Techstory in interview with Mr. Deepak Kumar Prajapati, Co-Founder, KreateCube.com
1. Tell us about your company. When was the company founded? Who were the founders? Tell us more about their backgrounds.
Before going into details of our business model, I would like to emphasize on the fact that the foundation of the company aims at resolving problems faced by homeowners, businesses, and professionals.
The professionals which we cater to, include architects and interior designers. The market for new residential and commercial construction or renovations in India has been increasing at a great pace. The professionals such as the ones mentioned need to interact freely with the perspective clients, display and showcase their designs, and post their requirements on a constant basis.
KreateCube is an integrated platform that helps achieve all the three targets together. This means that besides being an online platform that helps the homeowners and businesses to design, build, and renovate their areas, kreatecube.com also helps the professionals in growing, finding new clients, and managing the listings. Since the business listing is free, it gives a new horizon and greater market reach to the professionals that further helps them in consistent growth of the portfolio.Â
The company was founded in 2018 and the founders are Deepak Kumar Prajapati, Mohd Tabish, and Mohd Alam.Â
Deepak has a total experience of thirteen years in various areas including marketing, sales, and customer retention. His experience with the administration and managing client relationship is the core competency which every business, new or old, always requires. The academic accolades include an M.Phil. and an MBA along with a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Delhi.
Tabish is an alumnus from the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University and has experience of over five years in different core IT processes such as Development, SEO, ORM, SEM and SMM. Besides being the CEO of the company, Tabish also takes care of different areas of the company such as digital marketing strategies and core operations.Â
Mohammad Alam Khan is also an alumnus from AMU and has a wide range of experience working with international clients during his stint in various KPO’s and BPO’s. Alam has experience of over six years working in close contact with architects, designers, and decorators and hence knows the industry better than most people around.
2. What Inspired you to start your venture in this particular domain? What is unique about your products/services?
We know that there are a number of companies and online platforms that assist the end users (such as the homeowners and office owners) in designing, construction, and renovation of buildings and interiors. However, most of the platforms are primarily focused on the end users and take a large chunk of commission from the professionals. Considering the significant costs paid by the professionals for availing basic services only, we decided to divide the attention equally to the consumers and the professionals.
We wanted to address the issue of high costs and hence free listing for the professionals was introduced. Unlike other platforms, we merely don’t just provide leads to the professionals but assist them in exploring the market and showcasing their works and posting work-related requirements. The objective is to eliminate any kinds of hassles so that the time taken for finding the best architects and designers could be reduced. The platform not only acts as a point of contact between the two parties but also helps in carrying out negotiations between them.
3. Tell us more about the features of the program?
As described before, the platform starts as a point of contact for the two parties (the people having requirements and the professionals). Once the professionals list their firms, it is possible for them to add other details such as adding specifics, designs, and other factors such as jobs and a portfolio. There is also an option of featured listing and banner promotion which could be undertaken by the professionals to ensure that their post stands out from the rest.
The users could simply browse through the listings after inserting the requirements. The users could either choose from various examples and designs provided by the professionals and have the option of adding something extra to improve on the designs.
4. Tell us more about the industry and the competition in this particular segment. It would be great if you can share some market trends in the industry.
Two of the biggest issues in the industry include the lack of cost-effective services and long-term vision which could help in understanding the requirements of both the searchers and the professionals. The other companies in the market simply have the vision of a platform that is very similar to a search engine. However, owing to the rich experience of the founders in the same field, KreateCube understands the importance of finding the right professionals and also providing the correct launchpad to the professionals so that besides listing, they could showcase the works. The listings are not only affordable but are more inclined on ensuring that the objective of building or renovating a house or office is fulfilled.
Hence, this is probably the first time a platform is targeting the issues faced by the professionals and the solutions are not just restricted to providing market access but to work closely with such professionals and provide them with assistance from listing to negotiating with the end users and consumers.
5. What kinds of challenges have you faced in founding your company and in the subsequent time period? How did you overcome these difficulties? Are there any takeaways from them which can help in furthering the growth of your company?
Challenges and running a business go hand in hand. It is difficult to find skilled employees who could design and manage the platform due to budgetary constraints. Arranging the technical and operational works was the biggest challenge of them all. We did not want to take any chances as far as the output quality was concerned and hence finding the suitable candidates within the allocated money was a great issue before the decision-makers.
6. Tell us about your journey so far, your current team, and also its customer base and revenues.
It is so far so good. Even though the industry is highly competitive, the fact that we still exist and thrive in the environment shows that we have done the basics right.
The company is a well-known name within the sector which would not have been possible without the effective team at disposal. This includes all the ten members who work as a group serving over 50,000 customers around the country. The total revenue of the company is close to Rs 5 million.
7. What are the strengths of your company?
Understanding the issues which other platforms did not and coming up with a problem-solving approach for the professionals could be the first strength of the company.
Besides taking a long-term view of the needs of the customers (both professionals and users), the other strength lies in strong digital marketing and sales which ensure that interaction between the parties is facilitated and the success rate of the transactions is quite high.
8. What are the addressable market and underlying opportunities you are going after?
Well, after the lockdown has been lifted, the Indian real estate industry is expected to witness a V-shape recovery. This is why we believe that there shall be tremendous demand in the context of professional services such as designing and architecture.
We look forward to tapping the opportunity by coming up with different added features such as:
∙      Development of 2D and 3D designing software to be used by designers, architects and other construction professionals
∙      Development of financial calculators so that an estimated cost margin based on the samples could be created for the homeowners and professionals
∙      To introduce AI and Augmented Reality for easing the recurring jobs for the professionals
∙      Organizing events for the industry
9. How have you distributed your initial funds so far? Do you have any plan to raise funds in the near future?
The initial funds have been used in the technical department (around 50%), 30% in marketing and the remaining 20% for core operations.Â
Just like any other start-up we require further funding for the expansion of the business and tapping the opportunities. It is already under motion.
