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When choosing a business idea, it’s a good idea to look to your strengths. Here are some strategies to help you come up with the best business idea ever.

challenges faced by fintech startups

Challenges Faced by Fintech Startups in India

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Fintech is a well blend of Finance and Technology. All over the world, many fintech start-ups are evolving. It’s a big industry with a good scope of growth and profit, but it is tough to survive in this fast-growing sector. There are various challenges that a fintech industry faces and some of them are described below.

Challenges Faced by Fintech Startups in India

• Regularity bodies

Red-tapism and the immense number of laws slow down the market, but strict regulations are inevitable when it comes to a financial or technological company. A Fintech faces a lot of challenge in coping with all these regulations that it has to comply with.

Networking sites like Evolvers and Linkedin have a pool of subject matter experts, having strong knowledge backed with experience in several fields. As a new leadership, you can take their guidance and learn from their experiences to overcome roadblocks. You need not have to search for your solutions from various consultants.

• Cybersecurity

fintech start-ups

Fintech companies handle exceedingly sensitive information of the customers, and thus as the emerging leadership, you must be well prepared to fortify your organization against any challenge posed by the internet. The more the financial data of individuals and companies become available digitally, the higher is the risk of cyber security breaches.

• Accumulating capital

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Fintech companies require huge capital, not only to pay off the salaries of the employees but also need funds for a secure infrastructure.

The first step of fund accumulation starts with a good sales pitch, and at times in spite of possessing excellent leadership skills, some falter here.

· Complex Industry

HEALTH TECH STARTUP

The complex working model of Fintech makes it a challenging task for them to maintain a healthy and smooth partnership with banks. Many fintech companies fear the loss of identity and autonomy amongst the vast landscape of large banking organizations.

On the other hand, banks find it risky to work with fintech innovators as they fear of losing reputation. These complex situations become the obstacles to the growth of fintech organizations.

· Lack of Consumer Trust

HEALTH TECH STARTUP

Providing financial services in the unbanked market is a challenge in itself due to the lack of trust of consumers, especially in India. People still relate these services with digital scams and are also not yet ready to accept the involvement of digital technology in financial services.

 • Finding clients is a tough challenge

HEALTH TECH STARTUP

A business cannot run without customers and clients. Getting a client requires the support of a good platform. However, professional networking sites with a global reach, can provide the new leadership with the much-deserved podium and help you to take your business to newer heights.

With the advent of technology, the challenges faced by fintech start-ups has increased, but if the same technology can be utilized properly, it is a true blessing for any leadership.

Technology can be used to reach out to more people, and we all know, networking has a vital role in every endeavour. Evolvers networking site can rescue you by providing this networking platform that you might lack and help you to reach beyond your known limits to accomplish targets that might otherwise seem impossible.

Booming Startups in Fintech Industry

Today, everywhere and in every field like health tech, Logitech, Edtech, Traveltech, Enterprise, and Fintech, people use latest technologies and work by implementing the technologies in their business to get the best results. In India, still, there is a need for more technological strategies in the banking sector. Over 19% of the population still remains unbanked.  Here Fintech startups come in.

Since 2015, the finance sector has undergone many changes like a change to move towards a cashless economy. The government is proactively using technologies to make India cashless – the launch of India stacking including UPI, digital wallets, e-KYC, Aadhaar, and BHIM are the Indian financial sector.

Demonetization is another factor that played an important role in the rise of the Fintech industry. According to the report of NASSCOM and KPMG, India has currently more than 500 startups in the Fintech industry, whose vision is to attain financial inclusion. In the ecosystem of startups, there are some wallets like FreeCharge, MobiKwik, and Paytym.

According to the co-founder and CEO of Microsoft-

“Digital technology provides a low-cost way for people in developing countries to send money to each other, buy and sell goods, borrow and save as long as the financial-regulation environment is supportive.” – Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft.

So, digital technologies play an important role to change the traditional business model in the digital business model.

Startups are working in various sub-sectors of Fintech such as mobile POS (mobile-based point of sale), in loans and insurances, and alternative leading among others.

Increased access to the internet, have helped efficient and automated financial services solutions. Well, it seems that the Fintech industry is a fast-growing industry and there are so many leading startups that are working very well and provides many financial solutions to the industry. Let us look towards some really innovative ones.

Fintech Startups in India

Faircent

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Faircent is a lending startup that connects lenders with borrowers. It is a P2P model which means person to person. The startup was launched in 2014 and offers a variety of advanced tools such as Auto Invest. This is a type of tool with a great feature that matches criteria of lender’s investment with the requirements of borrower’s and automatically sends proposals to the borrower based on the amount, risk profile, and loan tenure.

The initial aim of this startup is to help people avail easy and fast personal loans at an affordable cost. This is one of the top startups that was also selected for the first batch of NASSCOM and was also a part of the BizSpark program and Microsoft Accelerator Winter Cohort.

