Kanchan SukhijaCo-founder and CEO of Compare Munafa Published On: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Views 3039

"The reason why great people are few and far in-between is because most people don’t even know what their passion is. This is one of the main reasons why people don’t reach their goals. So figure out your passion, follow it consistently."

Kanchan is a first generation entrepreneur and it is a great feat according to her, as she belongs to a family where until her father everyone was into job. After her father decided to start his own business from scratch, it motivated her to become an entrepreneur herself. She took Bachelors in Business Management and then pursued Masters in Finance from Nottingham University Business School and the University of Southampton for Actuarial Science, nurturing a secret dream of starting her own business someday.

According to her, an investment in Knowledge pays the best interest. After gaining ample experience in the several companies, she again started to mull the idea of launching her own venture. This is what led to the launch of Compare Munafa. It is an e-shopping portal with a difference. Compare Munafa brings together leading online stores and help buyers select the best deals by comparing product / shop prices online while offering added advantage of cash back and a discount against every purchase.

Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.

One portal for comparison of prices, vouchers/coupons and additional Munafa Points (Royalty Points) in the form of cash back which will empower the customer to take the decision faster and not only save but also earn while they shop.

What inspired you to build the above product/ service?

Key factors were- Young consumers, growing inclination towards purchasing online, growing internet penetration, rise of visitors on the websites offering discounts, No player offering combination of comparison and deals/coupons and cashback, Current Government Initiative of “Digital India”.

What is your life mantra?

Being the consumer ourselves before being the face of the brands.

What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?

Hiring for our start up.

How did you overcome those challenges?

We believe that many startups fail not because of the idea, it’s because they don’t have the right teamo execute it. There are innumerable ideas, but the key lies in its execution. Hiring for our startups was not easy as the working environment and challenges faced are not conventional in nature. The key traits that we look for are passion, adaptability, eagerness to learn and self-motivated individuals who have the ability to take risks in the path of innovation and also the humility to admit their mistakes and find solutions. If we talk about hard work and sincerity, we need to take the first step.

Compare Munafa team

Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.

A venture by GPA Group. We have not raised any investment from outside till yet.

How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?

As our startup is backed by GPA Group, our employee trust us and they know the success stories of our other ventures. Apart from this, we give them the best remuneration as per industry standards.

We treat our employee as our family members and before asking them to do anything, we try to set the examples. If we talk about GPA Group, we have less than 1% attrition.

According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?

Passion, eagerness to learn and self-motivated.

Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?

Obviously www.comparemunafa.com and recommend all to have the hand on experience on our website rather than believing on our words.

Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.

My passion

Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.

Not able to see any as what I believe I do and follow. I have to think on this.

Answer in less than 50 words

• One tip to success:

The reason why great people are few and far in-between is because most people don’t even know what their passion is. This is one of the main reasons why people don’t reach their goals. So figure out your passion, follow it consistently.

• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:

Not to believe on his/her own idea

• One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:

More than the idea, execution of the idea is the turning point.

What are your plans for next 3 years?

We are projecting 3, 00,000 visits per month in FY 2016-2017. Based on average sales we are projecting sales of INR 16,000,000 per month. We are actively looking for funding; however we have plans in place to operate smoothly if funding is delayed. Other plans are

• Our aim is a single app that will allow them to check prices across stores. We will be launching our Mobile App by Feb 2016 with exciting offers.

• In the progress of tapping other sources of revenues. We have received positive responses for the same.

• Tie up with online portals directly for vouchers and gift cards. Flipkart vouchers are already integrated and available in our redemption zone. We are in talks with CCD and Airtel.

• Continuously adding more stores and products in our comparison section.

If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?

Better will be if I get a chance to go back to the past then I would have launched this idea a long back and till now have captured more than 40% of the market

What are your top three getaway destinations?

Goa, London, America

Share a quote that inspires you the most.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life–think of it, the dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. (Swami Vivekananda)

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