Shailesh Jain was in the US for his first job when he wanted to buy a saree, but it was not available there. He bumped into his friend Anup Nair and started to discuss the concern with him. And at the end of the conversation, they found a problem to solve!
“I and Anup always had the entrepreneurial bug, and after realizing the potential in the market, we decided to come to back to the country and start-up,” says the Computer Technology engineer from VJIT.
Our culture is deeply rooted with our parents. And Mirraw is looking to bring all that to you. With over 3 lac listed products, 3 million and counting customers worldwide, their mission is to bring world’s best ethnic designs to your doorstep. Based out of Fort, Mumbai, Mirraw brings handpicked designs in ethnic jewellery, apparels, and accessories.
Magic Happens in An Environment Of Constraints
Started in May 2011, the company already has a great fan following in India, US & Europe. They started at a point when the country was just ripe for e-commerce. “We introduced products like Patola Sarees which take 4 weeks to get ready, Jaipuri sarees and products that were not easily available in the markets outside India,” says Anup. The response to such products was very good so the company introduced ‘Made to Measure’ services to their customers.
Mirraw has started to use machine learning and AI to predict the buying intent of their customers. Their team of 200 people is based out of Mumbai, and they plan to increase it by 50% this year. They would soon be launching an iOS app. “We also plan to launch an online virtual store for exclusively for weddings. With products both for brides & grooms from special ethnic wear designers across the country,” says Shailesh, a Carnegie Mellon University Alumnus. They are tapping into the $10 billion market in India by opening a virtual store.
The founders are of the belief that it is possible to create a scalable e-commerce venture by completely bootstrapping. “We in turn have become one of those rarest e-commerce venture who have scaled so far without any external funding,” adds Anup, who studied engineering with Shailesh at VJIT. The founders started by investing Rs. 1lac from their savings to register the company & the entire growth has been completely bootstrapped. “This financial year we would be closing 100cr. + in revenue,” says Anup happily.
As a message for future entrepreneurs, Shailesh says, “Do not wait for the right moment as it never comes, and start now.” To this Anup adds, “Built a product/service that your customers are proud of & find easy to talk about amongst others.”
When they had just started up, the first 3 months were extremely challenging. “Sellers would have to be convinced to sell their products on Mirraw. We would sometimes give them a tour of our office just to make them feel that they are dealing with a genuine company,” says Shailesh. Like other startups, convincing employees to them in their mission has also been a challenge for Mirraw. The company is looking to reach 1500 crores by 2018.