Prashanth Gowriraju, Narsimha Raju, Founders, Lootmore.com (HOORAYY Technologies Pvt Ltd)

“Lootmore.com- One Day One deal, Everyday”

Group buying is a sector that has seen many entrants in the last year or so. Throwing their hat into the retail ring is “HOORAYY Technologies” with their product “Lootmore.com”. Unlike most Group Buying business ideas which focus on the retail services sector

“Lootmore.com” is primarily about showcasing Products, brands and discounts.

Born from the fertile entrepreneurial minds of Prashanth Gowriraju and Narsimha Raju, “Lootmore.com” promises to do more that the average group buying site. With a combined 20+ years of experience in the industry the two founders of “Lootmore.com” have the acumen to make it big.

Yourstory learnt more from Prashanth Gowriraju on how his business idea is not just a group buying venture and the vision he has for“Lootmore.com”

What business idea is your company Lootmore.com using?

If you have ever visited a wholesale price market, you already know of the stark price differences that exist between what we actually pay for an item and what it could’ve been bought at, if only we had the power of mass procurement. At Lootmore, we have the ability to mass procure items and negotiate a discounted price. You can guess what we do with the discounted price – pass it on to customers like you, of course. Think of your purchase at Lootmore as a single deal, but at a bulk purchase price! We call it LOOT.

The benefits to the customer are obvious. Lootmore also offers sellers a unique opportunity to increase the number of sales, thereby increasing overall profits through higher turnover!

What’s more, we also help to improve your shopping experience by helping you make informed buying decisions. We do the market research to bring you the best-in-category products at rock-bottom prices. In our opinion a shopping companion should, besides providing the best deals, also make it easy for you to find information on the products you’re looking to buy. And why do we do this? After all, we’re shoppers too!

On Loot More, we feature one product for sale per day, every day, at an attractive low price. Our featured product goes live at precisely midnight and is available for 24 hours and no more, unless sold out prior.

What kind of products do you sell and who should shop at Lootmore.com?

Lootmore started with a passion of selling, supplying and distribution of products in bulk to limited community of people/re-sellers who used to make money out of us and as usually kept low margins always. Later we evolved it as a business model and launched it as Lootmore. Don’t ask us, how we are keeping such low margins or when you guys will be profitable. Not sure, may be by the time we retire J

We cover a larger category of Brand New and mostly Branded Quality products ranging from computer hardware and software to electronics, mobiles, books, movies, music, kids toys, games, apparels, sporting goods and what not, we’ve got whatever it is under the sun all year long.

The benefit is obviously to the customers who Loots the deals from us. This is when they keep coming back to us if today is the desired product they have been looking for.What sets your business idea and model apart from Group buying sites?

I would like to make a point clear here, most people are comparing us with the Group Buying business model which are more focused to the retail services sector. Every deal they host generally stays live for about a week’s time and it also requires minimum buying points for the deal to go live.

As a business we are far different from them, our focus is primarily on showcasing Products, brands and discounts. Every product we host typically stays live for 24 hours and there by follows the new.

How are we able to sell so low – Unlike other ecommerce businesses, we cut the middle man out and source the products directly from the manufacturers or their immediate Tier 1 distributor in Bulk. This bulk procuring gives us a better control on our suppliers to negotiate the best prices. Keeping some bare minimum margins we pass on the later benefit to the end customers.

What is your strategy for making Lootmore.com bigger and better?

So far in the last 6 months Lootmore was able to attract over 10000+ customers and nearly 60,000+ have subscribed to our daily alerts.

We are coming out with Version 2.0 of Lootmore.com soon, with a slight change in the business model. There we will showcase multiple products in various categories rather than just one product a day. This will give wider options for the customer to choose from and LOOT among the best deals.

Secondly as a strategy, rather than competing with existing players in the market, we are going hand in hand with them. We are partnering with existing ecommerce ventures and supply stocks to them in bulk.

And also, staring from early next month, we are initiating discussion with the offline media in showcasing our products in their medium. This gives us huge mileage interims of Branding and visibility of the products we offer to a large scale of people.

Hopefully these strategies should help is scaling up from where we are today.

What attracted you to entrepreneurship?

Being an independent crazy individual, somehow the routine job didn’t suit me or rather I didn’t suit the corporate routine jobs of which most I found as custom tailor made solutions and one has to execute as Ctrl +C and Ctrl +V.

It wasn’t an easy task for me to quit the luxurious hefty salaried job. What’s driving me still is just the passion and madness towards entrepreneurship and the dream to something big in life.

What has been the most difficult period for you as an entrepreneur?

We were doing well with our first Project (Jobdin.com), when we became victims of the market fluctuations in 2009-10– Recession hit us badly, we had to write off nearly 40lacs worth of pending payments receivable from customers. Most were either shut down, shutters closed or absconding. We almost gave up as we didn’t have any scope of retrieving those payments for the services we offered to them.

Our cash reverses were almost nil, we reduced the team size from 22 to 5, Cut down on the costs from all possible corners. I almost decided to give up and get back into the normal mode of LIVING. Couple of entrepreneur friends even opened their doors for me J

Still the final hope of success was haunting me, was continuously saying don’t give up. After intensive discussions and research the idea of Lootmore struck, and we converted our passion to Business.

We launched Lootmore.com in May 2010, we had and are still facing many hurdles from various corners, but we know the game, now the ball is in our control.

Our Primary focus now is to get maximum reach using all the possible mediums, with the core objective of passing the major benefits of Looting to our customers (or as Rather we call them- LOOTERS)

What do you think was the amateur entrepreneur mindset that was holding you back?

Doing everything all alone, I didn’t have any other option too. No one was ready take risks and join us. It was hard to find a co-founder equally passionate and in sync with your thoughts. Mistake has been rectified now.

Where did you procure your seed money from? Are you seeking investors?

The company is self funded so far. Raised initial capital from family and friends, yes we are on the lookout for Funding, we have laid out aggressive expansion plans for the coming years. We are open to discuss the options with investors interested in us.

What has the reaction to Lootmore.com from consumers been like?

Lootmore.com has been extremely successful. Thanks to our LOOTERS (Customers) for accepting us and helping us spreading the word around.

As mentioned, in the last 6 months we were able to attract over 10000+ customers and nearly 60,000+ have subscribed to our daily alerts. And we are seeing a significant growth in our daily transactions too.

What according to you teaches entrepreneurs to be successful?

Focus, that’s what drives me. Be passionate about your idea. No books can teach you everything. It’s you, who learn out of experience.

Yourstory wishes Prashanth Gowriraju and Narsimha Raju a successful entrepreneurial journey to fortune and fame. To learn more on Lootmore.com or see the offer of the day have a look at their website http://www.lootmore.com