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Entrepreneurial Story about Nitin who Founded ‘Zepo’ located in Mumbai, India.
About me:
Academically, I am from a normal BCom graduation. After graduation, I started a t-shirt business where we used to manufacture Marathi slogan t-shirts and supply them to retailers & wholesalers in Pune, Nashik & Mumbai. This went well, but we couldn’t take it to greater heights and it remained a small business.
During the same time, I tried my hand at a web-startup called Bijness.in, which unfortunately failed, but taught me a lot of things. Zepo is my third attempt at entrepreneurship.
When Started: June 2011
What motivated you to start your Business?
In the final years of our student life, we chalk out the path for the rest of our lives. Just like everyone else, I too had the following options:
a) Do a boring job at a corporate, and be just another nut in a big machine – That was never something that excited me.
b) Study further; discarded. College became a comfort zone, where I didn’t want to stay longer.
c) The ones inclined towards entrepreneurship & adventure decided to join a startup & test themselves – unfortunately, I got rejected from the ones I would have liked to join.
d) And the last option was to create something of your own.
And that’s exactly what I did. I went ahead and started something of own, and I haven’t looked back ever since.
Tell us about your Business
In one simple line, Zepo helps small businesses set-up their online stores in 5 minutes and start selling online easily. And it doesn’t end at just creating online stores.
• Users can easily customize the design of their website to match their brand image
• We give an Indian payment gateway for free, so that store owners can accept credit / debit card.
• We have partnered with Blue-dart to help store owners in logistics.
In a nutshell, Zepo is everything one would need to open & operate their online store.
What have been your biggest challenges in running your Business so far? & How did you overcome these challenges?
When we started out, we had 3 big challenges to solve:
1. Simplicity of the interface
2. Building the entire eco-system
3. Keeping it cost efficient
Fortunately, we have been very lucky to have a great team on-board – wonderful people kept joining us on our Journey, and today, we have a kick-ass team of 13 rockstars, that drives the company everyday. The mentors and investors have been equally supportive. What else would anyone need to create a real startup!
What have you found the most effective way to get new clients?
One of the greatest sources of customer acquisition for us has been word-of-mouth & referrals. And that is the hallmark of a good product. We recently launched our Partner Program for Web Developers, Bloggers, e-Commerce Consultants and Students; wherein we will be sharing upto 30% of revenue with all our partners. We hope to reach out to a lot more of our target audience through this.
What advice do you give to other business owners?
I have nothing new to say, but they are the same old golden rules that have been reiterated a thousand times that I myself follow.
Follow the dream you are so passionate about, that even if you went broke trying, you would still end up being happy.
Coz at the end of the day, its anyways never about the destination, but the journey that you enjoy & would remember.
What are your Marketing, Funding and Team Building Strategy?
We are backed by The Morpheus and One97 Mobility fund.
