‘We want to bring emotions in gifting’ – In conversation with Abhinav Prateek, Founder & CEO, Huppme

While in 12th standard, Abhinav Prateek, Founder & CEO, Huppme  had no clue of what will he do in the future, but the concept of the Internet, YouTube, Social media always fantasized him. After working for 3 years, he saw a dream to contribute something great to the society. So while doing his engineering, he parallelly started 7 small businesses one by one, which include event management, magic shows,  etc. Dropping out engineering in 3rd year and deciding to work for something BIG was one decision that changed his life. In an exclusive conversation with Business2Business, Abhinav shares more about his startup, funding, expansion plans, etc.

How was the idea born: Abhinav shares, “It was my girlfriend's birthday and I was short of money and confused what can I gift her that will be really special for her and in budget as well. I explored everything online and offline and ended up on some personalized gifts that luckily worked. She loved them very much. I realized that there is an opportunity in gifting segment, people are confused what to gift to their loved ones on a special occasion and I can solve this problem and that was the moment I decided to start-up!”

 What is Huppme: "Huppme is a brand that helps people to express their feelings to the special people of their life by availing gifts,”shares Abhinav. 

Need Analysis: Abhinav shares, “ The reason of gifting is to show someone that we love them and they are special for us. In Mahabarata time Eklavya gifted his thumb to guru Dronacharya as a tribute, but now a days most of the people do it just for a formality. The meaning of gift is dry fruits, photo frames and showpieces. Diwali is the biggest example, people give dry fruits to neighbours as a gift and after few hours same dry fruits return back to their home in the rotation. We as Huppme want to change this scenario and bring emotions in gifting.”

Your USP’s: “Gifting from Huppme is not purchasing a product, it's an experience. A wonderful experience that provides you a number of good services and eases your journey of searching the gift, buying it and delivering the right gift,” shares Abhinav.

National & Global Presence: Abhinav shares, “Huppme is making people feel happy and special all over India and Internationally as well(25+ countries) with thousands of happy customers.”

Funding & Expansion plan: Abhinav shares, “As they say, ‘Only a Goldsmith can scratch gold from the darkest mines’, so even we are doing the good work and waiting for a ‘Goldsmith’ who can invest in happen and be the be the part of the change. For past two years we are working on bootstrapping model and happily surviving steadily growing.”

Team: “From the beginning nobody has left the team Huppme after joining and everyone is working with passion to make people happy,” shares Abhinav.

You gained inspiration from: “Network Marketing, Mark Zuckerberg, Sandeep Maheshwari and my Mother,” shares Abhinav.

Your Mentor: “I once met Mr. Vikas Jain, a motivational speaker, trainer and he showed me the right path and I developed my business model,” shared Abhinav

View about Indian start-up scenario: Abhinav shares, “Most of the startups are just working for funding so that they can burn the money. I feel IIT/IIM entrepreneurs easily raise funds because of their contacts and brand. In 2016, I have seen many startups failing because of burning investor's money blindly in advertisements and discounts. According to me for better customer retention we should focus on quality not on discounts.

Advice for entrepreneurs- “Don't count on discounts, if your quality of service/product is great, one day word of mouth will make you big.”