Entrepreneur Stories
Urban Ladder And How It Became A Success Today
The last ten years in the startup world have been exciting. The field completely changed from what it was earlier. One of the new startups to emerge during this period was Urban Ladder, a startup which redefined the way people bought furniture online. Here’s taking a look at the journey of Urban Ladder to become a success!
The Beginning
For any startup, surviving during the first year is the hardest thing. When Urban Ladder was founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in the year 2012, there was no clear platform for people who wanted to shop online for furniture. When the two were renting flats next to one another in Bengaluru is when they realised the pain of buying furniture online. After sleeping on the floor for almost 15 months, Goel and Srivatsa realised what the internet lacked was the ability to buy furniture online.
With an initial investment of $ 1 million from Kalaari Capital in May 2012, Urban Ladder was launched. While the primary need was for aesthetically appealing furniture, the secondary need was for affordable furniture. Realising this gap, the two founders used the first round of investment to strengthen their team, build their customer service and increase the kind of products available on their website.
The Road To Success
In the initial days of Urban Ladder, the team used a wall at their office to write down their strategies and to keep a track of all their deliverables. From making lasting connections with vendors, to recruiting people with the same vision and to taking strong calls about just about everything, the first few years of Urban Ladder were filled with struggles. In fact, things got so intense at one point, the two founders wanted to limit the presence of Urban Ladder to only 35 products and three cities in India!
Despite the lack of competition, one of the major reasons Urban Ladder wasn’t doing well in the beginning was because people didn’t trust them as a company. It was by providing only the best to their audience did Urban Ladder grow to have 100,000 followers in the span of a year! By using social media to their advantage, Urban Ladder grew to having not only a strong online presence but also an offline presence.
Marketing on Facebook was Urban Ladder’s ticket to success and through this, the startup, in 2013, garnered a whopping investment of $ 5 million from investors like SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital. This gave the founders more than enough money to not just hire new people, but to double the number of products available as well! By March 2015, Urban Ladder had a strong presence in over 30 cities across India!
With other people in the industry realising Urban Ladder wasn’t going to disappear any time soon, the time had come for a territory war. Picking the right time, UrbanLadder decided to diversify their presence by launching an app called Urban Storage, which let people order furniture through their phones as well! Growing exponentially since 2012, Urban Ladder is one of the most successful startups in this field, making furniture buying a fun task!
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