Rahul Agrawal, Co-Founder & CEO, MebelKart
Rahul Agrawal is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Mebelkart.com, an online home decor and furnishing marketplace based in Bangalore, India. Founded in 2012 by Rahul Agrawal, Nikhil Saraf and Ranjeet Vimal, MebelKart operates with more than 2500 sellers and delivers products in more than 100 cities. Rahul started his entrepreneurial journey with Young Engineers while he was a student in IIT Kanpur. Young Engineers excelled in providing Robotics Products and boasted of few renowned names in the QSR industry as clients. It also conducted workshops across numerous colleges across the country. Heand his 8 employees ran a successful venture for 3 years, doing business of Rs. 20 Lakhs annually. A B-tech from IIT Kanpur in Electrical Engineering, his association with Ranjeet and Nikhil goes back to their time with Picsean Media. The trio was an R&D team who were responsible for creating some cool products together.In conversation with Dominic Rebello he explains his strategy for the expansion at MebelKart. As of March, 2016, MebelKart has 90,000 products listed on the portal, 1, 50, 000 satisfied customers, delivery in 20,000 pin codes and over 2500 sellers on the platform. MebelKart's product portfolio includes 1.75 Lakh SKUs and it records over 30,000 visitors a day. There are over 2,500 sellers registered on the portal and it has more than 1500 factories as partners.
What drives you?
My faith in the model and our faith in one another as a team. Perseverance is something which keeps us going, but the key here is to be in tune with the market feedback. Our focus and commitment to the business model also drives us everyday.
How big is the potential for a business like yours?
The potential is huge. With a growing ecommerce market and with an internet intelligent populace which is fast moving to the internet space for their buying needs, there is a lot of scope for us to grow. Our vision is to design every home in the country. We mostly cater to the sets of consumers, those who are looking to design their homes and also those looking to refurbish their homes.
How do you plan to scale up; raise funds through seed or venture capital or simply grow the old fashioned way through rising turnovers?
In future, we wish to add new categories and we want to create this into a one stop destination for home décor and furnishings. We also want to build onto the range of options for consumers and add many more interior designers who will help in making this a one stop solution for the end consumer. We also wish to increase the reach of the business and are doing this by going hyperlocal in over 70+ cities now.
Who would primarily be your consumer audience?
It is everyone with a home. This includes everyone, right from the young who are setting up their homes to those who are moving into their careers to the ones who are moving to a new city/town and have to redesign/refurbish their homes. Whether it is designing your home or buying furniture, MebelKart is your one stop destination. But, we believe that the early adopters will be the youth of today in the age range of 25-35 years, it is these guys who are online more often and are more internet friendly.
Where do you see yourself five years down the road?
We want to be the number one player in online décor in the next three to five years.