Published On: May 29th, 2020
HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE NAME, URBAN COMPANY OR PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS URBAN CLAP?
Come On, You Must Have At Least-Watched Ayushmann Khurrana’s Ad Of Urban Company.
Well, Have You Ever Wondered How Urban Company Came To Be As It Is Now? What forced them to make a change from clap to company?
The situation was not always like this for the three co-founders of the company (Varun Khaitan, Abhiraj Bhal, and Raghav Chandra). Let’s turn back the clock to witness their journey in building a company from scratch.
EARLY LIFE OF VARUN KHAITAN
Varun Khaitan, A B.tech In Electrical Engineering From IIT Kanpur Worked As An Associate And A Consultant At The Boston Consulting Along With Abhiraj Bhal, Who Was His Iitk Batch Mate And Also A Consultant With The Boston Consulting Group.
These two engineers were working in the US, living the dream life of most people. But they still thought their potential was not being utilised to the fullest. Though they did not have any innovative ideas at first, they had some prenotions.
WAS IT WORTH IT? WILL IT WORK? WHAT WILL BE THE BUSINESS? HOW?
So many doubts, but they were sure of one thing: they were going to build their start-up. There were a lot of risks and the possibility of failure but among the various sounds of uncertainty, the loudest was their will to expand their potential.
Going with the flow is easy, everyone is doing it but wishing to sail across the ocean, that takes real courage. Taking action on that desire is even more difficult.
With the pulsating desire within, they came to India in November 2013 and launched their first-ever start-up. The duo planned to launch their first-ever start-up, after months of hard work, savings, and immense efforts. They finally launched “Cinemabox”, an on-demand movie streaming solution for long haul travel in buses, trains, and planes. At the time, the idea seemed promising.
They invested a good amount of 10-12 lakh of rupees in the start-up. But as time passed, the promises of a successful company seemed to be shattering. The duo soon realised that the company would not grow and they won’t be able to utilize their potentials to the fullest. The market place was too small and the potential of “Cinemabox” in the industry, very thin.
As reality hit them, they realised the idea was also not innovative or revolutionary. They knew they could do better, but they had spent so much on this already.
WHAT IS STOPPING YOU?
Imagine investing several months’ worth of effort and money to build something only to realise it won’t work the way you wanted it to. It was difficult to give up on something you worked so hard on, and the duo was in the same position, but they knew to grow they had to move on. So within the first six months of launching, Cinemabox, unfortunately, shut down.
Sometimes, our fears and anxiety of failure stops us on our track and makes us re-think everything. Often, the fear of failure just makes us not do anything at all. But we have to break free from that fear, we have to realize that failure is not our enemy, it is our friend. Just like how Abhiraj and Varun had to shut down their first business after so much hard work.
But they knew if they wanted to build a strong company, it was the right thing to do. Perseverance is our ultimate helpline without it, we can never grow.
THE ROUGH PHASE
Their failure did not faze their determination of having their own successful business. They took this failure as a lesson and worked on their skills and their mistakes. Around this time, the duo met Raghav Chandra, a software engineer who had worked at Raomware, Infosys, and Yelp. He was running an auto ride-sharing app called Buggy, focussed on the carpooling and ride-sharing space for a year in Noida.
But he also wanted to build a more growing business. The trio had the same vision, the same determination to start an endearing business. They knew that to build a bigger, long-lasting, and ever-growing company they needed to find something new, they had to find an innovative idea that would help millions.
WHEREAS THE FIRST START-UP WAS THEORETICAL, THEIR SECOND START-UP WAS THE SOLUTION TO A SIMILAR PROBLEM EXPERIENCED BY ALL.
ALSO READ:- Chaayos – A Million Dollar Brew
WHAT DID THEY BEGIN THEIR NEW JOURNEY WITH? HOW DID THEY COME SO FAR? LET’S DIG A LITTLE DEEPER.
The trio brainstormed ideas and decided to build a solution to the problem of inefficient home services, an issue faced by all of them. They decided to expand their vision of organizing the facilities of home services into reality. They proposed their idea to the senior people in the industry.
To their surprise, everyone rejected the idea. At first, that’s how it usually is. Every time you bring something different or innovative to the table, everyone criticizes it and rejects it. It’s a battle that most entrepreneurs face every day. So they didn’t listen to other’s opinions.
The trio wanted to enrich and mend the broken relationship of the customers and service professionals. With their own experiences and the vision of building an at-home service business, they launched Urban Clap (now named Urban Company). Making of the company Urban Clap was not easy but the founders had a clear vision to start their own business and a strong desire to build something incredible.
Their legs did not shake and they kept on moving forward. They had their struggles, they had their ups and downs. They weren’t born with it, but they built it. And so can you! If you also have a strong vision inside of you, don’t wait for the opportunity to come across the surface, dive deep inside the ocean and snatch it.
Raghav, Varun, and Abhiraj did not let criticism of others intervene with their ideas and plans, and continued to work on their dream. They knew what they wanted . Both of them listed services and professionals required and connected them to customers who needed them. They connected users to the professionals – be it a teacher, an electrician, a yoga instructor, a plumber, etc. The company focussed on quality service. That was their mantra.
Click here If you want to Read More Inspirational Start-up Stories
EXPANSION
Within six months of launch, they were able to attract investors and various funds. By 2015, the Urban Company had earned $1 million. But it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Stepping into home service brought its competition, they had to compete with fast-growing companies like HouseJoy, Zimmer, UrbanPro, Helpr, SBricks, etc.
They worked hard every day, they kept learning and improving. Even today, they work hard to keep their services better and expanding their services to more cities and countries.
ALSO READ:- Perpule Launches Storese – An Online Grocery Delivery Startup
Today, Urban Company (earlier Urban Clap) is currently India’s no.1 company in terms of home services. They provide quality services in about 22 cities worldwide: 18 Indian cities, 4 international cities. They are immensely growing in India and the UAE and expanding their business in Australia and Singapore.
They have 25,000+ professional trainers and 5 million + happy customers. Even after gaining such success, they are still connected to their roots. Urban company is constantly looking for a platform to grow and learn, they are improving themselves. Providing high-quality home services to its customers has remained a priority.
URBAN COMPANY IS PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR HOME SERVICE PROFESSIONALS TO BECOME MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS AND DELIVER HIGH-QUALITY SERVICES. URBAN COMPANY IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON EXPANDING ITS PLATFORM AND TAKING IT TO INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, THAT IS WHY THE FORMERLY KNOWN URBAN CLAP OFFICIALLY CHANGED ITS NAME TO THE URBAN COMPANY AS THEY WANTED TO HAVE A COMPANY WHICH WOULD BE GLOBALLY ACCEPTED.
CONCLUSION – urban Company:
There will be millions to tell you that you should just follow the status quo, go with the flow. But if your heart tells you that you have the potential to do something different, then listen to it. You will have ups and downs, your knees will be bruised and legs tired but in the end, when you finally reach your destination, everything will be worth it.
Build a crystal clear vision like Abhiraj, Raghav, and Varun. They knew what they wanted to achieve, no matter how big. They believed in themselves and their idea. We can learn a lot from their story of building Urban from Clap to Company. You might take extra time to complete the marathon, it’s not all about winning, it’s about taking the initiative.
It’s about falling and getting right back up, making mistakes and learning from it, and finally getting there no matter what.
Take risks and change your life, it is too short to spend it doing the ordinary. Who knows you can be the next entrepreneur? Discover your potential and act now.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
