-ins. It’s all hassle free rewards!

Please share some numbers (downloads, offers redeemed etc.) with us

We have over 450k users who cloak millions of off-line check-ins every month. We drive over 100k transactions/month to ecommerce players. You can guess the value and GMV 🙂

Who are some of Bounty’s competitors (epecially in the O2O space) & what are some of the stand-out features as compared to other apps (in similar space)

In terms of technology, we have most bigwigs competing with us on indoor positioning technology, we have the likes of  Google, Apple, Qualcomm etc. In terms of business model, there are quite a few without our vision.

Bounty’s stand-out feature is the proprietary location technology that works even without internet and GPS! Not many companies in the world have such a technology. Not to forget, it’s also how the technology is applied in real life for hassle free rewards. Consumer has to just install the app and from there on the app will keep reminding them to collect reward points like a rewards assistant.

Team Bounty
Team Bounty

What are the major changes that you experienced when you moved from an Employee to an Employer [or Entrepreneur]

Mind set is the first change – Everything is YOU and adaptability and survival is the key. Secondly, hunger should  far dominate anything as you hardly have money, success, team or infrastructure. All you have is a un-ending faith and a will to survive all odds to succeed.

What are your key advice(s) to aspiring entrepreneurs ?

Please do not think and over analyse. Just get into it. Make sure you/your family have enough money for food and shelter [Clothing can be borrowed ;)]. Extremely pathetic lifestyle, really there is no glamour so get in only if you really want to. Funding [especially for growth stage startups] has dried up with companies picking funding at lower valuations, your take on the scenario [and current situation]. Market slowdowns will always impact average and below average companies as there is no cash flowing freely. However, its also the best time for a great company to raise as there is no cacophony.

Valuations are really notional and as long as you build your business in the right direction, you should be happy not minding too much on valuation.

Lot of startups (food-tech etc where Customer acquisition cost is high & margins are less) expand pan-city and struggle in keeping the momentum going, your words of advice for entrepreneurs trying to scale up(or expand Pan-city) ?

Have enough foresight to know when to expand. Always ask yourself why is “Scale” important. Does scale multiply my losses or get me to an advantageous situation. Get to unit economics as fast as you can and then if scale is the only plausible way for your business, by all means grow rapidly.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs [especially the core team] ?

I have been lucky to get my team. However, you need to struggle a lot to get the right members in your core team.  People who believe you, your vision and are mad go-getters like you.  Failed entrepreneurs, never giving up types,  people who underwent hardships in life – everything is a data point for you.

Do give Bounty app a shot and share across your feedback/questions in the comments section. If you have any questions for the Bounty founder about the app, entrepreneurship etc., email them to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: EazyLeazy|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Many a times, we come across instances where we wish that it would have been better to ‘Rent’ a product than ‘Buy’ it. When my wife Janukin sought to sell home-made chocolates online, we borrowed a good DSLR from a friend and got our catalogue ready !! He definitely charged us for the DSLR 🙁 There was definitely an un-tapped market for ‘Renting out such gadgets’ and this is market that EazyLeazy, a startup based out of Mumbai plans to address !!

EazyLeazy is co-founded by Peshotan Kapadia & Meheryar Tata that aims to make renting as easy as ordering a pizza. Today we have a chat with Peshotan Kapadia about EazyLeazy, Startups, Life as an entrepreneur and much more. So lets’ get started ….

[Image source – EazyLeazy]

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

We provide easy rental access to great products to our customers – whether they want to use something for a short time without buying it or try something before they buy it. With easy online booking, instant confirmation, delivery in 3 hours [when needed], Cash/Card On Delivery, Low rentals and free doorstep delivery/pickup, we want to make renting so easy you #DontThinkJustRent
Meheryar Tata: A Chartered Accountant by training and spent 3.5 years in Deloitte in assurance and another 3.5 years in Deloitte in the valuations team with an extensive experience in valuation of businesses in connection with mergers/acquisitions/divestitures, regulatory compliance and financial reporting across insurance, infrastructure, telecom, e-commerce, pharma, agri-business and manufacturing. Passionate about equity investing, reading, football and playing the guitar. 
Peshotan Kapadia: Chartered Accountant by training, spent 3 years at EY in financial risk management and the remaining 3.5 years of his past career at the Boston Consulting Group. With this [over] half decade-long career, he acquired experience in M&A, sales organization and efficiency, digital strategy, customer relationship management, marketing and consumer research across financial services, insurance and telecom sectors. Loves to play the guitar, go on long drives, eat and read fantasy fiction.

