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WhiteHat Jr – Success Story of the Byju’s-owned Coding Startup

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by WhiteHat Jr.

Coding, as we know, is the language of computers.

The world has changed today for good and coding drove a significant part of the change. From a set of instructions to the machines called computers, coding has now turned into something familiar, a language that is similar to the other languages we can speak or write, one of our native languages.

Technology, computers, and coding sprawl along such a large and significant part of the human civilization that we simply cannot imagine us living without our dear machines.

Nowadays, we not only use coding to make the computers understand what we think but with it, we innovate, invent and demystify the world of riddles we are living in!

If coding interests you, then there is WhiteHat Jr. It simply reveres coding.

WhiteHat Jr. is an online coding platform specially designed for kids between the age group of 6 to 14 years. The company also extends numerous trials for its students for free app design. With WhiteHat Jr, kids can now sit back at their homes comfortably and learn from the demo classes. WhiteHat Jr was acquired by Byju’s in August of 2020, but even after that, the company has been operating as an independent entity.

Let’s go through the WhiteHat Jr. success story and know about the Whitehatjr, its founders, Whitehat Jr fees, competitors, revenue, business model, funding & more here in this article.

WhiteHat Jr – Company Highlights

Company Name	WhiteHat Jr
Headquarters	Andheri, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Sector	EdTech
Founder	Karan Bajaj
Founded	2018
Total Funding	$387.3 million
Revenue	$63.39 million (INR 483.9 crore in FY21)
Parent Organization	BYJU’S
Website	whitehatjr.com

WhiteHat Jr – About
WhiteHat Jr – Startup Story
WhiteHat Jr – Mission and Vision
WhiteHat Jr – Founder And Team
WhiteHat Jr – Name, Tagline and Logo
WhiteHat Jr – Business Model
WhiteHat Jr – Revenue Model
WhiteHat Jr – Funding And Investors
WhiteHat Jr – Growth and Revenue
WhiteHat Jr – Partnerships
WhiteHat Jr – Advertisements and Campaigns
WhiteHat Jr – Challenges and Controversies
WhiteHat Jr – Competitors
WhiteHat Jr – Future Plans

WhiteHat Jr – About

WhiteHat Jr is the leading computer programming learning website for kids to code. It is a platform that connects kids with the top coding teachers. The fundamentals of coding reasoning, algorithmic and structure thinking are taught to the kids for creative outputs at WhiteHat Jr.

WhiteHat Jr – Startup Story

Though WhiteHat Jr was there as a company it got known to almost all of us when its present parent company, BYJU’S acquired it for $300 million in an all-cash deal on August 5, 2020.

Moving to the startup story of the brand, WhiteHat Jr. Founder and Former CEO, Karan Bajaj, traced the foundation of WhiteHat Jr. to one of his deeply personal experiences with which he wanted to bring a change to the world.

Bajaj was a father of two daughters back then, and he felt that technology, truly, is bringing paradigm shifts in every possible industry, and therefore, his daughters also need to rein in the power of technology to absorb the upcoming shifts in their workplaces and their lives. Therefore, he wanted his daughters to be always at the centre of creating technology and coding. Besides, he also went through research that claim that if kids are used to coding from an early age, they tend more experimentative and creative. All of these factors worked at the back of Bajaj’s mind and propelled him to create an organization that will act as an institution for coding for children and adults.

Karan had MIT and TUFTS in his mind but founding one such organization was certainly difficult, with his passion and dedication, he finally founded WhiteHat Jr in 2018

This company was founded in 2018 by the former Discovery Networks CEO (Karan Bajaj). This platform was planned to empower children. When Karan approached the investors to raise funding for his brand, they were surprised as he was pitching without a working product. Then, he explained to them that the investment thesis had already changed since 2015.

WhiteHat Jr – Mission and Vision

The mission and vision of WhiteHat Jr are to “empower a whole generation to become creators versus consumers of technology.”

WhiteHat Jr – Founder And Team

Karan Bajaj is the founder of the company WhiteHat Jr. and had also been the CEO of the company before announcing his resignation on August 4, 2021. He also led Byju’s Future School, a key element of the company’s international expansion for a year, after WhiteHat Jr. was acquired by the Edtech giant, Byju’s on August 5, 2020. Bajaj had served as the CEO of Discovery Networks India before he stepped down in 2018 to fully focus on WhiteHat Jr., which he founded in the same year.

Aside from his professional career associated with his company, he is also a renowned Indian author, whose first two novels, Keep Off the Grass (2008) and Johnny Gone Down (2010), have been best-sellers.

Bajaj initially got a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and then went on to pursue an MBA in Marketing from The Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Bangalore. He started off his corporate career with The Procter and Gamble Company, where he served as an Assistant Brand Manager. He assumed various leading positions in a range of distinguished companies including Ariel India, Herbal Essences, Kraft Foods, Boston Consulting Group, and more before he founded WhiteHat Jr. in 2018.

Karan Bajaj was born in 1979 in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, and spent various stages of his childhood in different places, owing to his father’s transferable job.

Karan Bajaj quit WhiteHat Jr. on August 4, 2021. The founder and CEO of WhiteHat Jr., has made way for Trupti Mukker to take his position. Trupti had served successfully as the head of the customer experience and delivery in BYJU’S and is declared the CEO of the company.

After the acquisition of WhiteHat Jr. by Byju’s in 2020, Bajaj continued to be the CEO of the company and resigned exactly after 1 year.

The company founder and ex-CEO Karan Bajaj previously mentioned that the company had 400 employees and 1,500 teachers in 2020 and disclosed the company’s plans to double its employees and teachers.

WhiteHat Jr – Name, Tagline and Logo

“Your Own Personal Teacher Live, Online Classes” is the tagline of the company.

WhiteHat Jr – Logo

WhiteHat Jr – Business Model

The business model of the company is particularly based on teaching coding to young kids. The Edtech startup has now extended the students’ grades and is now accepting students from grades 1st to 12th grade. The company targets children and guardians to offer various programming courses for a better future in this digital environment. The teaching format of WhiteHat Jr. is live 1:1 online classes. Furthermore, the company also offers free trial classes.

WhiteHat Jr – Revenue Model

WhiteHat Jr’s portal has got more than 700,000 registrations and around 7000 classes are conducted daily routine for kids. Each class conducted costs around INR 600 to 700. There are different course levels, which are priced at Rs 5,999, Rs 29,999, Rs 89,999 and many more. The student resurrection rate for the paid classes is around 75%. Suddenly, the refund fee has become 3% which is very low for an Indian Edtech company.

WhiteHat Jr – Funding And Investors

The company has raised a total amount of $387.3 million in funding over the 3 funding rounds it has seen.

Date	Transaction Name	Money Raised	Lead Investors
August 3, 2021	–	$376 million	Byju’s
September 9, 2019	Series A	$10 million	Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network
April 16, 2019	Seed Round	$1.21 million	Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network

The company is funded by 3 investors. Byju’s infused $376 million in its latest towards its acquiree on August 3, 2021.

WhiteHat Jr – Growth and Revenue

Before the lockdown began, WhiteHat Jr. went from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crores in revenue. Since the lockdown, the value started doubling. When BYJU’s approached in June, the revenue of the company was running at $75 million. The revenue run rate was reported at $150 million as soon as the acquisition was completed. Then, in August, the first month after the acquisition, the rate was again reported to be $220 million. The revenue of the company has surely seen quite a growth over the years. The company had listed revenue of INR 19 crore from its operations in FY20, which stood at only INR 6.7 lakh in FY19.

Byju’s had owned WhiteHat Jr. in a deal worth $300 mn in August 2020, which made FY21 a special year for WhiteHat Jr. Apart from the Byju’s acquisition of WhiteHat, the startup also witnessed a surge in its revenue under the ed-tech juggernaut.

WhiteHat Jr. Revenue Breakdown

The revenue from operations in FY21 was recorded to have surged by 25.5X to be INR 483.9 crore. Around 99% of its revenue came from the course fee it charges from the students, which increased 25X from INR 478.3 crore during FY21 from INR 19 crore in the previous fiscal. Apart from that, WhiteHat Jr. obtained INR 3.36 cr in revenue from the sale of goods or course materials that it offers students whereas another INR 2.27 cr in income was received from other operating revenues. Also, WhiteHat Jr. received INR 74 lakh as interest income.

WhiteHat Jr. Revenue Verticals	FY21	FY20
Course Fee	INR 478.34 cr	INR 19.01 cr
Sale of Goods	INR 3.36 cr	–
Other Operating Revenue	INR 2.27 cr	–

WhiteHat Jr. Expenses Breakdown

WhiteHat Jr.’s expenses also surged along with its scale, which witnessed a 31X increase to INR 2175.2 cr in FY21 from INR 69.7 cr in FY20. Looking at the expense verticals, the company lost quite some money to arrange for the employee benefits, which contributed 42.9% of the total WhiteHat Jr. expenditure during FY21. The costs for the employee benefits witnessed a 27X rise from INR 33.5 crore to INR 932.4 crore. The costs for the advertising and promotions of the company rose by 43.6X to INR 891 crore from INR 20.42 crore. Nearly all of its expenses verticals saw a rise including support services, IT and communication costs, legal, professional, and recruitment fees, and more. Here’s a brief look at the expense breakdown of WhiteHat Jr:

WhiteHat Jr. Expense Verticals	FY21	FY20
Employee Benefit Expenses	INR 932.37 cr	INR 33.50 cr
Advertising and Promotional Expenses	INR 890.93 cr	INR 20.42 cr
Support Service	INR 110.54 cr	INR 2.28 cr
IT and Communication Expenses	INR 81.39 cr	INR 2.69 cr
Legal and Professional Fees	INR 44.23 cr	INR 3.80 cr
Recruitment Expenses	INR 39.76 cr	INR 2.71 cr
Other Operating and Admin Expenses	INR 75.98 cr	INR 4.30 cr

WhiteHat Jr. Financials

Looking at the overall financials of WhiteHat Jr. in FY21, the company operating revenues surged by 25.5X, and its total expenses jumped by around 31X, which made the losses jump too. The annual losses of WhiteHat Jr. soared by 34.5X from INR 48.95 crore to INR 1690.5 crore. The unit economics of the company states that WhiteHat Jr. had spent INR 4.49 to earn a single rupee of revenue in FY21. The EBITDA margins of the company worsened too, which was recorded at -338.31% in FY20 and became -235.17% in FY21.

WhiteHat Jr – Partnerships

WhiteHat Jr has witnessed a number of partnerships throughout the years of its existence. Here’s a review of some of the most noteworthy collaborations of the company:

WhiteHat Jr. partnered with software giant Microsoft to offer a “Code with Minecraft” course for the students on December 23, 2021. This association of Microsoft and WhiteHat will ensure that the students master important coding concepts with the help of a highly curated curriculum based on Minecraft.
WhiteHat Jr. collaborated with FutureSkills Prime, which is a combined initiative for digital skilling of students by Nasscom and the Electronics and IT Ministry on September 2, 2021.
The company, in partnership with 500+ schools, declared on 3rd August 2021, that it would extend the coding curriculum to the students, the number of whom are expected to be around more than 1.25 lakh.

WhiteHat Jr – Advertisements and Campaigns

WhiteHat Jr has been quite infamous in terms of the advertisements it has encouraged all the while since it came into being. The advertisements of the Byju’s-owned startup were allegedly based on imaginary kids and their unreal geniuses after they attain WhiteHat Junior’s academic programs. For example, in one of its advertisements, a 7-year-old has been projected as an app developer and a TedX speaker. This has largely been condemned by all including the ASCI, who had processed around 15 ads from WhiteHat Jr and has identified that 5 of these ads are in potential violation of the ASCI Code, which eventually led to the pulling off of such ads.

