Sambalpur-based start-up Homvery completed one successful year and it's headed to Bhubaneswar next 

The first thing we did when we got on a call with Prahllad Mittal was congratulate him. His start-up, Homvery, completed one successful year. Incidentally, we got in touch right when he was wrapping up celebrations with Co-founders and COOs, Rajat Kar and Ritesh Mittal, and others. We could hear the joy in his voice as he exclaimed how well the celebrations went.

Homvery was one of the 13 start-ups invited from Odisha to the Lufthansa TiE-Startup Expo-2018

Mittal is from Sambalpur and after his first start-up Gift Graphite grew stable and continued doing well, the 22-year-old started Homvery in his hometown and in Burla. Recalling how tiresome it could be to deal with plumbers, technicians and others whose help we need to maintain our homes, they launched this start-up last November. No more dealing with servicemen making excuses or haggling with them because Homvery comes in as an intermediary. One can book any home maintenance service through their app. The founders put in their own money and bootstrapped all the way and it is only recently that they have started breaking even.

I used to be a shy introvert before I became an entrepreneur but now, I know the importance of meeting people and talking

Prahllad Mittal, Founder, Homvery

Mittal tells us about how this app is doing a lot for the servicemen as well. “It gives them a certain amount of respect and credibility as no one attempts to bargain with them anymore,” says the CEO, who offers a very competitive price to customers. And when it comes to the 20-odd men they have on their platform — which includes plumbers, electricians, laundrymen and more — anyone who sticks it out with them for more than six months gets incentives and even life insurance. Clearly, Homvery knows how to keep both customers and servicemen happy, and even prides itself on the customer retention rate. The latter they attribute to their pricing. Other USPs of Homvery are their discount coupons and offers. No visiting fee is applicable for your first booking. When it comes to coupons, they distributed them to local vendors so that they can offer it to their customers. They have taken these steps also because, “It is difficult to make people believe in the online medium in Tier II and III cities,” says the Civil Engineer from Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology. For Diwali, they even offered services like painting.

First time feels

In 2016, Mittal was staying in a hostel. He was looking for an ideal gift for a friend and he discovered that his roommate sketched very well. This is how Gift Graphite started and the rest is history. Today, they have around eight artists on board who provide personalised, hand-made sketches. They receive about 25 orders a month, starting from `500 per sketch

For more on the, click on homvery.com