When and how did your come up with the idea of EazyLeazy ?

When I was going on my honeymoon, I wanted to take a DSLR with me. However, I knew if I bought one it would sit gathering dust after I returned. Similarly, Meheryar was having multiple house warming parties for his new place and felt the need for games, speakers, etc. What we found was that there was no professional, reasonable priced, online based and convenient service we could use.

Can you explain the entire process of Renting, Buying, Selling on EazyLeazy

The process is extremely simple. Come online, see the details of the product and pricing available, check the date availability and checkout online. We deliver to your doorstep on the appointed day and you can make payment via cash or card after taking delivery. Similarly we come pickup the product when the rental period is over. We are available over Call, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Email for both transaction and technical support.

Is EazyLeazy inventory led [i.e. you source products from buyers interesting in renting it out] or marketplace based [i.e. Connect interested parties over EazyLeazy]

It is currently a mixed model and varies by product.

What are the categories that are currently present on EazyLeazy ?

We currently have 4 major product categories: (i) Travel which includes amateur DSLRs, GoPros and Kindles (ii) Party and Entertainment covering karaoke, projectors, speakers, hover-boards, games & more (iii) Hobby which includes music & baking and (iv) Try before you buy which includes smartwatches, fitness bands and phones. We are constantly expanding our categories so expect a lot more soon.

Is it possible for someone to buy a product that has been rented out to him/her ?

Currently, given that we are constantly in need of supply, we do not sell inventory to our customers. However, in the future, depending on the asset class and age we will have a process by which you can keep the inventory if you like it.

How does EazyLeazy stack up against competitors like RentSher, RentOnGo or even Furlenco [though it is only in Furniture] ?

EazyLeazy is not here to replace ownership. There will always be products which you should own based on your passions and frequency of use. However, you will always feel the need to experience other products for a short period of time – that’s what we are here for. We are also extremely convenience driven – we want to make renting as easy as ordering a pizza. We hope in the long  run we are able to impact the quality of our customers experiences.

EazyLeazy is currently operational in how many areas of Mumbai ?

We are currently fully operational in the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Area, but we also serve Navi Mumbai and Thane on an exception basis.

How is the logistics and reverse logistics being managed by EazyLeazy ?

Given our focus on customer experience and service, we currently manage all the logistics in-house.

How do you ensure that there is no breach of trust by the customer [i.e. Same product is returned and it is not exchanged with some fake product] ?

We have multiple levels of checks to ensure this. Given that many businesses assume credit risk, we deal with the risk in a similar way.

What is the Total Market Size of the P2P renting in India ?

We are currently in the business of renting long tail assets [don’t include property, furniture, apparel and auto], the potential for which is largely unexplored or established. There is basically a very small un-organized market at this point. This is the total renting market. P2P renting is even more nascent than that. We will only know the true potential after a couple of players get funding and scale up significantly.

EazyLeazy currently caters to only consumer electronics/Hobby electronics, do you plan to venture into other areas like Furniture, Toys etc.

We are actively looking to expand into other long tail categories. However we are are conscious of not diluting or over complicating our business model. Categories need to be a good fit on the market proposition and operating model spectrums. We currently have no plans to do the larger asset classes [apparel, furniture, cars, etc.]

How is EazyLeazy funded [Self funded, Angel, VC etc.] ?

EazyLeazy is currently self-funded

What are the major changes that you experienced when you became an entrepreneur ?

Well may actually but let me try and list the major ones:
  • The level of drive, commitment and excitement towards what you’re doing
  • The ridiculously steep learning curve in all aspects of the business
  • Experiencing the “buck stops with you” level of stress; you are the last line of defense for a things
  • Not getting a paycheck every month but having to issue them 🙂
  • Going from being a “consultant” to a “business owner”

Being from a non-technical background [since both of you are CA’s], what do non-tech co-founders look into a tech co-founder ?

