ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Abhinav Jain: PGP 2011 (Co-Founder & CEO, Shop101, now part of Glance InMobi)
Abhinav Jain is the Co-founder and CEO of Shop101 a pioneering venture that has democratised entrepreneurship in India. Through Shop101, Abhinav has created a thriving social commerce platform that enables entrepreneurs, including housewives, college students, and young graduates, to sell online with zero investment and participate in the digital economy and provides employment indirectly to 10,000. It is one of the rare profitable e-commerce businesses in India with 1 billion in valuation and a total cash investment of less than $60 million and gross merchandise value of $500 million.
Abhinav achieved a commendable exit for Shop101 despite strong business challenges just before Covid. Within the folds of InMobi/Glance, his venture turned into a unicorn, a testament to his prowess in not just founding but also fostering acquisitions into flourishing enterprises.
Abhinav has mentored founders and invested in more than 20 startups. He has given talks about entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, Startup India, IIT Kanpur and participated in policy discussions. He has been involved in many social causes, especially education.
How does it feel to be back on campus?
Honestly, it feels very nice. It feels like home, and it has always felt home. I had come back to campus last year, but before that, I was not back on campus for more than 10 years, and despite the gap, it just felt the same. It just felt home. So it always feels super nice to be back. And I would love to spend more time if I can on campus, but just the schedules don’t allow it. It’s a fantastic feeling, and to come to receive such an award, it’s it’s incredibly proud and incredibly happy moment for me.
How has IIMA shaped your career?
IIMA has shaped my career in so many different ways that it’s very interesting.The first year was all about rigour and discipline, and that thing has stood with me throughout. The second year was all about freedom and exploring, and that’s what I have done with my entrepreneurial journey. In fact, while I always had this sort of subconscious level that I will want to be an entrepreneur, I think the IIMA clarified it. The course by Professor Sunil Handa, [Laboratory on Entrepreneurial Motivation] LEM was a very big driver.Just the atmosphere and the curriculum and the peer set was fantastic. Not to forget I met my wife here, have a bunch of friends and network which is very strong network. I think without it my career would have looked very different. So I am very thankful and grateful that I actually came to IIMA.
Shop101 is among the top five e-commerce players in India, and it’s one of the rare profitable ones. Can you tell us about the journey?
So I always thought when I was on campus that I would do something in the technology space. About 3-5-4 years out of campus, I was getting this itch to start out and to build something. One big thing that I have always seen is that India is fundamentally a land of entrepreneurs. But we have not modernised fast enough. I said, “How do I help entrepreneurs come into the new age?” That was the gist of the idea. Now, from that idea, we actually went on. It kept evolving. The first idea, the first product that we launched, was more of a software product saying, “Hey, can we help these entrepreneurs just go online?” Then I realised that giving software is not enough, because there is also the concern of a broken supply chain, not being able to manage sourcing, so on, so forth. So then we said, we will give you a full end to end package where you can source the products from us and we will do the delivery. You just run an online shop, which means that you interact with the customers, you drive the marketing, you get them to come into your store, but ultimately, from there on, we will help you deliver, manage returns. In fact, you can choose the inventory, also from our large assortment, which we have sourced from the best suppliers in the country. So that idea really took off. We had helped people build an online store, but we were still setting these online stores, predominantly on WhatsApp and selling in their local circles. In the third avatar, we said, “How do we help them get pan India scale?” So we started helping people build websites. For that, we partnered with a large website software company, and we just made a plugin so seamless that today, sitting here, if you wanted, you and I could set up an online shop right now and start selling pan-India, the hottest selling products, right? And the end result today is that you and I are entrepreneurs, and we could do business, but if today as consumers, you look at Instagram, a lot of shopping is happening on Instagram, what you don’t know is other than the large brands, which are actually running their Insta store on their own, most of the other stores are being run by my company. Because all of these independent entrepreneurs set up their website, they plug into Instagram, and they start selling. And at the back end, everything is being managed by Shop101 or Reposso Cloud. That’s how we have scaled massively. Of course, this journey, when I look at it now, in the last one minute, it seems very smooth. There are multiple ups and downs.
What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs who want to build resilient business models?
I would like to talk about my story a little. When I started, before I left Bain, I literally had somebody offer to fund me. So I was like, “Okay, fantastic”. And then the next round of funding didn’t come for 2.5 years and then the next round of funding came in 3 months. Then subsequently, nobody chose to fund me, and then somebody acquired us. So I think the question at the end of the day is, “Can you keep going?” It’s knowing when to keep going and knowing when you need to course correct. So it’s that almost art of figuring out when you have to keep going and keep at it, and some part of it is entrepreneurial craziness, and then also to know when to change and pivot. I think if I had to distill my learnings on how to create resilient businesses, I would say two things–one is ruthlessly prioritise, be focused on what you want to do and do like, leave everything else out. That means to know who your customer is, know what will move the needle for them, and just stay focused on that. Two, once you have figured out your focus for long term and short term, execute like crazy on that. I would call it relentless execution. The other thing to think about is that when there are turbulent times or unstructured markets, that’s where the maximum value is created. Because if the market is structured or the times are good, you will have a lot of people trying to do it, because they are all fair weather entrepreneurs, if I may. But when the times are bad, that’s when the best businesses are created. They will shape you the most, and you will be able to win big. And when the times become better, you are in a position where nobody else is so you can win.
As a recipient of the YAA award, what do you want to accomplish in the future, professionally and personally?
I think the award is a very important milestone in my journey which I will always fondly look back at. It also comes at an interesting time where I am now looking to think about my next venture. So over the next few months or year or so, we will figure out what I want to do next, and how to set it up. The award has given me recognition and I feel it’s just a lot of satisfaction and gratitude that I have professionally. I will figure out my next venture soon, and I hope that it becomes even larger. Personally, I think I look forward to hopefully inspiring a lot more people. I already work with a bunch of startup founders, and I have also angel invested in a lot of them. I hope that I am able to help create the next set of Unicorns.The other thing that is close to my heart and that I help on the side, is, how do I help the broader set of children in the country under- privileged and otherwise to dream big, and hopefully also help them achieve those dreams. So those are the two things I would love to do personally.
