'WE WANT TO BE THE MARUTI OF EYEWEAR IN INDIA'

Peyush Bansal, Co-founder, CEO and Chief People Officer of Lenskart, explains why the Indian eyewear market is a big opportunity

- UDAYAN MUKHERJEE

Peyush Bansal believes that as an entrepreneur, choosing the right partners early on makes a big difference to a company’s fortunes. The Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief People Officer of Lenskart, an e-commerce portal for eyewear, is on a mission to provide spectacles to 50 per cent of the people in India and says the country presents a huge opportunity as 90 per cent of the eyewear market is unorganised. And while the Indian market has undergone a huge transformation, the former Microsoft employee says that Lenskart does have international ambitions in the long term. In a freewheeling interview with Business Today’s Global Business Editor Udayan Mukherjee, Bansal talks about his journey, how Lenskart wants to create a global impact, and his Shark Tank experience. Edited excerpts:

Q: Peyush, you were entrenched into a career track in the US with Microsoft when you suddenly turned course and said, ‘I’m going to do something of my own—a private enterprise, and that too focussed on eyewear’. What was the genesis of this transformation?

A: Well, I was at Microsoft and quite inspired by the impact that its products had on the lives of ordinary people—you know stuff like Excel and PowerPoint— and I wanted to do something similar with my life... [and] leave an impression. That is when I decided to quit and reboot.