Well tech or non tech I think a co-founder needs to (i) be on the same wavelength in terms of vision, direction and ethics are concerned and (ii) be extremely reliable and trustworthy; The technical/functional skills for me are important but secondary to these two.

Some insights into marketing [Lessons learnt while marketing EazyLeazy] ?

Haha. Now there’s a tough question. My one simple lesson is more experimentation less discussion. Running small scale experiments will give you the answer.

What are some of the qualities that entrepreneurs should look into while hiring their initial set of employees ?

The initial days are very tough so I look for (i) faith in the idea (ii) tenacity (iii) willingness to do multiple things and (iv) a fun upbeat attitude

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]

For me, sustainability is a key factor when scaling up. Rapid scale up without definite validation of most important aspects of the business model is dangerous. While it does not mean you won’t scale up, it adds a level of uncertainty and risk which for me us not acceptable. A business process should be comfortably replicable for 100-1000 transactions and for 1-10 locations. Given that we run a rental business, the quality of customer acquisition is also a concern for us. Growth cannot come at the expense of default/breakage risk.

Bootstrapping or Funding, what are your views on the same ?

There’s no right answer given the large number of variables. My simple point of view is bootstrap until you need to grow 10-20x+ and have the confidence to scale up.

How important is it for startups to focus on Unit Economics [and not some other arbitrary factors] ?

Depends on the sector and revenue model of the startup. For us, unit economics are paramount given that we actually transact with our customers (and aren’t a social medium, content generator, etc.). I believe that building a transactional business at a price point which will change in the future brings a question mark to the lifetime value of the customer acquired. So if I acquire a customer at a rental of Rs. 500 a week, I am unsure of the impact on my base and the efficacy of my offering when I take the price up to Rs. 1000.

Your views on the current start-up eco-system & valuation correction currently happening across many startups ?

I personally think it’s still to early to tell. Startups are driving a fundamental change in consumer behaviour and the final impact of that may take some time to be realized. Overall, the increased focus on cash flows, unit economics, revenue models and profitability is very positive.

Your startup Mantra ?

Add true sustainable value for the customer at a profitable price point
We thank Pesho for his time & sharing his valuable lessons in building EazyLeazy with our readers !!! If you have any questions for EazyLeazy team, please leave them in the comments section or email at himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: Interviews|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

As migrants to the city, we  face lot of issues while trying to find a place on rent. In fact, when I landed in Bangalore (in 2004), there were language barriers that I regularly faced when boarding bus, speaking to local people (though now things are far-better and Bengaluru is truly a cosmopolitan city) to name a few.

Similar issues were faced by Sudarshan Purohit, Ankur Agarwal and Kailash Rathi when they were trying to find a place on rent. This motivated them to startup Zenify, complete rental solution for tenants and owners

Today, we have a chat with Sudarshan Purohit, Co-founder & CEO of the startup where we dig deep into their entrepreneurial journey, Zenify, views on startup ecosystem etc.

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

While there are enough and more property listing portals, Zenify is India’s only complete rental solution for tenants and owners. A Bangalore-based technology start-up, Zenify has simplified rentals to such an extent that tenant’s just needs to book the home of their choice online and move in, with Zenify handling the rest.

For owners again, Zenify is the only player to promise end-to-end property management. A quick look at Zenify will show how analytics and design can come together to create a fair, hassle-free experience in what used to be a chaotic business.

Prior to starting up Zenify:

Sudarshan Purohit [Co- founder & CEO of Zenify]

  • Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras
  • Prior to starting up, Sudarshan was working with Insilica Semiconductors as a Design Engineers on the project ‘Digital picture Frame’

Ankur Agarwal [Co Founder & Head of data analytics at Zenify]

  • Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras
  • Was working as a Business Analyst with Global Analytics in Chennai. He worked on SEO project and analytical model on credit worthiness for short term loans

Kailash Rathi [Co Founder & Director- Finance & Strategy at Zenify]

  • Aerospace Engineering from IIT Madras
  • Worked as a Strategic marketing Analyst [Go-to-Market strategy, studied the trends for marketing NetApp products] with Net-App in Chennai.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger for starting Zenify ?

As migrants to the city, we  faced a multitude of issues while trying to find a place on rent. The language barrier and an unpleasant broker experience motivated use to come up with a solution to address the problems that migrants face in a new city. Having had a history of family business back in our home-towns, we had a strong urge to start our own business.

