Bootstrap Garage Ft. Sumit Maniyar, CEO & Co- Founder, Rupeek

Like Samar calls it, a “Soon-e-Corn” in the startup circuit, Rupeek’s CO-Founder & CEO, Mr Sumit Maniyar is all things passionate when it comes to his work. But he started on a rather off-beat note. But once this IITian was bitten by the Entrepreneurial bug, there’s been no going back. 

While the corporate world was welcoming Sumit with open arms with the likes of JP Morgan & Religare, he decided to give in to his curiosity & aim to set up his firm which led to the present day, Rupeek. 

Starting from a portfolio management desk idea, which went downhill pretty quickly because apparently ”you need grey hair & a whole lot of experience to be a part of the Finance grind.” 

The last idea’s unsuccessful fate led him to join his family business for a while, Maniyar Seeds Pvt. Ltd. to keep the momentum going. After successfully integrating the firm by adding production, processing and distribution business verticals and collaborating with leading providers of hybrid seed technology for pulses, oilseeds, and vegetable seeds for exclusive production & distribution he had a bit of free time at hand. The anxiety of slowing down and the thirst to learn more drove him to FunctionSpace, an ed-tech startup that Sumit became a part of as a Co-Founder.

LEARNINGS!

All the experience led him to understand a couple of things as an entrepreneur. 

– Before starting a business understand customer insights, what problem statement are you solving? 

– Get a detailed ground zero hypothesis. 

– How’s the demand & supply shaping 

– What’s the P&L Design 

He further elaborates on his regret to not be able to see ahead of the curve, all the above-mentioned things were missing in his previous startup. 

The Turning Point: Rupeek 

A few personal experiences led him to understand that credit was a privilege only a few had and not a utility as it should be. That’s the problem statement he set out to solve. 

The “Aha” Moment!

After a few customer interviews, the competitors were charging very high amounts to customers as IRR. the reason being a huge chunk of money was going to OPEX cost, if you cut the OPEX cost you can make the loan cheap, that’s the problem they ended up solving for their users.

Major Takeaway  

Failure is as critical as success, gives time to introspect.   

Tune in to know his plans with Rupeek!