With the help of latest technologies this emerging player from Fintech industry is working on to reach the larger group of professionals in this sector and looking for the businesses so they can tie up and can borrow online.

Simpl

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This is an online payment instrument and was launched in 2015. The customers can purchase and settle their payments online. This is one of the fastest data-driven platforms that help to reduce the payment flow, improves client’s product experience, and gives a payment model to the user’s that is faster and more convenient than cards and wallets.

With the help of this, the customer can choose to pay one bill instead of making the payments individually. There are many merchants that currently work with Simpl including Nykaa, DocsApp, FreshMenu, BookMyShow, Faasos, Licious, Drivezy, Dunzo and others.  The spending limit for customers is between $11.7 (INR 750) and $78 (INR 5,000). The startup also has a partnership with a number of NBFCs and banks to make a robust product portfolio.

Kissht

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The startup was launched in 2015 and is a Mumbai-based startup that allows users to make purchases both offline and online. They provide instant credit and through this app users can buy items like jewelry, electronics, mobiles, laptops by opting EMIs even without a credit card.

This is the platform where you can see in-app merchants or choose whatever the customer wants to buy from the Kissht store. Users can also upload the documents and make the payment easily online. You can also see the limit of your credit and amount of upcoming EMIs. This is one of the top startups who also provide cash loans for construction of your loans, renovation of your homes, holidays, purchase of consumer durables, for traveling, short-term loan for equipment purchase and for other purposes.

The company has a fixed rate of interest on the monthly basis. Users can also pay their return amount in installments and can avail flexible return tenures of up to 60 months.

FTCash

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The FTCash startup is founded in June 2015 and provides many excellent solutions for micro-merchants to accept the payments through many payment mediums like credit cards, debit cards, and mobile wallets.

In 2016, the FTCash startup was selected as one of the 12 finalists of IBM Smartcamp for Fintech Challenges and also was one of the six winners of iSPIRT-organised Great Tech Rocket ships Initiative 2016 (GTRS) and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) India.

The startup also provides short-term loans to the merchants and empowers SME’s and Merchants by offering easy access to credit usually range from $1000 to $20,000, with interest rates somewhere between 18 and 30%.

EarlySalary

Encourage Startups

This is a Pune-based startup and first mobile lending platform which is founded in 2015 by Ashish Goyal and AkshayMehrotra. It provides smart risk scoring system instant cash loans, and salary advances. The startup has their operations in various cities including Hyderabad, New Delhi, Jaipur, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, among others. This is the startup that provides advance salary up to 50% of monthly salary to its users and 70% of the loans are given in 10 minutes. The startup has also made the partnership with SMEs and with other corporate for advance salary purposes.

The average size of the loan that the company provides is between $125-$1,500 (INR 8,000 to INR 1 Lakh) for a period of up to 30 days. The app has many subscribers for both Android and IOS mobile app platforms.

Today, with the help of experienced, professional team, and funding from investors like IDG Ventures India, IFMR Capital, the Fintech startup wants to expand the entire business and work across tier II and tier III cities in the country.

Rubique

Fintech Industry

Rubique is one of the leading Fintech startups that launched in 2014. The startup is an online marketplace for all type of financial products that offers loan products and end-to-end loan fulfillments to MSMEs and to individuals.

With the help of new online business marketing strategies and unique algorithm, this online platform facilitates up to 235+ products such as home loans, car loans, credit cards, business loans, loans against property, personal loans, healthcare loans, education loans, construction equipment financing, among others.

The startup is trying to fill the gap between lenders and borrowers with the help of various financing options and it has two verticals. First, the startup provides curated, well-aggregated, and digitized collection of products to the users. Second, the user can apply online after comparing and selecting the products.

The startup has also a credit score- Rubique’s Magic Store- that can be developed with the bank’s lending system.  This is the startup in Fintech industry who has clocked revenue of over $2.6 Mn (INR 17.5 Cr) in just three years.

MoneyTap

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MoneyTap is a Bengaluru-based consumer lending startup and India’s first app-based credit line. It also provides flexible loans for personal use. By targeting the country’s fast-growing middle-income group, the team of MoneyTap solves the problems of insufficient consumer credit line and of the people who need money for rent, weddings, paying school fees, shopping, sending money to family and so on.

This is the only platform where users can borrow anywhere between $50-$7,500 (INR 3,000 to INR 5 Lakh) and offers the repayment time of two months up to three years.  The app has more than 300k registered users across 14 cities in India. Recently, the startup is working with seven NBFC/Banking partners including RBL Bank at different stages of integration.

MoneyTap app charged over a 1.5% interest rate. In recent times, the consumer has become more demanding with the demanding consumer internet companies. So, this is one of the booming Fintech startups.

Innoviti

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This startup is started by IIT Bombay alumnus Rajeev Aggarwal, as the manufacturers of wireless hardware systems manufacturers in 2002. The advanced solutions of this startup help businesses to reduce the cost of processing digital payments. It supplies hassle-free working strategies that help in the growth of other small businesses.