We had ideas, we were willing to take risks and had an undying entrepreneurial spirit. After a thorough market research,  Zenify was started in the year 2012 with an aim to help young migrants adjust easily in the city.  Our intention was to create a niche model for house rentals which is beneficial for both tenants and owners.

What are the core differentiating factors of Zenify from other real-estate startups ?

There are fewer players in the market who have tried to solve the property discovery problem, apartment finding problem, finding a Shared apartment, but nobody provides an end to end comprehensive rental solutions for the owner and the tenants which is only done by Zenify.

Zenify solves five basic problems in the realty industry which have been the biggest hassles so far for the owners and the tenants. Zenify stepped into the problem and simplifies the entire process of online residential property management.

Zenify helps to do away with the property visit for the owners and the tenants. Tenants can view the property online without making a property visit and book their property with a market rent.

  1. Zenify does the tenants screening and reports will be shared with the owner before allowing the tenants to occupy the property.
  2. Zenify drafts a standard rental agreement between owner and tenants.
  3. Zenify manages the end to end property management-From repair, painting etc.
  4. Zenify collects the monthly rent and hands it over to the owner.

What is the TAM of the ‘Renting/Leasing commercial property’ ?

Current market size is about $15 Billion based on 2011 statistics and increasing 15% YOY in India from urban cities. We expected to grow 35 % on quarter.

What is your revenue model of Zenify ?

Once an owner registers with Zenify, we review the property and if it is suitable Zenify becomes the tenants and are given the sublet rights. For a property owner, Zenify becomes the tenant and to a new tenant Zenify becomes the owner.

Zenify charges a month’s rent for every year as a service fee from the owners. For tenants, it’s completely free without any brokerage. If the tenant discontinues the agreement, Zenify continues to pay the rent to the owner even when the flat is vacant. A tenant registered on Zenify gets a broker free experience with standardized pricing and agreement terms.

Which are the cities where Zenify is currently operational ?

We are exclusively present in Banglore alone and managing 1800 properties. We are planning to extend our services to India’s top nine cities in near future.

One of the major concerns about Buying/Renting is that property is not as shown in the listing website. How does Zenify fix this problem ?

The owners whoever wants to rent out their property can share their property details to Zenify and one of our employees does the physical verification on the property, collecting property photos and will be uploaded in our website with all the property specifications along with fixed rent.

The tenant can view the property details on our website which provides the tenant 360 degree view of the property.If the tenant were to find his desired home from the list, the tenant can book the property by paying a token in advance and then, he can directly move to the property on his desired day

Can your throw some light on funding, whether Zenify is bootstrapped or seed-funded or angel-funded ?

We have received angel funding from Manthan Systems, Gana Yantrika Systems and K12 Techno service. Atul Jalan is the CEO and Founder of Manthan systems, Anant Pandit director of Gana Yantrika Systems Pvt Ltd, which is a privately held company which invests in companies with unique business models and use technology to advance market access and MSC Srikanth & M Bharath are the directors of K12 Technology Hyderabad.

We have set a few ambitious goals for our organization for which we will require more funds. We are currently in talks with a few investors who can bring in financial support as well as technology expertise to the table.

Does Zenify plan to provide End-To-End services (right from Estimating Valuation, Listing Property, Getting Buyers, Getting Legal Work done etc.) since that would be a great USP for Zenify ?

The below listed are our core USP and we are focusing this.

  • Fair price to owners and tenants
  • Tenant verification
  • End to end paperwork management
  • Assured occupancy
  • A to Z flat maintenance and repairs
  • Regular inspection
  • A dedicated team of maintenance personnel
  • Assured rent for the owners

What are the major changes that you experienced when you became an entrepreneur?

However, we had zeal to be unorthodox from the existing systems and to be visionary in order to be a change maker in the society; we also had faced the trepidations during our venture. Because being just 22 old ,the society demanded a regular job to have a proper sustainable life than going for a risk which could be a paradox. Nevertheless, we decided to quit the job and started our venture. Initial days, the market did not accept our concept since it was very much unique and gradually people were able to adopt the concept and began to endorse the concept as well.

