Bookish Santa | A startup bringing original book reviews from fellow readers to your desk
- ByStartupStory | November 17, 2022
“Don’t go after instagram Gurus and influencers , who say that if you follow your passion you will definitely succeed in a year or so. When you are starting something it is going to be a long and difficult journey. There will be both – highs as well as lows, be prepared to face them. When you shift from regular jobs to entrepreneurship, be prepared to struggle for at least 5 to 6 years. You have to fight against all odds and keep surviving, only then you will see growth,” Rajesh Kumar, founder of Bookish Santa in an exclusive interview with Startup Story.
Rajesh was pursuing his CA articleship in Gurgaon when he realized that it was not his field of interest and he would not be able to do it long-term since he did not like his work. When he and his friends were discussing something, they mentioned how they both wanted to start a new venture. He had spent his childhood reading stories and comic books and that’s where the light came from! He suggested starting something related to books.
They started working right away and doing research on how to establish a start-up and launch an e-commerce platform. They did everything from scratch, and even created their first logo in Microsoft Word! They decided to name their company — Bookish Santa as they wanted to evoke a feeling of joy in people.
“It was all YouTube tutorials that helped us,we were very impulsive, we chose the first colours on the colour palette for our website logo and built it using GoDaddy”, Rajesh expressed.
Growing the Company
They started by posting about the books they had on Instagram and used it as their initial channel for growth, and made everything live in a single day. The next day they received their first order. They reached about 1000 followers in one day. This motivated them immensely and pushed them to keep going. Eventually, they started connecting with book vendors and proposing to sell their books online as they started receiving more and more orders.
“If you don’t change you won’t survive, you can’t operate on the same morals you were operating on last year, to convince people to change and show them that they can make improvements to an already existing traditional method has been the greatest challenge for us.”, Rajesh added, elaborating about the hurdles in their journey so far.
Pulling through the Pandemic
They weren’t very well prepared when the pandemic hit and thought that they wouldn’t be able to survive, but they did not lose hope. Since the warehouse was near Rajesh’s home, he slept in the warehouse and they started working on their website and increased the amount of content available up there.
On the contrary, the team got much more connected because of the pandemic. No one has left their team since the beginning of their journey. They got their full staff vaccinated, all while Rajesh was still staying in the warehouse trying to get books dispatched. Bookish Santa was one of the only few websites that were functional, and relentlessly delivering books during the first lockdown phase. Their growth rapidly doubled for the first three months of the pandemic.
Establishing their Unique Presence in the Market
“Some websites may say- we sell books at very less margins, some may say- we sell the largest variety of books, but apart from all this we also help people in discovering new books, since the last three years we have been writing blogs on books regularly everyday.”, Rajesh replied when asked about how they are different from other platforms present in the market.
They have a huge collection of reviews from a community of passionate book lovers. People who have a knack for reading and writing can join them for freelance writing. Moreover, the published works by the writers, approved by the company’s editor are eligible to get paid for it as well.
“Every website has a best seller list, but we help people in finding new books, we help them in discovering books they are going to like with the help of the large amount of book reviews and a loyal community. Not only this we also help new authors who aren’t on the best seller’s list in getting discovered, we write for them, promote them and help sell their books”, he further commented.
Plans for the future
They have been investing in paid advertisements and marketing in recent times. Also, conducting events like book fairs and community meets is a part of their plans. They have started their packing center in Bangalore, as statistically, more than 50 percent of their orders were from Bangalore, and are also planning to open one more in Kolkata by December. Not only this, but they also plan on bringing local publishers on board from the cities which are not available on other platforms.
They are also working on building software that will help bookstores in managing inventory, billing systems, and building websites. Additionally, they are helping local bookstores which aren’t able to sell their books online due to various reasons and subsequently expanding their business quite efficiently.
“By March our plan is to roll it out- nationwide, we plan about having more than 1 lakh book stores included in this, even if they don’t have computers and printers, they can go online even with the help of their mobile phones, we will reduce the shipping cost and delivery time by getting you your favourite book from the bookstore nearest your home”, Rajesh further said.
Right now they have no plans to raise funds as such since they have already raised a seed round from an HNI. On top of that, they are also generating revenue from their e-commerce website.
“We may conduct Series A after we launch our software”, he added at last as a conclusionary remark.
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