The payment platform of Innoviti includes Indigo, Walmart, Titan, Reliance, Reliance Retail, and several others.  Banks like ICICI, Axis, and HDFC also uses this platform to access customers for loan distribution.

The company’s aim is to focus on building and implementing new technologies that give reliability, speed, and flexibility.

So, these all are the booming startups of Fintech Industry and achieved their goal by a lot of hard work and dedication.

Now, in the next article, we will take a look at the booming startups of the Education industry.

Right Mentor In Growth Path

How To Choose The Right Mentor In The Growth Path

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Who is a mentor?

A mentor is like an experienced friend who will teach us and guide us along. A mentor will build the trust and will model the positive behaviors. The best mentor will understand that the role will be knowledgeable, effective, dependable and engaging.

Anyone can be a mentor but they have to be successful in whichever field and will have to use their strength to their advantage. So yes it is true that if you have the right mentor then your career will surely go up.

How would you meet the right mentor? The answer is, through Evolvers. Read out to know how you can choose the best mentor for yourself.

Gather up all that you need while choosing the right mentor in the growth path.

Write down the questions you need to ask:

  • Do I require help with my present part or with how to push forward to another part?
  • Do I require bolster from my guide for a specific test or for my whole vocation?
  • Improve abilities from my tutor or should my guide disclose to me what aptitudes I have to create?

The relationship of your mentor with you is also important.

right mentor in the growth path

  • What is your mentor’s way to deal with helping you?
  • What is the idea of your association with your mentor is it formal or casual?
  • Is your mentor helping you with nothing or would you say you will pay him/her?
  • How regularly might you want to communicate with your mentor?

Now you will have to find the mentor keeping all these questions in mind. You might have someone in mind, if not, and then this might help you.

  • Join Evolvers and you’ll quickly be acquainted with more individuals with differed encounters.
  • Contact senior administrators who have exceeded expectations at their employment.
  • Are there renowned industry pioneers who motivate you?

There is no point to lie on the lower side and not ask for any help from your mentor. There should be a need to build a strong relationship with your mentor and it is important that you and your mentor should share the same values and leadership style.

This is important because if you don’t match with your mentor quality-wise then you and your mentor will have conflicts. It takes time to build a relationship with your mentor, so it is advisable that one should not give up so easily.

right mentor in the growth path

Now that you have got a mentor, you should be clear about your expectations and the relationship you will have with them. Just like you give an interview, your initial interactions should be done in the same way.

They should be able to give you enough time and sufficient contribution and should expect the same from you. The mentor should know about the strengths and weaknesses of yours. Remember that you should not hold anything back as this relationship will make your career.

The mentor you chose would be the best and will guide you well but there might be a chance that you might need more than one mentor. All you have to do is try.

Matrimony Business Model in 2019

BHARAT MATRIMONY MARKETING STRATEGY (part 2)

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In the previous blog, we discussed the challenges that were faced by Murugavel Janakiraman when he started BharatMatrimony. We explained the idea and how it was launched, what hardships came in the way. We discussed the way on how he got his first customers and what techniques he used. They took one step at a time and how did they develop their business.

In this blog, we will discuss that what steps he took after the initial steps. We will start with the SEO part.

SEO

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From an SEO point of view, it is invaluable to have one parent area – matrimony.com with committed pages for every community that comes under the parent site. For e.g.: www.bharatmatrimony.com/tamilmatrimony gave greater expert to the site and furthermore demonstrated ideal in the internet searcher rankings.

Ascended Content Marketing

“Desi Match” magazine was launched for South Asian residents living in the US. It was the first and only matrimony magazine.

“Matrimony Express” – India’s first relationship blog.

Happymarriages.com website gave advice and tips on how people can stay happy in a married life, whereas, BharatMatrimony had made its presence viral in the matrimony sector. With diverse religions and languages, and economic segments, BharatMatrimony was helping people to stay happy after getting married.

What was the need for creating HappyMarriages.com?

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The mission of Matrimony.com states that

“The future of a country depends on its citizens. Good citizens emerge out of good parenting; good parenting can happen only in a good marriage and we are the gateway to happy marriages.”

To lead a happy and enrich married life Happymarriage.com is the initiative of BharatMatrimony.com.

What was the challenge?

It was seen by the Matrimony.com team that people were having problems in the relationship after marriage. Some of them were having problems on the first day of the marriage which were lasting for almost 4 years. There were misunderstandings like relationship problems with the In-laws, personal fights, time management, not giving each other the required space and problems with the choice of work. It was because of many reasons that even the guidance from elders and the time was leaving the couples confused. It was obvious that there was no way that these problems were mentioned anywhere.

Thought behind the strategy

Happymarriage.com is a simplified matrimony site which comes with a monthly newsletter with related content and this helps the newlywed couples. The content was quality wise on a higher side which was very helpful for the readers.

