Out Of The Box

Innovation And Customer Obsession Are The Two Pillars On Which Co-Founder Rajiv Srivatsa Has Built Urban Ladder.

- Anshul Dhamija

When IIM batchmates Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa moved to Bengaluru in 2007, both found it difficult to do up their homes. The furniture and the decor were either of poor quality or tacky. “It was an experience best forgotten,” recalls Srivatsa, who had earlier worked with Yahoo, Cognizant and Infosys, and was shifting base from Chennai. (Goel was a former COO of Amar Chitra Katha and had moved to the city from Delhi.)

But the hard-nosed entrepreneurs (both 38 years old) sniffed a business opportunity in this personal pain point: Why don’t they themselves deliver distinctive products and allow customers to set up their homes without having to step out? The duo spent close to six months studying the market and in July 2012, launched Urban Ladder, an online furniture store.