From the days when we could not find movie timings online and had to look at our local newspaper to make movie plans, we sure have come a long way.

Now we can buy a vodka bottle shaped hookah, an owl wall decal, a camel head stool and a lot more with just a few clicks – all from the comfort of our home. Today we are featuring entrepreneur Nipun Virmani, co-founder of RoomStory.com, who has brought these items and more to our doorstep. On first meeting Nipun at Room Story’s headquarter in New Delhi, we are instantly struck by his placid demeanor.

After completing his undergraduate education at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Nipun worked at Goldman Sachs, building technology systems for their interest rate trading desk. While Nipun enjoyed what he did, after close to four years, he wanted to push himself beyond his comfort zone into something entrepreneurial. He realized that in addition to his strong tech background, he would need business skills to be able to start and run a business effectively.

Given his goal of turning entrepreneur, Nipun researched schools that facilitate entrepreneurship. With its resources of a university, focus on tech entrepreneurship and like-minded student body, MIT was an indisputable choice for Nipun and he was delighted to receive the coveted acceptance letter from Sloan.

In the summer before business school, Nipun worked with CURE India, an NGO that fosters development by encouraging entrepreneurial women to build small businesses. This experience gave him a sense for entrepreneurship in an India context and reaffirmed his desire to move back home.

MIT: Entrepreneurship

Nipun praised Sloan’s focus on enabling entrepreneurship which, in collaboration with MIT’s ecosystem, is conducive to enhancing the overall experience and toolkit available to entrepreneurs.

He spoke fondly of the MIT Media Lab that was founded in 1985 and the overwhelming experience of entering its premises for the first time. He says, students working at the lab solve complex real life problems with the use cutting edge technologies”. For example, Nipun knew of a team that was working on creating a folding car to optimize space utilization in dense, crowded cities.

Nipun says that while there is strong cross-collaboration between different colleges, at the end of the day, it is up to each individual to shape his/her own experience.

It is common for people take classes outside the business school. A friend of Nipun’s took a class with Tim Berners Lee (founder of the Internet) and working with other people from the MIT community came up with a business idea. As he was excited about the idea, he came out of MIT starting another venture as opposed to returning to his already successfully running first startup, Kyazoonga.com.

Nipun talked about another friend’s healthcare company (Ginger IO) that came out of the Health Sciences & Technology program that brings together MIT & Harvard for people interested in Healthcare. Ginger IO began by analyzing people’s phone usage patterns to help predict signs of deviation from usual patterns and habits. These results can help alert a doctor in patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes or depression. In November 2012, Ginger raised $6.5M in Series A funding from Khosla Ventures.

Another startup that emerged from such cross collaboration is Locu – started by two business school students and two computer scientists. Locu facilitates menu management for restaurants by keeping a central menu in one place and publishing updates to different systems through Locu’s centralized system.

We were curious how Nipun went about finding the right idea that excited him. He spoke about the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) at MIT which keeps a record of different patents that have been filed at MIT. The TLO is open to students to visit and license any technology they might find commercialization opportunities in. Even though his idea did not come from this exercise, Nipun recommends the TLO as a good resource for entrepreneurs. He says other universities may have similar offerings and he knows University of Michigan recently started something similar.

MIT: Academics

After all the talk about entrepreneurship, it did not come as a surprise to know that Nipun focused on entrepreneurship for his electives.

Two star entrepreneurship professors that he enjoyed taking classes with are Howard Anderson and Bill Aulet. Professor Anderson is the co-founder of Battery Venture Capital and sits on the boards of several tech companies. Professor Aulet is the Managing Director at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship and has been involved with numerous startups. The Trust Center runs 24×7 and is home to students and teams working to bring the next innovation to the world. Professor Aulet also has a focus on meeting energy challenges and teaches “Energy Ventures”, amongst other classes. Howard, Bill, and the rest of the MIT entrepreneurship team were great mentors to get started.

During our chat, Nipun tells us that MIT has no concept of a major. You can structure your electives as you choose. There are specialized tracks available such as Entrepreneurship & Finance, but Nipun did not opt for a track and took the courses he wanted to take.

It did surprise us to learn that Nipun’s favorite class was “Intro to Marketing” taught by Professor Mark Ritson who is from Australia. Nipun spoke about how the professor made his class very fun and entertaining, brought lot of real-world experience of working with large brands such as LVMH and Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, for prospective students considering Sloan, Professor Ritson has since moved back to Australia and now teaches at Melbourne Business School.

Nipun told us that he did not think classes were competitive to get into. The one class he thought was tough to get into was “CEO Perspective”. The class has a CEO visit every week from companies such as P&G, General Motors and is popular because of the amount of learning one can get from speakers of such caliber.

Each class in the full-time MBA program is structured in six cohorts of 60+ students each for a 400-student class.

MIT: Leadership

Nipun was Co-VP of Technology & Alumni in the Student Senate and was Co-President of the South Asia Business Club.

MIT: Summer Internship

In the summer between his first and second years, Nipun worked with one of the co-founders of Kayak.com on a social, non-profit startup in Africa. The movement is called JoinAfrica and its mission is to empower local entrepreneurs throughout Africa to build and sustain their own WiFi networks. Nipun developed the business plan and spent a few weeks in Kenya setting up the pilot. They partnered with telecom companies, the University of Nairobi, and the MIT Fablab to form a team, build the technology, and deploy the first network in Nairobi.