“Happy families are the building blocks of the nation. As a leader in the online matchmaking space, we have the responsibility to guide married couples to lead a happy life post marriage. HappyMarriages.com is an initiative to enrich marital relationships and make them meaningful. It’s BharatMatrimony’s guide to a happy marriage.”

– Murugavel Janakiraman

Founder & CEO, Matrimony.com

The execution

It took almost three months for the marketing team to complete the research on the various challenges faced by the newlywed couples. After extensive research, and with the data given by the couples and also from the inputs from the social circle, the team was able to frame the content and publish it.

The outcome

The goal was to offer valuable content around the early conjugal difficulties and help manage youthful couples to an important relationship and a cheerful marriage. This was accomplished with the site and a month to month pamphlet which has more than 24,000 endorsers and more than 1 lakh wedded individuals get the bulletin each month.

Communication and referrals

Spoken communications and referrals were the main reason for the traffic received. The parents created the profile on the reviews of other parents. BharatMatrimony had the first mover advantage and this was the reason for a strong brand recall.

BharatMatrimony.tv

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This online channel features TVCs made by BharatMatrimony.tv crosswise over classes that incorporate International TVCs, Assisted Matrimony, Elite Matrimony, and Tambulya in numerous dialects that take into account assorted clients on the web.

Website traffic

The order in which the traffic was directed towards the website was

  • Direct->Referrals->Organic Search->Display Ads->Mail->Social

A strong brand recall is achieved by maximum direct traffic and this was actually seen. People would open their browser and directly came to BharatMatrimony website rather than coming from a referral or ads.

  • The traffic was not coming on the website through emails or organic search or social recall, rather than the traffic came from branding and engagement channels.

WHAT WERE THE OFFLINE MARKETING CHANNELS

  1. Mega Swayamvaram

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Over 10,000 participants from 9 major communities came to the world’s largest Matrimony Meet, which was conducted in Chennai in the year 2007.

Why was such an event organized?

This event was conducted so that the match-making would become quick and a platform was given to the people with similar thoughts who were seeking a better half.

Were they able to pull it off? Yes? Then, How?

  • The characteristics of the brides partaking in the Swayamvaram were given in a position astute ordered booklet containing the subtle elements of the lucky men and the other way around.
  • This booklet included points of interest like rank, stature, weight, and horoscope and so on and sent to the members well ahead of time.
  • Rundown of probable was shortlisted for a gathering to be started.
  • Contact subtle elements of all members from particular ranks would be given at the setting for them to make contacts autonomously after the occasion.

Result:

The outcome was huge. People were strolling around with similar thoughts in their minds and they were actually networking and were interacting with each other for the betterment of their future. This gave a big kick to BharatMatrimony brand wise.

  1. Families opting for speed dating

  • Creating strong offline communities was an integral part for BharatMatrimony to build the trust.
  • The first ever Matrimony Meet was organized in 2002 with a thought of meeting the bride and groom face to face where they can discuss all the perspectives.
  • This gave an opportunity for one-on-one discussion.

  1. Special Meet Up

Muruga knows that it is important to know someone whom we want to marry and everyone deserves to choose the best life partner. Keeping this in mind, BharatMatrimony hosted it’s first-ever Matrimony Meet for the physically challenged.

  1. Retailing

The thought was to grow under the lead mark BharatMatrimony.com, giving guardians and the more seasoned age that isn’t excessively educated a disconnected channel, making it impossible to convey face to face.

BharatMatrimony’s methodology for online development has dependably been to help it with disconnected retail outlets that clients can visit, converse with delegates. This refines a brand.

  • Approximately 100 retail outlets of BharatMatrimony were opened in the metro cities and the surrounding cities of Delhi in the year 2007-2008. Some of the outlets were company-owned and some of them were under the franchise of BharatMatrimony. The main reason was branding, although some of them were not able to do well, but, they were becoming a known brand. Some of the Tamilians picked up TamilMatrimony instead of BharatMatrimony, so it was like one of them was getting known. The plan didn’t work as the brand strategy was not coming in line with the local brand strategy. Expanding quickly without customization and losing money to the retail outlets led to the shutdown. The Recession also played a part in the shutdown.
  • Muruga did not give up on the shutdown but he decided to re-launch it in a different manner. This time he started the outlets locally and later on planned to expand it nationally. 20 company-owned retail outlets were launched by the name of tamilmatrimony.com in Tamil Nadu. This is the way Muruga customized the branding.

The Benefits

  • People took an interest while speaking to the representative in their local language.
  • People took printouts of the selected and shortlisted grooms and brides.
  • It likewise encouraged perceivability locally and accumulation of payments.

The Results

Within a half year, it was clear that the outlets were a colossal achievement and over a time of year and a half, BharatMatrimony propelled more than 100 organization claimed outlets skillet India with a comparable restricted procedure. As of now, it has 140 retail outlets.

