Abhishek Agrawal and Rakesh Jain did their Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) from S.P College. With both being entrepreneurs from the beginning, Abhishek founded Rightway Solutions, which Rakesh soon joined as a director to oversee project execution. Their entrepreneurial journey continued as they co-founded several startups, including Mobi-Commerce, Design’N’Buy LLC, with most recent being OhoShop, which is set to open a new era of growth in Indian retail industry.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
There are 9 app building platform for various categories such as for grocery, vegetable and fruit, restaurant, fashion, optical, furniture & home decor, Bakery & Confectionery, flower shop and gifts. Our all products provide mobile app solution to local retailers who want to take their business mobile. With our apps, retailers can start selling their products through mobile in just 24 hours.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
The Ohoshop idea came up when we, me & Rakesh (CEOs & Founders) visited Bengaluru to attend an eCommerce expo. We found with the advancement of technology, now people can book taxi, order food and buy their day to day stuff through mobile apps then why not local retailers can take benefit of it.
So, this is the reason Ohoshop came in to exist. Ohoshop is exclusively for Indian local retailers who want to expand their business by going mobile. They can take orders of their customers from anywhere and at anytime and give their products delivery at customers’ door-step at their preferred time.
Stores for kiranas, sabjiwallahs, stationery, cake & chocolates, farsans& spices, fashion and cosmetics are still doing their business traditional ways so we want to give awareness about mobile apps to those retailers and want to educate them about how to build brand online through mobile. And to develop mobile app for retailers becomes easy when they are with Ohoshop. No coding skills required and can easily go mobile within 24 hours.
What is your life mantra?
Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
To provide retail apps in India is totally new concept so we are generating demand for it. This year, we are giving awareness about mobile apps to retailers and educating them about how to build brand online through mobile. This is time consuming but it’s must for our business before they use our platform for app building.
How did you overcome those challenges?
We knew that it’s a new concept so we came up with 14 days free trial to give awareness about the mobile apps and how retailers can improve their sales through mobile. Moreover, we have provided free demo of the product so users can get idea about how their future app would be.
So, we are confident that Oho will open a new era of growth in Indian retail industry and this confidence is backed by our years of experience in IT industry coupled with proven track record on offering world-class software products.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
Ohoshop is solely a self-funded and we are getting good response from the market so I can say it’s a profitable firm.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
The numbers help us in this. Let me tell you how, According to a growth report compiled by Forrester Consulting and Google search trends India will have 100 million online shoppers and the country’s e-tailing sector will become a $15 billion market by 2016. This statistics show that India will be the next digital destination and being a part of that we are doing something in right direction. Such statistics, data and response for our new venture help us in keeping ourselves away from problem of Brain drain.
We try to maintain complete transparency practices in organization; everyone is free to share their ideas and suggestions even to top management. This gives people sense of ownership and they work more freely, this helps us to retain, nurture and groom them for future responsibilities.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
There’s no one formula for success and one needs to understand that. Continuous self motivation with willingness to fail and learn again, try new things is one need everyone need to have if they want be successful in life. Make a clear vision or focus in life and work towards it with consistency can take us closer to our goals in life. With all these things in place, always have space for friends and family, they are ones to give you support in tough times and thus they deserve to be special.
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
We have tried hands on lot many tools and apps till now. We would like to recommend tools like Campaign Monitor, YMLP for email marketing. Facebook Ads are also good way to do online promotion.
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
Time management is one thing which is very crucial in any way for any individual. We need to balance life for personal as well as professional fronts.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
I want to start waking up at 5 A.M.
Answer in less than 50 words
You need to do things unless they are not done keeping faith in yourself and without giving up, so i believe perseverance and trusting yourself makes you achieve whatever you want. There’s one more thing which is challenge yourself to be better under deadlines.
- One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Avoiding stepping out of your comfort zone, one needs to look at things apart from their comfort zone.
- One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
You need to plan for things – small goals, bigger goals and major goals of life. You need to work every day towards them to achieve them.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
In next 3 years, we want to empower 5,000 retailers with mobile technology by bringing their businesses on mobile and to fulfill we are giving free trial and free demo for our every product.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I would focus on product based business rather than providing services.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
San Francisco, Kerala and Switzerland
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“No one on their deathbed ever regretted the risks they take, but always regret if one didn’t.” – Robin Sharma