Entrepreneur India – July 2019

JULY 2019 l ENTREPRENEUR l 29

joining hands with the best of investors such as
Bessemer, TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs, Jungle
Ventures and Helion. “We like working with the
type of investors who take a long-term call. Our
board meetings tend to be not only financial but
also delve deep into strategic areas so that they’re
collectively able to add to a lot of our thinking.
So you’re trying to raise just about appropriate
capitals that you don’t dilute too much, but you’re
raising enough to keep you capitalized,” adds
Srivastava.
However, Sharma is quick to underline the
hardest part of the journey so far. “Figuring out
that recipe and ingredients is a difficult job. It’s
not that we woke up one fine day and things came
easy to us. We have experimented extensively. And
we continue to do that,” he admits.
To ensure a great customer experience with the
best of technology, Livspace already has on board
100 engineers out of a team of 2000 working on
complex designs, AI, image processing, supply
chain, etc. Sharma says, “People are spending
at least a minimum of two and a half thousand
dollars all the way up to sometimes $50,000.”
Owing to this, they came up with building offline
experience centres to let customers touch and feel

before finalizing the design. He adds, “At some

point in time, we’ll start exploring office space,

the platform fundamentally has capabilities to

really do any sort of real estate design.”

Funding Start-ups

Livspace founders believe there is always room

for more ideas. The logic has driven them to

invest in close to 35 start-ups. On the kind of idea

they back, they say in unison, “Great founders

with great companies will come up with the right

kind of idea. Instinctively, it can actually make

money. That’s already a good start. So typically,

we participate in relatively early seed stage

series, where tickets could range from $15,000

to $25,000.” And they keep it all simple. “So you

invest in 35 companies on an average, they have

two founders, and you have 70 good friends. They

are actually the people you want to hang around

with. It’s a hobby and interest and you feel like

connected to these guys,” laughs off Sharma.

As the namesake goes, both the founders

believe in living in the moment. Whether the

home design bet of Srivastava and Sharma pays of

is what remains to be seen.

ALL THINGS

DESIGN

Design inspiration:

Apple, Airbnb,

Instagram

Average Order Value:

₹ Rs 10-12 lakh

Brand inspiration:

Warby Parker and

Burberry

Work Pace

1 project completed

every 2 hours

Design Destination:

Italy

Work completed:

11,000,000+ sq ft

designed

Revenue generated:

$140 mn annualized

gross revenue run rate

in March 2018 label