  1. Partnering with the government

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The only purpose of the partnership with the government was to reach the people living in the surrounding area of the cities. Through this, they could reach too many more brides and groom irrespective of the place.

  • Worked together with the Department of Post, Government of India, to offer BharatMatrimony Membership Cards through post workplaces the nation over.
  • Banded together with the Andhra Pradesh government to give marital administrations through e-Seva, an administration started by the legislature to guarantee innovation achieves everyone – urban and rustic, rich and poor, proficient and unskilled.
  • Tied up with the Government of Kerala to give Matrimony benefits through the Akshaya activity. This is an inventive task went for connecting the computerized partition between the urban and the country to make monstrous financial development.

  1. Offline Brand Campaigns

April 14th, Matrimony Day

  • People celebrated the happiness of the wedding bliss on Matrimony Day, 14th April. BharatMatrimony gave away discounts and offers from many leading brands keeping the spirit of Matrimony Day alive. Even The Hindu published a 4-page supplement titled “Perfect Match” on Matrimony Day and with everyone celebrating it; the day is officially celebrated as Matrimony Day.
  • BharatMatrimony is the reason behind the celebration of marriage.

Guinness Book of World records

To praise their fifteenth commemoration, BharatMatrimony made the world’s biggest photograph collection on Matrimony Day. What was remarkable about this collection was that BharatMatrimony highlighted each couple (who met on their entryway) with their unique wedding photographs.

Outcome: Their message, ‘Marriage is fundamental to anchor a cheerful and sound society’ was generally welcomed.

Let’s take a look at the summary of Marketing

HOW IS BHARATMATRIMONY DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY?

  1. Forceful expansion

With cash in and a solid a dependable balance inside the marriage space, BharatMatrimony had two choices through which they could extend –

A solitary brand system where they could take off more administrations around marriage and a multi-mark technique wherein they could make different commercial centers utilizing a similar innovation and move on a level plane. They settled on both. This is the manner by which they did it–

SINGLE-BRAND STRATEGY

online marketing

To build the BharatMatrimony brand and speed up the growth, the company introduced services related to Matrimony for a $56 Billion market in India.

  1. Photography (launched in 2015)

Offering professional services in photo shoots and videography

  1. MatrimonyBazaar (launched in 2016)

Wedding services for those who wanted to save time and money while getting married

  1. MatrimonyMandap (launched in 2017)

Helped by checking the availability of the wedding venue and were allowed to book at best prices.

To keep the correspondence and commitment unblemished even post the wedding, BharatMatrimony built up the attached gateways which shared updates and data for and by couples post marriage.

  • Success Stories

It’s a page where the newly wedded couples used to share their experience of a successful marriage. It has a section called Tinies and in this section, couples used to share pictures and stories with their relatives and families.

  • com

On this platform, people used to share all the ideas and experiences post-marriage and this would help the users with the things which they could use.

MULTI-BRAND STRATEGY – DIVERSE MARKETPLACES

Muruga saw the accompanying focal points of utilizing a multi-mark procedure –

  • It was anything but difficult to duplicate these commercial centers utilizing the same back-end innovation
  • Scalability wasn’t an issue
  • Also, marital clients aren’t deep rooted clients. The lifetime estimation of a client is typically 3 a year. They just remained on the stage until they got hitched. Once the pursuit is finished, there is no purpose behind them to return to the site. This made it basic to differentiate.

Keeping the structure of innovation set up, Muruga took an official choice and chose to dispatch the accompanying commercial centers successively from 2006 to 2008 i.e. 8 benefits in a traverse of two years. The enhancement helped pick up the piece of the overall industry and these stages were beginning to see development –

  • com: The No.1 Property Portal.
  • com: Help individuals with individual, property and vehicle credits.
  • com: The Online Automobile Supermarket.
  • Mobile 5050: Latest news on telephones, contraptions
  • com: The Online Classifieds.
  • Clickjobs: An occupations entrance
  • Indiapages: The Online Yellow Pages
  • BharatBloodBank – a non-benefit, non-business interface

To be continued…..

In the next blog, we will tell you that how the pricing was decided and what experiments did Muruga conducted along with the data-driven strategy and product updates.

References

https://www.bharatmatrimony.com/aboutus.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BharatMatrimony

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/entrepreneurship/i-am-married-to-and-through-bharat-matrimony-murugavel-janakiraman/articleshow/60525006.cms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murugavel_Janakiraman

Bharat Matrimony

BHARAT MATRIMONY MARKETING STRATEGY

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Everybody wishes to know the journey of a successful startup. What opportunities it saw, what challenges it faced, what solutions it implemented, how the market reacted and how its journey is continuing. Bharat Matrimony is that kind of a startup. 

It is one of the first ones to ride on the internet boom; it has come through lots of ups & downs and still going strong. Let us be part of the journey.

