About 80% of orders for workspace interiors come from Tier II and III cities, surpassing the number of orders it receives from larger metro cities in the country, as per its founder Tushaar Mittal.
Speaking to YourStory at its flagship event TechSparks 2023 in Delhi, Mittal said he often sees greater cart and order values from cities like Nashik and Aurangabad than Delhi.
Founded in 2021 by Mittal, OfficeBanao aims to solve the inefficiencies in office interior spaces through an Uber-like model. It is seen as a one-stop-shop solution for office owners to manage all related activities to creating and managing a workspace.
Office interior market in India
Per Mittal, the office interior space in the country can be neatly categorised into two types—enterprise businesses and fragmented startups. Enterprise businesses account for about 30% of this market while startups make up the other 70%.
“No big brands were working for these startups and creating customer value. Which is why [when we started OfficeBanao] we decided to focus on this 70% first and then look to cater to enterprise businesses,” Mittal said.
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Keeping the customer at the centre
To Mittal, the key is to ensure the customer is at the centre of your business. He recalled watching his father handle their family kirana store business as he put customers front and centre.
“He used to say that if any adult walks through the store the next day his kid will walk through to buy something from you…so the rate, the quality of service, and the product should be same for both of them… that is credibility.”
Mittal also touched upon the necessity of funding for startups. “Funding is not the only key criteria for businesses. At the same time, do not oversell something that you do, try to build a business model that has a lot of potential. Because in the long run even if you don’t promote yourself, the VCs will find you no matter where you are if you have a business model that works,” he said.
In April this year, the workplace interior startup raised $6 million in seed funding from Lightspeed. It currently has a presence in 15 cities in the country and aims to expand operations to the top 25 markets.
Edited by Kanishk Singh
