Rohan Dighe’s story of grit to make a mark in the social commerce space with ViralMint

For a young guy coming from a middle class Indian family, starting up was always going to be difficult. A computer science engineer from Pune University, Rohan Dighe went on to work for WebChutney and a few other companies before the urge to startup on his own became too strong to suppress.

Rohan started paving the way for his endeavour to startup in 2008. Struggling in the beginning, he took up freelance projects to keep the ship sailing before entering into the services business. Slowly and steadily, Rohan saved enough to shift focus entirely to the product and launched ViralMint in 2011. ViralMint is a viral marketing platform that mainly helps businesses acquire new customers, increase sales, improve conversion rates and build up engagement. For instance, if you’re running an online store, integrating ViralMint will allow you to push offers at appropriate times, increase post purchase experience and other such things which ensure that the customer buys more.

Having always worked in the social space, Rohan wanted to make something concrete in the area. ViralMint claims to be one of a kind platform that lets a business prove the effectiveness of social media campaigns. The system requires a one-time integration to enable the platform post which it can be taken care of by the marketing team. The platform includes standard modules such as campaign manager, targeting, analytics, A/B testing, a full rewards/incentive management system and has been designed taking into consideration what works and what doesn’t in social.

And where does this know-how come from? A lot of it comes from Mahesh Murthy, the partner at Seedfund where ViralMint was incubated. Mahesh Murthy, a social media influencer himself is also the founder of Pinstorm, a successful digital advertising firm and has been mentoring Rohan and helping him shape ViralMint.

Now a team of 7, ViralMint is based out of Pune (checkout Pune Startup Pulse) and has 10 paying customers along with more than 50 in trial. Starting trials with online businesses in India to test the product which lasted for more than 6 months, ViralMint is now in the process of making the poduct global. “Most of our self-serve traffic is coming in from USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. We are reaching out to various brands at the moment and helping them plan their viral campaigns!” says Rohan.

Getting a call from the marketing guys at Snapdeal was one of the most exciting moments for Rohan, he reminisces. “They were our first paying customers to use the product. This moment was the defining moment for the startup, we knew we had built something of value,” he says.

Starting with a free trial, ViralMint has 3 pricing models starting from $30 for 500 transactions in a month and a one-time setup fee. Recently revamping their look and adding more features, ViralMint is out to grab more customers and give ROI (Return on Investment) to their customers.

Website: ViralMint