Furthermore, there also have been numerous aggressive claims of Whithat Jr via its social media platform. However, when they came on the radar of ASCI, they were already very old and most of them were already taken off. However, ever since BYJU’S acquired WhiteHat Jr, Byju Raveendran himself has ensured that the advertisement and the messaging of the brand would be proper and would address the mass as well as the kids properly.

Refreshing its promotional efforts, Whitehat Jr. has seen to be concentrating on the real kids and the real apps they are capable of building. The campaigns that WhiteHat Jr launched under #RealKidsOfWHJr and #YoungAchieversOfWHJr focused on the real-world applications of coding featured by real kids. The coding platform that was acquired by Edech giant Byju’s also demonstrated a change in its social media activities, where Whitehat Jr now started posting the feats of real children. Furthermore, Whitehat Junior also collaborated with multiple celebrities including Hrithik Roshan, Mahesh Babu and R Madhavan after its Coding Seekho Duniya Badlo campaign went live on TV in the first week of November 2020.

The latest advertisement that Whitehat Junior launched featured Hrithik Roshan. Promoted as #PickItUp, the popular Bollywood actor was seen picking up the guitar. This Whitehat Jr ad is designed to wipe off the notion that age is a bar along with encouraging the students and others to choose music classes from Whitehat Jr and make music.

#PickItUp Campaign

WhiteHat Jr – Challenges and Controversies

WhiteHat Jr has seen its fair share of challenges since it was founded, which were associated with the scaling and growth of the company. WhiteHat Jr came under the radar of the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) after the startup made false claims of imaginary kids who learned coding from WhiteHat Jr and landed jobs at Google and other organizations, became TedX speakers, and more. WhiteHat Jr also sued Pradeep Poonia, who shared posts against Whitehatjr.

Pradeep Poonia Defamation Case

Pradeep Poonia claimed that WhiteHat Jr.’s advertisements are all false and based on imaginary characters like Wolf Gupta, who the company has shown landing a job at Google after learning to code from the Karan Bajaj-led startup then. Poonia also referred to the startup’s instructors as “uneducated” and “housewives”. Though the company later had to remove the advertisements involving Wolf, WhiteHat Jr. filed a defamation case worth Rs 20 crore against Poonia’s statements and later withdrew the same. In the last court hearing, the court prevented Pradeep Poonia from:

Telecasting and transmitting any information received by hacking the servers of WhiteHat Jr.
Helping others take down the content of WhiteHat Jr.
Using his social media handle WhiteHat Sr. on Youtube
Using the URLs using the name “WhiteHat”
Keeping the tweets posted on September 12, 2020, that contains defamatory comments on WhiteHat Jr.
Keeping the tweets posted on September 5, 2020, where Poonia has called WhiteHat Jr.’s business a “pyramid scheme” and other tweets he shared in September and October of 2020

In another case, the company also filed a defamation suit against Dr Aniruddha Malpani. All of these had already cost the company much in terms of its revenue and reputation.

Employees’ Resignation

More than 800 employees dropped their resignation letters in around 60 days’ time after the company asked them to join work from the office within a month. Employees from across teams including the coding, sales and math department resigned from the office after being asked to join offices from their respective locations. On March 18, 2022, WhiteHat Jr. sent an email informing them to join their offices within April 18, 2022, which is why the employees have voluntarily put down their papers. Employees termed this decision of the company as a cost-cutting exercise.

Yes, it surely can be a method of cutting costs where we have already seen the bad market conditions that the ed-tech companies are dealing with. Unacademy and Vedantu, two other unicorns from the ed-tech space together have already laid off close to 1200 employees. Lido Learning is another ed-tech company that has laid off around 150 employees recently.

WhiteHat Jr. Layoffs

Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr. has laid off somewhere close to 300 employees in its recent batch of layoffs, as confirmed on June 29, 2022. The layoff exercise, which went through the whole of the 3rd week of June has led to the trimming of the WhiteHat Jr. workforce that was engaged in code-teaching and the sales team of WhiteHat, where some of them even worked in Brazil. The sales, operations and marketing team was mainly affected by this round of job cuts. Reports claim that the total count of laid-off employees can also go as high as 600. Business restructuring is sighted as the reason behind these layoffs. The laid-off employees were asked to submit their office laptops and IDs on the same day, as the reports went.

The edtech sector, importantly, has been hammered lately by the layoffs in the post-Covid-19 period. The Covid-19 period, however, has seen problems like the Great Resignation. Apart from the edtech companies of India and various other companies and startups laying off their employees in huge chunks fearing a funding winter in the country, many other companies, which feature among the top companies of the world, have also pronounced their layoffs in 2022.

WhiteHat Jr – Competitors

The top competitors of WhiteHat Jr are Coding Blocks, Coding with Kids and Camp K12.

Coding Blocks Pvt Ltd

It is the top #2 competitor of WhiteHat Jr. The company is headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 2014. It operates in the Educational Technology industry.

Coding with Kids

It is also one of the competitors of WhiteHat Jr. The company is headquartered in Redmond, WA. It was founded in 2013. It conducts classes and camps for kids between the age of 5 to 18.

K12

It is the top #3 competitor of WhiteHat Jr. Headquartered in the US, K12 was founded in April 2000. It is a company that offers online schooling and curricula. It is an organization that provides education designed for the people searching for it online.

WhiteHat Jr – Future Plans

The company is currently ramping up its women-only teacher base in India. Presently, the platform is having over 7000 educators and is actively recruiting teachers for all its core disciplines and music from all around the country. The company is eyeing to make its teacher-base to 20,000 shortly. The continuous ramp-up base is aiming towards matching the growing base of students across countries like India, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.

FAQs

Who founded WhiteHat Jr?

Karan Bajaj founded WhiteHat Jr., who was also the CEO of the company before he resigned on August 4, 2021. He is an Indian author and technology entrepreneur.

What is WhiteHat Jr Business Model?

The business model of the company is on teaching coding to young kids. The Edtech startup has now extended the students grades to 12th from grade 1. The company targets children and guardians to offer various programming courses for a better future in this digital environment. The teaching format is a live 1:1 online class. It also offers free trial classes.

Who are the Top Competitors of WhiteHat Jr?

The top competitors of WhiteHat Jr are Coding Blocks, Coding with Kids, and Camp K12.

How much is WhiteHat Jr Revenue?

WhiteHat Jr. recorded a revenue of $63.39 mn in FY21.

What are Whitehat Jr fees?

The WhiteHat Jr. fees start from around Rs 6500 only and go up. The Whitehat Jr fees per month depend on the duration and the complexity of the course it offers.

What are Whitehat jr free courses?

Whitehat Jr has free/trial classes that give the students an opportunity to test the kind of classes/lectures they receive before going for WhiteHat Junior.

June 29, 2022

Reliance Jio – The Success Story of the 1st Network to Provide 4G VoLTE Services in India!

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Jio.

When do you think a revolution came in the telecommunication industry? Well, the most common answer is after the launch of Mukesh Ambani’s Jio. This company made an incredible entry into the Indian mobile telecom sector with the most exclusive cost leadership strategy that revolutionized the whole market of telecommunication. But how do you think did that happen?

Was it the investments in the company or the business model or Mukesh Ambani’s strategic plans?

To know more about How Jio Started, information about Jio company, the Success Story of Reliance Jio, and how Jio changed India, you go through this StartupTalky article.

Reliance Jio – Company Highlights

Company Name	Jio (Joint Implementation Opportunities)
Headquarter	Mumbai, India
Sector	Telecommunications
Founder	Mukesh Ambani
Founded	15th February 2007
Revenue	Rs 18,952 crore (FY21,Q1)
Profit	Rs 3,651 crore (FY21, Q1)
Average Revenue per user (ARPU)	INR 138.4 (FY21, Q1)
Reliance Jio Slogan	‘Digital Life’
Reliance Jio Tagline	‘Jio jee bharke’ (Live life to the fullest)
Parent Organization	Reliance Industries
Website	jio.com

About Jio
Founders of Jio and team
Jio – Startup Story | How was Jio Started?
Jio – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Jio – Business Model and How it Works?
Jio – Growth
Jio – Competitors
Jio – Future Plans

Reliance Jio — Who Dominates Mobile Subscriptions?

About Jio

When Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani had a split in the year 2005, it was one of the biggest de-merger in the industry. The dream project of Mukesh Ambani that was Reliance Infocom, became a part of the Anil Ambani Group. Furthermore, Mukesh Ambani went on to acquire the company Infotel Broadband Services Limited, which was the only successful bidder across India for the 4G network.

This is when Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Limited started working on establishing a base for a high-speed optical fiber 4G network which is much more capable than 4G. The company was named Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd popularly known as Jio today. Jio was the first network to provide 4G LTE services and VoLTE services.

Jio launched these services on 5th September 2016 for all the users and also launched its smartphone series with the name LYF. Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd (RJIL) focused on high-speed data instead of voice and SMS. On its launch, the company announced data plans with 1GB 4G data per day in the market where mostly all popular telecom providers offered 1GB data per month.

This was a game-changer by RJIL in the price-sensitive market of India as the prices before that revolved around Rs 250-300 for 1 GB 4G data, which went down to Rs 5 per GB during the initial days. Along with these amazing plans, Jio also started offering free voice calling and free 100 SMS per day for all its Prime members.

JioPhone Next

The all-new ‘JioPhone Next’, is being jointly developed by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance and tech giant, Google was scheduled for a Ganesh Chaturthi release, on September 10, 2021. However, Reliance Telecommunication’s revolutionary product hit a roadblock due to an acute global shortage of semiconductors and had been postponed till Diwali at least, as per the reports dated September 10, 2021. The company then remarked that it had already started testing the device among a limited set of users to identify further scopes of refinement and make them easily available foolproof in November, during the festive season of Diwali. With this, Reliance Jio had also bought some more time to figure out efficient ways to mitigate the global shortage of semiconductors. This Reliance JioPhone Next was finally launched on November 4, 2021. These phones now comes at Rs 6,499, and is powered with the Android-powered Pragati OS, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon QM215 processor. The JioPhone Next can also be bought by paying Rs 1,999 only by the users who lack the options of paying for the phone upfront. However, they also need to pay the company for the full price of the phone later on by monthly installments.

The JioPhone Next can be summed up as a good option if you are looking for an entry-level budget phone, and if you don’t have Rs 6000-7000 or more to buy new phones. However, these phones also have numerous drawbacks like:

JioPhone Next is sluggish being deficient of adequate RAM
You need to only use a Jio sim as the primary SIM to use it
The phone can also be turned of by the financer if it is not properly paid for
It comes in with an Android OS, but has its own JIO customisations

Founders of Jio and team

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is one of the richest men in the world. He is the Founder of Jio.

Mukesh Ambani - Founder of Jio — Mukesh Ambani – Founder of Jio

Mukesh is reportedly the richest man in India and his family is popularly known as the richest family in Asia, according to Forbes. Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani was the Chief Managing Director (CMD) of Reliance Industries Ltd, which is one of the biggest conglomerates in India.

Mukesh was born in Aden but he grew up in Mumbai. Being one of the most influential and powerful personalities of the country he has provided his business acumens to the whole world. Mukesh Ambani is the owner of the world’s largest refinery. He has achieved tons of notable accomplishments and is a part of many renowned institutes as well. Ambani was the Director and Chairman of Reliance JIO Infocomm Ltd. too before he stepped down with effect from June 27, 2022, and his son, Akash Ambani, who was a Non-Executive Director, has been appointed as the Chairman of the company, as per reports dated June 29, 2022. The Jio board has also revealed the appointments of Raminder Singh Gujral and K.V. Chowdary as additional directors of the company, who will serve as independent directors for the next 5 years, commencing from June 27, 2022. Furthermore, Pankaj Mohan Pawar has been appointed as the Managing Director of the Jio business also for 5 years.

