How this Delhi-based startup aims to bring revolution in Waterproofing, Interior and Construction Industries

Moisture and humidity know very well to find its way and seep into the interiors of your place thereby causing significant damage. It has now become a major problem for almost every building as it reduces the strength and life span of the structure. To mitigate this very common problem, waterproofing came into existence. The problem was that the then waterproofing firms were mainly focusing on big commercial projects while the smaller projects, especially residential building, were very much neglected. To bridge this gap, Mahi Innovations Pvt. Ltd. came into existence in 2017 with the motto to bring innovative ideas with excellence to accomplish those and keeping the environment free from pollutants caused by using excessive hazardous chemicals and taking away all the health issues which may cause due to leakage/seepage. The company was widely acknowledged for providing contractual based services where the prima facie was to never compromise with quality, health, safety, and environment.

Within no time, Mahi Innovations gained its popularity and became the India’s leading waterproofing service provider. With the passage of time, Mahi Innovations expanded itself and reached at International platform and has recently completed a project in South Africa. It has also elaborated its business and now deals in Interior designing and Civil construction along with waterproofing services.

Now, the major problem for any waterproofing company is to decide the best brand of chemicals to be considered for a particular type of waterproofing to achieve the customers’ satisfaction. To overcome this issue, we carry multiple experiments by handling the process of waterproofing entirely by our team of experts and preparing a list of best among all. Over the years, we have consistently adopted new technologies and innovations in the field of Civil construction, Interior designing & Waterproofing services.

Briefing about the Founder & Managing Director, Mr. Adarsh Pradhan, He has done B. Tech. in Civil Engineering and has a vast experience of 8 years in the field of construction and management in various reputed MNCs. Before establishing his own company, he has worked in partnership with a construction company for almost two years to boost up his managerial and business skills and to learn the minute details for being a successful entrepreneur and thus fueled his idea for doing his own start-up.

Since the establishment of the company, they have successfully completed 280+ projects (both commercial and residential) and looking ahead to serve more. We are publishing an interview with Mr. Adarsh Pradhan, Founder & CEO – Mahi Innovations Pvt. Ltd.

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: The major problem for any waterproofing company is to decide the best brand of chemicals to be considered for a particular type of waterproofing to achieve the customers’ satisfaction. There are many waterproofing chemical brands like BASF, Fosroc, Dr. Fixit, Pidilite etc. but which chemical of which brand is to be applied, solely depends upon the type, quality and age of structure. Keeping this in mind, we being an applicator, free to use any chemical, always try to provide the best available waterproofing treatment to our customers. For this, we apply the chemicals on different sample areas and perform multiple tests to confirm the proper chemical suitable for a particular surface. The data collected then helps us to convince our customers on the right product to use and ensure their satisfactory treatment.

Please tell us about the founders
Mr. Adarsh Pradhan has done BCA & B. Tech. in Civil Engineering and has a vast experience of 8 years in the field of construction and management in various reputed MNCs. Before establishing his own company, he worked in partnership with a construction company for almost two years to boost up his managerial and business skills and learn the minute details about being a successful entrepreneur. This fueled his idea for doing his own start-up.

List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles – How you see them evolving over time. What would be each of their Skill Sets? – Elaborate also if any of the team members has a specific domain expertise.
Details of core team members are:

1. Miss. Anni Singh (Finance & HR Head)

Qualification- M.Com

Experience- 2 Years

Responsibilities- Finance, HR, Admin and Accounts management

• Md. Shadab (Project Manager)

Qualification- B. Tech. in Civil Engineering

Experience- 3 years

Responsibilities- Project management, Site execution, Site planning, Staff management, Client handling etc.

Expertise- Structure, Interior and Waterproofing

• Mr. Gaurav Kumar (Site Engineer)

Qualification- B. Tech. in Civil Engineering

Experience- 2.5 years

Responsibilities- Site execution, Site planning, Labor management, Client handling etc.

Expertise- Structure, Waterproofing

• Mr. Syed Hamza (Marketing Head)

Qualification- M.B.A. in Marketing and Operations

Experience- 1 years

Responsibilities- Field marketing, Client Dealing, Operational layout.

• Miss. Summy Payal (Digital Marketing Head)

types Qualification- B.Tech in Computer Science

Experience- 1 Years

Responsibilities- E-marketing, Website management, Blog writing.

Tell us about the Product / Solution. How did you get your first customer? Explain how you went about the Product-Market Fit Process.
When we started the company, we were mainly focused on providing the best available waterproofing services but now, we also deal in Construction and Interior works and we are emerging as one of the India’s most trusted service providers.

