BENGALURU: When Sulabh Jain and his roommates moved out of a shared apartment in Mumbai in 2014, they faced a problem that most people who have lived with their friends have faced how to sell the home appliances and furniture that they bought together and split the money fairly.
Hundreds of kilometres away, Shreyans Srimali was facing another problem when he was looking for an apartment in Bengaluru. He had only two options when it came to getting furniture and appliances either buy everything, or rent a fully-furnished flat. He didn't like either.
Sulabh and Shreyans were batchmates at IIM Ahmedabad, where they used to dream about starting a venture. They went different ways after they graduated, but when both happened once to discuss the similar problems that they had faced, they instantly knew it was the right time to start up and solve it for the world.
Around the same time, Bharat Goyal was looking to move into his seventh house in just a few years. Some of those shifts happened because he changed cities, and each time he did that, he had bought new furniture and appliances. Bharat was junior to Shreyans at NIT-Trichy, and when he heard about Shreyans plans, he too boarded the startup, which they called WhatsOnRent.com. It was a platform rent products.
Sulabh, who completed BTech from IIT Bombay and PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, had worked at Boston Consulting Group and TinyOwl before starting WhatsOnRent. Shreyans had worked at Accenture and Flipkart. Bharat had worked with InfoEdge and Adobe, and as the head of R&D at Appiterate in Delhi.He moved to Bengaluru when Appiterate was acquired by Flipkart.
"Our initial research found that a person who lives with his friends stays at one place for just nine months on average. Also, there are around one lakh people moving in and out of Bengaluru every year. These people do not want to buy appliances unless they are really settled. WhatsOnRent is for such guys, who stay at one place for less than a year," says Bharat.
The venture now has over 100 products across 11 categories, including furniture, appliances, fitness, medical and camping equipment, laptops, music instruments, gaming consoles and art collections. "One may not want to buy a new wheelchair or a pair of crutches if he breaks his ankle. It's better to rent it as you will be using it only for a few weeks," Bharat says.
WhatsOnRent targets youth who earn Rs 30,000 per month on average. "Our aim is to offer products at affordable rates. A single-door refrigerator costs just Rs 500 a month. We manage the complete order cycle, including quality checks and logistics," Bharat says.
Early on, they used to get just one order every two days. Now it rents out around 20 products a day and has 500 active customers. The startup has raised angel funding from Commonfloor co-founder Lalit Mangal, Excubator co-founder Neeraj Gupta, angel investor Sanjay Gupta and Bengaluru-based software firm Nixel Technology. "With their mentorship, we believe we can reach great heights," Bharat says.
Resource: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Why-buy-when-you-can-rent-it-Sulabh-Jain-WhatsOnRent/articleshow/51067187.cms
Hundreds of kilometres away, Shreyans Srimali was facing another problem when he was looking for an apartment in Bengaluru. He had only two options when it came to getting furniture and appliances either buy everything, or rent a fully-furnished flat. He didn't like either.
Sulabh and Shreyans were batchmates at IIM Ahmedabad, where they used to dream about starting a venture. They went different ways after they graduated, but when both happened once to discuss the similar problems that they had faced, they instantly knew it was the right time to start up and solve it for the world.
Around the same time, Bharat Goyal was looking to move into his seventh house in just a few years. Some of those shifts happened because he changed cities, and each time he did that, he had bought new furniture and appliances. Bharat was junior to Shreyans at NIT-Trichy, and when he heard about Shreyans plans, he too boarded the startup, which they called WhatsOnRent.com. It was a platform rent products.
Sulabh, who completed BTech from IIT Bombay and PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, had worked at Boston Consulting Group and TinyOwl before starting WhatsOnRent. Shreyans had worked at Accenture and Flipkart. Bharat had worked with InfoEdge and Adobe, and as the head of R&D at Appiterate in Delhi.He moved to Bengaluru when Appiterate was acquired by Flipkart.
"Our initial research found that a person who lives with his friends stays at one place for just nine months on average. Also, there are around one lakh people moving in and out of Bengaluru every year. These people do not want to buy appliances unless they are really settled. WhatsOnRent is for such guys, who stay at one place for less than a year," says Bharat.
The venture now has over 100 products across 11 categories, including furniture, appliances, fitness, medical and camping equipment, laptops, music instruments, gaming consoles and art collections. "One may not want to buy a new wheelchair or a pair of crutches if he breaks his ankle. It's better to rent it as you will be using it only for a few weeks," Bharat says.
WhatsOnRent targets youth who earn Rs 30,000 per month on average. "Our aim is to offer products at affordable rates. A single-door refrigerator costs just Rs 500 a month. We manage the complete order cycle, including quality checks and logistics," Bharat says.
Early on, they used to get just one order every two days. Now it rents out around 20 products a day and has 500 active customers. The startup has raised angel funding from Commonfloor co-founder Lalit Mangal, Excubator co-founder Neeraj Gupta, angel investor Sanjay Gupta and Bengaluru-based software firm Nixel Technology. "With their mentorship, we believe we can reach great heights," Bharat says.
Resource: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Why-buy-when-you-can-rent-it-Sulabh-Jain-WhatsOnRent/articleshow/51067187.cms
