Meet Mithil Ajmera & His Venture BetterGhar.com! Making Home Renovation A Playful Experience

For most people, their home is the biggest financial and emotional investment they make. Through a variety of innovative merchandise and services, Betterghar.com’s goal is to help consumers create the home of their dreams whether they want to do it themselves or have it done by us within 4-6 weeks, that’s right, within 4-6 weeks!
At BetterGhar.com, home renovating is a simple three step procedure:
1) Schedule an inspection
2) Buy products on marketplace of BetterGhar.com
3) Schedule installation on a suitable time
Betterghar.com is an e-commerce portal which attempts to make home interior products’ procurement easier across India. A website which helps you right from the first step of planning refurbishment to the last step of installation. Betterghar.com is that bridge or better call it your personal hoe guide. BetterGhar has liberated you of doing a multitude of tedious tasks to improve your home by providing services like Design Consultation, Product Customizations & Installation at your doorstep. What more can you ask for? Your dream home, designed for you, with your unmitigated contribution & almost negligible hassle, keeping your ideas & personalities in mind!
Betterghar seems to be very promising with their growth rate and dedication towards their customers. Like all great startups, survival was indeed a challenge for BetterGhar in the preliminary days of business. However, they seem to have transitioned seamlessly from Survival to Stability. So, if you are thinking of renovating your house, Betterghar.com is your one stop solution. Let us now move onto the interview below to find out the true essence of Betterghar.com.
1. What is the Name of Your Venture? Any specific reason for this name?
Betterghar.com. The name is self-explanatory & highlights our focus on simplifying the process of home improvement and our endeavor of making a home, a favorite destination.
2. Who is your target Audience/clients?
At BetterGhar, we provide both, products as well as services. So our customer is anyone who is looking to renovate, refurbish or restructure their home. One can also select individual products a collection of over 500 exclusive products for their home. We are currently present across 9-10 categories, which include Furniture, Lights, Wall Decor, Bath Fittings, Sanitaryware, Paints, Plywood, Carpets and Rugs, Security Systems. We are expanding our reach by the day and plan to launch many more categories soon.
3. Where your venture is based (city, state, country) & what are your geographical target areas?
Our head office is located in Malad, Mumbai. We deliver products across India to almost 85% pin codes. We are also servicing clients in Sweden, Dubai, Nepal, Kenya, Bangladesh, and U.K.
4. What problems does your venture resolve? What are your products or services?
A lot of people do not know how to start their home improvement and what will suit their home best. Standard home improvement process goes through the following steps:
1) Months of planning
2) Arranging finances
3) Finalizing a trustworthy contractor
4) Looking for the right vendors
5) Resolving petty issues with the contractor & labor while still being unsure of the outcome.
BetterGhar, on the other hand, takes care of all such issues and provides a holistic 360-degree experience. So, basically, we help our customers by eliminating these lengthy procedures by acting as a bridge.
5. Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to an existence? What motivated you to start your own venture?
Well, I am an MBA post-graduate in Marketing and had a job offer before I began BetterGhar. But having grown up in a business-oriented family, I wanted to start a business of my own. After spending a few months in figuring out what should I do, I started my business with Wallpapers. During our journey, we met with a host of interior designers and end consumers. On digging deeper, we realized that we can contribute in many more ways, eventually becoming contractors for interior designers and product suppliers for.
6. Who are your biggest competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them?
There are many companies who have ventured into this industry recently. However, none of them, yet, provide an end-to-end solution like we do.
7. How did you identify your co-founder? Tell us something about your co-founder/s?
We do not have a co-founder yet. I am looking for someone who shares the same passion as I do to bring a revolution in the industry.
8. How did you hire your first team members? What skills do you want in your employees/team?
This is a technology oriented work so we need someone of that bent of mind. We were looking forward to hiring freelancers because they are very creative when it comes to problem-solving. On that basis, we hired a technical head. My employees are smarter than me and have more experience than me. They are very passionate about whatever they are doing. Apart from that, they understand the customers very well.
