Silicon Valley has gone through many rough phases in 40 years; India will also have to : Rajiv Srivatsa Urban Ladder Co-founder

At a time, when startups are finding it extremely difficult to sustain its business model after the ludicrous funding in its yesteryears, there are some who have successfully adapted to the changing market dynamics and scaling further up.

One such company is Urban Ladder, which has not only expanded its categories since it started back in 2012, but has also introduced new services. It has recently raised a $3 million in venture debt from Trifecta Capital aiming to meet their working capital requirements in the fund-crunch market.

In an interview with My Big Plunge, Urban Ladder founder Rajiv Srivatsa,  explains how the market looks tremendously competitive in the next five years in and how they plan to scale up.

Urban Ladder stands on twin tenets- design and trust, says Srivatsa. “The kind of products we built and the cost we give them is difficult to find elsewhere. It is difficult to replicate it too because the difference is at the fundamental level. It was difficult to get to level this. Initially, we were oblivious of the structural engineering and the good upholstery. But we worked on feedbacks constantly and reached this level.”

“Second is our service. The higher you go, the most efficient you have to be in delivering, installations, providing services and other things, day in and day out. That’s how we have built the trust.”

Winning the trust of the likes of Ratan Tata and many other investors, the company has raised around $78 million in four rounds of funding till now.

The furniture segment, due to its vast category does not have to face the cut-throat competition that the likes of Ola-Uber or Amazon-Flipkart are going through.

Srivatsa says, “Verticals are always about finding solutions. They have to be focused on coherent design and as long as you are executing it day in day out, you are scaling up.”

Speaking about the current dry funding patch Indian startup ecosystem is going through, Srivatsa says it is times like this that brings out tough entrepreneurs.

“We are a much smaller ecosystem. Silicon Valley has gone through such rough phases many times in their 40 years. We also have to go through such phases and only then can we see a tighter governed ecosystem, which will be sustainable.”