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Jio – Startup Story | How was Jio Started?

Some time back, Mukesh Ambani the founder of Jio was asked about how he thought of coming up with such an amazing idea to which he said that this idea was seeded by his daughter Isha Ambani. In 2011, Isha Ambani was a student at Yale in the US and was home for the holidays.

She told her dad how bad the internet connectivity was at their house because she couldn’t submit her coursework. At that time, Mukesh Ambani realized that how India is suffering from bad and poor connectivity of the internet.

The data was severely scarce and overpriced, which was unaffordable to a majority of Indians. Since then, Mukesh Ambani started working on Jio to make the data services abundant and affordable in every part of the country, which gave birth to Reliance Telecommunication’s Jio business line.

Jio – Name, Tagline, and Logo

JIO stands for Joint Implementation Opportunities and the full name of the company is Reliance Jio Infocom Ltd.

The logo of Reliance Jio has a hidden meaning. When we flip the logo and look at its mirror image it is read as ‘oil’ which represents the past and future of Reliance. The company Reliance appeared as a business giant in the 20th century because of its Oil business and in the 21st century probably the flipped version, Jio has successfully ushered in another revolution.

The slogan of Reliance Jio is ‘Digital Life’ while a popular tagline of Jio has been ‘Jio jee bharke’ which means live life to the fullest.

Jio – Business Model and How it Works?

Reliance Jio had really smart strategies and most of them belonged to the founder Mukesh Ambani. For its initial year, Jio gave unlimited data services and high-quality Volte calling services at surprisingly low charges. The complete change in the market made other telecom operators change their business models.

These offers created a lot of radical and unexpected changes in the consumer’s behavior as well. Also, it led to many mergers and acquisitions in Indian mobile network providers. Jio, in turn, made people use more and more services so that they spend more.

Jio eventually started charging 6 paise per minute on its calling services. The company has now launched numerous value packs consisting of both internet and calling benefits along with other on-demand subscriptions at competitive rates, which are even lower for Jio phone users.

Well, in the initial phase Reliance took a big risk to enter into the telecom industry but it has proved to be one of the best companies in the current market.

Jio – Growth

Jio has already proven to be a rising force being a revolutionary company and the torchbearer of the Indian 4G VoLTE services. The Mukesh Ambani-led company is currently the leading telecommunication service provider in India. The Jio company is now working to empower the Indian users with the 5G and 6G services as well. Jio is the 3rd largest mobile network operator in the world with over 179.93 million users.

Jio has added 1.6 mn+ wireless subscribers to its network in April 2022. In the broadband segment, Jio leads the path, which currently boasts of 52.15% of the total Indian userbase, followed by Bharti Airtel, which now enjoys 31.61% of the market share. Reliance Industries’ shares reportedly closed 1.5% higher at Rs 2,529 on the BSE on June 28, 2022.

Jio launched the fiber to the home service in 2019, which now offers home broadband, telephone, and television services. When the coronavirus made things scary for businesses and professionals, Mukesh Ambani made his company Reliance Jio net debt-free 9 months before the deadline. The conglomerate has raised Rs 53,124.0 crore by offering shares to its existing shareholders and another Rs 118,318.45 crore by selling stakes in the Jio platform through 12 deals.

Reliance Jio has become the country’s largest-ever right issue and series of stake sales deals in its arm Jio Platforms, delivering on a promise given to its shareholders in last year’s August.

“I have fulfilled my promise to the shareholders by making Reliance net debt-free much before our original schedule of 31st March 2021,” Mukesh Ambani said in a statement released early on Friday.

Reliance Industries is in its ‘Golden Decade’ and Mr. Mukesh Ambani has assured his shareholders that in this decade RIL will set even more ambitious growth goals and achieve them. Back in 2017, Mr. Ambani said that the energy-to-telecom conglomerate was on the verge of a golden decade where it would yield the returns of its largest-ever capacity expansion in its petrochemical business and its investment in Jio. With these investments, the company’s net debt was Rs 161,035 crore, as of March 31, 2020, and the funds raised in the last 8 weeks exceeded it. Along with the stake sale to BP in the petro-retail joint venture, the total fundraising is in excess of Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

In twelve weeks thirteen different companies have invested in Jio platform, from leading Global investors which included Facebook, Silver Lake(Twice), Vista Equity Partner, General Atlantic, KKR. & Co.Inc., Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, TPG Capital, L Catterton, Saudi Arabia PIF, and Qualcomm.

Companies Investing In Jio In A Nutshell

Name of the Company	Stakes	Total Investments
Facebook	9.99%	INR 43,574 cr
Vista Equity Partner	2.32%	INR 11, 367 cr
Silver Lake Partner	1.15%	INR 5,655.75 cr
General Atlantic	1.34%	INR 6,598.38 cr
KKR & Co. Inc.	2.32%	INR 11,367 cr
Mubadala Investment Company	1.85%	INR 9,093.60 cr
Silver Lake Partner	0.93%	INR 4,546.80 cr
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority	1.16%	INR 5,683.5 cr
TPG Capital	0.93%	INR 4.546.80 cr
L Catterton	0.39%	INR 1,894.50 cr
Saudi Arabia’s Wealth Fund PIF	2.32%	INR 11,367 cr
Qualcomm	0.15%	INR 730 cr

Jio Platforms has diluted 25.24% of its equity. That’s the maximum they have in view to dilute to financial investors, which includes Mark Zukerberg’s Facebook. Any new investors coming on board in the future will have to be “strategic investors, a tech giant, for instance,” said a source who was part of the deal-making process. The RIL-FB partnership could emerge as the core platform for India’s digital economy and as more consumers and small businesses shift online, it could unlock a digital market worth $2 trillion.

The secret behind Jio’s success is that it is customer-centric and has a webscale mentality. Reliance Jio made it look easy when it successfully swooped into the jam-packed and super competitive mobile market with free 4G voice and data service. So, in a nutshell, Reliance Jio, aims at harnessing the full potential of the internet to create a digital revolution through their technologies. Innovative services and long-term planning will radically bring the world at one’s fingertips much faster and also transform the way Indians think, work, live, and are entertained.

Reliance Jio announced plans for integrated fibre connectivity and digital solutions to transform over 50 Million small and medium businesses in India on March 9, 2021. A statement released by Reliance Jio said – “Under this plan, Indian MSMEs will get Jio connectivity at one-tenth (1/10th) of the existing price in the market. They will also be able to collaborate with Jio partners to get easy-to-use solutions”

Reliance Jio also announced to launch of its new product JioBook, as per the reports dated March 8, 2021. After years of speculation, it is believed that the product is in the Engineering Validation test stage. JioBook is a laptop, that is said to be affordable and would attract a lot of customers. As per the speculations, the price of the laptop would start from INR 10,000 onwards.

Reliance Jio emerged as the top bidder in India’s $11 billion airwaves auction, said the reports on March 2, 2021. Reliance Jio bought airwaves worth Rs 571.23 billion ($7.8 billion) of the total Rs 778.2 billion raised in the latest spectrum auction. Jio’s competitors – Bharti Airtel Ltd., spent $2.6 billion and Vodafone Plc’s India unit bought spectrum worth Rs 19.9 billion.

Some of the popular Jio Apps that the customers can now find are:

Jio Pages – A Jio launched web browser for Android mobiles
Jio Chat – JioChat is an instant messaging and video calling app for Jio users.
Jio Cinema – An online HD video library by Jio, designed to provide the users with movies, tv shows, and music videos online
Jio Cloud – A safe and secure cloud storage service from Jio
Jio Health – A health services app from Jio
JioNews – A news app or e-reader for news by Jio
JioMeet – A video-conferencing platform from Jio
JioMoney – A mobile wallet for the Jio customers
JioSaavn – Provides online and offline music streaming in English and Indian languages
JioSecurity – A mobile security and antivirus app
JioTV – A streaming service brought by Jio
JioCall (Jio4GVoice) – A videocalling feature for the fixed-line number customers
MyJio – A Jio account using which the Jio users can manage their Jio account and digital services

Jio also has a list of other products and services. Here are some important ones to know about:

Mobile broadband service
JioFiber
JioBusiness
JioNet Wi-fi
JioPhone Next

Jio – Competitors

There are many telecommunication brands that have thrived for long years in the telecommunication space of India. Popular brands like Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, etc. had achieved the customer’s trust for years and are still among the Reliance Jio competitors. However, with the disruptive entry of Jio, they had to hurry things up and make significant changes in their business models, strategies, and workings to match up with Jio’s radical approach.

Small network operators like Aircel, Tata Teleservices, and Telenor had to shut down their functions in India because of the revolution brought by Jio into the market. The profits of other Telecom operators have also drastically decreased since Jio’s inception. Idea also had to merge with Vodafone eventually to make the company Vodafone Idea or Vi.

Jio – Future Plans

Mukesh Ambani, recently in an interview, stated that Reliance Jio is now focusing on growing the teledensity in the rural and remote areas. The company is continuing to grow in demand for telecom services and provides digital services with greater services.

Reliance Jio planned to build a data center in UP with approximately $950 million as an investment on February 23, 2021. This center will be powered by its own renewable energy plant.

The company may also expand from being a digital telecom service provider to a digital services player which also offers services related to agriculture, healthcare, and education. Jio also aims to be an influencer and initiator in bringing and developing 5G services in India. The future Reliance Jio projects also include the launching of the 5G and 6G services, and the launch of the JioPhone Next, which was done in November 2021.

FAQs

What is Reliance Jio Tagline/Slogan?

The slogan of Reliance Jio is ‘Digital Life’ while a popular tagline of Jio has been ‘Jio jee bharke’, which means live life to the fullest.

Who is Reliance Jio Founder?

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is the founder of Reliance Jio.

How much is Reliance Jio Revenue?

In the second quarter of FY2021, it reported a revenue of INR 17,481 Cr with a profit of INR 2,844 Cr. In Q1, the company reported INR 16,557 Cr in revenue. Reliance Jio’s average revenue per user (ARPU) has gone up to INR 140, during Q1 of FY2021.

Who are Reliance Jio’s top competitors?

Airtel, and Vi are the prominent competitors of Reliance Jio.

How much is Mukesh Ambani’s net worth?

Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is $90.7 bn, as of April 2022.

Does Reliance Jio have any subsidiaries?

Yes. Reliance Jio’s subsidiaries are LYF and Reliance Jio Infocomm Pte. Ltd.

How much is Reliance Jio’s customer base?

As of April 2022, Reliance Jio recorded 179.93 million users.

June 29, 2022

StayAbode – How the Housr-Owned Startup is Growing its Co-living Spaces in Bangalore?

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by StayAbode.

Many young people, every year, move out of their home towns in pursuit of better education or in search of better employment opportunities. A common problem these youth have to face in the new cities is that of finding decent accommodation. Looking for a well-maintained place within budget, arranging furniture, finding good companions, arranging for domestic help, wi-fi and TV connections, all of these sounds really stressful for students and young professionals moving to new cities.

But now, a different concept is fast becoming popular among the youths in India, which solves all these worries and makes shifting to a new city easier. Co-living is the term of this new concept that brings in a new way of living for people who are staying away from their hometowns. StayAbode a Bangalore-based startup founded in 2016, has become quite a popular name in the field of co-living spaces.

NestAway’s co-living subsidiary, The Hello World had initially acquired StayAbode, with a capacity of 2000 beds, in an undisclosed value deal in 2020. The Hello World then had 20,000 beds and planned to add 30,000 more beds by the end of 2022. StayAbode has again been acquired by Housr, as confirmed by the news dated June 27, 2022. StayAbode now stays acquired by Housr, which is a managed accommodation platform in India.