First, I had to adopt a strong mind set since Entrepreneurship  is not going to be a cake walk rather lot of bucks will stop at me, therefore I had to prepare mentally to encounter the challenges whatever is going to hit me.

I did not have a normal office hours 9 AM – 6 PM, instead the entire day was my office hours. The startup became our life. The startup taught me about leadership How to run the entire show being a leader, moreover the situations created a thirst in me to read and understand the concept of leadership in depth which led me to read many books on leadership.

In brief startup made me to master in every aspect of business.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

Those who want to start  their own venture, they must do a proper market research whether the idea can bring a change in the market or will it be a scalable business idea. If they receive the positive result, they can confidently launch their venture. The focus should be on customer satisfaction and always try to learn from customer experience which will teach us where are we after its launch. The customers are the best advisers for any business.

After a certain period of time, the founders should look for funding at the early stages itself. Another difficult task to identify the right investors who would really understand your business model and willing to stay with you in any circumstances of the company, which will give more confidence to run the business in a better way.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]

Primarily, you need to understand the biggest problem in the market and analyze whether it is possible to tap through technology? Secondly, one needs to understand the customer’s problem. Thirdly, you need to communicate the solutions that you have for the customer’s problems. If  this has been set ,then the customer acquisitions will be possible through various social media platforms, PR & marketing campaigns.

Bootstrapping or external Funding, what are your views on the same ?

Once the product or services has been  launched, entrepreneurs should look for seed funding which will provide them an adequate knowledge about the market behavior and will give enough space to create a better investment strategy. Such initiative also will give them how their product behaves in the market and helps to understand the demand of the market as well. Every initial launch will be a trial and error method, during the course of the journey everybody understands the real need of the market and spin their ideas.

Your views on the current start-up eco-system & valuation bubble in India ?

There are startups that have a substantial growth in the market and could capture a good  amount of the market share. They could achieve this far because they had a strong vision and better strategy.

Partially, the industry has faced a few setbacks because of few of the better performed startups happened to get shut down, because of the unforced errors of burning the investments quickly. The investments should have been handled better.

Funding for early stage & growth stage startups has dried up in 2016, what are your tips for entrepreneurs who are pitching in this tough period ?

In fact, the funds are flowing, but slightly in a slow pace because of the unexpected shut-downs of a few  good startups which forced the investor to take back seat in terms of investments.

Entrepreneur needs to create a scalable business model and present a realistic business forecasting which will indeed attract the investors and create the confidence so that they can invest in the product.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs [especially the core team] ?

Few basic elements need to be taken into account while hiring a core a team in any organizations .

  • Expertise
  • Attitude
  • Chemistry between Employee and Employer
  • Confident level
  • Team player

These are the core elements we need to keep in the consideration while hiring the core team in the startup.

Hope you liked the Q&A and there were many take-aways from it for aspiring entrepreneurs!! If you have any questions for the Zenify team, please leave them in the comments section.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Every day billions of travel photographs, reviews and suggestions are being shared on the internet. Since all this data is fragmented and generated primarily for social consumption – the real commercial value, measured in billions, is being lost. This is a huge loss to the industry.

Today, we have a chat with Mayank Gupta, Founder & CEO of Triplived that addresses this problem by automating trip recording in a well defined structure that travel seekers can easily discover and consume. The app was founded in August 2015. So let’s start of with the Q&A.

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

I started my career in 2005 with Computer Associates after my engineering from NIT Allahabad. Worked with Computer Associates for 4 years before opting for MBA from CUHK Business School and Chicago Booth. Triplived is my third start-up. We are a founding team of 4 from NIT/IIT with 2 members from MakeMyTrip. We started Triplived in August 2015 from an Oyo property in Gurgaon.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger for starting TripLived ?

Being an avid traveller, I have always been looking for authentic travel experiences from fellow travellers. Unfortunately most of this information was shared over social media that was difficult to discover and reuse. A platform that could structure all this data and give me insights was badly needed.

Travel memories are a collection of photographs, moments, places, conversations, romantic experiences and a lot more. However, over a period of time, all that remains of these memories are scattered photographs, lost acquaintances and vague recollections of travel details, thereby ruining the fun in reliving and relishing them.

