MyCeiling: Future of Opulent Home Automation
I hope this can inspire you to become a successful entrepreneur too! Why is it important to hear the story of a successful entrepreneur?
Having the vision to become an entrepreneur is great. Making it happen is another story!
In that frame, I had the pleasure to interview Jay Sah, Founder & Rohit Kumar, co-founder of Myceiling Pvt Ltd. Today a growing number of home-owners want to experience really beautiful homes with luxurious comforts & pieces of high-end technology. Smart ceiling decor, home theatre system, voice-controlled gadgets, hue lights and many more are the demands of today.
MyCeiling caters to these well-informed buyers and provides them with a reliable Smart ceiling solution right inside their living room. MyCeiling products integrate all these technological comforts into a beautiful centrepiece, transforming their living room into an oasis of luxury.
All at less than half of what it would cost if bought individually and saves more than 70% of your space. The placement is ingenious & creates rich open spaces that always leaves a grand opinion of you even in the minds of your guests.
1. What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e what’s your source of motivation?
Poster of our startup Brand name fixed on the wall opposite our bed is the first thing we see every day when we wake up. It reminds us of the day when we pasted that poster on the wall (June 2016) and the journey so far. “I feel blessed and motivated as getting the idea on the floor and building a brand in the market been a great achievement”.
2. Why should people choose your product/services?
MyCeiling has come up with an innovative product which is based on an original idea in this world (not a copy of any other startup). Just like how Apple gave innovative smartphones and many more inventions to the world, we have introduced smart ceiling to the home decor as well as commercial decor market. Our next product launch will provide “never seen before” features which would transform every house owners lifestyle and would become a “basic need” for everyone.
3. What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
First of all, there is nothing that can’t be copied. If there is ola then there is uber too. With swiggy, zomato also exists. With intensive domain knowledge, we came up with this innovation and planned for future launches. We guard our product with IPR aggressively.
4. What risks are you facing?
We have left our well-paid job to switch to full-time entrepreneurship without any savings for our future. As you know that once you get a tag of “startup”, it’s really tough to think of getting in any corporate job again. Its a matter of do or die but keep your startup alive, never give up. We have gone through rough phases where things were not moving or working out, financial issues have always been there as we are bootstrapped. Each time we prove ourselves by reaching the next level although the struggle is tough and long-waited.
5. Have you considered any alliance/partnership?
We are a partner with leading home decor brands of India ie Homelane, Livspace, Designcafe etc. We are also in process of getting in Pepperfry, UrbanLadder, Hometown, Homecenter etc In our B2B model they are the best partners to reach out to people as well as interior designers & architects PAN India so fast. Pepperfry already has 30+ studios across Indian cities and planned to become a 100 studios company by 2020. We have witnessed Homelane spreading across India with their franchisee model like wildfire (2-3 studios every month). These were the best companies to partner with right in the first place to establish our brand and reaching most of the customers. Although it’s been a long journey filled with patience to get through and partner with these legends. All of them welcomed us just because our product is “never seen before” kind of and with a potential to change the future market of lighting, ceiling and home automation.
6. What are your cash flow projections? When will you break even? How much will you need in investments?
Our cash flow is pretty decent as our product has received a warm response from Indian home decor market. We are in our nascent phase just bootstrapped and looking for angel investment of 5 cr. It would be an add on to have investors from a background in reality or home decor sector.
7. What comes first for you money or emotions?
From an unrealistic idea to a live product being sold in the market, its been full of emotions. Whereas while running business we all know that the emotion has to be kept aside and money plays a vital role. They all say its all about money whereas an investor invests in an innovation original idea or a replica of another successful company, they look out for high returns ie money. I would say that being a founder, money is really important as a business is all about money but emotions, values and ethics must be a priority. Basically a good balance of money and emotion is what I believe in.
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Our strengths have been our product design, structure and it’s silent features whereas if you ask about our weakness- it’s lack of funding, marketing skills and development of IT support team to spread the range of smart product-line (diversified product range) across India.
9. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
Every order for us is an accomplishment and every tie-up with a new partner-company boosts our will power to deliver more. Our first breakthrough in the market was when we got through Livspace which is one of the leading home decor brand in India today following which we tied ups with Homelane, Designcafe and other companies.
10. How do you handle the pressure?
While running a startup one faces a lot of pressure being from financial aspects to marketing of the product and a lot more. Being calm and thoughtful at this stage gives you a way to move ahead and opens the door to many opportunities. It isn’t easy but neither impossible. There are times when we have had no orders but that did not stop us from marketing our product or trying to pitch into the market and approach companies. Remember one only learns with its failures and we have also learnt the hard way and come this far. So don’t lose hope. Your startup is your baby & you have to sell your products no matter what the situation is.
11. If you sold your company today, what would be the tone of the conversation? What would you want to gain? What would you want to avoid losing?
Why would we sell our company? Has it reached a level where it can be run without us or we found something more interesting to work at that we need to sell this company? Well, we would like to take it up in the long run till global establishment and only when we feel that it can do better without us, we might make a move for its betterment.
12. What advice would you give to someone starting out?
If you are starting it then never back down even if nothing moves in initial years. There may be situations whether family issues or own settlement, you should go slow or take a halt but never turn back. Always treat your innovative startup like your baby, not just a money-making business model, only with such sentiments you can build your brand in the long run.
13. What problems did you face in creating and maintaining a diversified product line? What is the solution?
Diversified product-line is very profitable and essential which is marred by :
*Lack of inventory space.
*Need completely trackable manufacturing and order processing system.
*Cost to entry is high in the smart product’s market and it also requires in-house R&D, IT & support to cater to increasing demands from customers.
Being a bootstrapped company we have often faced these bottlenecks in fulfilling those demands. We are looking for like-minded angel investors who can support us in overcoming these obstacles and enlighten a new world just how Apple did.