Check this StartupTalky article to know more about StayAbode, its Founders and Team, Business and Revenue model, Growth, StayAbode Startup Story, the StayAbode acquisition and more.

StayAbode – Company Highlights

Startup Name	StayAbode
Headquarter	Bangalore
Founders	Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla & Devashish Dalmiya
Sector	Real Estate, Co-living
Founded	2016
Parent Organization	Housr

StayAbode – About
StayAbode – Industry
StayAbode – Name and logo
StayAbode – Founders & Team
StayAbode – Mission
StayAbode – How It All Started?
StayAbode – Business & Revenue Model
StayAbode – Funding & Investors
StayAbode – Growth
StayAbode – User Acquisition
StayAbode – Startup Challenges
StayAbode – Competitors
StayAbode – Future Plans

StayAbode – About

StayAbode provides professionally managed co-living spaces for rent. StayAbode takes care of all the accommodation-related worries that one faces on moving to a new city. From furnishing to security from housekeeping to maintenance, StayAbode manages it all.

StayAbode uses design, technology, service, and brand to build co-living spaces for the rental residential market at scale. StayAbode’s co-living spaces support the lifestyle of the young, single sociable household, enabling a high level of comfort, convenience, and a sense of community with shared spaces such as kitchens, common areas, game areas, and places to dine and work. StayAbode’s co-living spaces are building the future of residential real estate for urban millennials.

What is StayAbode?

StayAbode solves all the living issues that young professionals face when they move to a new city. From difficult landlords to high deposits and unfair rentals, StayAbode is the solution for all.

Currently operating in Bangalore, StayAbode offers beautiful, fully furnished living spaces. These spaces are designed in a way that the residents have their own private spaces plus there are shared spaces for working, dining, kitchen spaces, etc. Thus, the residents continue to have their private space along with a community of like-minded people, which do not let them feel lonely and left out in the new city.

The facilities that StayAbode provides to its dwellers include-

Fully furnished living spaces
Housekeeping services
On-site laundry
All-inclusive rent
A nominal deposit that is easy on the pocket.
Living spaces are fully secured
Expert team for repairing/ maintenance work
Resident-only app, through which one can avail of various services and get updates.

We believe we are well set to solve for millennial living in today’s sharing economy where the consumer gives access, a greater significance than ownership.

A community of like-minded and inspiring individuals, a designated community manager who takes care of every need of the residents, and a policy of indiscrimination that lets everyone irrespective of gender, marital status, etc be a part of its co-living community which is an important USP of StayAbode.

StayAbode – Industry

As per the recent IBEF reports, there are more than 75 co-living companies in India, which itself, indicates the demand for co-living spaces in the country. The co-living market of India is expected to grow to 5.7 mn from 4.19 mn. The size of the coliving sector, which stood at over $6.5 bn, when last recorded in April 2022, is expected to grow 2X to reach $13.92 bn by the same time.

StayAbode – Name and Logo

The idea was to build a brand that solves for living across the journey of a consumer from the first time they become independent in life all the way into their retirement years.

“We were looking for a name that could encompass this entire journey and we felt that ‘Abode’ captured that. To reinforce the ‘living’ emotion, we liked the way StayAbode worked and it was something that was effortless and rolled off smoothly”.

StayAbode Logo

StayAbode – Founders & Team

Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya are the founders of StayAbode.

Viral Chhajer

Viral Chhajer is the CEO of StayAbode. He is a graduate in Business Administration and worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and Runnr, before StayAbode. He also co-founded Bribe Me, an app that is India’s first flash sale marketplace that allows users to avail of exclusive offers in real-time. Viral exited Bribe Me in 2015.

Varun Bhalla

Varun Bhalla is a computer science graduate and was also a part of the Bribe Me venture with Viral. Prior to StayAbode Varun worked as a mobile app developer in companies like foofys and Treebo Hotels.

Devasish Dalmiya

Devasish Dalmiya holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Devashish and Viral are an alumnus of Christ University Bangalore. Devashish had been a part of companies like International Money Matters Pvt Ltd, Right Horizons Investment Advisory and Wealth Management Pvt Ltd, and Roadhouse Hostels, before starting up with StayAbode. Dalmiya left StayAbode in October 2020 and is currently working at BASIC Home Loan as a Director of Business Development.

StayAbode Ventures has registered its employee count between 51-200, as per its Linkedin profile.

StayAbode – Mission

The StayAbode mission statement says that the startup is looking to “make life convenient and enriching for our residents.”

StayAbode – How It All Started?

“It all started off with independent living,” says Devashish. Devashish noticed that though people somehow manage to find a living space in cities, they are left with many unsolved problems. They do not find like-minded people to live with, plus just finding a home is not enough, there are lots to take care of like food, furnishing, etc. While Devashish was backpacking across Europe, he saw that there were managed communities where students lived together, and wanted to introduce the same concept to India also.

He pondered on the issues young people moving to a new city were facing. “It pretty much boils down to two – uncertainty and loneliness. It’s not just enough that they have to navigate a new and unknown real estate market, they also have to figure out how to mesh in with the city and its people so that they don’t keep feeling like outsiders”.

There are 3 types of people who come to the city on any given day: tourists, travellers, and settlers. While the tourist and traveller have their own defined solutions, the settler is the group that needs the ecosystem, both great living space and a like-minded community. That’s the category that StayAbode aims its services at. StayAbode was started with the intention to create a brand that allows the settlers to maximize their productivity with a supportive community and a hassle-free living experience.

“StayAbode is the answer to all your big city living woes,” said he.

The concept is fairly new in India. But data shows young professionals and students would prefer to stay in places where they can be part of a community while having their own little piece of private space. StayAbode enables this by using technology and design thinking to create private spaces and common areas that lead to collisions that bring the community together.

Living with like-minded people and engendering a community of people ready to share and create together, can be the perfect recipe for the millennial living experience. When you live and learn together, you grow together. Imagine being able to meet new people, be supremely productive, come home to a great living space and be able to truly find yourself in a new city. Life suddenly seems so simple.

StayAbode – Business & Revenue Model

The StayAbode business model follows a full-stack model, not a part-inventory one. It leases out complete buildings – from the basement to the terrace, and turns them into co-living spaces. After that, StayAbode’s team puts together the furniture and common-room setups, ensuring the space has everything that a tenant needs, including add-ons like community kitchens, study areas, reading spaces, and even barbeque grills in some properties.

As far as the StayAbode revenue model is considered, they charge a fixed rent that covers living and utility expenses and has a defined margin with every landowner, which differs from property to property. The company’s objective is to create a win-win situation for itself and the property owners by ensuring high occupancy.

StayAbode – Funding & Investors

The StayAbode funding to date is as follows:

Funding Date	Funding Stage	Funding Amount	Investors
March 2019	Pre Series A	Undisclosed	Voyage Group, Akatsuki and Incubate Fund
July 2018	Pre Series A	Undisclosed	Anupam Mittal, Vineet Sekhsaria, Lets Venture Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India) and Akatsuki.
August 2017	Seed	Undisclosed	Incubate Fund
February 2017	Angel	Undisclosed	Angie Mahtaney & Ishan Manaktala

StayAbode – Growth

StayAbode has grown to become one of the leading names when it comes to co-living spaces in Bangalore since it was founded in 2016. This Bangalore-based coliving service provider has been acquired by Housr, one of India’s leading co-living players on June 27, 2022.

With this deal, Housr will add more than 20+ properties launched in Bengaluru, and over 1200 beds to its inventory in the major hubs of Bangalore like HSR Layout, Koramangala, Marathalli, Indiranagar, and Electronic City. The StayAbode acquisition of Housr will mark its powerful foray into Bengaluru and will strengthen its presence in South India. The parent of StayAbode further has planned to have 12000+ beds by March 2023, This will be made possible by combining Housr Co-Living and Housr Homes.

On its acquisition, team StayAbode said, “The concept of co-living is still germinating in India. Handing over the baton to one of India’s leading co-living players puts us on a better collective footing to popularise managed accommodation amongst a skeptical Indian audience.”

StayAbode – User Acquisition

Referrals, SEM, and social media marketing worked best for StayAbode. StayAbode is one of the first players in co-living spaces and people were quite curious about and eager to try this new concept. Besides, StayAbode was also building up curiosity regarding co-living spaces through Facebook posts.

The company launched its first few properties in popular locations across Bangalore where the target group for co-living spaces was present.

“Cliched as it may sound, a great experience and community engagement in our business is the ultimate hack. We have seen the highest percentage of extensions where we have ensured a consistent experience across both the living and community experience. This has guaranteed us a fairly high rate of referrals across these properties too and we have always used these properties and the teams running them as a benchmark within the organization to ensure a consistent experience” says Devashish.

StayAbode – Startup Challenges

A major challenge, in the beginning, was solving the sales pitch for the property owners. There were property owners who hesitated about letting their properties be transformed by StayAbode in the process of designing co-living areas. In such cases, the StayAbode team focused on explaining and showing the property owners how a well-designed property was allowing for better return and performance.

StayAbode – Competitors

Some competitors of StayAbode are CoLive, CoHo and OyoLiving.

An increasing number of players are now entering the co-living space but everyone tends to operate on different models with different focus areas. StayAbode strives to stand out from the competition by providing an excellent resident experience to its dwellers. Besides, it is also constantly improving operational efficiency to give the property owners better value.

StayAbode—Future Plans

StayAbode is currently operating with around 20 properties in Bangalore. As a Housr subsidiary, the company is dreaming the Housr dream of having over 12K beds, and scaling up to 100+ properties across the country by the end of March 2023.

Moving to a new city can be daunting and inconvenient. Over the last few years, it has become more challenging to find a convenient and fulfilling home on rent at an affordable cost. So, we decided to address this very issue by serving StayAbode as a solution – beautiful, fully-furnished private homes with shared spaces, that add value to our residents’ lives at less cost. All said and done, we’re here to make a difference – in living and in lives.

Conclusion

StayAbode is more than just brick and mortar. They go beyond giving their residents four walls. The company knows that shifting to a new city can be a nightmare. This is why the ready-to-move-in homes of StayAbode, come with all-inclusive amenities. Besides, the thoughtfully designed shared spaces of StayAbode make it super convenient to move in and have an enriching stay. Also, StayAbode has been designed to foster human interactions. With a community of inspiring people from different walks of life, it is the perfect place to share experiences, network, learn and stay inspired.

In the StayAbode community, the possibilities of events and gatherings are infinite. From movie nights, match nights, mini gigs, cook-offs, and potluck parties to festival celebrations, you can indulge in a myriad of events and celebrations. At StayAbode, they curate the profiles to maintain the quality of their community. They verify the personal and professional profiles of every applicant and follow up with a thorough background check. Moreover, all the shared spaces are equipped with CCTV cameras to ensure safety and security. In the conclusion, with StayAbode joining Housr, dreams are big, and ever-expanding both for the startup and its parent.

FAQs

What is StayAbode?

StayAbode is a provider of coliving spaces in Bangalore, which has a cluster of co-living spaces for rent, thoughtfully designed to create a positive impact on the way people live. Convenience and community are at the core of what StayAbode does, making city-living affordable and meaningful for its residents.

What is co-living?

Co-living is a modern way of living better together. It is an amalgamation of convenient, affordable city-living and inspiring community living. StayAbode has been designed to foster human interactions. With shared spaces, events and gatherings hosted every so often, the residents of the startup can indulge in a rich and engaging network of people, perspectives, and experiences.

How can I visit StayAbode properties?

You can set up a visit through the StayAbode website or give the team a call on 08061914619 to schedule a visit.

