With QuackQuack & Truejodi -Offering Genuine Profiles Is The Top Priority

Ravi is the Co-founder at QuackQuack – an Indian dating platform and TrueJodi – a matrimony platform. Both platforms verify profiles to ensure genuine identities. Recently, Truejodi ran a creative social media campaign that generated great buzz and record user growth. Ravi was also involved in running several businesses in the past including Hyderabad Pigments. He is an active member of Toastmasters International.

BWDisrupt interacts with Ravi Mittal about his business perspective in the match-making sector in India.

Share with us your journey from manufacturing sector with Hyderabad Pigments to eventually becoming the Co-Founder of two match-making platforms?

Manufacturing and consumer internet are two very different ball-games. I started working with my dad at the age of 16, and was working in our manufacturing units dealing with 60-80 people under me. I always craved to do something in consumer internet space. Manufacturing and B2B sounded less attractive to me. And when I realized the dearth of dating apps in India, it decided to go ahead by renting a small 2bhk without having any technical knowledge. The passion to do something directly for B2C was so high, that I immediately took the plunge. My parents were quite supporting of my decision.

What goals do you have in mind for the future and how are they in line your company’s vision?

We wanted to scale up QuackQuack to a good 5 million users and with 1.6 million users in our kitty, we’re on track. We’re also working on expansion to other countries and test markets for QuackQuack.

With Truejodi, the intention is to bring accountability with verifications. Having seen so many people getting duped on matrimonial sites, we’re going to disrupt the industry with stringent verifications and genuine profiles seriously looking to find a match, barring people who’re looking for casual dates.

What are the monetization models you have experimented with?

Early on with QuackQuack, we’ve experimented with Ads only model with Ads + Subscription model. We figured out that with ads, we’re only letting our users exit our site/app and in-turn not seeing any major bump in revenues. The ideal choice was to remove all ads. Today, we’re a pure subscription only model.

Please tell us about the challenges you faced while launching QuackQuack and how did you overcome it?

Explaining the idea of a ‘dating app’ was difficult to relatives. We also had trouble with few vendors who did not want to entertain a dating app. Hiring for startups also is a major challenge when you’re operating from a rented 2bhk, while a candidate is looking for job security. Much of the credit goes to my team who believed in me and joined our startup without bothering about the ‘look and feel’ of the office!

What is the USP of QuackQuack& True Jodi and how is it an edge over it competitors?

QuackQuack:
a. Backend moderation for content and photos
b. Proactive removal of spammy and suspicious users
c. Interest based matchmaking
Truejodi:
a. 9 step verification process
b. 100% fake and spam proof
c. Only serious users. No place for flirts

Share with us the market opportunities you see in the matrimony and dating/ matchmaking sector in India & abroad.

India is at a very nascent stage when it comes to matchmaking where only a small percentage of users are coming online to find a date. We see a market for 50 million users in India in the next 5 years for dating. There is also greater scope as we plan to expand to south-eastern asian countries and parts of Europe. While Truejodi’s, focus is on targeting Indian audience globally who are looking for a pure, fake free matchmaking experience.

Share your views on the 5 biggest mistakes that startup founders do?
a. Not focusing on product validation
b. No thought process on revenue streams
c. Buggy execution of product
d. Too much hype around funding and too less focus on solving real customer issues.