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FirstCry founder Supam Maheshwari is one of the\nonly entrepreneurs in the online-retail space who was also running a\nbusiness during the 1999 2000 dotcom bubble, which has perhaps helped\nhim chart a different course from his peers. His company started adding\noffline stores in 2012 when omni-channel was not the buzzword, FirstCry\nis based out of Pune and not startup hotspots of Bengaluru or Delhi,\nand he has also been able to spin off a logistics business.\n
\nAnd on Saturday , Maheshwari pulled off a unique transaction where his\ncompany acquired Mahindra BabyOye in a stock deal and also secured an\ninvestment from the $18-billion conglomerate. By consolidating its\nlargest competitor, the 42-year-old Maheshwari will now be the CEO of\nby far the largest baby and mothercare retailer in India, both online\nand offline.
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\n“His ability to think strategic and macro, and suddenly go deep micro\nis something very unique,” said Sudhir Sethi, chairman of IDG Ventures\nIndia, which invested in the company in 2012. “He is extremely\ncomfortable with extremely comfortable with uncertainty, and charting\nout a new path which has not been done before.” Players in the online\ncommerce market will now keenly watch Maheshwari, who unwinds by\nplaying squash on weekends and spending time with family, as he\nintegrates the offline operations of Mahindra BabyOye and FirstCry to\nbuild an omni-channel play.
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\n“There is no\ndivide between on line and offline channels, as from a customer’s point\nof view it’s retail,” said Devangshu Dutta, CEO at retail consultancy\nfirm Third Eyesight.<\/span>
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\n“Omni channel\nholds potential over the long term and companies need a management team\nwhich understands the business.” <\/span>
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\nBut the going has not always been so smooth for Maheshwari, a\nmechanical engineer from Delhi College of Engineering and MBA from\nIIM-Ahmedabad, who knows he has his task cut out. He started his first\ncompany , eLearning startup Brainvisa Technologies, in March 2000 which\nraised `3 crore from Infinity Ventures 3-4 months before the dotcom\nbubble burst. The business started as a customer facing online test\npreparation play but had to pivot to a business-to-business model.\nAfter running the business as CEO for over seven years, it was acquired\nby Indecomm Global in 2007 for $16 million where he also saw impact on\ncorporate business of Lehman Brothers brankruptcy. “You become richer\nby experience, there is no shortcut to it. Importance of cash, running\na business in a cost-efficient way and building that culture internally\nis very important,” said Maheshwari about his Brainvisa experience.
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\nMaheshwari said that he has applied these lessons at FirstCry , which\nhe founded in 2010 with Brainvisa colleague Amitava Saha. He was also\nthe first online retailer to start adding online stores in 2012, a\ntrend which has been followed by several vertical etailers now. And in\n2012, he also launched a logistics business to fulfil its own orders.\nXpressBees, which is now run by Saha, started taking third-party orders\nin 2015 and raised `85 crore in funding after spinning off from\nFirstCry. But along the way, he has also taken some tough calls, like\nshutting down the personal care products selling business Goodlife in\n2013 admist funding winter in ecommerce space.
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\nPeople who have worked closely with him say Maheshwari is a tough\ntaskmaster, and great at spotting opportunities which will help him\nexpand his business, even if they don’t fall into conventional methods.
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\n“He is very driven and committed to the cause of the business,” said\nearly-stage fund India Quotient’s Anand Lunia, who was a cofounder at\nBrainvisa. “He does not think theoretically and gets stuck to a\nparticular notion of strategy , which is what most startups do.”<\/span><\/p>\n