Info.: He's CEO & Co founder of Homfie.com. Computer Engineer from Pune University.
Q1. What is HomFie ?
Pune based Start-up Homfie.com is a complete home solutions package. Founded in Dec 2015, It is the brain child of six final year engineering students. It deals with variety of housing services including Buy/Sell/Rent home, Movers, Renting Furniture/Appliance, Appliance repair, Plumber, Electrician, Cleaning & Pest Control.
Q2. How you got the idea ?
It all started when my sister who is working in a leading bank got transferred to Agra. She faced lot of problems finding an appropriate accommodation and other house related services. I suggested her to download different applications for related services but then again there was storage problem in her phone to download so many different applications. This situation forced me to think of such a platform where everything from finding an accommodation to fixing the tap will be taken care of by just a click in a single application.
Q3. How it all started ? Who all helped you out ? What is the story from ground level ?
In the evening while sipping tea, I casually told my Dad that there should be some website or application for people like my sister who have transferable job, which can take care of everything related to housing. He replied with a question ‘ Why don’t you do something for them ?’. That one question changed everything for me. I started my research through internet & different books. Also I discussed the idea with my few close friends, They all liked it and together we decided to form HomFie.com.
Q4. Why one should use HomFie ? How it's bridging the gap ? How you gonna expand ?
In today’s cut throat competitive world people shift to different cities for better career prospects. And first challenge they face is of finding an appropriate accommodation. We are soon going to launch “ Friend Zone, Best house & CrackDeal ” . These are 3 different modules to provide brokerage free accommodation to the customers at the locality of their choice.
a) Friend Zone: It helps the customer to find the flat at a place where most of his/her friends or colleagues live.
b) Best House: It helps customer to choose the best house out of the shortlisted houses based on customers preference.
c) Crack Deal: It will help the customers who want to buy the property to directly connect with the seller of the property.
We will provide all the home appliances ( Like TV, Fridge, Washing Machine etc) and Furniture ( Like Bed, Sofa, Table etc) on Rent for those who cant afford to rent a fully furnished house.
Last but not the least we provide all the housing services like Movers, Appliance repair, Plumber, Electrician, Cleaning & Pest Control within Guaranteed 1 hour time without any extra cost.
Hence we provide complete end to end housing solution to all the newcomers in the city. Now they don’t have to run places for different services hence saving both time and money.
Currently we have registerd around 50 vendors for our different services. We are planning to cover entire Pune by Dec 2016.
Q5. What makes you different then Commonfloor , Doormint , Zimmber , Flatchat ?
We provide all the housing services on a single platform unlike other websites which deal with only one segment of housing. Our Smart House finding module & providing services in guaranteed 1 hour without any extra cost is our USP.
Q6. What was the hardest thing for you till now ?
Managing marketing work with empty pocket is one of the hardest thing for us. But these little hardships teach us valuable lessons like how to manage resources efficiently and effectively.
Q7. What is the major roadblock in this kind of startup ? What are your plans , How you gonna tackle it ?
The major roadblock in this kind of startup is Data Gathering and trust of Vendors, as most of the vendors had bad experience with already existing partners. Some are not even ready to listen to us as they paid hefty sum to the already existing players in the market & are not getting enough orders. So we offer free service order to every registered vendor and let them experience our service and company culture. Once they are satisfied, they can continue working with us by paying some charges. Also we allocate just 2 vendors for the similar service in a particular area. In this way we can provide maximum orders to our vendors & thus keeping them happy and satisfied.
Q8. Tell us some of your college learnings that you applied in Homfie?
Besides technical knowledge, ”Dont Quit” Attitude is what I learned in Engineering. This is something all the engineering students from Pune University gain by writing regular exams along with back paper, sometimes in critical. So working under pressure and never say never attitude of our team is helping us a lot in managing HomFie.
Q9. What mistakes you think you've already made and don't want others to repeat ?
We have made lot of mistakes & learned from them. Our mistakes provided a new dimension to the way we see start-up world now. Some common mistakes we made were making plans to execute data gathering & marketing strategies without sufficient research. Well according to me one should invest enough time in making proper plan and don’t go with others perspective. Trust yourself and start planning for everything however trivial it may seem..
Q10. In entire startup journey, what you think helps most ?
The Rock Solid support of our family and friends is what keeps us going, in spite of many challenges. Also the invaluable tips and guidance we get from our mentor Mr. Santosh Tyagi, CEO Local Ramu is helping us a lot in our journey.
