30 Best Business Leaders of the Year 2019 30 Best Business Leaders of the Year 2019 | Page 67

Saurabh Gupta,
Cityfurnish Co-founder/
COO, spoke exclusively
to The Silicon Review.
Below is an excerpt.
Can you brief us about the
history of your company?
We (Neerav and myself) started
Cityfurnish from Gurgaon. Our very
first office was Neerav’s apartment
in Gurgaon. When we started,
almost 99 percent of people in
India used to buy furniture and
consider furniture renting as an
inferior choice or compromise on
quality. Keeping that in view, we
saw an opportunity and decided to
provide furniture on a subscription
model without compromising on the
quality of product or service.
Our vision is to make furniture
subscription as a preferred choice
over furniture buying and our
mission is to make Cityfurnish
synonymous to furniture
subscription.
What were the biggest initial
hurdles to building your
business and how did you
overcome them?
The biggest initial hurdle we faced
was to attract talent. In our initial
days, we found it very difficult to
hire skilled people because neither
we were a known company nor in
a position to offer good salaries.
To overcome this problem, we
associated some of our friends and
old colleagues. We are really happy
to say that they are still associated
with us.
What’s the best thing that
happened to you recently?
Either at work or outside of
it!
The best thing recently happened
to us was our selection in
Y-Combinator. It not only provided
us with the opportunity to be a part
of the family of like-minded people
but also gave us a chance to meet
and take guidance from a big pool of
successful YC alumni and investors.
What would you say was the
single most influential factor
in your business’ success?
The most influential factor in our
business’ success is our team. We
are obliged to have a great team
working single-mindedly towards
the company’s vision and mission.
What other business leaders
do you look up to, and why?
I really admire Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
The way he is leading Amazon, we
will see Amazon being the biggest
company in the world in no time. It
is impressive to see how Amazon
is entering into new businesses
continuously by converting its cost
centers to revenue centers and
leveraging its loyal customer base.
If you had one piece of advice
to someone just starting out,
what would it be?
Do it passionately and forget about
the rest.
What do you think is the
most memorable moment in
your career?
I have so many memories; it is really
difficult to choose a specific one. But
yes, one thing I am not able to forget
is that one of my bosses used to call
me “Wild Card”, which means I could
have been given any task without
thinking twice. It still makes me
smile when I think about it.
If not a business leader, what
else you wish to be?
If not a business leader, I would
have tried to explore the real me
by getting in close connection with
nature and animals.
What do you hope to
accomplish in the long run?
In the long run, we want
consumers to think about
furniture subscription as the
first option and buying second.
“Our vision is to make furniture subscription as a preferred choice over
furniture buying and our mission is to make Cityfurnish synonymous to
furniture subscription.”
SR