LimeRoad Thrives Amidst A Bloodbath
LimeRoad has a truly exceptional team led by Suchi Mukherjee (Founder & CEO), which refuses to take short-cuts and instead focuses on finding scalable, long-term solutions to difficult problems. Suchi has been deeply involved in architecting and building consumer products of significant scale and brings similar aspirations to LimeRoad. Every time there is a choice between an 'easy fix' or finding a less obvious, long-term solution to a core challenge, she chooses the latter, even though that inevitably means stepping into the unknown. It takes guts to choose the path less traveled, but it is her belief that this path maximizes the likelihood of substantial value creation. LimeRoad is the only platform in the fashion e-tailing industry which offers the users services beyond just discounts- the curated looks and stories which assist the user in discovering delightful products at amazing prices.
LimeRoad as a business is not obsessed with the GMV game, in fact, LimeRoad is obsessed about profitability. Since its inception LimeRoad has focused on two principles: Superlative Consumer Experience and a Path to Profitability
In a year where the narrative on E-commerce has been about many startups shutting shop, funding has dried, downsizing of workforce and companies are struggling to make unit economic work- here is LimeRoad that is growing 4 times & on its way for profitability. In 2017 LimeRoad is going to continue treading the same path. LimeRoad is for sure, one of the few sensible business models in the current scenario. In the last 12 months, the marketing spends has remained flat but the efficiency has improved by 70%. Likewise, the headcount has remained stagnant at 450 for the last 2 years, in spite the GMV quadrupling.
The lady behind India's first online social discovery platform, LimeRoad, Suchi Mukherjee was the face Indian e-commerce to share the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at The Start up India - Stand up India conference held last year. She has also signed a MoU with the government of MP to give local handicrafts a national presence and has been continuously focusing on the fundamentals of perfecting the existing business model.
The only Indian to receive the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship for studying Economics at Cambridge University in 1994, Suchi graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi University and procured her master's degree in Finance & Economics from the London School of Economics where she won the British Chevening Scholarship.
Suchi considers her biggest achievement to be starting her own venture, LimeRoad and scaling it to heights it has reached today. She finds it tremendously satisfying to see lakhs of women across the country express their style picks, to see the platform showcase nearly 4000 new fashion styles every day, going from nothing to 30 million user visits a month, with the highest conversion rate in the country.
Suchi believes in a very straightforward leadership style and is a big believer in people development. She tries to introspect and explain the issue at hand in its simplest of forms, and encourages her team spring into action as problem solvers.
At the end Suchi adds, "Be hungry to build something bold and take the risks they inevitably come with. There will be downs, but if you follow your heart there will be tremendous highs too! But you need to have the drive to stick it out."