Why was StayAbode started?

Moving to a new city can be daunting and inconvenient. Over the last few years, it has become more challenging to find a convenient and fulfilling home on rent at an affordable cost. So, StayAbode decided to address this very issue with its beautiful, fully-furnished private homes with shared spaces, that add value to its residents’ lives at less costs.

What does a regular day for a StayAbode resident look like?

The StayAbode residents can wake up at their convenience, and have their homes cleaned spick and span by its housekeeping crew. They can then spend their day working or relaxing at home or at the StayAbode shared spaces designed to inspire and collaborate with the community. On a day when a social event has been planned, they can also indulge in some networking and meaningful conversations with other community members. Moreover, they can also head to their private rooms when slumber takes over. That’s the beauty of co-living at Abode. It’s a wonderful blend of personal and social life, under one roof.

What does the housekeeping staff of StayAbode take care of?

The well-trained housekeeping crew of StayAbode leaves the homes squeaky clean, 6 days a week. This includes dusting, mopping, cleaning the utensils, making the bed, and cleaning the washroom on alternate days.

What does the people that rent at StayAbode properties get?

The one-for-all rent of the people renting at StayAbode properties, is inclusive of the monthly rent, housekeeping services, WiFi, utility bills, and access to shared spaces and community events.

Are the StayAbode apartments furnished?

StayAbode homes are beautifully designed and fully furnished to match the lifestyle of everyone. They’re ready-to-move-in homes to make lives more convenient. So, you can just move in with your suitcase. StayAbode will have the rest covered.

Is StayAbode acquired?

Yes, StayAbode has been acquired by Housr, a hospitality company from Gurgaon that is founded by Deepak Anand and Kalpesh Mehta, on June 27, 2022.

June 29, 2022

The Rimuut Success Story of Transforming Freelancers into Companies
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Rimuut.

Entrepreneurship, freelancing, and the gig economy has seen a boost in recent years. More and more people are now opting to start their own business or just work as freelancers. However, while starting, many of them face many operational challenges. Challenges like work security, payment, and invoicing are nightmares for freelancers. In fact, creative freelancers can’t even focus on their creativity because of these hassles.

To help all the freelancers, Rimuut provides a platform, which can handle all of these aspects of the business. This ultimately helps to make it easier to operate from anywhere easily. Read about Rimuut’s success story, challenges, and more further in this article.

Startup Name Rimuut

Founded 2017

Founders Mert Bulut & Esen Bulut

Headquarters Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia

Industry SaaS

Area Served Worldwide

About Rimuut
Rimuut – Starting up
Rimuut – Industry Details
Rimuut – Founders and Team
Rimuut – Logo
Rimuut – Growth
Rimuut – Recognition & Achievements
Rimuut – Marketing
Rimuut – Challenges
Rimuut – Competitors

About Rimuut

Rimuut is a fintech company from Estonia that offers a platform for the freelancers, who can, with the Rimuut platform, create virtual companies for invoicing and getting paid. The Rimuut platform is designed to enable the freelancers to send tax-deductible invoices to the clients from across the globe, and collect payments.

Rimuut helps it make easy for freelancers to invoice business clients in almost 150 countries like a company. Besides, the Rimuut platform also helps them get paid in less than 24 hours in any currency. Creating service contracts and other legal documents is also easier now with Rimuut.

Rimuut Website

Product & Services

Right now, Rimuut provides virtual company solution for freelancers. It transforms them into legitimate businesses within seconds by equipping them with commercial and managerial tools to handle billing, settlement, and payment. Rimuut enables freelancers to easily invoice their corporate clients and get the payment. Moreover, it protects their work by contracts without the financial and mental burden of starting and running their own companies.

Rimuut – Starting up

Rimuut’s journey has begun based on the personal experiences of the founders. One of the two founders, Mert, managed outsourced mobile projects abroad and faced constant invoicing and payment issues as he was unincorporated. Being an innate entrepreneur himself, Mert knew that freelancers worldwide are looking for a solution for their financial problems, which causes huge barriers.

By joining forces with Esen, with a finance background, they came up with a unique idea. The idea was to transform freelancers into virtual companies. This would help them function as companies without carrying the burden of actually starting and running a company.

Rimuut – Launch

The primary strategy of Rimuut is putting the needs of freelancers and the businesses hiring freelancers at the core of the service. Due to the user-focused business strategy of Rimuut, the company enables people to empower their businesses. From invoicing to customer support, Rimuut focuses on the excellence of the user journey and experience.

Rimuut – Industry Details

Freelancing is growing globally. Many individuals are leaving their jobs to work on a freelance basis. On the other hand, companies are also taking it sportingly. They are hiring more freelancers rather than hiring full-time employees for short-term work.

When the founders of Rimuut extensively researched the freelance economy, they saw many problems dealing with billing, settlement, and freelancers’ payment procedures, especially when working with local and global businesses. They focused on solving these problems.

Rimuut – Founders and Team

Rimuut has been founded by Esent and Mert Bulut.

Esen and Mert Bulut – Rimuut Founders (R to L)

Esen Bulut

Esen Bulut is the Cofounder at Rimuut. She is an alumnus of Boston College Carroll School of Management. Before founding Rimuut, Esen served as a Partner at Codfabrik. She was earlier in the Marketing department at Esenteks Teskstil, and an Assistant Financial Specialist at Dogus Holding, prior to that.

Mert Bulut

Mert Bulut is another Co-founder at Rimuut. Mert has completed an MS in Computing from Goldmiths, University of London, after finishing BS (Management Engineering) from Istanbul Technical University. Mert was the Founding Partner at Codefabrik after being a Team Member at Etohum.

The team size of Rimuut, as per its Linkedin profile is somewhere between 11-50 employees.

Rimuut – Logo

Rimuut Logo

Rimuut – Growth

Rimuut has seen a good growth since it started back in 2017. The company takes pride in enabling over 4000 employees function remotely and helping them work hybridly with more than 40,000 solo talents, where Rimuut helps them with its wide range of features and facilities including universal invoicing, contracting and payment.

Rimuut – Recognition & Achievements

Rimuut embarked on its journey in January 2017 by admitting to ITU Cekirdek Incubation Center (2nd best in Europe and the 3rd best in the world by the international UBI Global index). Additionally, Rimuut was selected among the top 8 startups at Startup Turkey in the EMEA region.

Rimuut – Marketing

After perfecting their product, they used digital marketing tools to grow their user base. WOMM or the word of mouth marketing got a lot of eyeballs for Rimuut. Happy users brought other users and created a snowball effect. Moreover, they used referral marketing campaigns to kickstart their platform.

Rimuut – Challenges

Rimuut is a disruptive platform. Like every other disruptive business, Rimuut also have experienced problems with the regulations. Excessive and inadequate regulations were the most challenging for the company. However, it learned to adapt and perfect the tools as per the rules to empower the freelancers.

Rimuut – Competitors

Some of the Rimuut competitors are:
- Freelancer Stack
- Freelance Rate Explorer
- YayPay
- VersaPay
FAQs

What is Rimuut?

Rimuut is a fintech company that provides effective solutions for the freelancers and other individuals who can, with the help of the Rimuut platform, create virtual companies for invoicing and getting paid.

Who are the founders of Rimuut?

The Rimuut founders are Esen and Mert Bulut.

Where are the headquarters of Rimuut?

The Rimuut headquarters are located in Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia.

When was Rimuut founded?

Rimuut was founded in 2017.
June 28, 2022
What is Impulse Buying and How Can You Use it to Increase Sales?
We all have been there, where we saw an Ad on Google/ Instagram and instantly bought the product. It could be some skincare item, an earphone, or something else. A similar pattern is noticed when we enter a store with a ₹500 budget in our hands and a list of items we need. Yet, we end up at the counter with a bill of over ₹2000.

We all hate it, regret it, and want to end this habit of impulse buying. However, if you run a retail or eCommerce store, you want more of such people. They buy more than they intend to, leading to rising sales by a huge margin. But is there something that as a store owner you could do? Could you influence the people in your store to buy more?

What is Impulse Buying?
Factors Affecting Impulse Buying
11 Ways to Increase Impulse Buying in Retail or Online Store

What is Impulse Buying?

Impulse buying is an impromptu purchase without a planned intent. In simpler words, when a person purchases more than they planned. It is a sudden urge to buy, often driven by emotions. Triggering and manipulating buyers’ emotions is the primary tool for increasing impulse buys. Let us quickly understand the factors that impact it.

Factors Affecting Impulse Buying

As mentioned above, external and internal factors can impact impulse purchases. Internal factors such as emotions, and external factors such as advertising, store architecture, promotions, etc. play a big role in influencing people. They can majorly impact your sales. If leveraged, they can increase the sales by 40-80%. You only need to aim at:

Perceived Value

Do buyers find your store products worth the pricing? We don’t mind spending ₹5000 at Zara but would not spend that kind of money in a local clothing store. You need to ensure that users find your products ‘value for money’. Stores barely play around with their prices and rather offer discounts to enhance perceived value.

Urgency Factor

How many times have we spent thousands on the Pink Friday sale or Independence Day sale mindlessly? Time-restricted discounts and promotional offers can motivate buyers to buy from your store more so than often. They create a sense of urgency and buyers end up buying products they intended to.

Novelty (Uniqueness + Freshness)

BTS X McDonald created hype across the globe amongst the BTS Army. Even though the meal items weren’t really innovative, they brought more than Rs 16,000 crore in profit for Mcdonald’s.

When buyers are provided novelty products, people who are excited about that category end up spending a lot. For example, sneakerheads spend thousands on a pair of sneakers just because they find them unique. Your aim should be to offer novelty products to boost impulse buys.

The main aim of a store owner should be to excite people when aiming at impulse purchases. If you are a small store owner try to leverage the pricing factor to induce buyers. Contrarily, if you run a big store, use product displays and promotions as sales drivers. But what is the primary and most effective tool for impulse buying?

Role of Social Media

Imagine sitting on the couch on a fine Sunday evening and you see a promotional post advertising Pasta. Aren’t we automatically tempted to eat some pasta? Although this is not restricted to food only. People end up buying so many products just as a result of social media ads. So, these ads can encourage impulse buys. But how?

These ads aim to trigger certain emotions in the viewer and create a sense of urgency. We have seen those Ads about 20-45% off on XYZ brand for today only. These help a lot to bring traffic to these companies.

Let us say you are an online store selling marketing services. You can curate an Ad copy that targets customer pain points: “get more traffic” or “10X your revenue”. Pain points help in targeting a particular emotion- fear, happiness, etc.

In addition to this, you could leverage the urgency factor by adding a time-limited deal. Now, you can target these ads geographically or based on people’s activity. It generates a lot of revenue and encourages impulse buying.

Not only do these ads bring sales but also enhance brand recognition and foot reach. It’s a great way to tap the top of the funnel audience.

Now, we will look at some other actionable tips that you could use to enhance your sales through impulse buys.

What drives customers to buy products impulsively

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11 Ways to Increase Impulse Buying in Retail or Online Store

With the surge of online advertisements, social media marketing, and influencer marketing, impulse buys are at their highest. Here are 11 ways you can subconsciously trigger buyers to spend more time and money at your store.

Strategic Product Placement

Product placement is crucial to increase average order value and boost impulse buys.

Place complementary products/services together. This acts as a great way to cross-sell and avoids buyers from running to other stores to buy these items. For an eCommerce store, try adding suggestions of complementary products next to the items.

Place popular or best-selling items at the buyer’s eye level to increase the reach and chances of selling. If you are running an eCommerce store, position these products on your home page at the top to grab maximum attention.

