There seems to be social networks for everything on the web today, but Shopience takes the social media experience to a different level. Simply put, Shopience helps organize shopping needs, deals and personal preference.
Shekhar Yadav from Shopience answered a few questions about himself and the company. Read below to find our more behind the making of this new startup.
Pitch us your service in three sentences or less.
We believe that real shoppers find real deals. Shopience is network of people who love to shop and find bargains. On Shopience you can follow other shoppers just like you, or post deals/products that excite you and others can find/ follow/comment on your finds.
What made you decide to focus your company on that service?
Daily deals sites are becoming boring or monotonous with same/similar deals/offers in mailbox. The shopper is no longer excited about deals or at least most of the times, because most deals are sourced by sales people who are paid commissions. In most likelihood they are not someone who match your shopping taste and may not be excited about shopping as much as you.
So I decided to work on this idea of letting shoppers find and subscribe to deals from each other. I think as social/local is converging – discovering new products real time at great prices from your circles is going to be big.
How big is your team? Can you describe your company’s culture?
Since I am bootstrapping, I am working with a lot of contractors/or-outsourced workers. We are Googley in our way of doing things – do no evil, and have fun. Though it sound cliché, but it really works.
How did your company get its initial funding? Do you have any advice for emerging startups on how to deal with funding?
I am putting in the initial investment.
It is relatively cheap to start company nowadays. So even if you have access to capital do not reach out for it as soon you conceive the idea. My advice to startups is to focus on getting to the first few users, or sales if you are a B2B Company, without using external money. You should raise money only if you want the capital to scale after you have the initial set of customers/users.
Has your company ever had to pivot? If so, what was that like?
No, we have been working on this project only for few months and so far did not have to pivot.
How do you deal with competition? Do you keep tabs on other companies that are doing similar things?
I spend at least 30mins everyday looking at competitor products, any market news, twitter updates from the competition or mentions from followers. It helps me understand not only what the competition is doing, but also where the market is trending.
Tell us a little about your background? What made you want to start your own company?
I am an engineer with MBA from Columbia Business School. I have 15+ years of experience in building innovative products with small teams.
For number of years, I used to work with product Development Company out of India. We worked with entrepreneurs who had seed capital and limited/or no product/engineering resources to launch their products. During that time, I met with a lot of founders, and we launched quite a number of products/companies. Then I moved to US, as the co-founding engineer with StrongMail (Sequoia backed Email Marketing startup). After spending some time at Google, I decided I needed to go back to the startups, but this time as the Founder.
Who are your three most influential entrepreneurs? Why?
Google Founders – mostly because coming from inside Google, and knowing what they have done to keep the entrepreneurial zeal alive in Google is amazing.
Of the people in shopping space, I like Tony Hsieh of zappos. He built really innovative company around selling shoes online.
What’s the hardest/best thing about being an entrepreneur?
Hardest thing as an entrepreneur is patience, you want everything yesterday and it takes time.
Best thing about being entrepreneur is the feeling that your idea is going to change the world, and you are in control of it. No politics, or no corporate will come between your idea and the execution.
What’s one of your most successful decisions? Can you share something that’s worked really well for you that you think other entrepreneurs could learn from?
I did some iPhone apps for first version iPhone out of interest before launch of the Appstore. I decided to launch them sooner then later with all features, and managed to successfully get 9 apps on first day in AppStore (3 of them were in top 100 for first 3 weeks).
Put yourself or your product out sooner than later, and let the users tell you what they want. Do not be worried about critics. The sooner you can get to the users, the better product you will end up building overall.
What are your next goals? (Either for the current venture or for the company as a whole)
2012 is going to be a big year for social commerce, with the newer better networks (4G) and more smartphones usage – realtime sharing is going to skyrocket. After our planned public launch in early Feb, we want to focus on getting users and learning from the feedback to iteratively build the best product to make shopping for deals fun.
Be sure to follow this company on Twitter for more updates @shopience
