Lakshmi Parkavi and Harshvardan Founders, Hardum

Have you ever felt sad throwing things out of your home which are of no use to you but you know for sure that someone else can benefit from them? Ever wondered if you could find a needy buyer for your unused stuff? If you say YES, then Hardum is what you should look for!!!

As they say “One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure”, Hardum is working progressively to make the saying true. The simple idea of reuse, recycle and reduce, gave way for the evolution of Hardum.com, a social networking site with a purpose. It serves as a one stop shop for the needs and wants of the current generation. Hardum encourages people in a neighbourhood locality to interact/transact as much as possible in a way which is win-win for everyone.

It all started during a conversation between Lakshmi Parkavi and Harshavardan who have studied in the same college. The idea was conceived by Lakshmi and Harshvardan chipped in as a co-founder with seed funding and his marketing expertise. Lakshmi explains us how Hardum is unique in a gamut of social networking websites “While other social networking websites aims to connect friends across different geography, we aim to connect people (could be friends or complete strangers) in a locality and make them interact offline. People with same ideas/talent who have been living in the next door or the next street would connect with you looking at your ads/posts and that’s the speciality of Hardum.”

To put in simple words, Hardum help people seek users for their used textbooks to laptop bags to the skull chain bought on impulse.The website has information about who possesses what and who needs what, which are categorized area-wise. This ensures that you can find someone who needs what you possess, staying as close as possible. Lakshmi says “It’s all about convenience to the people. If you stay in Adyar, we can find someone in your locality, in turn reducing your carbon footprint and it’s all Indian.”

Hardum.com aims to reduce and recycle stuffs around. How Is the response of people in this generous idea, Lakshmi tells us. “At the moment we have close to 4000 members of which 85 % of the users are from Chennai. There are close to ten deals/freebies which are being posted everyday and many of my friends/contacts have told me that they receive immediate enquiries on anything they post.”

Though Hardum has gained popularity in Chennai other metros are now the main target for these young entrepreneurs. But the journey till this point had a lot of challenges for both of them. “The biggest challenge was to keep the momentum day by day and to stay focussed during the development phase of hardum.com. Initial days required lot of commitment and time. Everyday and every hour were important. Concentrating for longer periods of time was initially a challenge but now we have got pretty much used to it.”

Lakshmi shares some words of wisdom when we ask her if there were any mistakes in the journey. “I don’t consider anything as a flaw/mistake. I believe in the saying 'More often than not flaws do not lead to a disaster but a struggle with a subsequent enlightment' and thus I don’t regret any mistake as I have learnt from it. Eventually everything is for good.”

The main focus of Hardum now is to make it a household name among all the internet users in India. But the beginning too wasn’t a small affair. Lakshmi recalls “ Hardum's launch happened in Raj Bhavan in the presence of Padmashri Dr. Kamal Hassan and VC of Anna University, Dr. Munnar Jawahar. He had appreciated our work to a great extent and His Excellency Governor Surjit Singh Barnala launched the website.”

Norman MacEwan has said “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” True to these words, Hardum.com caters to the needs and wants of people from all walks of life.

Lakshmi concludes by sharing her tips for budding entrepreneurs “Entrepreneurship is a long journey and success will not come in the first few miles. More the miles we walk, the more closer we are to success.”

Yourstory is glad to be a part of Hardums journey and wish them all the best for their future endeavours.