As part of our endeavour to identify and share some of the unique and compelling stories from the ecosystem, we invited yet another seasoned entrepreneur Naman Sarawagi – Co-Founder at Refrens, for an interview with us to understand more about his exciting entrepreneurial journey so far.
Let’s read more about his interesting journey, way forward and his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs through our exclusive conversation!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Naman:
Talk us through your background and your journey as an entrepreneur, please;
I did my engineering in Computer science way back in 2009. While everyone was Joining the campus offers from service companies in India, I decided to take a different path.
I joined Freecharge (later sold to Snapdeal) as their first Product Manager. At an early age, I lead both Technology and Marketing teams at Freecharge. I worked from scratch to build its first 100k users. Before being sold to Snapdeal, Freecharge also raised money from Sequoia Capital.
Post-Freecharge, I joined ZipDial, again I was the first PM here. We built the product from scratch. This was an idea which I had independently conceptualized at college. I started as a Product Manager at ZipDial moving to Enterprise sales and into Marketing in my final months. Zipdial was acquired by Twitter.
After Zipdial, I ventured into my own and founded FindYogi.com. FindYogi is a price comparison app for Indian eCommerce sites. We focused on consumer electronics and built a profitable business with over 2Mn monthly users. In 2016, FindYogi was acquired by Way2 News – one of the biggest short news apps in India.
After consulting a lot of established startups like DailyNinja, MyGate, Cashfree, Sugoi labs, etc, I started my second and current venture Refrens.com. At Refrens, we are building India’s most powerful platform for finances and growth.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a corporate career?
I had the entrepreneurial quest in me since the beginning. That is one of the main reasons why I did not join a service company right out of college, which most students do. Even though I worked as an employee at Freecharge and Zip Dial, being among the early hires have me the entrepreneurial freedom to build great products.
These experiences were a good learning experience and motivated me to take a plunge into entrepreneurship.
Please share with us some of the challenges you faced in your journey;
The key challenge in any startup is to get the first set of users. We faced this challenge at Refrens also. We entered a crowded market with some of the players being at a very mature stage. Getting the first few users was the key. We personally called a lot of prospects and handheld them to lift their data from their existing platform to Refrens.
What is your Business Mantra: Money or Emotions?
To be honest, my Business Mantra is execution. I believe execution is the Holy Grail and the most underrated part of a business. A lot of companies do better than their counterparts just because they execute well. The second most important thing is understanding your user.
While building a product it is very important to remove our personal bias and focus on what the user wants.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
I guess pressure and stress are a part of your job. I genuinely believe they are essential also to some extent, it helps you to stay on your toes and never get complacent. Dealing with them involves focusing on the job at hand with full commitment.
I firmly believe, if we are working positively with full commitment, results will come in (sooner or later)
What has worked well for you so far?
Even though we entered a crowded market, our Product has been able to make its own place. In terms of technology and design, our Product is better than our competitors. We are adding about 2000 users every week even in these times. This speaks for itself about the Product and design supremacy.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Listening to your user. Being agile to make quick changes. Being consistent in your efforts.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
Pick up a large market that you understand. Solve a problem where you know who the user is. Solve hard problems in the long run. Be kind.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
