One look at the past career of Lokendra and you would not have doubt regarding his competence in business intelligence, entrepreneurship and management. Before pursuing his MBA in marketing management, he graduated in electronics and communication. Right from the start of his career, he has severed in several key positions. This gave him ample experience in pre-sales management.
Taking cognizance of the booming startup arena within the country, Lokendra then decided to sit of the entrepreneur chair and started his first venture called Cognus Technology. It had a stellar growth with an in-house team of 200+ consultants serving more than 1000 clients in 10 countries. However, he came to the limelight for his next startup called Wooden Street. It is an online furniture store focusing on, innovative multi-utility designs and affordable custom-made furniture at customer’s doorstep. Within a span of six months, it has surpassed everyone expectations and created a huge buzz around itself.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
www.woodenstreet.com is India’s 1st e-commerce startup offering exclusive furniture customization to consumers across the country. We offer a wide range of solid wood furniture collection additionally customize furniture as per personal taste, preferences & style.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
Understanding and overlooking at the highly fragmented and unorganized Indian furniture industry we felt that there was a need to bring a virtual experience for custom made furniture to attract buyers to get their favourite piece of furniture sitting at home. Our embracing model is to help busy professionals and homemakers to find a perfect fit furniture for every space, endless considering the little time in hand to visit a physical store.
What is your life mantra?
“Never ask for an easy task, ask for them to be worth it.”
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
The most challenging part of our journey was with the supply chain, inventory management and logistics. Our team has been working well to improvise the process.
How did you overcome those challenges?
The journey of an entrepreneur itself is a challenge continuous learning process is what helps you to overcome these.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
As we started our operations we didn’t seek for any investment and thought in order to understand the challenges bootstrap was a must. Gradually as we are overcoming these challenges and now are stable enough to look forward to first round of seed funds.
How do you protect yourself from the problem of Brain Drain?
The start of our selection process itself scrutinizes the right pool of talent that we up bring within our organization. A very energetic & friendly environment is created so that each employee feels comfortable.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
Potential Progress Practice
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
Few things that I am very active with are mostly Linkedin, Where in to stay connected professionally, Google Analytics while I keep a track of the website and Google Calendar while I stay updated on my meeting schedules.
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
I keep myself very much involved with the growing entrepreneurs, as we share new ideas & thoughts daily it certainly helps us in implementing many new practices in our daily life.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
Nothing in particular.
Answer in less than 50 words
• One tip to success:
Take up every opportunity on your way to success.
• One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
He should never match information with his beliefs.
• One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
You can never blame others for your action.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
We envision growing Wooden Street at a faster pace in the Indian furniture Industry. Speaking about our short term goals we are aiming to triple the revenue by next quarter. Our team will focus on improving processes, logistics and product range.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I believe whatever happens in your life goes the way it has to be, so a feel for a change doesn’t imply in my case.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
Khalil Gibran’s “Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.”