Do you have any idea that how Bharat Matrimony managed to take its name in the Limca Book of world records for documenting the most number of marriages online? 

Well, we will explain the marketing strategy breakdown of how Bharat Matrimony became an IPO from an Idea.

Bharat Matrimony Marketing Strategy

 
The company’s development story is interesting, persuasive and a decent case of brand advancement that accomplished item/showcase fit on an amazing number of levels with a group of 4000 representatives, and a piece of the overall industry of 60%.

 With 3 million clients and 140 branches in India till date, they have figured out how to always re-examine the brand with mind-blowing premonition.

Let’s take a look at the facts; Bharat Matrimony is a Flagship brand with Matrimony.com as a Parent Company. Bharat Matrimony is an online matchmaking and marriage website which runs under Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO.

HOW IT ALL DID START?

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Murugavel Janakiraman or Muruga hails from a small town of Royapuram, Chennai, where he struggled from day to day life challenges which came in the way.

One of the challenges was to share 1 bathroom with 14 other people; he did not have electricity at home until the age of 23. His only dream was to get a degree and get a house with electricity and an attached bathroom so that his family wouldn’t have to share the common bathroom.

He got a degree in MCA in 1994 and took up a job in Polaris Chennai as a Tech Consultant. At his job, he had to travel to Singapore and the US for the projects where he unveiled the internet skills with big names like Yahoo, Sify and Rediff who were building their business around the internet and all the other aspects through online at that time.

During his stay in the US for two years, Muruga really missed home and his friends; he missed hanging out with them and also the binge-watching of Tamil movies.

He felt like he was losing the connection with the Tamilian Community and he wanted to connect with his roots really soon.

He started searching for a few websites which published content for Tamilians; content which was on politics, entertainment and movies, but he was not satisfied with the search as he was not getting any way for interactions.

He wanted to do something which no one was doing. There was no type of connectivity for a type of community which was living overseas and no one has thought about that.

A repeating design that was seen was that best business people likewise happen to be the initial ones in the space, otherwise known as first movers. It is all about the early bird catching the worm.

HOW DID THEY LAUNCH THE IDEA?

The transindia.com was launched in 1997 by Muruga which is called Thamizhar Pakkam (translates to For the Tamil community), this was made with the intention to connect with the Tamil community. The platform had services and engaging channels which were content driven.

These included –

  • Tamil Matrimonial: Look for prospective brides or grooms
  • Make Friends: Connect with others Tamilians across the world
  • Tamil daily calendar: Calendar marked with auspicious dates
  • Reminder: Indian festival reminder
  • Travel: Book flight tickets through travel agencies
  • Religion and charities: Find religious and charitable groups in Tamil Nadu
  • Radio: List of radio stations that you could tune into and listen to your favorite songs

The engaging content was planned as following –

  • News and Magazines: Tamil political news
  • Movies and Cine Stars: Tamil Cine News, Photos & Interviews (Updated Weekly)
  • Literature and people: Famous people in the field of literature
  • Institutes: A database of educational institutions

SO HOW DID THEY GET THEIR FIRST CUSTOMERS?

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In 1997, there was limited social media advertising and Muruga was on a tight financial budget. So, he used his creative instinct and he used the following methods to attract the audience to his business.

PAMPHLETS AND FLYERS

Stores in the US

Most of the Indians went to the local grocery stores in the neighborhood area. Muruga printed 500 pamphlets and distributed them among all the nearby Indian stores in the US.

Friends in Chennai

Back in Chennai, he asked a few of his close friends to distribute those pamphlets in the stores in nearby localities by taking out a print out.

Online marketing discussion forums

With no social channels in the targeted area, Muruga targeted discussion groups like Google and Yahoo. He joined their conversation and started mentioning transindia.com to them.

Promotions

When one created a new website it was difficult to promote back at that time. So, Muruga found some websites which were ready to promote him in return of a small favor for the employees.

Like if someone would create a profile on the website then they will get a 10% discount on the next travel tickets.

SEO

Likewise, with the approach of Google and Yahoo web search tools, Muruga began utilizing ideas of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). His essential spotlight was positioning on the principal page of Google, Yahoo, and other web search tools.

Thought to Demand Validation

With all the hard work Muruga did, the golden results followed:

  • Almost 3000 people created their Matrimonial profile
  • The audience made him a pioneer in the social network when 2000 people made a profile on “make friends” profile.
  • The Greeting Card service was also being used frequently.

Muruga saw that people were more inclined towards the matrimonial services and the other services are being used comparatively less.

He received an email from a user which stated that he found a Tamil bride through their website and this was a big achievement for him. This showed that people were more interest in the matrimony stuff.

Muruga launched Tamil Matrimony and Telegu Matrimony which later evolved to BharatMatrimony.

How did they develop their business?

The year of 2000 saw a wave of global panic and a global recession as the dot-com had gone down in the US as most of the companies which were receiving a capital investment from different joint ventures, were shutting down. Because of this, Muruga had to quit his job.

