MebelKart.com is a startup co-founded by Mr. Ranjeet Vimal focused on providing its customers, “a world class experience” in furniture & home décor retail. The company aims to bring transparency into the system of furniture & décor selling through the use of technology. The company gives their customers the best prices with a lot of varieties at one place. They have tie-ups with various furniture manufacturers across India and give their customer the best when it comes to pricing, designs and product quality. They tend to reduce the inefficiencies into the system of furniture retail and give customers the maximum benefit.
Tell us about yourself, your hobbies, education, and experience.
I graduated from IIT Bombay with a dual degree in CSE in the year 2009. I was a technical blogger and started writing about the start ups, SEO, SMM and covered more than 30 startups for my blog geekonnet.com while in IITB campus. I was selected as India’s top – 10 emerging blogger in late 2008 and Mumbai best blogger for year 2009.
Why become an entrepreneur and not join a company? Your Inspiration?
I worked for 3 years in couple of technical companies. I always wanted to start up. I always wanted to do something useful for people. For example, once I was looking to change my job and wanted to join a good startup but didn’t find a good job portal where I could apply for jobs. I found this as an opportunity and a gap between startups and potential candidates, so I started DreamStarts.in in 2011. Now more than 600 startups are using this job portal for their job posting. Also I have interacted with several entrepreneurs and found that hiring for startups is real tough problem.
Similarly, I was looking to buy an agronomic computer chair for my personal use. But, to my utter dismay, I found that the local shops were selling them at very high costs. Moreover, I had very few options to choose from with no warranty either. Reluctantly, I settled for a revolving chair of Rs. 8000 with an added delivery charge of Rs. 500. I discussed the situation with my friends who said that they have had similar experiences with other furniture items. We also concurred that vision accompanied by will technology was all it needed to organize the furniture space in India and enhance user’s buying experience. And, consequently in July 2012 the Idea of Mebelkart.com was born. Understanding buyer’s grievances and aspirations was crucial to building a portal where people can buy furniture suiting their varied tastes easily from the comfort of their homes. Now MebelKart.com is offering more than 10000 products in furniture and home décor items and witnessing 80% month over month growth in revenue & getting 100,000 unique visitors per month with 30-40% month over month growth.
Recently Mebelkart got selected in top 10 startups of India by VCCircle and by Bloomberg TV
Which start up is closest to your heart?
DreamStarts is a social venture. It is a free platform for both startups & candidates. Mebelkart.com is the one to which I devote my whole time. But certainly both DreamStarts.in & Mebelkart.com are closest to my heart.
Whom you seek role model as an entrepreneur?
No one. I look myself only and follow my own intuitions.
How did you come up with the names of startup?
Its very simple. “Mebel” is a Russian word for furniture hence MebelKart.com. For DreamStarts.in, it is like “your dream starts in “some startup””.
What about the initial funding for your start up?
It is bootstrapped. I am lucky that I have world class team who share complementary skills.
Any competitors for the MebelKart and how are you better than them?
Yes we have a couple of competitors. Our main differentiator is our distributed network of manufacturers and supplier and our city wise distribution of products and offerings. This enables us to provide the fastest and the best service & products at low cost.
Any biggest problem you have faced till date?
Everything is just fine till now and yeah touch wood for that.
Working can be tiring, what do you do in your leisure time?
I sleep (giggles). Or hang out with my friends.
Are you workaholic?
I am not but yeah I do enjoy working for myself.
How would you describe your experience as an entrepreneur?
Just go for it, don’t wait.
Something about your team.
We are three Co-founders at Mebelkart.com. Rahul Agarwal from IIT-Kanpur and Nikhil Saraf from BITS Pilani are my other co-founders. Rahul is the CEO, Nikhilis the COO and I handle technology
What is your future plan?
We want to make Mebelkart the easiest way to shop for furniture online. We want to be the biggest player in terms of our selection, variety and catalogue. We have furniture and décor products from some of the best designers of the country. They along with artisans and craftsmen account for the unique and superior selection at Mebelkart.
Any advice for the future entrepreneurs on how to go about the process.
I’m sure you have heard this before – but succeeding in starting a company is all about great and quick execution. The quality and speed of execution are most important. You can’t compromise either one! Apart from this, holding your nerve at the right times is important too. Every startup goes through a phase where things will took mighty tough – you just have to walk through it and do your best. There is a very popular line about start-up “start-up -> the Valley of Death -> to take risks and experiment”.
Next time if you are planning to purchase a furniture do check out
And if you are a student looking for a job opportunity check out