In addition to this, add products with higher value at a better position on the shelf. For eCommerce stores, target best-selling high-end products on various pages of your website.

Utilize Check-out Counters

We see how when we are checking out of stores or any eCommerce stores, there are product recommendations at the checkout page/ counter. You need to utilize them strategically. Here are a few tips on the items you should add at the check-out.
1. Don’t add expensive products.
2. Don’t give too many options which might leave room for doubt.
3. Add smaller products that don’t demand too much thinking.
Your aim at this stage is to increase the revenue by smaller margins instead of making a big sale.

Offer Free Samples/Demos

Stores like Sephora offer free samples and demos to the people that walk into the store. These generally result in impulse purchases if they end up liking the product. This doesn’t really cost a lot and helps in boosting revenue. You can offer free samples at a purchase threshold at your eCommerce store to increase order value.

Leverage In-store Staff

In-store staff can play an important role in inducing more sales. A staff that works around with enthusiasm and guides properly can help to boost impulse buys. For an eCommerce store, this role can be filled by chatbots and chat support to help solve buyers’ queries. Nonetheless, a congenial staff is advantageous for a retail store.

Promotion

Apt promotion beforehand can impact impulse purchases. The aim is to provide conditional offers and limited-time deals. They bring more sales in a short time and create an urgency factor. This also enhances perceived value when buyers think that they back a deal worth their money. Some examples are:
1. Buy one get one free
2. 20% off on all items till coming Sunday
3. Get 10% off on apparel purchases every weekend
4. 25% off on purchases over 4000.
Window Display

Window displays in retail stores and home pages in an eCommerce store can make or break the deal for the store revenue. Add best-selling items and most trendy/ popular products here. This is a great place to highlight novelty products offered in your store. It is like a cover page for your store that can enhance impulse buys.

Cross Merchandise

Bundling is a great way to enhance impulse buys. It could be in either cross-sell or upsell format. You can pair complimentary or highlight an upgraded version. This acts as a great way to enhance impulse buys.

Ease the Buying Process

The buying process should be easy. A hasty process can lead to customers dropping the products from the cart which negatively impacts store revenue. You might lose a customer as well. Hence, an easy process coupled with cooperative staff plays a major role for a store.

Offer Novelty Items

Novelty items in your store can get a lot of eyeballs to your store and eventually help you in impulse buys. Not only do you end up selling novelty items but as and when more people walk into the store, more revenue is guaranteed.

Highlight Social Proof

Social proof is another driver for impulse buys. At times people when they read good reviews or see happy customers, end up purchasing the goods from the store. If not, they don’t hesitate to check the store which ends up in a purchase eventually.

Enable Free Returns

Free returns can help stores to build credibility and ensure customers that even if they don’t like the product they can return it. Although it can be a big hindrance for your business if buyers exploit it. So, offer limited day conditional free return.

Conclusion

Customer psychology can help a lot with increasing revenue. All these tactics can bring more impulse buys to your store. Social media can be the biggest driver for impulse buys whilst all these techniques surely help too. Just focus on customer needs and trigger the right emotions to skyrocket revenue for your business.

FAQs

What is impulse buying?

Impulse buying is when a buyer purchases a product or service without giving it much thought.

What are the 4 types of impulse purchasing?

Pure impulse purchase, Suggestion impulse purchase, Reminder impulse purchase, and Planned impulse purchase.

What do impulse buyers buy?

A common example of impulse buying is when consumers buy candies, gums, or drinks when they are at the checkout line.
June 28, 2022
How to Make Impressive Use of 404 Page on eCommerce Stores to Boost Conversion?
Frequent online shoppers must have come across a 404 error page at least once during their online shopping journey. As the site keeps getting bigger, so do the chances of encountering such pages. An eCommerce store can render a 404 error page for several reasons.

For example, the site owner may have forgotten to permanently delete the page without any redirect, poor server configuration may be causing the problem, or the page is currently unavailable because it is being worked on. The reasons can be several, but the eCommerce store owner cannot take the risk of losing potential sales because of an error page.

To ensure store owners make the most from 404 error pages, we’ve analyzed hundreds of eCommerce stores to check how they tackle this problem. After studying various eCommerce stores, we’ve handpicked and listed below some of the best ways to boost conversions from 404 error pages. Let’s quickly head to the list shared below.

Pitch in Your Most Popular Products
Display Product Categories with Working Links
Incorporate a Product Search Bar in the 404 Page
Sprinkle Some Humor or Add a Surprise Element
Skyrocket eCommerce Sales by Optimizing 404 Pages

Pitch in Your Most Popular Products

If a visitor landed on the 404 page, he was looking forward to buying a product from the online store. This opportunity should not be wasted. The best way to monetize such situations is by recommending some of the most popular products on the 404 page. Something like Urban Outfitters does.

Urban Outfitters 404 Page

Their entire 404 page is divided into two sections. The top section features an old-style black and white GIF stating the page can’t be found. At the same time, the second and lower part displays the most popular products with high-quality image and product name. Since the best and most sold products are shown, the visitor may be tempted to check them out and make a purchase.

Since this is an excellent way to optimize the 404 page, Urban Outfitters isn’t the only eCommerce store following this method. Steve Madden, a popular shoe-selling online store, also follows a similar approach for maximum conversions.

Display Product Categories with Working Links

No shopper would appreciate landing on a dull 404 page. If the eCommerce store only tells the visitor that the page doesn’t exist, the chances are rare that the visitor will continue browsing the same site. He may instead prefer going back and looking for better-optimized eCommerce stores.

To prevent this from happening, provide the visitors with a starting point once they reach the 404 page. An excellent way to do it is by adding category pages.

Missguided 404 Page

Take a look at the 404 page from Missguided, for example. It tells the visitor that the site couldn’t find the page they were searching for. But they don’t end there. The 404-page message is quickly followed by the line “let’s get back on track.” Visitors can see a list of categories with relevant images just below this message.

It prompts them to start their search again by simply clicking on any of those categories.

For example, if a visitor was searching for tops, they can click on the “tops” category instead of leaving the eCommerce store. It will boost the chances of the visitor making a purchase. Birchbox is another eCommerce store that follows a similar approach to increase conversions.

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Incorporate a Product Search Bar in the 404 Page

When visitors visit a particular eCommerce store knowing what they want, converting them becomes much easier. But missed sales are guaranteed if they accidentally land on a 404 page that isn’t optimized.

It is why various big eCommerce stores are taking appropriate measures to ensure visitors don’t leave their site after coming across a 404 page. Take Etsy, for example.

ETSY 404 Page

It is one of the biggest eCommerce marketplaces and knows how to bring back lost sales. It gives visitors two options – type for the relevant product in the search bar or heads back to the homepage.

These two options give visitors a reason to stay back instead of abandoning the site. Since it becomes difficult to anticipate what each visitor is looking for, giving them an option to search their way out is one of the best-performing ways.

It is why Etsy is not alone in adopting this approach. eCommerce stores like Need Supply Co., Ted Baker, UnderArmour, etc., follow a similar template while designing their 404 pages.

Sprinkle Some Humor or Add a Surprise Element

Making a prospective customer annoyed or frustrated is always a big no for eCommerce store owners. It takes them away from the brand and reduces their chances of returning for future shopping.

To prevent such events, eCommerce brands should adopt a more personal or humorous approach. Everyone can take inspiration from Amazon, the biggest eCommerce platform on the internet.

Amazon error 404 Page

Whenever a visitor lands on a 404 page, Amazon displays a picture of one of its ‘dogs of Amazon’ to make them feel less annoyed. Everyone loves dogs; hence, this approach works in most cases.

No one expects to see a smiling dog when landing on a 404 page, so it makes them giggle a little instead of making them feel annoyed. Another aspect of this page is a direct link to the homepage.

Now that the dog’s picture made the visitor smile, he can continue searching for relevant products by returning to the homepage. eCommerce store owners can either replicate the same strategy or make some tweaks to make the 404 page look humorous. It will help prevent visitors from going to another online store.

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Skyrocket eCommerce Sales by Optimizing 404 Pages

A mistake some eCommerce store owners make is ignoring their 404 page. They forget that these are also part of the website that needs proper optimization for better conversions. eCommerce store owners that desire high sales must develop unique 404-page optimization methods.

They can either design their own optimization ideas or pick one from this article. No one can entirely prevent visitors from landing on 404 pages, but efforts can be made to ensure they don’t leave the site without making a purchase. So act wisely.

FAQs

What does the 404 error indicate?

404 error is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol standard response code that indicates the server was unable to find what was requested.

What is 404 error in eCommerce websites?

404 error in eCommerce websites indicates that the webpage is down to a misspelled URL, a broken link, or a product page doesn’t exist anymore.

What are the best ways to optimize 404 error pages on eCommerce websites?

Some of the best ways to make your 404 error pages of eCommerce websites impressive are:
- Pitch in Your Most Popular Products
- Display Product Categories with Working Links
- Incorporate a Product Search Bar in the 404 Page
- Sprinkle Some Humor or Add a Surprise Element
June 28, 2022
Jop – An All in One Solution to Boost Employee Performance
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by JOP.

Building an enterprise and maintaining the startup team to adhere to the business goal efficiently and effectively is one of the biggest challenges in the entrepreneurship journey. Entrepreneurs should always focus to create an environment where teams can perform to the best of their abilities and produce the highest quality work. It is an ongoing process of improving individual and team coordination. JOP provides a solution to boosting employee performance at the company. It offers automated solutions to goal setting and performance reviews.

Read the success story of JOP, its founders, business model, and more about it.

JOP – Company Highlights

Startup Name JOP

Headquarters New Delhi

Industry SaaS

Founder Gaurav Sabharwal, Rakesh Sarin, Vibhu Satpaul, and Grant Crow

Founded 2020

Website getjop.com

JOP – About
JOP – Core Belief
JOP – Founders and Team
JOP – The Idea and Startup Story
JOP – Name, Tagline, and Logo
JOP – The Products
JOP – Business Model and Revenue Model
JOP – Customer Acquisition
JOP – Challenges Faced
JOP – Marketing Strategy
JOP – Advisors
JOP – Competitors
JOP – Tools Used in the Company
JOP – Achievements
JOP – Future Plans

JOP – About

JOP is a SaaS startup founded in 2020. The products they provide at JOP are goals, engagement, feedback, performance management, agile collaboration, and insights. As for, the services that are offered by JOP are consulting and partnerships.

JOP – Core Belief

JOP enables a joyful culture and the realization of full performance potential. JOP, a synergy driven by the common desire to support organizations aspiring to thrive, brings an amalgamation of strong characteristics and values. The combinations of hues used in the brand best elucidate this magical mix of joy, ambition, and optimism – the ulterior values they wish to imbibe through the means of their solution.

At JOP, they aspire to enable agile collaboration among teams to facilitate strategy execution and performance enablement. Their primary focus is laid on all the core elements required to support agility, team collaboration, performance, and engagement.

There’s one passion that unites the JOP team – helping organizations that are willing to break the old rules in search of superior performance. They love supporting leaders that experiment with new agile structures and methods as they seek to dominate in today’s disruptive and demanding business environment. Business Performance Enablement should be about facilitating agile collaboration among teams to drive strategic achievement. Together they decided to create a world-class software solution to support aspirational organizations.

JOP – Founders and Team

JOP Co-Founders

Gaurav Sabharwal, Rakesh Sarin, Vibhu Satpaul, and Grant Crow are the co-founders of JOP.

Gaurav Sabharwal is the CEO of JOP. He is responsible for handling day-to-day activities related to operations, marketing, and fundraising.

Rakesh Sarin is the Chairman of the board. He is the Chief strategy officer who works on strategic planning.

Vibhu Satpaul is the Chief product officer. He is responsible for the entire product in terms of development, analytics, etc.

