Winkk Founder’s Maiden Media Interaction

Robin Lobo, founder and CEO of Winkk has been dealing with eye wear ever since he had the dexterity to fit delicate lenses into a frame. A yen for eye glasses runs deep in him because those are his roots. He was born into a family of opticians that runs one of the better known eye wear brands in Mumbai (estd. 1960, mind you).

“I have been part of the family business since I was a kid, and I know the business inside out. I was on the shop floor making eye glasses and I have been behind the counter selling to customers.” So after Robin went to Cambridge and read for economics and finance, he came back to run the family’s brick and mortar optician business.

However Winkk is Robin’s own baby launched in August 2016, and is no relation to the family business, and that’s how he prefers to keep it. Ecommerce is tough and it’s even tougher when you don’t have big bucks backing you. “We have competitors like Lenskart and Coolwinks. But we hope to be different to our rivals by avoiding discounts. Their discounts run as high as 60 to 70 percent. Ours only go up to about 10 to 15 percent.

We don’t want to fall victim to the trap of discounts, instead we hope to use social media and an influencer network to promote Winkk products.”

His belief that he is on to something special is very strong. “The proposition of Winkk is absolutely necessary in India at the moment. India is called the Blind Capital of the world. Do you know why? It’s because most Indians who need vision correction can’t afford it. 1 in 3 people need glasses, but only 30 percent of Indians have access to it. Youth below the age of 26 years that need vision correction is on the rise; the optician market is around 5 billion dollars just for India and only 1 to 2 percent of it has been tapped.

So if you’re still with me (yes we are), you will realize that the problem is lack of vision correction instruments, like spectacles, at affordable prices and accessible from anywhere. Winkk fixes that. I work very closely with the design team myself and we have created around 600 products that is high quality (just like Ray Bans you may get starting at 6000 rupees) at prices starting at around 1000 rupees. We are also fixing the problem of accessibility. Most of our customers are from tier II and III areas, so we were right. This model of online opticians business is working and we hope to serve an underserved customer base and we are being rewarded by being just six months away from perfecting a model of positive unit economics.”

Robin isn’t out of the woods and about to hit fields flush with the green stuff (green stuff = money). “We will wait a few months more and strike a better balance in the costs of the business, then approach a few venture capitalists who can fund the vision I have for Winkk and guide us on the path to a truly successful, profitable money making business.”