Startup Story #16: Paradise for booklovers

November 21, 2016

Prasad Kulkarni has been making a change with his startup, one book at a time. Book Space is not just like any other library. Within the silent corridors stacked with books by Pu La Deshpande to Geroge Bernard Shaw, is a brimming voice saying “Let’s read”. The firm believer, Kulkarni converted his quest to do something for society into his startup venture.

A simple click to their website (http://bookspace.in/) will greet you with “Read more Save more”. This is how Book Space makes it possible, “We deliver books across Pune, with no delivery charges. Register with a fee of thousand rupees a year and read as many books as you want. We have a website and circulate mails to all our members with information on new editions. If people request us to get certain books, we make every effort to acquire it,” explains the Chartered Accountant.

An avid reader since his school days, there were more than one life instances that triggered the entrepreneur in him. Out of which the most instrumental was working with a US-based social venture that provided affordable drip irrigation to farmers. “That’s when I realised I want to do something for society at large. But, I was unclear on how I would do it,” says Kulkarni. The bibliophile along with a friend set up Book Space with a collection of 800 books that he possessed. The co-founder, Abhijit Nakate shared Kulkarni’s passion to promote reading and the venture took off in 2014 as both their wives joined in as well. Kulkarni keeps reinstating the fact that Book Space is not just a library, “It’s not just about delivering books, but also about connecting with people and providing meaningful employment.”

True to his word, the startup has created a community of ardent booklovers. With a collection of books in languages such as English, Marathi, Hindi and a few in Tamil and Gujarati to satiate all age groups, it has managed to evoke interest amongst non-readers as well. “There is a bank opposite Book Space and we have bankers who take books for their kids or come with their wives after a hard day of work just to read. We have a stockbroker who would be watching the screen intently 24/7, he now brings his kids along to read,” smiles Kulkarni. A rather interesting revelation he makes is that majority of their customers are senior citizens, “those who can, make it a point to visit the library regularly. We even have an 86-year-old regular, who has read every book that exists here,” he laughs.

Starting out with a team of two, the founders would dump books on the Activa and go door to door as delivery boys. Battling challenges such as money and logistics, they now have a team of 22 people catering to almost 1,200 customers in Pune. Kulkarni’s inner philanthropist continued with his startup as well. “While working with certain social organisations, I realised why don’t we recruit the specially abled. We have five blind girls working diligently with us as well.

We decided that if we recruit someone we would like to make a career path for them,” explains Kulkarni. His aim is spread over rural areas as well wherein they supply certain donated books. Proving to be more than just a space where one can lose themselves between pages, Book Space organises a number of events to spread the message. Kulkarni tells us about the latest development, “We are now starting a new drive, to donate money for building a school in a village. For every book that is donated to Book Space, we will donate 50 rupees.”

Almost reaching the success point of his startup, wherein the venture is finally turning profitable he has much more to achieve. “We want to create a people engagement platform not in the virtual but real world. We want to create something like a British Council Library (BCL) for Indian authors and that’s what keeps us going,” beams Kulkarni.