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 ….
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