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Saturday Startup Review I - Rentimental.com
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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This saturday we bring to you a startup which is founded by an entrepreneur who started working at the age of 17 and started his first company at 19 and failed.. Then he worked across companies and has now decided that he will put the entire world on rent on his website. Yes he is the founder of Rentimental.com and his name is Shubham Rai
One sentence description: A platform to rent out anything and evenrything (That is legally allowed ;))
About Startup: Rentimental as the the name points out this is a rental listing sites. And currently it lists furniture, washing machines, refrigerators, computers, TV, laptops, cars and bikes, catering and tiffin services. Rentimental is owned by Munificient Ventures Pvt Ltd and it seems they have plans to launch more portals as well.
About Founders: The founder Shubham rai started working at 17 and started his first venture at 19. He was previously working with Kotak bank as an analyst. He is an MBA from Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur.
Funding Status: : Launched on since Jan this year this looks very much self funded.
WAT’s HOT:I think the concept is pretty hot! Such portals are only about two things.. One is an exhaustive database just like how naukri build for the jobs space. In rentimental’s case it would be about having a listing for every search possible through their portal and thats where the challenge is. The other challenge is the brand. They have taken a pretty nice domain name and should be able to spread good word of mouth as well.
WAT’s NOT: On the business model end I think this is a funding dependent business. It will be very tough to build a mass of paying customers for renting classifieds organically. In short it will take years and the only way to change that in inorganic growth which ofcourse is funding dependent. As far as the product is concerned its too early to pass a judgement as they have fewer listings now. On the whole it could do with a better layout and listings right on the homepage rather that a search. Also they need to get rid of the popup ads which make their site unusable.
All in all this is a good attempt and a good concept and is also addressing a large enough space of renting. But in the long run they need to show proof of concept with paying customers and that will be the greatest challenge in raising the kind of money required for such a business and given the times we are in even that may not be enough.
Don’t we already have a host of classifieds websites? And I don’t think online classifieds is as successful as print. Besides how does a niche segment (which is obviously smaller than the entire classifieds business)of the classifieds business turn into a profitable business model.
@Rahi,
Agreed that there are a host of classifieds websites. But can I am trying to analyze which are the best in terms of traffic and response. Any hints? Thanks.
Why’s the search based on areas within a city? E.g. Pune-West, Pune-East, etc etc.? There’s no way to search an entire city? Or even, multiple cities at once?
The data doesn’t look rich enough. Couldn’t find a car rental agency in Pune-Central!!