Startup Street: Livspace Wants To Help, Not Kill, Its Biggest Competitor

Livspace, a technology-based home decor platform, wants to help the industry instead of disrupting it. And while its strives for profitability, two other startups let go of more than 600 employees to cut cuts. Here's what happened on Startup Street this week…

Livspace Keen To Tap Freelance Artisans: Co-Founder

Ramakant Sharma, co-founder and chief technology officer of Livspace, believes that the startup's biggest competitors are local carpenters, contractors and freelancers.

People tend to trust carpenters suggested by relatives or neighbours, he said. While the company is keen on including these freelance artisans on to their platform, it is not easy, Sharma said. “We will not kill you. We will enable you” is his message to all of them.

Livspace is an online marketplace that gives interior designers, furniture companies and consumers a meeting platform. While designers mostly include freelancers who work for a commission of 7 percent, furniture companies are brought on board on a contractual basis, Sharma said.

The company expects to achieve profitability by the end of 2018, he said in a phone interview with BloombergQuint.

The startup's Bangalore operations have already become profitable, he said. Its operations in Delhi will start making money within this year and the newly started Mumbai operations will take another six months to reach there, Sharma said.

PropTiger Lays Off 200

Property portal PropTiger laid off 200 employees due to an overlap in responsibilities after its merger with Housing.com.

The merged entity will be led by PropTiger's co-founder Dhruv Agarwala as the new chief executive officer. He will be supported by a team of senior executives and the portal's operations will be divided into two segments, platform and transaction, the company said in a statement.

Elara Technologies, the holding company of the real estate website, also owns Makaan.com.

Also Read: PropTiger And Housing.com Come Under One Roof

Zenefits Lets Go Of 430 Employees

U.S. based Zenefits, an online HR services provider, let go of 430 people across all departments in an effort to cut costs and “sustain the company for long-term growth”. The company will first centralise its operations in Arizona and then start building out product and engineering teams in Vancouver and Bengaluru, a Zenefits spokesperson told BloombergQuint in an email.

The move was being planned for a while by the company board and former chief executive officer David Sacks, the spokesperson said. But it was implemented by newly appointed CEO Jay Fulcher within his first week of leadership.

In an email to employees, Fulcher said, “We are not cutting these jobs for performance reasons...We are saying goodbye to many talented people today... (who) have helped build the company to this point, and it is through no fault of their own that we have to let them go.”

Fulcher said Zenefits grew too quickly in 2015 and hired employees to support revenue projections that far surpass where the company is today. He said the company will provide the employees “a generous severance package and job search support”.

Founded in 2013 by Parker Conrad, Zenefits started with a team of 15 employees and grew to a strength of 1,600 within three years, according to Bloomberg.

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