CEO of Nearby Gives Advice To Indian Entrepreneurs

Solve a problem that is truly a problem. India is a fascinating country and a very different one. A lot of successful ideas from the US will not work here and vice versa.
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These Questions originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answers by Ankur Warikoo, Cofounder & CEO, Nearbuy (formerly Groupon India), on Quora.

A: Solve a problem that is truly a problem.

India is a fascinating country and a very different one. A lot of successful ideas from the US will not work here and vice versa.

Do not fool yourself into copying ideas.

And do not fool yourself in solving for every problem that you think is a problem.

Because India is about organized chaos.

A lot of what we can "inefficiencies" in the market are actually the very reason why we use it and love it.

No one hates the kiraana stores.

No one hates the restaurant delivery system.

No one hates the laundry waala in your society.

So think twice about building an app for them. You might just be moving one problem to another, without actually solving a real problem

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A: Nearbuy in five years should be India's largest Local Commerce Destination.
Everything offline - whether eating out, watching a movie, travelling, spa, salon, health checkup - should have Nearbuy as the first choice of reference.
We have been on this path for four years now. We have market leadership, though the market is still small.
And we have the bonus of trying to make it large. Which we will.

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A: Trying to convince users that the deals are for real.
Because they were so good, everyone had a "what's the catch" face on them. Transparently solving for that and making sure we stood by the experience took a lot of effort and it has paid off.

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A: You can't. Don't even try.

These questions originally appeared on Quora. - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:

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