At some point in life, everyone has a Eureka moment, when the vision becomes crystal clear. And then you are willing to do what it takes to achieve it. One such aha moment happened on July 4, 2011, when my business partner (to-be) and I were hanging out with friends at a summer party.
We were discussing how people make buying decisions. Buying a TV based on a colleague’s suggestion, selecting a car based on a friend’s advice, and finding a baby sitter recommended by a trusted source, were some of the examples we discussed. Suddenly, a light blub went on in my head. I wondered if life was happening on social networks, then why wasn’t there one to share tips for products and activities with people we trust? At that instant, we knew what we wanted to do. That was our Eureka moment!
After four weeks of moon lighting, we released a cute little app and named it TipOzz, which was beta tested by four of our close friends. In three weeks, the number of users on TipOzz grew to 100! Two months later, we found two new startups that had launched a similar idea and had already got funding. After much debate, when we thought of shutting down TipOzz, our users revolted [ok, a little exaggeration] and we knew we are on to something. So we decided to change course and revisit our strategy to stay in the game. A few weeks later, we quit our jobs to focus on building a platform for people to find useful tips for products and activities recommended by their friends and integrate it with their existing social networks and third-party vendors. And thus, on Dec, 2011 Sverve was born!
Last six months have been terrific as we developed Sverve, found some great investors who believed in our idea, and reached many hundred users. We recently decided to gear Sverve toward connecting moms by their interests to share tips on kids’ products and activities and simplifying decision-making for them. Sverve is still work in progress as we continue to enhance it based on constructive feedback from our users. We are seeing the “wisdom of crowd” unfold on Sverve and excited to see it grow, just like a mom watches every step her child takes into the world. We will continue to share our journey with you via this blog, so stay tuned!
Rohit Vashisht. Co-Founder, Sverve