Grant Crow is the non-executive director and serves as an OKR expert and strategic planner.

JOP – The Idea and Startup Story

There are many areas from which they got the inspiration for JOP. Founders have been in the industries for a number of years now, supporting and providing digital services for companies in the US, successfully. They realized that strategically they will be able to put a lot more value if they will develop their own products. So it was their decision to create their own products and take them to the market.

JOP – Name, Tagline, and Logo

JOP Logo

The name of the Startup is based on the core values and culture followed at the startup.

Joyful and Energizing: There is joy in dreaming big, respecting the diversity of multi-cultural teams, and performing for meaningful growth. They maximize their energy by experimenting, collaborating, and aligning to boost stakeholders’ value. The Yellow in the JOP logo is a symbolic representation of the aforementioned values that they wish to advocate through the means of their personality and product.

Customer Success: They make a meaningful contribution for their customers to succeed. The inclusion of Blue in JOP branding is an accurate delineation of the confidence, trust, and wisdom that they wish to foster with their customers.

Aspirational: They aspire to be the best with a winning attitude, an innovative approach, and taking ownership. The Green in the identity signifies the ambition of growth and success – both for them and their partners/users.

JOP – Products

The products ensure alignment, clear ownership, and accountability and allow you to achieve outcomes. The product offers continuous feedback which improves employee engagement and helps retain the best talents in your organization. Their products will also help you have clear quarterly and annual goals. Furthermore, their products will help you be in alignment with company goals and insights into everyone’s work.

Their products give solutions to problems such as micro management, work-life balance, attritions, lack of vision, transparency, productivity, sales, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

They catalyze growth for businesses (startups) and people by intensifying focus on
high-impact goals, enabling strategy execution and employee engagement, hence enabling 3x growth with alignment. As for innovations, they have effective check-in, actions to manage, and parent linking KRs.

JOP – Business Model and Revenue Model

For Indian customers, the price is Rs 250 per user and for their customers outside India, the price is $10 per user. This does not include the consulting cost as they are separate and go straight to the consultant. An onboarding fee may also be charged and the payments are charged quarterly.

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JOP – Customer Acquisition

They got their first 100 customers through various mediums such as the founder network, referrals, LinkedIn outreach, and attending events where their ICP was present. Email marketing campaigns and SEO helped them as well in bagging the first 100 customers. They also had strategic partnerships with OKR consultants that helped them further.

JOP – Challenges Faced

Starting and scaling businesses is hard. Even after having an experienced startup team, there’s always a new challenge standing in your way while establishing a business. This is one of the reasons they founded JOP. Many companies fail when they are scaling up as they lack an ideal operating framework that is needed by a business to grow and thrive. This is where JOP comes into the picture. It requires a lot of hits and tries at the initial stages to see what works the best. But yes, following some good playbooks for GTM, Sales, Marketing, Product Engineering, and Funding proved to be quite helpful in increasing the chances of establishing a successful business.

JOP – Marketing Strategy

JOP has got most successful marketing through LinkedIn. Linkedin outreach helped the business immensely along with the events as they enabled them to get direct access to their ICP (high-growth SaaS startups)

JOP – Advisors

JOP team has 2 advisors.
- Dr. Srinivas Chunduru – Founder at VANS group
- Mr. Anup Yanamandra – a SaaS specialist.
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JOP – Competitors

Some of the top competitors of JOP are:
- Lattice
- Peoplebox
- Fitbot
- Mesh.ai.
JOP – Tools Used in the Company

A few tools which they use to run the startups are:
- LinkedIn sales navigator
- HubSpot
- Apollo
- SendGrid
JOP – Achievements

They are still on their way to achieving their goal of success. My biggest achievement started with their drive to make JOP successful. Their passion to solve business performance problems makes the team keep going.

JOP – Future Plans

They plan to go hefty with integrations such as slack, notion, etc. In addition to this, they plan to develop the intelligence of their product with respect to insights and nudges.

FAQs

When was JOP founded?

JOP was founded in 2020.

Who are the founders of JOP?

Gaurav Sabharwal, Rakesh Sarin, Vibhu Satpaul, and Grant Crow are the co-founders of JOP.

What does JOP stand for?

JOP is the abbreviation for Joy of Performing.

What does JOP do?

JOP provides software solutions for:
- Performance Management
- Agile Collaboration
- Employee Engagement
Who are the competitors of JOP?

Some of the top competitors of JOP are:
- Lattice
- Peoplebox
- Fitbot
- Mesh.ai.
June 28, 2022
Opinion Shared by Wiztales: Hiring Employees & Getting Clients for Business

Wiztales is a SaaS startup that helps businesses connect with their teams and audiences to build relationships via virtual events services. The Bengaluru-based SaaS startup is founded by Sumanyu Soniwal. Startuptalky took an initiative to know about their strategy in hiring employees to build a great startup team and how they got clients for business initially. Here is an opinion shared by Wiztales.

Insights shared by Mr. Utpal Khadagi, the Director of Customer Success, Wiztales.

How did you get your first client/first 10 for your service-based company?

Wiztales was founded with the goal of providing tech-driven solutions to the event industry. We began with the idea of bringing experiential tech-based solutions to physical events. But with physical meetings gradually shifting to video calls during the pandemic situation and the growth of the IT sector, businesses realized that virtual events are easier to manage and can give larger coverages. The exposure to the virtual world quickly evolved at this point.

At Wiztales, we leveraged our technical strength to create a virtual event platform that catered to each individual client’s needs. We soon launched our beta version to event partners and agencies who were searching for a ‘Made in India’ solution. These agencies/partners were our first customers, and we worked closely with them to make this platform as strong and user-friendly as it is today!

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Hiring initial employees for your company, what to look for in them?

As a new-age company, we choose people based on their skill set and potential of growing at work, not just their basic track record and past experiences. We look for bright individuals who are self-motivated, disciplined, technologically savvy, and believe in and understand the capabilities of our product. We provide equal opportunities for everyone in the firm to develop and grow with us and believe that talent cannot be judged by work experience. Every individual should be given the time and space to learn at their own pace.

What are the things a founder must focus on and how to maintain that among so much noise?

It takes time to produce the ideal product for the market, but I believe that nothing is impossible if we have the desire to achieve it. Working as a team, selecting like-minded teammates, and doing your homework on what needs to be done, who will do it, and how goals can be achieved are the keys to success. A company’s founder must wear blinders and stay focused on the company’s vision.

As members of the industry, we have to keep tabs on the latest developments. Furthermore, maintaining a calendar and keeping it up-to-date, as well as compartmentalizing duties, can be beneficial to a founder and the company’s growth. We also believe that learning must continue as it helps us to grow as a company. The more we learn, the more we grow in terms of business and experience.

June 28, 2022
Zluri Founder on Developing Develop Your SaaS Product

Zluri is an enterprise SaaS Management Platform founded in 2020 by Chaithanya Yambari, Ritish Reddy Puttaparthi, and Sethu Meenakshisundaram. The startup is headquartered at San Francisco, United States. StartupTalky took the initiative to get insights around building how to build a SaaS Product.

Insights shared by Mr.Ritish Reddy, Founder & CEO, Zluri.

How did you get your first 10 clients for your SaaS Company?

We got out initial customers through referrals and content marketing.

Each of the co-founders – Ritish, Sethu, and Chaitanya – had a decade of experience building/selling enterprise software before starting Zluri. They were founding members of Knolskape and made some excellent connections while working there.

During the ideation phase (of Zluri) itself, we had pitched ideas within our circles. So, when our MVP (minimum viable product) was ready, the first thing we did was to reach out to our network for feedback. Not only did they give helpful feedback, but a few of them were also interested in the product, and a few referred to the right people, who later became our customers.

What’s 1 pain which you are solving for your customer?

We help companies solve the challenges of managing SaaS applications.

Though all companies know the benefits of SaaS, not many are aware of the problems it brings. The high adoption of SaaS in the post-pandemic era has brought new problems for IT teams, like SaaS sprawl.

When employees themselves start purchasing apps without the purview of IT, it leads to shadow IT and SaaS sprawl. This leads to budget wastage (in the form of unused & underused apps, many apps with similar functionality, unsuitable licenses ) and brings security and compliance issues if not dealt with.

Traditionally, these apps were managed in spreadsheets but spreadsheets have their own limitations. It is time-consuming to update the app details every time a new one is bought, but they are also prone to errors.

Further, many tasks are not possible in spreadsheets, like app discovery, visibility into SaaS usage, automation of giving and revoking access to apps while onboarding and offboarding, etc.

Zluri solves these issues by eliminating SaaS wastage, reducing security and compliance risks, and automating IT tasks, like provisioning and deprovisioning of apps.

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Finding an Ideal Customer Profile is very important for SaaS startups. How did you go about doing that?

We knew one thing from the beginning that our product would be most useful for companies using a large number of SaaS apps. So, we reached out to IT and finance directors at many enterprises, where we got many insights on who would need our product the most.

What we found was that big organisations were still relying on on-premise software. Though they were moving towards the cloud, most software apps were still not consumed as SaaS.

On the other hand, though recently founded startups were using SaaS apps, the problems were not painful enough to solve for immediately.

What are your views on the Indian SaaS market?

Indian SaaS startups are in a position to grow rapidly today. What makes this possible is the demand for software and the availability of talent and capital in the Indian market.

The software revolution powered by the SaaS delivery model is giving rise to SaaS consumption in the domestic and international markets. Companies have seen the benefits of SaaS in events like a pandemic.

Then we have very talented people in the Indian market who can build high-quality products quickly. We can make a prototype, iterate at high speed, fail fast, and pivot.

We have a lot of communities that support Indian startup ecosystems, like SaaS Boomi, TiE, etc.

Further, Indian startups can launch in multiple markets simultaneously and win big in the international markets like the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

What are a few things a founder must take care of during SaaS product development?

A SaaS product needs to be developed based on the industry and customer you will be selling to. If you take SaaS, two kinds of people will be your customer: a buyer and a user.

Before building the product, it is essential to understand them. Your product must help the end-user deliver value, and the value must be viewable to the buyer. So, before deciding to build a product, the first step is to talk to at least 100 users to understand their problems.

Of course, you aren’t going to come up with a solution for each of those pain points initially, but you can go after the common ones to build an MVP (minimum viable product).

Make sure to keep note of the other problems as well and include them in your product roadmap for the next few quarters.

After completion of the minimum viable product, get the users feedback, validate the problem-solution fit with users, and analyse the scope for improvements.

In some cases, users might suggest a better solution for some of their problems. In those cases, instead of going blindly with their solution, see how you can use innovative emerging technologies to provide the best solution for their problem.

Remember, customers are good at telling their problems, but their solutions are mostly not good. It’s your job to think and come up with the best solution.

Once you get the initial users, take their feedback regularly and keep improving your product.

June 28, 2022
Chappers: Traditional Footwear Brand Through Innovative Indian Craftsmanship
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Chappers.

Maharashtra has a rich and varied arts heritage. Kolhapuri chappals are one of the most popular hand-made crafts from locally sourced leathers. It has its origin in the Kolhapur town of Maharashtra. Kolhapuri chappals are made from leather using only natural ingredients. They are the best example of ethnic and traditional fashion footwear that are eco-friendly and handcrafted. Startups are taking initiatives with their innovative approach to preserving the ancient craft traditions of India and supporting Indian craftsmanship. Chappers is one of the brands that is reviving craftsmanship in India. They started with Kolhapuri chappal and now bringing a revolution in footwear fashion, especially for men.

Read the success story of Chappers, its founder, business model, growth, and the challenges it faced in the journey.

