Cityfurnish is India’s fastest growing furniture, furnishings and consumer appliances rental platform. Set upon the task to provide smarter lifestyle solutions, Cityfurnish is revolutionizing the on-demand rental economy in the country by making renting affordable and easy. The startup was incepted in September 2015 by Neerav Jain, a 24 year young entrepreneur. Cityfurnish successfully, in no time, became one of the top three rental players in the country with over 5000 subscribers and 3 lacs assets rented within a span of two years. Today, the company is undoubtedly the most diversified rental player in the market with products ranging from furniture, furnishings, consumer appliances and fitness equipments. Besides offering hi-quality rental products for residential purpose, the company also has an accelerating presence into the commercial and hospitality segments. Its portfolio includes a Residential and Commercial range of furniture which is an epitome of comfort and utility, a Hospitality range handcrafted and customized for hotels and restaurants, and a designer Residential range focused on economical and space saving urban users. We are publishing an interview with Mr. Neerav:
Q.: What is the problem you are trying to solve? Please share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Ans: There is no alternative to Buying Expensive furniture for temporary needs, Neerav experience the same in his college days when he had to buy expensive furniture and discard the same after temporary use – this lead to a idea which became Cityfurnish. Being a young entrepreneur myself, in the age group of youngsters, the first challenge is to constant move to a new city for work. The biggest challenge is the lack of affordability and no alternative for furniture buying even for short-mid term needs.
Q.: Please tell us about the founders
Ans We are two founders:
- Neerav Jain – CEO, Marketing, BD, Finance
- Saurabh Gupta – CTO, Technology, Ops and Digital Marketing
Q.: List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles.
Ans: Sure. They are:
- Ayush Patak – Ops head
- Piyush – CS Head
- Ajay Menon – BD Head
- Jata Shankar _ Finance Head
- Akash Goel – Revenue Head
- We have grown to a team of 100+ across 5 cities
- Ayu
Q.: Tell us about the Product / Solution. How did you get your first customer? Explain how you went about the Product-Market Fit Process.
Ans: We have a vast product range from home furniture e.g. bed, recliners and appliances like TV, Refrigerator and the latest addition is the air purifier to personal fitness that includes treadmill. We also have packages that includes a proper living room set to a full bedroom set.
Q.: What is your USP?
Ans: Cityfurnish is a full stack model, that is, we control the complete subscriber experience which enables us to provide best experience to our users, and because of in house furniture manufacturing our pricing is affordable to users.
one of our factor that differentiate us from others in the market is the quality of wood that we use for our product. Our mostly wooden products are made out of Seesham wood. Apart from this, our post delivery service and customer relationship management is one of factor we pay attention to.
Q.: What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learning that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have at least one of them signed up?
Ans: When we entered, we knew it that renting going to be the big thing and its here to stay. Our ideal customers are first time jobbers and millennials to even young families, who either are moving from a new city for work or are settling in an independent house by own. Our one of the major requested product is the complete house package that includes the basics to set up a new house.
Q.: What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
Ans: I always see failure as a learning stone, we had lot of challenge in beginning in creating team at Cityfurnish and then we realized that core team is like family so we need to devote time and effort to build a culture and that will help us in the long run.
Q.: How are you pricing the Product? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc.? Explain your thought process.
Ans: Our products are priced in terms of durability and longitivity. The thought behind the pricing factor is to provide premium quality product in a very affordable pricing.
Q.: Please tell us about the investors
Ans: We have closed $5m+ in our Series A funding, from investors like the founders of Youtube, Gmail and OLX and institutional investors like Rocket Internet, Venture highway and soma capital along with Y combinator.
Q.: Is there any interesting success story of your startup? If yes, please write about it. ?
Ans: Major milestone would be crossing 15k+ subscribers crossed mark.
Q.: Since inception, give us a sense of the value of business done by your venture
Ans: Our current revenue runrate is USD 3 Million and we plan to double it by end of 2020.
Q.: What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product/service leading to something bigger? If so, how?
Ans: Our contribution in the rental and sharing economy and our product service is making major transformation is how millennial’s are living prefer to choose the experience over liability.
Q.: Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
Ans: We are one of the fastest growing amongst the other brands in the market and are full stack model and advantage of inhouse furniture manufacturing helps to scale faster.
Q.: What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months? Any other information you would like to share?
Ans: In other 6 months, our target is to expand on geographical areas throughout India and by 1st quarter of 2020, we would be operational in Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh and in few more cities by end of 2020. Our expansion will also include new product variants as the market and demand grows.
Q.: What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: A unique and brilliant approach and idea will always lead you to success. Just have faith and stay at it. There’s a lot to do, vision and passion is very important.
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Thanks Neerav. All the best.
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