MIT: Travel

We asked Nipun what his most memorable experience was and learnt about a trip that takes place to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) every year at the end of the two-year program. About 200 graduates rent sailboats and take off for two weeks, sailing around the British Virgin Islands. Each sailboat has 10 people on it, they all sail together moving from island to island, spending time together. He spoke about how he was able to learn sailing by the end of the trip and what a phenomenal experience it was. We also learn that the MIT Sailing Pavilion is located conveniently across the Sloan Building and allows interested students to take free sailing lessons, so they’re fully equipped to handle small sailboats by the time they graduate.

We were curious where else Nipun had an opportunity to travel and learnt he was in Africa thrice during the program: in South Africa (leisure), Kenya (JoinAfrica discussed above) and Tanzania. He also had a trip to Japan planned in March 2011 that had to be called off at the last minute due to the earthquake.

MIT: Real World, Global Entrepreneurship

Tanzania was part of a project where he, along with a team of three other Sloan students, was helping a non-profit sell backpacks with reflectors to school kids to reduce the incidence of road accidents. This project was part of a course called G-LAB. This is a popular class where you begin by working remotely for a company during the semester. About 140-150 second year students participate in G-LAB each year. In January, the team gets an opportunity to work with the company on the ground (yes, travel is paid for). G-LAB project locations at the time when Nipun applied included South America, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. (India and China have a separate class in the first year separate from G-LAB).

Given the team-based nature of the class, people coordinate to take it with other people as a team. After getting into the class, the team submits a proposal for its top three projects.

Nipun’s G-LAB team got involved with direct sales of these backpacks at the ground level in Tanzania. They were out in the markets finding distribution channels, figuring out pricing, negotiating terms, and understanding potential demand. They adopted some root-level marketing strategies by visiting lower-income neighborhoods with a microphone selling backpacks.

MIT: Diversity

Given the popular perception, we asked Nipun if he got the sense that there was a majority of people with engineering backgrounds. He said it was a fair mix, a little more than other schools perhaps. He spoke about the varied backgrounds people came from: Olympic medalist, armed forces, food industry, etc.

MIT: Career

Given the focus on jobs and recruiting at business school, we could not help but ask Nipun if he was not tempted to recruit with some of the management consulting or investment banking firms.

Nipun says that the opportunity cost of not having an income was not something that played on his mind as he is at a stage in life where he feels he can take that risk. He says, “The advantage of going to any good MBA school is the option of getting a job if and when the need arises.”

Moving Back to India & Room Story

After over 10 years of living in the U.S. for education and work, Nipun wanted to move back to be closer to his family.

He knew his co-founder Prerak Sethi from his time at University of Michigan where Prerak had come in as a transfer student.

In 2011, Nipun decided to move back and start a company in India. Prerak moved back in 2011 as well after graduating from the Kellogg School of Management.

How did Room Story happen?

Prerak’s family has a home furnishing background and the idea of bringing home furnishing online struck a chord with both Prerak & Nipun. They had engineering backgrounds and knew that given Prerak’s industry knowledge and their backgrounds, they would be able to make home decor a lot more accessible and fun for people. They wanted to eliminate the hassle of running around from store-to-store in markets in hot and humid weather.

They launched RoomStory.com in May 2012. We were curious what were the big areas that took time or were challenges for them.

Four key areas stood out for Nipun:

1. Regulatory Compliance: Incorporating a Private Limited can take time as Registrar of Companies (ROC) may not like the name(s) you have chosen for your firm, such hurdles can prolong the process by up to a month
2. Website: RoomStory started with an internal team for technology but high attrition forced them to outsource technology to an external vendor
3. Vendor Management: They took some time to forge relationships with about 50 vendors to supply furnishings and decor
4. Marketing: Nipun feels marketing is important for an online business, and can be challenging for ventures that are self-funded. He says that players with external funding have a lot of money and are not shy of spending it freely. However, given Room Story is self-funded, they have stuck to things they feel are cost effective such as advertising on Google & FB, email marketing, PR, and some focused offline marketing during a festival like Diwali

We wanted to know what prompted their decision to self-fund?

Nipun says, “we wanted to get the model right before looking for funding”.

RoomStory.com, an online home store, has about 50 vendors signed up and has a few thousand products online in three categories (Bed & Bath, Kitchen & Dining, Décor & Furnishings) and ships orders all over in India. He has found that a lot of people are buying in small towns and in metros such as Delhi & Bombay. In NCR, items with design elements (such as a nice serving platter or cushion cover) tend to do well.

Their differentiation lies in the range and convenience they are able to provide to customers. At the moment, furniture is not a major focus. They ship all kinds of items from large items such as a BBQ grill to fragile items such as wine glasses.

We asked Nipun what he sees as the future of Room Story?

He was quick to respond, “adding more furniture and putting more technology in place.”

We ask him how his move to India has been?

Nipun says he is patient with common gripes such as regulatory delays and traffic issues. One thing he found moving back to India after 10 years was that he needed to be proactive in reigniting old ties with friends.

We love the shopping experience RoomStory.com provides and wish this dynamic team all the very best as they come close to completing the one year anniversary of their venture.