9. What expansion plans are you looking for the next 2 years, next 5 years?
We are currently focused on improving our core strength and building a strong team. Over the next 2 years, we are planning to set up about 10 offline stores in tier 1 and tier 2 cities. Over the next 5 years, we will be looking to establish a formidable presence across India.
10. Where do you want to see yourself in next 10 years?
Having worked with customers from across the world, I will not shy away from thinking that we could have a well-established global presence in the next 10 years.
11. What are your goals over the next 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
As mentioned before, we are trying to strengthen our roots at this stage. We are also looking to complete about 20 projects in the next 6 months and increase our team strength to over a hundred people.
12. Have you risen any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
No, but we are planning to raise it by the end of November.
13. What were the problems you faced during the starting days and how did you resolve them?
The major problem was funding. The second big problem was lack of expert knowledge as I am an outsider to this industry. But I guess like in all industries, the business itself teaches business.
14. What was the most challenging part of your journey till now? How did you overcome those challenges?
We had a huge setback when a fire had broken out in one of our manufacturing units. Everything had turned into ashes. But I am glad we fought hard to get back on our feet and are still fighting our way up.
15. Are you married, single or in a relationship?
Single.
16. What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
I love reading, learning new languages & I also enjoy music. I recently completed beginner’s Chinese course from Peking University. I am also not that bad in Spanish. Apart from that I play guitar and am also working on a fiction novel. Only time will tell as to when I will be able to complete it.
17. What’s your favorite food & holiday destination?
I take a strictly Jain diet, so anything Jain is appreciated. I would love to travel to Alaska in Summer.
18. Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
It has to be my father. He himself had gone through some really difficult times in life & has taught me never to give up. He has always supported me in all my endeavors and is my strength.
19. What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
I think Entrepreneurs have an inherent risk taking ability. They are also focused on solving a particular problem and making life easier for people. There are a lot of startups coming up in India & it is a great time to be an entrepreneur.
20. If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
I would have loved to have more knowledge in the field of Interior Designing and project management when I started off. Also, better networking skills may have helped.
21. How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
Being an entrepreneur is very tough, I barely had any social life. Whenever I get any time I like to spend it with my family. As an entrepreneur, you work non-stop irrespective of the weekends and holiday. I believe that in any start-up there are basically three phases, survival, stability & significance. So, when you are transitioning from survival to stability it’s very tough. Most of the start-ups shut due because they couldn’t go past this phase. So in order to reach stability you have to work day and night and in that process, your personal life is affected, but all great entrepreneurs get through this phase.
22. Anything, you would like to say to our readers or upcoming entrepreneurs?
There are a lot of people who wait for a long time for the right opportunity but I think there is nothing like a rightful opportunity. Once you think you can do something that according to you might be fruitful in the long run, start right away. So, if you have a good idea, don’t wait but start working on it. You never know what life has in store for you.
23. Tell us something about your education & family background
I am an IT Engineer from K J Somiya Institute of Engineering & IT and I have done my MBA in marketing from Symbiosis Centre for Management & HRD. My father has a real estate business, my mother is a homemaker & my sister is a Dr.
24. What is your USP which makes it unique & different from other startups in similar domains?
All the products that we are offering on our website are a premium when it comes to designing. We also supply complete home interior solutions. We also help our customers’ source products that are currently not on our website like hardware products. We know that Service is key to a great company & we are committed to offering a great experience.
25. What do you think is the biggest threat to the success of small businesses & Start-ups today?
Apart from funding, I think trying to do too much too soon leads to the downfall of start-ups. I personally feel that one has to think big but start small.
26. Do you consider yourself successful and by what means do you measure success?
For me, success is satisfaction. We still have to go a long way.
27. Please share complete name, address, phone number, email id & website of Your Business & Contact Person