open talk-dsim
Neerav Jainw

Open Talk @DSIM

An Interview with Neerav Jain, Founder of Cityfurnish.com

Founded in September 2015 by Neerav Jain, Gurgaon based Cityfurnish is an on-demand rental platform for renting furniture, furnishing and appliances. CityFurnish helps individuals and corporates furnish their homes or offices with furniture and appliances without the burden of heavy investment. The startup aims to relieve the consumer from the pain of moving furniture and buying furniture for temporary and short-term requirement.

Q1. Hi Neerav and welcome to DSIM. It’s a pleasure to be doing this interview with you. You’re a young entrepreneur that started an online business. What is it about? What makes your business different? Are there any special ingredients?

Ans. The idea of Cityfurnish originated way back when I was studying at Delhi University and had to move furniture to Delhi and shift back after my graduation. I started working on Cityfurnish in September 2015 and by September end, we were live in the market doing 50+ rentals.

Our journey has been full of adventure and spectacle, building our team from scratch and creating the right ecosystem of vendors and renters. (Not buyers!) Our association within the industry and help from our mentor helped us in scaling.

Expanding to Bangalore was easy, as we figured out the basic in Delhi, where we recently started our operations and our getting a great response.

CityFurnish is revolutionizing the on-demand rental industry in India. What begins as a trivial idea in my college days at Delhi University had finally come to shape with CityFurnish.

CityFurnish helps individuals and corporates to furnish their homes or offices by renting furniture and appliances without the burden of heavy investment. We are providing an optimized solution to the temporary requirement for home and offices alike.

Q2. Wonderful idea Neerav. How does it feel to be an entrepreneur?

Ans. Entrepreneur journey is full of ups and down. You need to keep your feet on the ground and aim for the stars.

Determination and a long-term vision help in going through the roller coaster ride. Entrepreneurs experience a lot of rejection and failures and to overcome the same dedication and self-belief is of prime importance.

Q3. Great Neerav. What are the major problems that you have faced being a really young entrepreneur?Ans. Being a young entrepreneur some decisions are backed by gut rather than experience or data. That is a learning curve which every young entrepreneur has to go through for mature decision making.

With the current startup environment, employees/investors/public pay heed to youngsters releasing the effort and energy.

Creating a conducive environment for young entrepreneurs to pitch their problems and build an ecosystem is still work in progress.

Q4. Neerav, what does it take to start an online business nowadays? An innovative idea? Long work hours? Specialization? How?
Ans. For us, we started CityFurnish because we realized a pain we would be solving for the common people looking for temporary furniture. Once you have realized and tapped the need, all working hours, process flow, team building etc., would come into place.Therefore, to start an online business, first understand the need you are addressing and the corresponding market size for the need.

Great business ideas are based on solving the problems efficiently.

 Q5. So, how do you advertise your business? Tell us, what is the role of digital marketing in your market initiatives?
Ans. We majorly rely on Online Marketing and Word of Mouth.
Digital marketing in our case has a deep penetration into our Target Customer base, therefore, it is an important aspect of our overall marketing strategy.
With the growth in mobile users in India, this would further increase in the future.
Q6. Neerav, how does a young entrepreneur convince the family that this is not just playing but a real business?

Ans. An entrepreneur basic trait includes selling. Selling the product, Selling the vision etc. Therefore, they would have to convince the parents about the same. With the current business environment in India, parents are also keen to let their kids grow and try new things.

Q7. What about the future? Where do you plan on going from here?

Ans. We are operating a pilot test in Pune, as well as building up our technology to improve product management and financial control. Along with that, we are launching additional modular and space saving furniture in Delhi and Bangalore.

We are tapping deep into the existing cities (Delhi and Bangalore) by establishing close relations with Brokers and Landlords.

Q8. So, before we finish it up, one last question, what is your message to those young people who have superb start-up ideas but do not have the courage to launch their own company?

Ans. Execution is the key.

Envisioning an idea is part of the story, execution is the key. Entrepreneurs should focus on implementation and execution. Getting their business model validated in the market would provide key insights as well as an opportunity to grow.

Execute – Validate – Learn (Pivot) – Re-execute

“It was nice talking to you. Thank you so much for your time and providing us valuable information. Team DSIM wishes you all the best for your future.”

DSIM Team
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