Founder of UrbanClap and IIT & IIM graduate Abhiraj Bhal changed the way people hire professionals for services with his breakthrough app. In an insightful conversation with Mr. Bhal, we took a peep into his mind and found out a great deal about how brand UrbanClap came to be incepted and what keeps it going. Read on to find out.
ex: Hello Mr. Bhal, can you give us an insight into how you came up with the idea of starting the breakthrough business that UrbanClap is?
ABHIRAJ BHAL: UrbanClap was started 2.5 years back with the vision to organize the local services market in India. The idea was to create a large tech business which solves a primary customer need. The local services industry is very fragmented and unorganized. When we started UrbanClap, hiring a plumber, beautician, yoga trainer, math tutor, etc. was a painful process. There were no standards, no concept of trust, pricing inefficiencies and the industry was shackled in the “yellow pages” era. We saw this as a large opportunity. By leveraging technology, and a set of simple yet powerful processes, we have been able to build a fairly disruptive platform which is now the default way to hire these services in India. Equally important is the massive impact we have created for 50,000+ service professionals and small businesses for most of whom, UrbanClap is the dominant, if not only, way to grow their business.
ex: Before heading out to start your own entrepreneurial venture, you were associated with a Consultancy firm. Do you think that your corporate experience influenced your entrepreneurial venture in any way?
AB: Yes, prior to UrbanClap, I spent 3 years with The Boston Consultancy Group, advising Fortune 500 companies across India, South East Asia and Germany. My stint with BCG had a very lasting impact on me. Firstly, it taught me the importance of a structured approach to solving business problems, which I believe is invaluable. Secondly, the global and board-room exposure at an early age instilled in me the confidence of venturing out on my own, and building UrbanClap.
ex: What was the greatest reason that pushed you to start your own business?
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