08 JULY, 2021: Cofounder and CMO of Bigbasket.com Vipul Parekh interacted with the Class of 2021-22 of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore, on 7th July, on ‘Building an Internet Business in India’, as part of the EPGP Seminar Series.
In his long and illustrious career, Vipul has had to pivot many times and pointed out that the toughest challenge for an entrepreneur is acknowledging mistakes and rectifying them.
“Always use logic. Look for product-market fit at an early stage. Keep iterating and always be agile and adaptive,” he said to aspiring entrepreneurs. “If you are starting up, then you should make sure that you are spending most of your time in building a solid product or service that will get you your initial customers for free. It is important to focus on customer retention so that you create a long-term relationship of trust, which then engenders frictionless repeat business.”
On the evolution of the distribution chain in India, Vipul explained that changes in customer habits were driving the changes in the retail distribution systems. “A lot of B2B commerce will gradually shift online and omnichannel retail will become mainstream in India, sooner than expected.”
He also shared his insights on marketing, finance, and operations. When asked about measuring product-market fit during the initial days of building a product, Vipul argued that it was subjective as several subtle aspects come into play. However, he was quick to say that by measuring organic customer growth rate, number of repeat customers and their overall willingness to pay, one could evaluate the product-market fit better. “Track the right metrics based on what matters to your customer and how you can improve their experience. If you are building a company pursuing aggressive growth, you must closely monitor these key metrics and make it a practice across all levels and employees of your company,” he said.
About the speaker:
Vipul is the Co-Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer at BigBasket. He was Investment Director at Peepul Capital Advisors. He has also worked with Wipro Ltd as part of the Vice Chairman’s office, overseeing new business development. He has a postgraduate degree in Management from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
08 JULY, 2021: Cofounder and CMO of Bigbasket.com Vipul Parekh interacted with the Class of 2021-22 of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore, on 7th July, on ‘Building an Internet Business in India’, as part of the EPGP Seminar Series.
In his long and illustrious career, Vipul has had to pivot many times and pointed out that the toughest challenge for an entrepreneur is acknowledging mistakes and rectifying them.
“Always use logic. Look for product-market fit at an early stage. Keep iterating and always be agile and adaptive,” he said to aspiring entrepreneurs. “If you are starting up, then you should make sure that you are spending most of your time in building a solid product or service that will get you your initial customers for free. It is important to focus on customer retention so that you create a long-term relationship of trust, which then engenders frictionless repeat business.”
On the evolution of the distribution chain in India, Vipul explained that changes in customer habits were driving the changes in the retail distribution systems. “A lot of B2B commerce will gradually shift online and omnichannel retail will become mainstream in India, sooner than expected.”
He also shared his insights on marketing, finance, and operations. When asked about measuring product-market fit during the initial days of building a product, Vipul argued that it was subjective as several subtle aspects come into play. However, he was quick to say that by measuring organic customer growth rate, number of repeat customers and their overall willingness to pay, one could evaluate the product-market fit better. “Track the right metrics based on what matters to your customer and how you can improve their experience. If you are building a company pursuing aggressive growth, you must closely monitor these key metrics and make it a practice across all levels and employees of your company,” he said.
About the speaker:
Vipul is the Co-Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer at BigBasket. He was Investment Director at Peepul Capital Advisors. He has also worked with Wipro Ltd as part of the Vice Chairman’s office, overseeing new business development. He has a postgraduate degree in Management from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.