4: Ambareesh Murty on creating a profitable e-commerce co. and taking it public

In an exclusive conversation with Mint’s Associate Editor Shrija Agarwal, Ambareesh Murty, Co-founder and CEO of India’s leading online home furnishing retailer Pepper Fry, discusses his journey in creating a profitable brand in the highly competitive e-commerce space. Ambareesh believes that the road to profitability for an e-commerce niche such as Pepperfry is through creating ‘differentiation,’ ‘scalability,’ and ‘brand recall.’ And these three factors allow Pepper Fry to consistently make 20%+ contribution. Ambareesh shares his intension to take Pepper Fry ‘public’ and believes that ‘IPO’ is the true measure of success, at a time when many tech-entrepreneurs prefer to stay private for long. Ambareesh, further opens on a host of topics: his initial mistakes and course corrections in creating Pepperfry, frugal capital raising at a time when capital is abundant, advent of Ikea and its impact on his business, and some of the key challenges and learnings in the course of creating a successful brand.