Chappers – Company Highlights

Startup Name Chappers

Headquarters Pune

Industry Footwear

Founder Harshwardhan Patwardhan

Founded 2014

Website chappers.in

Chappers – About
Chappers – Founder and Team
Chappers – The Idea and Startup Story
Chappers – Name and Logo
Chappers – Products
Chappers – Business Model
Chappers – Revenue Model
Chappers – Customer Acquisition
Chappers – Challenges Faced
Chappers – Growth
Chappers – Hiring Culture
Chappers – Funding
Chappers – Competitors
Chappers – Future Plans
Chappers – Tools Used in the Company
Chappers – Advice from Founder

About Chappers Footwear Making

Chappers – About

Chappers is a men-focused brand. They make footwear for women too but there are bigger issues to solve when it comes to men’s footwear. Chappers aims to solve the following problems in the Indian footwear industry:
1. Men are taught not to wear good colours. The industry hence makes only black, brown, and grey for them. Those who want to wear colours do not have options.
2. Custom footwear is often very expensive and unreliable. they want to change that. They give men brilliant quality custom footwear at the right price.
3. Mass customization would be the norm in a few years. They want to be the brand that revolutionizes the footwear industry.
4. Footwear and technology usually never go hand in hand. The Indian footwear industry is very unorganized and needs disruption. They have built India’s first virtual customization software where the customer will be able to customize the footwear on large touch screens first, check if it suits their taste, and then place an order for it. They aim to home deliver a custom pair of footwear within 72 hours.
5. This industry is heavily reliant on inventory. Retailers have to stock up huge number of styles only to know that only a few of them work. Later they have to offer heavy discounts on styles that don’t work. With our model, our franchises will keep only bestsellers in stock and the rest will be custom-made. Since the lead time will be just 72 hours, the customer won’t mind waiting. Plus, the price of the in-stock designs and the custom product will be the same, adding to the value.
Chappers – Founder and Team

Harshwardhan Patwardhan – Chappers Founder

Harshwardhan Patwardhan is the founder of Chapppers. He has completed his MSC in management from the University of Nottingham.

Currently, they are a team of 25 people including a sales team, operations team, accounts team, and a team of expert craftsmen. Each of them has the vision to make Chappers the best footwear brand India has ever seen.

Chappers – The Idea and Startup Story

Chappers initially started with a vision to take the Kolhapuri chappal global. Harshwardhan first came across Kolhapuri chappals on his first traditional day in college. His brother gave him ancient-looking chappals to wear under his kurta and he fell in love with them. Since then, there hasn’t been a day that he has not worn a Kolhapuri. But it had certain negatives. It was hard, slippery, and available only in the traditional brown colour. He started wondering if he could change these things. Would people in Europe/Latin America wear this chappal if he worked on the negatives? He started researching and working with different materials and that’s when Chappers was incepted.

Chappers – Name and Logo

Chappers Logo

Before the founder even started finding a name for the brand, people had started placing orders, as they found his work interesting and wanted cool-looking-new-age Kolhapuris. He had booked a stall at a flea market in Phoenix Market City, Pune and they asked by what name should they reserve the stall. That night, he chalked out close to 200 names but only 1 stuck. He took “Chapp” from “Chappals” and since I was making them comfortable and in a way westernizing the chappal, he added “ers” to it like Slipp”ers” or Loaf”ers”. He joined them together and it made a very short and sweet brand name “Chappers”. Since the name was coined by Harshwardhan, I had no issues in trademarking and copyrighting it too!

He asked one of his friends to develop a logo for the startup, based on the concept of taking Kolhapuris global. So, he actually drew a Kolhapuri and fit the font such that “C” was the heel and “S” was the thumb! And he loved it!

Chappers – Products

Chappers have now expanded into many different products. After a point the founder realized that his interest lies not only in taking the Kolhapuri global, but also the Indian craftsmanship. They want to start with revolutionizing the Indian footwear industry completely. They design great products and enable the customers to customize it in their own colors. They let them add accessories, their initials on the shoes and try to do all of this in a very reliable way and at the right price. Now, they don’t restrict themselves in terms of the nationality of the products origin or the century it was first made in. They want to build great, innovative products and want people to wear them in their own favorite colors. Imagine if a brand starts giving custom footwear at the right price and in a lead time as low as 2 days, why does the footwear industry need crores and crores of inventory?

Chappers – Business Model

Chappers’ business model is very simple. It is a very complicated model to understand for an outsider. But for the customer, it is very simple.

The customer walks into the store/Kiosk and checks their shoe size by trying on their sizing samples. He then sees two sections – RTW (ready to wear) and customization. If he wants to pick up a pair right away, they have a selection of 25-30 bestsellers in stock at all their stores. But, if he has 2-3 days at hand, he can take a look at our customization section. There, he will see numerous designs in unimaginable colours and material variety. He can touch and feel the product, select the design he likes and then move on to a big touch screen. On the touch screen, through their virtual customization platform, he will be able to change, colours, and materials, add accessories to the design that he selected, and then see how the product looks on his feet with the help of an iPad. He can then place an order. If not, he can just enter his mobile number and the shoe that he designed will be sent on WhatsApp to him for future reference. If he does place the order, the full customized product will reach his home in the next 2-3 working days.

Now that he knows his size and fit, he can even customize any design on Chappers’ website and place the order from the comfort of his home.

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Chappers – Revenue Model

Their policy is to never undercharge or overcharge the customer. Whenever they develop a product, their aim is to provide the maximum value to the customer. They never are cheap nor expensive, they just aim to sell their products at the “right price”.

For example, if a customer looks at a product and feels that it’s worth Rs.5000, then that product should be priced at Rs.4999. They pay their craftsmen very well. They want to ensure both sides of the supply chain are equally happy with them. The team of craftsmen and employees should be equally happy, hence they do not believe in discount marketing. They make good quality products and expect the right price for them.

Chappers – Customer Acquisition

This bit came easy for them. They made the first 100 samples and booked a flea market stall. They sold 90 out of the 100 pairs on the first day!!

After the first flea market experience, their confidence soared. They started believing in the product even more. But, where they can go to sell every day? They couldn’t get a stall. So, they built a basic website and social media pages. First, the orders started coming in through friends and family and then through their friends and family and the circle grew. Since Pune is a small community-like city. Word of mouth spread fast. Slowly they started getting online orders too. But people always asked one question – where can they come and try the footwear? So, they opened their first store on Karve road, Pune. Their stores are very uniquely designed. Big wooden chair, embroidered carpets, and footwear handled with gloves. Not every footwear store does that. Hence, they immediately got a good response for the store too.

Chappers – Hiring Culture

In Chappers, your degree does not count. Whenever they are interviewing, they keep the CV aside and talk to the candidate. They want all their team members to be problem solvers. Good manners and extremely high morals are definitely needed if you want to be a part of the team. Patriotism is also a must if you are to qualify as a team member. People who love India and want to do something for the country have a different outlook towards life, Chappers team wants to work with such people.

Chappers – Challenges Faced

When Harshwardhan Patwardhan decided to explore the opportunity, he had no background in footwear or business in the leather industry or retail industry. He is from a transport background as his family is into people and goods transport. He had to learn from scratch.

Second, the footwear and leather industry in India is very unorganized. There are still many vendors who are not on Google. Additionally, nobody wants to work with a person who is just starting out, has no industry experience, and has no money. From vendors to employees, the founder had rejection all around.

Duplication has also been one of the major challenges. As they started becoming successful, small factories started copying their products and selling them cheaper. They had to develop a lot of IP surrounding their logo to safeguard themselves from this duplication mafia.

The INR 2000 and above market is dominated by foreign brands. Unfortunately, we think that foreign brands deserve higher MRPs and our own Indian brands don’t. People have said things like “Indian brand hai na to 1000 tak price thik hai”. Our people take pride in wearing foreign brands and undervaluing Indian brands. Building a footwear brand that does not have a single product priced under Rs.2000 is definitely a tough path under current circumstances. But they believe in India, they believe in their products and they believe in the future. This keeps them going.

Chappers – Growth

Right now, they have four stores in Pune and they deliver across India when ordered online. They have even delivered orders to 27 foreign countries. Chappers’ revenue is around 2.5 crores and they have approximately 27,000 customers to date. Their returning customer rate is 40% which is pretty high for a footwear brand.

Chappers – Funding

Fortunately, till now they have always been profitable and self-sufficient. Even during the pandemic, they had to modify a lot of systems and cost structures but they strived and remained profitable. They will start looking for funding this year as they think now their business model is well evolved and they are aware of what has worked for them and what has not. The new model can truly revolutionize the entire footwear industry and they will come out on top. If they stick to the plan and keep capturing their goals, they think they can be the Zomato of footwear.

Chappers – Competitors

Their perspective and attitude are a lot different from other local brands. They do not believe in the fact that they can sell whatever they make. They think that the customer is always aware of the latest trends and just needs some help in imagining stuff. Its job as a brand is to help its customers imagine newer things and they do so by giving them a platform to play around on. They can play around and find out what colours they like the most, and which designs suit them the most. Usually, retailers dictate what you should wear. They tell customers why they can’t wear a yellow chappal or a red shoe. They do so because they don’t have a yellow chappal or a red shoe to sell. But they can make a yellow chappal, a red shoe, and a gold sandal!! So, for the initial few years, competitors never took Chappers seriously, only when they realized that people actually want to wear these colours, did they start thinking about developing such products. They want to make competition irrelevant with their new model. Can established footwear brands give each customer a custom pair? The answer is they cannot. Because they have huge factories to feed. They love making 1 lakh black shoes. Chappers don’t.

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Chappers – Future Plans

They are currently trying out a kiosk franchise model. They have Kiosks at Pune’s Pavilion mall and at Seasons mall Magarpatta. A kiosk franchise would give a better return on investment to the franchise owner as the expenses are much lower. Plus, since the majority of the orders are custom-made, its inventory requirement automatically comes down. If there’s a Chappers Kiosk in all malls of India, they will get thousands of custom orders every day. Imagine what that will do to brands that say no to customization. They think they are in a world where people buy ready products just because there’s no choice. If they have a choice at the right price, very few people will buy ready products. They want to create an environment in which other brands want to join. This will be true change.

Chappers – Tools Used in the Company

Technology is their backbone. They prefer to use easily readily available software around difficult business systems. That somehow makes the job easy. Of course, they have developed their proprietary Virtual Customization software ourselves. That they would always keep with them as it’s one of the key features of their new business model. They are continuously working on it and want to ensure they constantly keep adding new colors, materials, and products for their customers.

Chappers – Advice from Founder

Harshwardhan Patwardhan, Founder of Chappers:

I think starting early is essential. The amount of learning I got from starting Chappers, no university or degree can give me. Instead, I would encourage the next generation to go explore the world, take a one-way ticket and go on a solo trip to advanced countries. Once we get that exposure, we always get a different perspective. We always try to improve our country that way and I think that’s the most important job any human can do. I would skip the college degrees and I would take up internships in global companies. I would be able to absorb their culture and their know-how. That would take me a million steps ahead of the game.

I would also start reading earlier. I hated reading my entire childhood, partly because I was never good at studies, but partly also because I never tried enough. I think reading takes you in minds of the people you cannot physically reach. One of the first books I completed was “Screw it lets do it” by Sir Richard Branson. Sir Richard has been my idol since then and I have truly tried living his principles. I have failed at many of them, but while trying them out, I became a better person. Books are priceless.

FAQs

When was Chappers founded?

Chappers was founded in 2014 in Pune.

Who is the owner of Chappers?

Harshwardhan Patwardhan is the founder of Chappers.

What is Chappers famous for?

Chappers is a Men-focussed Indian footwear brand popular for Kolhapuri Chappals.
June 28, 2022