We got our first project for the waterproofing treatment of the basement at Aamor Inox Limited, Ghaziabad through marketing almost five months after establishment of the company.

To reach the Product Market-Fit Process, we first created awareness among people about the importance of waterproofing, made them aware about the different types of waterproofing depending upon the different types of surfaces so that they themselves could decide if a firm was providing them the right treatment at proper rates or not. In this way, we gained our customers’ trust and made them to believe that we are here to take care of their dream home by providing them the best possible treatment at competitive rates.

What is your USP?
The uniqueness about us is that we don’t deviate our customers by proposing common treatment or the one which is easily available in the market irrespective of the type of surface (whether it be terrace, basement, tin shade etc.) but we make this our clients aware of the different of treatment available by providing them the list which we prepare through multiple sampling tests and then make them decide which one they want based on durability, rates and brand of chemicals to be used. This helps us to make them comfortable while dealing with the project and provide them  with satisfactory and trustworthy treatment.

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?
When we entered the market, we desired to capture the residential buildings mainly because we found this sector neglected from the very beginning.

For us, our ideal customers are those who build their own dream home but a slight passage of water through the structure destroys the entire beauty of the building.

So, when we entered the market with motto, we gained popularity in no sheet time and this is the reason why we have completed 200+ residential building projects till now.

What has been your biggest failure as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it??
As an Entrepreneur, I faced failure quite often as I was trying  to adapt with the changing market. But the good thing was, I learned a lot from these failures. Initially, I tried to carry Waterproofing and Construction in parallel but was not able to focus on either of the two which caused me to suffer many losses. Then I decided to focus  primarily on Waterproofing. Now, after three years of experience, I have finally entered into Construction and Interior market. 

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. Our pricing of products is very much competitive, affordable and transparent. We believe in quality so we strictly follow the data sheet of each of the products we use for a particular project which gives the consumption ratio. The rates are thus calculated in accordance with the data sheet application process. This makes our services premium and also helps to avoid wastage of time in negotiation as our rates are based on standard data values.

Please tell us about the investors (if any)
We have no other investors so far other than myself.

Is there any interesting success story of your startup? If yes, please write about it?
At the very beginning of the startup i.e. in 2018, we were offered a major project at Swaziland, South Africa by Angelique International Limited. It was a time when we were trying our best to be a leading waterproofing service provide at state and national level yet we got an international project. Though, we started the project last year because, it took time in the arrangement of labor passports and other paper works.

Since inception, give us a sense of the value of business done by your venture? Please explain in detail.
Since the establishment of the company, we used our first 5-6 months to create awareness among people and make them realize the importance of waterproofing. This period however, we are totally devoted in marketing and adapting ourselves with the changing market. This is the reason today why we are one of the India’s leading waterproofing service providers with an annual turnover of approx. 2 crores (in waterproofing).

Till date, we have successfully completed 280+ projects (both commercial and residential) and have an average of 5-6 enquiries each day.

What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product/service leading to something bigger? If so, how?
The major big picture of our startup has always been that we never thought to confine ourselves only to India but to go international. We have gotten our first project at Swaziland, South Africa and few more projects are under the process of allotment with the blessings of Almighty. On the other hand, we are day by day enhancing our service quality to cope up with the latest innovations and be able to maintain the difference between us and other firms.

Who do You Perceive as Your Competition? How do you differentiate yourself with them?
In fact, we never thought to compete with anyone but just to make our own services more effective, durable, updated and affordable so that we could maintain a different position in the market and serve the people by delivering best available treatments to their buildings because we believe that waterproofing should be done once for the entire lifespan of the building so that owners need not to worry again from future perspective.

What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months? Any other information you would like to share?
Since the beginning of 2020, apart from waterproofing, we have also entered into the field of Construction and Interior Designing (Mahi Interiors) and have received many positive feedback and response from our customers. So, in the coming days, our goal is to achieve success in all the three major fields of Civil Engineering i.e. Construction, Interior and Waterproofing. For the first few months, we’ll be focusing on advertising our services only and will also be registering our company in CPWD to get Government projects as well.

What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs? 
To my fellow entrepreneurs, I would like say that though there is competition in every field, you need to be focused only on yourself and believe in yourself. Make your way of working uniquely and different from others so that your customers could distinguish you from the thousand others. You’ll fail at many places but don’t get depressed, rather learn from your mistakes. Listen to some successful entrepreneurs’ journey; try to learn from the mistakes they made during their life of struggle so that if the same situation arises for you, you already know as how to deal with it.