While the traveller enjoys her trip, Triplived intelligently detects moments to be captured and makes them a part of the travel story. An awesome feature of the application is location based crowd sourced suggestions to help the traveller make better travel decisions. The application scans thousands of suggestions, and shares those that are most relevant to the traveller and suits her taste. Once the trip is complete, the travel story is converted into a short video that can be cherish for a lifetime.

Can you touch upon the features of TripLived ?

Instantaneous capturing of travel experiences in real time through completely automated trip recording. Real time suggestion and experiences from fellow travellers that can enrich travel experience and help make right travel decisions.

The application comes as a big respite for travel partners such as OTA’s and travel agents who rely on standard 5/6 Days holiday packages. Triplived gives life to their solutions by linking them to authentic, real time travel stories. The application provides a strong marketing platform for these travel partners to showcase their services to the larger world, directly from their customers’ smart phone.

Is TripLived bootstrapped, VC funded or Angel Funded ?

We are angel funded.

What are some of the stand-out features as compared to other apps like TripAdvisor etc. ?

TripLived is the first proactive travel platform that intelligently analyzes travellers behaviour and preferences, creates his travel story, enriches his travel experience and interactively captures reviews and suggestions in real time.

What is the revenue model of TripLived [Tie-up with hotels/transport agencies etc.] ?

Triplived will evolve into an authentic, structured content platforms and consumption of content will drive revenue down the line.

How has been the feedback so far for TripLived on Play-store. Any plans on releasing the iOS App ?

We have got a warm response from users and travel partners. Yes, we will be releasing the iOS app in the next 4 months.

Does TripLived use Freemium Model [or it free for life-time where user can upload infinite trip memories] ?

Yes, the application is free for users.

What are the major changes that you experienced when you took the entrepreneurial path ?

No changes, just learning. No job is good or bad. There is a task that needs to be done. You may choose to innovate, simplify and learn along the way or you may choose to crib and change. Industry needs the former. Change your attitude first, before changing your job.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

The term ‘risk’ is wrongly perceived. Our lifestyle has changed; our value for money has gone down. The real risk is not as high as the perceived one. Stop comparing salaries or the time value of money and you will realize that you are ready to start.

Importance of Design in Mobile App Development ?

Most important! They are the blueprints, of your thought process. You get them right, you’ll get the product right. Designs beautifully depict product – business alignment.

What are some of the Growth-Hacking strategies that can be applied for an App-Based startup ?

Again a misused term! Every app is not WhatsApp! Every product has a use case and a target audience. Solve the problem and customers will use it.

How important it for startups especially web, mobile to follow Lean Methodology ?

Very important! Being lean is the way to succeed, be it the product or the business.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]

Solve the problem and solve it right. There may be a need for it or a need may be generated. Later one is a little tough though. But till you have the solution right, word of mouth will follow. I do not know of any other way to scale.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs [especially the core team] ?

This is the most challenging part of any start-up. Look for those with right attitude. Skills can be outsourced.

Any parting words from you for budding entrepreneurs ?

Entrepreneurship is the most exciting journey and the best learning experience. You mature as a professional; you start respecting people and money; you become a better decision maker and above all you generate employment. Go for it.

I have been using the TripLived app and we loved the problem that it tries to solve!!

Salient Features of Triplived App

Record Of Past Travel Experiences
Provides a timeline view to your travel stories to relive those memories that are half-forgotten or lost.

Live Trip Recording
While you enjoy your trip, Triplived creates your travel story on your smart phone. It automatically detects your activity, captures your location, does automatic check-ins, and tags your photographs. Your reviews and suggestions complete the story, that can then be shared with friends and family.

Targeted Suggestions For Better Planning
Your friends, relatives or travellers you follow may have been to the place you are visiting. Based on your interests, Triplived scans through hundreds of suggestions, and shares those that are most relevant to you and suit your taste.

Social Connect
Triplived allows you to share your travel experiences with friends and family in real time.

Trip Video
Once your trip is complete, Triplived converts your travel story into a short video that you can cherish for a lifetime.

We are sure that you would have got some handy tips from the discussion we had with Mayank Gupta of TripLived. The Triplived app can be downloaded from the Playstore from here. If you have any questions related to TripLived or have any general query, please leave them in the comments section.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

When we talk about Real Estate Portals, there are very few [or should we say none of them] that focus on ‘Commercial Real Estate’. There are portals like CommonFloor, 99acres, Housing etc. that mostly target retail customers.