One step at a time

Initially, Muruga was investing $1000 but when he did not have a regular income from his job then he had to think of another way to invest in his website.

So, he had to create a new method where he could generate some revenue. He settled down on the paid version of the website with some terms and conditions. Of course, the paid version was also there.

The Free VersionThe Paid Version (Rs 200 or $4.5 annually approx)

Create a new profile

Add initial information

Talk to other people

All features of the free version

Profile Boosting

Uploading of multiple photos

Horoscope information

Users were allowed to place Newspaper Ads

What were the results?

The results were astonishingly good, Muruga figured out how to make back the initial investment with income got from paid clients.

During this time, Muruga did not want to stall and he wanted to make more money. More features were added on the website.

  • Free users were allowed to add images
  • They were allowed to bookmark their shortlisted profiles
  • They were able to save searches and scan photos

If you wanted to contact a certain profile then you will have to become a paid member.

New pricing scheme was also introduced

  • $15 for 3 months: Bride/Groom living outside India
  • $25 for 6 months: Bride/Groom living outside India
  • $15 for 6 months: Bride/Groom living in India

Online Marketing

During the economical dot-com bubble burst, Bharat Matrimony was standing firmly against the technological times and was progressing slowly and steadily, whereas other companies were closing down.

Remember the famous dialogue from Band Baaja Baarat, “recession ho ya inflation, shaadi to honi hi hai na aur log lakho kharchte rahenge.” So you can relate.

Only two companies stood against the dot-com bubble burst time; one was the education company and the other one was the Matrimony Company.

Partnership with the other companies

For Muruga, it was a golden opportunity as all the other technology companies were providing Matrimony as an additional division, were closing this part from their website to focus more on the core business.

So grabbing this opportunity, Muruga took advantage of the crisis and he reached out to the companies.

Muruga moved toward Rediff (A news data site) and indicated enthusiasm for getting to be one of their channel accomplices for the matrimonial services that were offered on Rediff. They paid Rediff Rs 1 lakh (~$2200) for this organization.

The results were bright as Rediff was making increased money as the workforce was less and BharatMatrimony was able to direct a tremendous amount of traffic on their website when all the Matrimony profiles were redirecting from Rediff to BharatMatrimony.

What was the next step?

Murugavel chose to approach organizations like Sify, MSN, and Emerson to set up comparable associations.

SEO

Numerous sites were associated

Muruga’s objective was focused on making a matrimonial space for various communities. Apart from the matrimonial site, he included areas with services like:

  • Real Estate (Buy and offer property on the web)
  • Astrology (Get week by week and month to month horoscopes)
  • New tabs consisting a broad gathering of South Indian music, books, and recipes.

But his main focus remained on the Matrimonial part.

He changed the overall look and view format of the site alongside the domain name and called it sysindia.com. He, at that point, ensured that audience would definitely explore the single destinations (telegumatrimony.com or tamilmatrimony.com) to the parent site (sysindia.com).

As time passed by more profiles and successful matrimonial bonds were being made through the site. With most of the information was on his side and a solid gut egging him to go up against more he chose to grow.

He chose to enroll other space names like bengalimatrimony.com, punjabimatrimony.com, gujaratimatrimony.com despite the fact that there was no indication of these communities becoming on the web at the time as he felt if there was an interest for Tamil and Telugu matrimony then there would be a comparative interest for different communities crosswise over India.

His fantastic vision was to have these communities under one brand name. Matrimony.com: A stage for all Indians.

He failed to get ‘matrimony.com’ and ‘indiamatrimony.com’ as a domain name but he was not disappointed by that. He took the next available domain name which has become the most popular Matrimonial website; ‘bharatmatrimony.com’.

From an SEO point of view, it is invaluable to have one parent area – matrimony.com with committed pages for every community that comes under the parent site.

For e.g.: www.bharatmatrimony.com/tamilmatrimony gave greater expert to the site and furthermore demonstrated ideal in the internet searcher rankings.

To be continued….

The story of Muruga doesn’t end here; in fact, there is a big roller coaster ride here and there and a lot more to look forward. In the next part, we will read about why Happy Marriage was created.

The concept of speed dating and family meeting were also introduced but the main question was, whether the ideas were correctly implemented or not and also the retail outlets were launched.

There was an idea behind this initiative and there were many challenges which Muruga faced while creating Happy Marriage. After facing many challenges Muruga had results in his hands but how were the results? were they good or not so good, we will read this in the next part.

References taken from

https://www.bharatmatrimony.com/aboutus.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BharatMatrimony

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/entrepreneurship/i-am-married-to-and-through-bharat-matrimony-murugavel-janakiraman/articleshow/60525006.cms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murugavel_Janakiraman

https://growthspartan.com/bharat-matrimony-marketing-breakdown/?utm_campaign=Submission&utm_medium=Community&utm_source=GrowthHackers.com

new business ideas

INSPIRING YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO MADE IT BIG

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We all know that India is a developing country and people are really working hard to change the status of developing country to “developed”. India has very bright minds which are either shining or are ready to shine. All they need is a platform to turn the switch ON of the bulb.

