Neeta, Manoj and Shilpa, Founders, Rentoys

“Toys for all”

Toys form a preparatory base for children until they enter the real world. For most parents finding toys that do not add to the household clutter, but are still safe, fun and easy on the pocket is very difficult. Neeta Verma in partnership with Shilpa Prasad and Manoj Kumar (young entrepreneurs) who seek to solve this Gordian knot with a bold stroke in the form of Rentoys. Their combined expertise promises to turn this business idea into child’s play.

Please explain what kind of toy rental your company is into.

Rentoys is an exclusive online toy rental company offering branded toys on rent for kids of age group of newborn till 6 years. Our inventory includes only top quality internationally recognized toy brands like Fisher price, vtech, Okplay, funskool, playschool and focused on holistic development of kids including fine motor skills (pre-writing skills), hand eye co-ordination, analytical thinking & cognitive abilities etc.Rentoys makes its offering hassle free by bringing it’s the complete library online & offering free delivery/pickup from doorstep.

We also want to help NGOs that work with underpriviled children.

Our Vision on giving back to society: Child’s work is a child’s play and the toys play a great role in that. It is very important to optimal child development but not all the kids have same privileges. One of the visions of Rentoys is to partner with kids NGO and become a channel for its members/non-members to donate toys to underprivileged children.This will help not only bring a smile to the under-privilege kids but also make our member kids learn social responsibility at early age.

We can play a vital role in supporting the good cause:

In our efforts toward giving back to society we would like to propose the following things Rentoys can support to the Kids NGO -

Ø Rentoys to become a channel for members/non-members to donate toys for Under privileged kids.

Ø Rentoys will consider the NGO for donating toys from its own inventory as well

Ø Rentoys will promote the NGO by putting a banner of their logo on its website with a message of donate toys

Ø Rentoys will promote NGO through its own marketing activities as well (print, emailers etc) in possible manners

Ø Rentoys can help Toy Bank arrange a Toy Fair (this would be subject to discussion between both parties)

Ø Funding Support – Long term vision (not in immediate future)

What distinguishes you from your competitors?

Free Home Pick Up and delivery of toys to our members

Best Toys Brands in the Industry

Hassle free - Place request online, receive at doorstep

Pricing is not Toy MRP based - members can choose any toy from Rentoys catalogue irrespective membership type and MRP of the toys

Eco-friendly play

Our entire model is built on subscription fee from B2C (parents who become members of Rentoys) and B2B (franchisee, playschools/day cares).

What made you set out on your entrepreneurial journey?

There are a couple of things that made us to start our entrepreneur journey:

Sense of achievements – Do what you want to do

Problem at hand leads to an Idea that probably will change the way parents provide early childhood learning/development to their kids

What has been the biggest test in making Rentoys?

We had 2 kinds of challenges –

Awareness about Rentoys

Rentoys being a new concept, parents had some initial barrier/hesitation on renting toys.

The increasing Rentoys member base indicates that our continued effort of delivering values to our members and providing them hassle free, cost-effective & eco-friendly experience is helping us overcome these challenges. Now it’s going viral slowly through our members. In addition to this, we continue to put our effort in bringing awareness to parents further.

What is the biggest lesson you learnt as an amateur entrepreneur?

We spent time, money & effort in some marketing mediums in initial days that didn’t lead to any lead or conversion.

What sort of growth have you experienced in your market share?

Rentoys has been seeing 50-60% growth in its customer base month over the month. Currently we are a 4 member team and would be adding another member soon. Rentoys being an online toy library, currently our focus is to bring concept awareness and have as many parents as possible and experience this fresh thinking. To do that we are looking at offering franchisee and currently couple of discussions are in progress.

What do you consider as an indicator of Rentoys’ success?

For us, the biggest achievement is gaining the trust of parents of kids (specially of age group of newborn to 2 years as this is the most delicate segment we serve). We are seeing increased number of members in this segment. This shows the trust our members do have on our safe & clean toys offering to their kids.

We consider every customer testimonial as recognition to Rentoys. In addition to that Rentoys has been featured in Outlook Money, DNA Newspaper, Time Out Bangaluru & other well recognized startup websites like IndianWebStartup, Pluggedin etc.

Every testimonial/review gives us strength to take things to next level.

What stops you when you feel like quitting on entrepreneurship?

Because both Neeta & Shilpa are mothers of toddlers, sometimes it becomes very difficult to juggle between the two.

It’s our member’s feedback that is sailing us through rollercoaster rides (read below one of the feedbacks from existing member) –

Kids have their own ways of saying "Thank You" even when they do not yet know to speak. My wife and I have had many such proud moments with our daughter and those were when she played with her favorite toys we rented from here. Rentoys is changing the way kids grow n learn while they play. Quality, variety, feasibility, you name it and it's all there with Rentoys. Been a member since the inception and my kid drives me to be one forever. All those parents who yearn for those proud moments while it is lighter on the pocket...Rentoys is where your search ends. - Ravi (HSR Layout)

What do you think is the most important thing to consider as an entrepreneur?

Idea is good but execution is the bottom line. When you are thinking about any idea, probably 10 other people might also be thinking the same but what differentiates is who is going to execute it first.

During initial days, don’t get demoralize with any negative feedback/response. Every negative feedback is an opportunity for you to improve your model further

Yourstory wishes Neeta Verma and Rentoys more success in enriching the lives of children and hopes to see them find more takers as time passes.