Today, we interact with Mr. Ajay Rakheja, Co-founder, CEO – creindia.com that aims to solve that problem. CREIndia is a commercial real estate platform that integrates the physical and technological world with the gel of research into it, making the outcome more meaningful and intelligent.

We have a chat with him about his startup, Commercial Real Estate Market, entrepreneurship etc. So let’s start of with the Q&A.

Can you give a small background about your startup and it’s founders

With decade of experience and expertise in commercial real estate enabled me to offer services to leading corporations, MNC’s, promising startups and high net-worth individuals. Some of the companies I have worked for Birla Sun life, ICICI bank, Anant Raj Developers, IL&FS & Colliers International.

Our co-founder team comes from commercial real estate industry itself. Their consolidated experience is more than 75 years, successfully executed more than 2000 commercial real estate deal of different nature and complexity

We are an informed integrated platform for commercial real estate with Online & Offline services. We founded creindia with the vision of creating a robust online commercial real estate landscape, where we wanted to simplify the search of commercial real estate and offer the business fraternity with a hassle-free process of locating their ideal property and maximizing reach to get best possible solutions

It is said that startups arise due to problems, is it same in your case ?

Yes, that holds true for us as well. As said, we all co-founders come from the commercial real estate background and have individually faced problem, creindia has thus been incepted as a solution to those problems.

What is the Total Addressable Market [TAM] of the ‘Renting/Leasing commercial property’ ?

Last 5 years of commercial market have recorded approx. 130 million sq.ft of office space leasing from key markets, whereas 15 Million sq.ft of leasing in retail spaces and 30 million sq.ft of leasing in warehousing spaces. These numbers are only from the recorded transaction whereas un-recorded numbers are much higher.

What are the various factors that your algorithm takes into account while keeping track of particular property’s valuation ?

Our process is the combination of algorithm and actual site visit by the team. The algorithm tracks various property characteristics and its detail whereas the site visit captures the market scenario and comparable of neighbourhood properties.

Valuation is done by combining both the aspects, that is property characteristic and market scenario which is further finalized by the approved private valuer or government valuer after going through the details.

Which are the cities where CREIndia is currently present ? [i.e. it tracks properties of how many cities ?]

We are currently showcasing properties from Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Lucknow and Chandigarh. Work in Progress has also been initiated at Kolkata and Jaipur.

Can your throw some light on funding, whether CREIndia is bootstrapped or seed-funded or angel-funded ?

We generated the Bootstrap fund traditionally by doing advisory services and sustain the model wherein we realized the next level of staffing and external advisor’s will have to empanelled and have some Seed fund on the table to structure and accelerate our growth and therefore  we went ahead took Seed fund  from HNI’s in September 2015.

What is your revenue model of CREIndia ?

We are an informed integrated platform for commercial real estate with online & offline services.  Property listing is absolutely free for landlords & brokers. However in case the landlord  or seeker wants to be facilitated by our offline services, our team does the same. Having said that in order to unlock complete property  details we do charge the seekers in two forms i.e. either  Subscription and /or  Individual property.

The revenue in current scenario is based on traditional formats for visibility and lead generation. Lately CRE Valuation has also been introduced to add another revenue stream to the existing traditional ones.

What is the kind of verification that gets done when some Retail/Office Space etc. is put for lease on CREIndia ?

Any property listed on CRE undergoes 3 levels of check before it goes live. Once the property is listed it goes under fist level of macro check by the Customer Relations team followed by  physical check  by the fleet on ground and finally the cycle ends with the Head of Verification department checking for content and other mandatory fields.

Can you share more information on CREBazaar ?

CREbazaar is an additional product feature with the idea of showcasing those properties which are under “best deal format”, “Discounts” or have some frills attached to them for both  sale and  lease offered by Owners/owners representatives.

We have experienced that with our ongoing aggregation strategy ,the BAZAAR will transform the way how the commercial real estate buyers & sellers used to traditionally behave. We have also observed that Delhi/NCR investors have been more interested towards the same kind of property.

How different is CREBazaar from the Real Estate Expo’s that happen in various cities ?

