Interview with Kumaran Sambantham,Founder DiscountsVu.com
One of my mentors used to say that “if any concept impacts the lifestyle of a certain segment positively, then it will be a successful model”. My ultimate goal is to have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Kumaran Sambantham, DiscountsVu.com
Go confidently in the direction of your dream; nothing can stop you to climb the ladder of success.
Kumaran Sambantham, 29, B.E. and holding an M.B.A degree, founder of www.DiscountsVu.com, which serve as a one-stop portal that helps the consumer to find the best deals available at various stores and helps them make a smart decision by reducing the time spent on deciding where to buy.
Kumaran say “on many occasions, after buying a particular product, I have realized that there would have been at least one friend of mine who would have bought the same product for a much cheaper price. This made me to think about how to spread the information about various offers and discounts to consumers in a single location. This idea later germinated into an online portal listing all the store and online discounts for products”
In an email interview with webneetech.com, Kumaran explain more about DiscountsVu and his entrepreneurial voyage.
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Founder detail:
Name: Kumaran Sambantham
Age: 29 yrs
Qualification: B.E., M.B.A
Work experience : I have 6 Years of experience working for research and consulting firms in the corporate world.
Strength area: Marketing and Business Planning
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Business Detail:
Website Name: DiscountsVu.com
The tag line or punch line of your site: Compare. Shop. Save.
Website URL: www.DiscountsVu.com
When did you launch your business? April 2008
Short information about your business :
We are an Online Comparison and Shopping Portal where customers can Compare Discounts and Offers for products in and around their city. We get information on Offers and Discounts directly from the Stores and display them on our website empowering customers to shop smartly. We also have tie-up with many retailers to offer exclusive discounts for registered members on our website, which acts as a strong marketing tool for the retailers. We have started our Operations in Chennai and are presently in the phase of expansion as we plan to add many more cities to our list in the next few months. We are also planning to include Online Discounts to make our website a one stop destination for comprehensive information about any Product in India.
Your target audience: Smart Value Shoppers – Value for Money Segment in the top tier Cities who use internet to gather information
Monthly visits on website: Presently 18,000 Page Views per month.
Future/Expansion plans:
We are in the expansion mode and are tying up with like-minded people to expand our operations. We will include Online Deals in addition to Store deals so that the customer can compare all the available Offers for a product.
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Company Detail:
Company’s Name: DiscountsVu
How much did you invest to start this business? The Initial Investment was Rs. 5, 00,000.
What was the source of funding? Self-funded
Company Blog :www Discountsvu.com/Deals
Number of employees: 7 as of now, we will be expanding rapidly in the next few months.
Number of branches: Only in Chennai
Phone: +91-80-4206 2770
Office Address: #63/56 1st main Road Lakshmi Nagar Vinayagapuram Kolathur Chennai -600099
Email ID: info@discountsvu.com
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Interview (Q&A Round):
Q: How did you start your business? What made you to think to enter into a business?
On many occasions, after buying a particular product, I have realized that there would have been at least one friend of mine who would have bought the same product for a much cheaper price. This made me to think about how to spread the information about various offers and discounts to consumers in a single location. This idea later germinated into an online portal listing all the store and online discounts for products.
Q: Tell us in detail about your business, your idea and how it can benefit others?
Quite very often, we may not be aware about the discounts at our neighborhood store or the store which we often visit. Any information we may manage to find may be outdated or invalid. In turn, we end up wasting our time by visiting many stores to make sure if we are making a smart shopping decision. This will cost time, energy and fuel.
Our website www.DiscountsVu.com serves as an one-stop portal that helps the consumer compare offers at various stores and helps them make a smart decision by reducing the time spent on deciding where to buy. Of course, the consumer can also decide to buy directly on our website from the comfort of their home!
Q: What are the important things which differentiate your business from other? What is your USP?
1. We provide latest store Discounts and Offers with complete Store contact details and location.
2. We update our data on a daily basis.
3. We tie up with Retailers to provide Exclusive Offers for customers
4. Customers have options of receiving information about exciting offers via Email or SMS.
Q: What is your revenue or business model?
CPC, Advertising Revenue
Q: In the next 5 year, what are your expansion plans and where do you see your business 5 years down the line?
We hope that every person who uses Internet in India will visit our site before purchasing a product for one of the following reasons,
1. To compare prices across Online and Offline Stores and find the best deals available
2. To buy the product online from a store of their choice
3. To know about the product features
4. To read reviews about various product
5. To know Store Information like Store Contact details, Reviews about the store.
Q: What were the biggest challenge(s) you faced in your journey as entrepreneur till now?
Our biggest challenge was to validate the Business concept and to make sure that people buy this concept. We have done a comprehensive Market Research about the concept from the customer’s and retailer’s perspective. We ensured we had a working protocol (i.e. the originally designed website) before doing the Market Research to understand consumer behavior.
Q: What is the biggest mistake you made as an amateur entrepreneur?
The Initial design and functionality of our website could have been better, as some retailers whom we contacted during Market Research wanted more from us which we were unable to provide with the original infrastructure.
However, as the idea was to start off with a basic website first and test whether the concept had potential before taking the next step, it can also be considered as a success in a way. It showed us that the concept had potential – customers and retailers were not merely interested, they wanted a lot more!!
Q: What you want to say to the new entrepreneurs or the one who wants to start his/her own business?
Have a holistic plan and follow your dreams. Make sure you talk to a Devil’s Advocate before you execute your plan – the Devil’s Advocate can give you more dimensions to think about. Always be open to ideas from others but never over estimate it as you are the sole owner of the concept and no one might know or understand your dreams better than you!
Q: Who is your business idol and why?
The TATAs – Simply because they have more corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). They wanted to grow along with the country. Their effort in building TATA institute of Science, Adopting Jamshedpur, coming up with Tata Nano to empower the lower middle class to drive a car, etc is really impressive and commendable.
Q: What’s your ultimate business and life goal?
One of my mentors Dr. Madhukar used to say that “if any concept impacts the lifestyle of a certain segment positively, then it will be a successful model”. My ultimate goal is to have a positive impact on people’s lives.
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