StartupStory#80: Gharobar – Avani And Rashmi On Empowering Home Based Entrepreneurs

Startup - Gharobar
Image used for representation only

 

Founded by Avani Shroff and Rashmi Maheshwari, Gharobar is an online marketplace empowering home-based entrepreneurs across the country.

Avani Shroff, Gharobar
Avani Shroff

“Our concept was built to promote products sold by home-based entrepreneurs. Our team includes my partner and co-founder Rashmi and Dhanashree Patil,” shares Avani.

“Rashmi and I have over 15 years of experience working with various corporates and over 10 years in leadership positions,” says Shroff walking us through a day in her life at the startup.“Our day starts with going through the orders we receive online and executing them,” she says.

“We also focus on training new employees with our back-end system and conducting interviews since we are now looking to grow our team.

Up next is a brainstorming session with Rashmi to cement business strategies and strategic tie-ups to help home-based sellers grow their businesses through Gharobar.

Startup Essentials
Gharobar.com is an online marketplace showcasing an extensive collection of exclusive products from home based sellers across India.
Their products include Jewellery, Designer Clothing, Quirky Gifts, Kids products, Home Decor, Health and Beauty Products among others.

(L-R) Rashmi Maheshwari and Avani Shroff

“Our friendship stems from professional respect for each other,” beams Avani revealing that she worked with Rashmi as a colleague for two companies prior to founding Gharobar.

“We both have different strengths.

So, I take care of the financial, operational and technical aspects of the business whereas Rashmi takes care of everything from marketing to hiring new talent for the business.”

Speaking of another core member of their team, Avani is all praise for Dhanashree who she deems a people’s person. “Dhanashree is our assistant manager-operations who manages day to day operational tasks. She has a strong passion for public speaking having worked in the teaching profession prior to joining Gharobar. She also takes care of customer service and operational tasks,” explains the founder.

Gharobar Exhibit

Quiz her about their current scale of operations and she is quick to respond. “At this time, we have over 100 sellers associated with us for the online and offline marketplace. We have over 5000 products sold online and more than 3 lakhs worth of orders already executed,” shares the entrepreneur adding that they have Hummingbirdz website solutions Pvt Ltd as their technical partners.

CEO After Hours
An avid reader, Avani enjoys a good book.
Other hobbies include travelling to explore distant regions.
She also loves solving puzzles.

“Currently we are working on upgrading our official website and working on conducting more offline flea markets. Building up our traffic on the website is a key target as well. In the next 6 months we intend to add another 100 sellers and witness a 30% growth in sales,” she states of their upcoming targets for the next two quarters.

“Our vision is to make Gharobar the largest marketplace of exclusive products sold by home based sellers. We are also in the process of hiring new employees in backend operations and sales,” Avani reveals signing off.

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#Pune365 Wishes The Founders And Team At Gharobar Much Success Ahead ! 

Editor’s Note : We are taking a short break (over the next few weeks) with the #StartupStory Series and will be back soon, with yet another dynamic and new format for this weekly feature. Thank you for your patience.

Aditi Balsaver