Info.: He's Pursuing B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from SRM University Chennai (Class of 2017).
he's Former Co-founder and CEO of Appolysus and developer at Maptags Inc and Voyageur Magazine.
Q1. What is Yibeal ? Why did you choose the name Yibeal ?
Yibeal is a O2O mobile classifieds play. The top three things Yibeal does differently are:
#1. letting sellers and buyers leverage an online discovery platform (for broader connect) while transacting offline at local Yibeal centers (ensuring safe transactions and certified phones)
#2. providing first-of-its-kind warranty and insurance coverage for Preowned phones
#3. Branding existing mobile retailers' space (and their service engineers) to create a retrofit franchisee ecosystem for Yibeal's offline ops - facilitating faster growth on variable cost mode
We believe our ability to monetize preowned mobile phone sales, and the aligned warranty/insurance businesses gives us a significant edge over the traditional, and largely commoditized, online classified platforms that focus on that space. And given India is poised to become the fastest growing smartphone market in the world, we think our timing could not be better.
Yibeal is the acronym for 'Yes it's a big deal'.
Q2. What inspired you to setup Yibeal ? How is it different from other used product sellers offline & online?
During the early days at college I chose to stay in a PG, I had selected a room through an agent who took the cash and ran away I was left without shelter for a couple of nights in need of urgent cash I sold my laptop to an unknown person who negotiated heavily making an uncomfortable situation speaking in his mother tongue which I could never make out; at an unfamiliar place transacting in cash. I ended up selling a laptop which was bought a year ago for INR 67,000 at INR 5,000 after quoting INR 35,000 over a classified site.
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. I knew that things need to be changed in this market which addresses billions of people every year but still looses out on product valuation, product trust and security of transaction.
While building the Beta version we tested with a couple of beta users. One user called us up from Bangalore who had left his hometown Calcutta for his job about 8 months ago. On his mom's birthday he thought about gifting her an affordable smartphone and choose Yibeal. He booked an appointment with the seller and informed his mom all she has to do is go down the street next afternoon in the Yibeal Kiosk. The kiosk engineer was notified, she not only received a surprise gift packed in a birthday box but also the kiosk engineer connected her over Skype. She was in tears. Today she texts her a 100 times over watsapp which was just a call a week before.
His grandmother came to know about it from his mom and wanted a Yibeal phone to connect with his daughters who are married and are staying abroad. That was the most inspirational feedback on the product till date.
Q4. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?
I have been fortunate enough to have built a dream team of people I admired and I have known for a long time closely. Led by Dipanjan Purkayastha, Global Technology professional with over 21 years’ experience across US, Canada and India in Strategy, M&A, Startups and Business Development is heading the team as the CEO, Former regional manager of Blackberry India Ambarish Sengupta joined in to head operations. My Co-Founder Asish Chakraborty, the present technical head of Yibeal and over six years of experience working in top MNCs across India. The team consists of Abhijeet Deb taking on the online marketing, Soumodeep Roy Muhurthy and Samarjeet Mukheerjee in operations, Dwijo Das in the finance, Arko Chatterjee in the legal, while Kiran Kumar is in the tech support and Anuradha C taking on as the PR officer. And David Wang, Esteemed US entrepreneur and investor joins as the adviser. That is the immense power we feel every moment of this journey when we as seem that we're a team like tea and milk, or cake and custard, or pork and apple of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.
Q5. Could you give a step-wise process of how a device will be traded from the buyers & sellers point of view ?
After Signing in your profile the app let's you can select your present GPS location or you may select a different location where you are looking forward to buy or sell a mobile phone. The stack data of users that is the number of transactions done and comments from the people who have transacted with creates a feeling of trust towards the other. The seller can automate Yibeal MSP calculator within his/ her phone to check the valuation of the phone as well as receives notification of Yibeal refurbishment option on the flaws and what value it will add up to. The buyer can search and select an appointment with a seller in his/her nearest kiosk (Yibeal service centers) where the kiosk engineer checks and certifies the phone and provides insurance and warranty. The buyer can pay through online/ cards/ cash or cheque. We are coming with a premium service for pickup, certification and delivery at door step. The buyer receives an agreement over which he/ she has been notified as the owner of the phone. Both buyer and seller receives virtual coins which can be used as discounts and Cash-backs.
With a new mobile phone being launched every 3 months on an average in India by the mobile manufacturers they find it difficult to retain customers as the customer already has a mobile phone in hand with he is unable to sell at a proper valuation hence rejects to buy the new mobile phone set that has just been launched.
At Yibeal when these mobile phone owners are able to sell their pre-owned product at ease with proper valuation the mobile manufacturers are able to retain customers.
Apple trying to push it's preowned market in India but not getting permission is looking for Indian Startups like Yibeal who are able to bring a constructive solution for this unstructured and unvalued billion dollar pre owned market.
Q7. What are the major roadblocks in this kind of startup ? How you tackled them ?
It was so risky and so scary to drive a dream to change one of the most unstructured market with vast challenges of gaining trust and overcoming peer obstacles, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder -if not impossible- to lose.
Q9. What are Yibeal's plans for next 3 years? What locations would you be expanding your services to?
With India trying to bring the next 500 million to 1 billion first time users over the Internet through its ‘Internet Sathi Initiative’ Yibeal will play a significant role in bringing smart-phone devices to these villagers affordably allowing the farmer to get a knowledge about the weather conditions hence know which crops will flourish, serving basic knowledge and health information source and finally for entertainment purpose. Providing the most convenient way for a better pre-owned transacting platform, Yibeal plans to extend its service options both vertically in products and set its foot in the US market in 6 months’ time with David Wang, adviser at Yibeal and esteemed US entrepreneur. Thus quoting themselves as 'Yes it's a big deal' which they acronym 'Yibeal', defining to be the next unicorn in the start-up world.
Q10. Considering there are some big players from the market seated in Yibeal, how democratic is the decision making? Is everything decided by the top members or do others also have a say in it? How is your experience working with everyone?
At Yibeal we have a strong cultural ethics where we stress:
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren't any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn't be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life's challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person. Because we do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.
The team always asks a new Yibealer while joining, 'Do you dare to disturb the universe?'
Yibeal stresses on growth of individualism for the growth of the dream of the Yibeal family.
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