Dinesh Agarwal built IndiaMART from 1996 into India's largest B2B marketplace with 60 million monthly visits, never raising institutional capital. The company hit strict KPIs on growth, profitability, and margins before listing on the BSE and NSE in July 2019.
Chapters
Foreign.
Started 1st of April 1996 on the Fool's Day. And the 4th of July 2019 is what we got listed on BSE and NSE. Today we get about 60 million visits every month on India Mart and that's like 6 crore times people visiting about 35 million unique visitors a month. And we have a zero advertising budget. We do about 4 crore matchmakings every month. Buyer, seller matchmaking every month. That's like 15 matchmakings every second and buyer seller matchmaking. And all in all a total of.
Less than 2,000 complaints that we get.
So Indians are far more honest when it comes to doing business. And that is why our.
Informal economy.
Continues to flourish very heavily. Because that has to work on trust. So where legal contracts fail purchase survive generations and people honor purchase, what does.
It really take, right? You've also not raised institutional funds. What does it take for an entrepreneur to actually dream big and go go all the way to a listing.
When we started in 1996, entrepreneurship known.
And it was known as the business business karna. And within the 98, 99 boom time, I tell you, within a span of nine months we became so intelligent that.
In September when I was thinking of forming a company from a proprietorship firm. So he asked me private limited firm.
So I asked him, you know what.
Is the difference between limited and private limited? He said limited company form. So in nine months from not knowing.
What is the VC to getting so market. I think in, in nine months we.
Became so, so smart that we started.
Dreaming of IPO and you know, doing ESOP and things like that. So I think media and investors and, and. But then it, you know it takes hell lot of time, coffee time in fact pura lifetime, you know. So IPO karna hai ni karna hai.
And by the time retire after 40.
Things, you know, so those things don't really fan out. And IPOs will happen when will happen.
You know it is not something.
You can control ipob.
I've been trying to do it for.
Last four, five years when you will.
Find that right window. And right, because for IPO it is not just one thing going right for you. You have to get growth, right? You have to get profitability, right. You have to get margin expansion, right. You have to get, I mean I don't know if there were 200 KPIs, you will have to get all the 200 KPIs, right? So I think there's a lot to be learned from public market going public market. You know I have learned a lot about my own business. The way I look at my own.
Business by going to the public market. I think public market going is opens.
Up a lot of nuances for you. Lot of clarity for you, lot of number tracking for you, lot of predictability of the numbers for you. You are able to. I think it's a great word out there.
