India Internet News

01 August 2011

Being a serial business owner has its advantages; the range of experience prepares you for every situation. I had my share of trials with the first two risky projects before I got lucky with Naaptol.com. I started it in 2008 as a product research and comparison platform with a starting capital of Rs.50 lakh, and in June 2009, we began to offer goods on sale online. From a turnover of Rs.1 crore in 2008-9, we turned to Rs.10 crore in 2009-10.

Although the Naaptol journey may seem easy, I faced many challenges in my previous projects. After graduating from IIT Kanpur in 1992, I got my master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Minnesota, USA, in 1994. But after working at WSI in Silicon Valley, California, for four years, I wanted to return to India. In 1998, my company sent me back and I set up their office in Powai, Mumbai.

But I left this job in the same year and began a new company named Design Expo Network Pvt Ltd, investing Rs.50 lakh from my savings and with the help of family and friends. The company has designed Websites and made large scalable email applications. I began even before the concept of the World Wide Web entered India. I would bring laptops to display the customers that they could generate an online presence and finally provided e-solutions to Indiatimes.com and Mailmetoday.com.

This was a service-oriented enterprise, whereas I required a B2C set-up. So, with my IIT Kanpur companion, Amar Sinha, I decided to announce two Web portals in 1999 as a subsidiary of Design Expo Network - Criclive.com was started during the World Cup in April 1999 and Shubhyatra.com, a travel portal was started in September of that year. I managed to invest Rs.50 lakh into each because Upstart Advisors, a venture capitalist, invested Rs.2.5 crore.

As soon as a year passed without making any profit, I decided to sell these portals. By 2000, Thomas Cook took Shubhyatra.com and Criclive.com was purchased by Modi Entertainment Network. Later on the dotcom bust and these sites got closed. In 2001, I decided to sell Design Expo also to a Canadian payment systems company SLMsoft.

Then, in 2003, I invested Rs.1 crore with the support of family and friends to begin yet other company namely ANMsoft technologies. This was an e-solution company and I was a senior project advisory in charge of sales and business analytics. The company is still present but I am not so proactive in it.

I believe in continuous invention and never follow a particular business model. So I decided to start another e-project, Naaptol.com, in 2008, because at that time the Internet had reached its age in the country. I did it with Hari Trivedi, the company president, and Yusuf Khan, the CFO. About a year, the company had no profits since we were simply providing details. But later on it became her USP. In one year, we decided to begin selling products also.

At present, the site attracts 90,000 visitors and allows 5,000 transactions per day, generating daily sales of Rs.1.5 crore. In 2010, we started advertising in print and gradually moved to television, investing nearly $1 million (Rs.4.4 crore) in advertising.

The influx of Rs.40 crore from venture capitalists, such as Canan Partners and Silicon Valley Bank in 2010, also contributed. We have a wide reach across the country mainly because of our high shipping services. Most of our business depends on calls, and we have outsourced the logistics and call centres in Thane, Vikroli and Navi Mumbai. This means that we do not have to worry about capital expenditures. Our suppliers store the goods in warehouses operated by third parties in Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Mumbai.

During the growth of the company I have hesitated a lot, wrong products and call centres selection, to making other mistakes. But a company is also following a path you have never taken before. The knowledge and experience taught me to be unique and I do not follow what others have done.

We strive to achieve 50,000 transactions for the next fiscal year and a turnover of Rs. 200 crore. We also want to raise around $25 million (Rs. 110 crore) in the next few months to start a private sales section, offers privileged on the site. We also plan to go digital with a 24-hour television commercial. It was a good trip so far and I try to make it better.