The very difference lies with the fact that its virtual exhibition, which is at the ease of seeker. And another difference is that the idea behind the CREbazaar to consolidate those “Best deal formats” at one place is something unique and never seen before.

It gives clients a complete informative way to confidently explore his options as per needs, budget and location. In a typical office or Retail scenario owners were never comfortable with the idea of deals and discounts on their assets and holdings but this approach & initiative from CRE has brought forward direct discounts from owners.

We believe that except for due diligence, this process has shortened the first level of negotiation and provided complete property details for an informed decision making.

Does CREIndia plan to provide End-To-End services [right from Estimating Valuation, Listing Property, Getting Buyers, Getting Legal Work done etc.] ?

We have a vision  beyond that. Our micro learning of our industry has given us some innovative thoughts of providing solutions at various levels.

Who are the potential competitors of CREIndia ?

Frankly, we don’t see any competitor as such. This is a complete fulfilment platform in making. There are many portals and apps which are attempting enter online real estate space but not much in commercial real estate except for large numbers now entering to co-working spaces.

What was the trigger point for you to become an entrepreneur ?

How do innovative ideas come into existence? They germinate when there’s a sense of restlessness that keeps prodding a person every day. They pluck you from your comfort zone, steady income, forthcoming promotions or promise to increase the bandwidth in a reputed organization & give you monotonous life and its style.

Probably that is not a common phenomena, I felt the same when the idea of  CREIndia sow into my head. It led me to leave my high performance and comfortable job from Colliers International, and my experience of 19 years in Commercial Real Estate, made me lay the foundation of CREIndia.

After quitting, me and my other co-founders came-up with a concrete, innovative and inevitably challenging business model of CREIndia. This project was incepted with the vision to spearhead revolution in the commercial real estate industry. They combined the challenges of real estate with the solution of the inability of the existing current online & offline models

Nowadays VC’s prefer to fund younger team(s), what is your take on it ?

There are two combinations that can really work out great together, either Ideation paired with experience or out of box thinking backed up by a great team. VC/PE’s of the world are now becoming more active on evaluating experience and execution capabilities.

What are your key advices to people who want to startup ?

Don’t be in hurry to be just an entrepreneur create sustainable and realistic revenue model, don’t simply rely on valuation and funding.

There is consolidation in Real-Estate sector, what is your take on the same since fund-raising was much easier in 2015 ?

We believe if consolidation is making any sense to the solution you were trying to give or M&A was the only strategy before you scale, than it is absolutely understood but if the same is just for the sake of valuation or in interest of investor’s sake, your purpose of existence gets defeated and then you drive the business for others.

Lately it has been seen and realized too much of spend on tech to influence and bring customer delight through social media which does not assure to give you a sale. The product is always hungry to actually attract clients to view and feel before it actually gets a conversion. So the flip side real estate conversion to sale will always have to be blend of offline and online.

We believe business through digitized way does need a scalable platform but with cautious and testing at all small steps. Revenue with start-ups are always on hits and misses and have to try out all possible options to get the ROI.

Fund raising has never been easy, investors always believe in the sustainability of business and have always been smart and calculative with their investments. Its just they have tried with many ideas and ventures, they have become more experienced with the industry and market move.

There has been a valuation bubble, what is your take on the same ?

We are not in a hurry and nor in this race. We believe in being clear with your product and know your customers by showing minimum tech and more of practical based services. Realistic revenue projections and sustainable model will eventually enhance  your valuation.

VC Funding or Bootstrapping ? Your thoughts on the same ?

Sustain with a bootstrapped venture for as long as you can and when you start feeling the need of extended resources because you are showing traces of tremendous growth get in there for the VC funding race.

How important for Entrepreneurs to have good mentors ?

For any successful venture, it is very important to have good mentors who can guide you with their experience . We are lucky to have good mentors around us.

Any parting advice from your side to the aspiring entrepreneurs ?

As they speed thrills but kills, so for all budding young entrepreneurs be cautious before speeding up your entrepreneurial ventures while all the others use your experiences to deliver and maintain high service standards thus justifying your role.

We are sure that you would have got some handy tips from the discussion we had with Mr. Ajay Rakheja of CREIndia. If you have any questions related to CREIndia or have any general query, please leave them in the comments section.

[Image Credit* – Metrorealtymagazine]