In India, you can find many SMEs and Startups which are either stuck somewhere or are huddled in a corner with no idea on how to move forward but the following young entrepreneurs have crossed all the hurdles and obstacles which have arrived gracefully in their way.

Let’s know how they are different from the rest.

FALGUNI NAYYAR (Nykaa.com)

 entrepreneurThe Ex Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra was into financial services for almost 25 years. After quitting her job, she took the entrepreneurial plunge and started a wellness and beauty company by the name of Nykaa.com. The IIM Ahmadabad graduate launched her website in 2012 and is constantly building up by addition of more on more luxury products.

Nykaa is all set to reach a turnover of Rs.250Cr. She has been a stockbroker & an investment banker. Understanding business plans & financial projections were things that came easily to her. She took part in a lot of IPOs as an Investment banker. Seeing value creation all around, it was but natural she yearned for starting something on her own. Nykaa did a lot of things differently in the e-commerce industry. It is among one of the few e-commerce companies which are inventory led. As a business head, she knew first things come first – a team was very important. As first employees, she had the COO, the CTO, & Chief Content Officer hired. She also understood that more than the discounts, the customer is looking for a full range of products. Also, everything sold on Nykaa is sourced directly from the brand.

Nykaa also launched their private label which now contributes to about 10% of the sales at Nykaa. Nykaa is very close to breakeven. They might come up with an IPO very soon that will provide exit as well as consolidation to investors who have invested close to Rs.180 Cr in the company, namely, TVS Capital, Harsh Mariwala, Max India, and Munjal Family Office. Nykaa is in talks to raise another round of Rs.75Cr at an expected valuation of Rs.3000 Cr.

We wish Falguni Nayyar all the best

ADITI GUPTA (Menstrupedia.com)

business ideas

Periods are still considered a taboo in most of the parts in India, generally the rural parts. The girls who are on their periods are not allowed to enter the kitchen, temple and are not even allowed to touch any family member. Aditi Gupta first got her periods when she was 12. She still remembers and still pities that 12-year-old self, who was treated by her mother as someone who has done something wrong, something impure. Though educated she grew up in a traditional home where talking about such things was a taboo and the entire discussion about menstruation was shielded from the male members. Even in school, she recalls, that the entire chapter on this basic biology of all women was skipped by the male teacher.

She kept on using cloth as buying a pad was too much for a dignified family. Finally, at the age of 15, she mustered the courage to go to the market & buy the pad herself. During her post-graduation, she met Tuhin who she later married. Tuhin had a boy sibling so he never knew about menstruation apart from what he studied in the school textbooks. However, seeing Aditi go through the cycle every month, he wanted to help her more by educating her more. He researched and told so many things about menstruation to Aditi that even she didn’t know.

This made Aditi realize that if an educated woman like herself wasn’t aware of something that affects her so routinely, there would be millions who would be facing even more difficulty. She took a yearlong project in menstrual awareness. This became the founding stone for menstrupedia.

Mentrupedia.com, the brainchild of Aditi Gupta brings awareness about menstruation in a very simple & easy way, so much so that they advise that even a 9-year-old girl can read their comics. The comic book shows that how the members can embrace the periods and they have a guide to hygiene and health of girls and how they can be active and normal during their periods.

The site has more than 1 lac visitors per month. The comic book has been such a hit that it has been shipped across to South Africa as well and it is planned to be launched in at least 8-10 Indian languages & 3 foreign languages.

Aditi is one crusader who has picked up a cause that affects 50% of the total population. We strongly recommend being a part of her awareness program & supporting the initiative.

SWATI BHARGAVA (cashkaro.com)

 small business ideasAnother investment banker, this time from Ambala, worked with Goldman Sachs for about 3 years after having studied in London School of Economics. The cupid had already struck. Swati married Rohan, her batch-mate from LSE in 2009. Both together started PouringPound in 2011. The great success that the cash back industry was having in many countries led Rohan and Swati to start up PouringPound. In the UK, the affiliate marketing segment that time was 3-4% of the whole e-commerce market.

Very soon in 2013, she, along with her husband & business partner, Rohan, launched the site cashkaro.com. They are working with over 500-600 brands that include Amazon, Snapdeal, Jabong etc. What sets cashkaro.com apart is that unlike other coupon sites, they have Price Comparison, Product Search & cashback in addition to regular coupons & offers.

With the Indian e-commerce industry slated to grow at more than $100bn in the next decade, the stage looks set for the players who already have the experience & maturity in this nascent industry. Of course, disrupters would be there but the existing companies are also changing the rules of the game with each passing day.