“My family had some doubts, ‘How can guys start a company about women’s fashion?’ But we thought that’s why it would work – because we would have a different analytical approach and I think it has worked so far”, says Kaushal Shubhank, Co-founder, Roposo.
Roposo is the brainchild of three IIT Delhi alumni, Mayank Bhangadia, Avinash Saxena and Kaushal Shubhank, who were friends and thought of starting something together. After discussing several ideas, they first zeroed in on Giveter, a gift recommendation website – “The basic thought was that there are millions of products in the entire web space but what are the 50 or 100 products that I would be interested in?” says Mayank Bhangadia, Co-Founder and CEO, Roposo. They noticed that since the platform was showcasing really good products, a lot of women were not only using it for gifting but also to buy products for themselves. This led them to the thought of creating a platform for shopping and discovering great products.
Roposo, now four years old, has managed to raise a total of $21million in funds. It is a platform driven by users, where people are inspired by the great content created by other people. Roposo’s primary channel is ‘word of mouth’, according to Avinash Saxena, Co-Founder, Roposo. He says, “People tell their friends what this app is about and ask them to join” adding, “that is going well with us”.
The platform, according to Mayank, started because of relevance – understanding what the user wants and then providing the best solutions, keeping in mind related factors. The team in Mumbai works on ‘building community’ and has managed to get multiple celebrities on board. Now they are looking to include colleges and local events, for which a team is being built, alongside scaling up tech.
There are two models through which Roposo, broadly, generates revenue. Whenever a person discovers a product on Roposo and is re-directed to one of the sites to buy it online, Roposo is able to track what order they place and gets a commission for that product. There is also a big opportunity for advertisements, since users spend a lot of time on the app. They have not started advertisements yet, however, there is a strategy being created for it and in it should be realised in the next six months.
On discussing the beginning of their plunge into entrepreneurship, Avinash says, “We focussed on the product that we were building and tried to be as frugal as we can”. Mayank commented, “You will not achieve results in one day or six months, you will have to do it for years”. To this, Kaushal adds, “My family and friends know me, so they were not very surprised because I have always tried to experiment on things”.
With more than 2.5 million active users and various celebrities on board, this user generated content platform is touted as becoming India’s most active social network. By the end of this fiscal, Roposo is targeting to achieve 8 million active users.
