Ruchika worked for more than 5 years to fulfill someone else's dream and did it with all sincerity, hard work and enthusiasm, until she realized she too should (rather could) do it. She dared to leave the luxury in life to follow her inherent passion of becoming a business women. That is how GroupShoppy.com became her baby.
She has nominated GroupShoppy.com for Women Take Charge - Business Plan For Women. More about her -
Tell us more about yourself.
I was born and raised in Cuttack. My parents were very open minded and never curbed our dreams even if it were not "the typical lady like" act as expected in a small town. I guess that's what reflects in my deeds and decision for a startup inspite all odds. I headed to Bangalore soon after my Masters. Present status is I have two babies - one real and one virtually real (my startup which needs equal attention).
What is the story behind GroupShoppy.com?
My Co-Founder was working on a game platform and was planning to have an ecosystem where everybody could contribute to each other. This idea of a marketplace in a game was an innovation way back in 2011. This led me to think that it could be a great business if we had a marketplace for shopping in India. GroupShoppy.com ideated with this concept for the first time in India 2011. Our target audience were Indians so we had to keep them interested with innovative features to have a better hold in the industry when other players come in. We strongly felt that online shopping was boring and monotonous. Why not get the traditional way of shopping with friends and bargaining on to the web? Now that we conceptualised, we outsourced the product development. After repetitive guidance and half a year we did not see the product we visualized. We stopped the partnership immediately and took over the complete development. My Cofounder was employed hence worked on the product development after office hours. When our product was almost ready we had other hurdles like payment gateway approval which caused delay. Tackling all the hurdles we successfully launched our version 1 GroupShoppy.com with a tag line - Why shop alone.
Where do you see it in 3 years from now?
GroupShoppy would be within first 50 websites in India. Catering to at least 5 international market. Single stop for Personalized Social shopping.
What is work life balance for you?
Balance is extremely important specially if you are a mother. I work from home so that I don't waste time travelling and can keep an eye on my baby. We follow a time table even though we are at home so that I can plan and prioritize my day before hand. I can work all night if needed to compensate any work time lost during the day.
A message to all SHEROES out there.
Startups are difficult, even more difficult than we imagine. If you are a mother to a baby or toddler you might just think it is impossible. But is this not what we are looking for? - A tough new challenge everyday to break the dull, boring monotonous work life. Imagine the fight that you would be putting to the challenges every day. You might not win every day but you are definitely in the making of a tough hardcore business women with an identity the world will know soon.