TL;DR: Exploring the journey and impact of this innovative startup.

TL;DR

Started in Oct 2012, FindYogi is a Bangalore based product search and comparison website that helps customers to make better buying decisions. It is a...

FindYogi: A Price Comparison Engine that not only tells you ‘Where to Buy’ but also ‘What to Buy’

Originally published on Startoholics.in on 2013-07-28

Started in Oct 2012, FindYogi is a Bangalore based product search and comparison website that helps customers to make better buying decisions. It is a web application that helps consumers to make informed buying decisions with intelligent comparisons and smart data driven features. It monetizes through lead generation for merchants and branding for manufacturers.

The site was launched as a basic price comparison engine but later evolved by adding various features like scoring the gadgets and FindYogi index and the team is also planning to add more categories such as cameras, laptops and consumer durables to the site. Apart from a catchy layout, it also has a great UI and works flawlessly on tablets and Smartphones without any lags. The startup recently announced that it has raised funding of Rs.55 Lakhs from Raju Vanapala, the founder-CEO of Way2SMS. Let’s dig more into Findyogi and explore what it offers!

About the Founders

Findyogi was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Anil Bhat who have worked with esteemed web and technology organizations before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey.

Naman has worked as product manager at 500 Startups funded ZipDial and Sequoia funded Freecharge. He was also the first employee at both these startups. He has been active in the Indian startup ecosystem for over 4 years now and is a regular contributor at various startup blogs.

Whereas Anil graduated from NIT K in the year 2006. He has worked with Novell as a software engineer for 2 years and then with Yahoo for over 4 years. Before taking the entrepreneurial jump, he was a part of the anti-spam team at Yahoo.

The founders realized that with the rise of eCommerce in India a lot people were coming online but there was no good platform that really helped them decide which product to buy. That is where they saw the gap and decided to fill it with a startup. The site not only tells the users ‘Where to buy’ but also ‘What to buy’ as it suggests that best product as per the user’s needs.

Team FindYogi

What Makes it Different?

FindYogi differentiates from its competitors by taking a first hand approach towards data. Furthermore the way they present the data to a consumer is what makes them stand out.

The Key Features that set them apart are:

• It publishes a complete set of features and prices from different sellers. This is a completely manual process.

• It quantifies every product based on different features. They provide a Feature Score, a score out of 100, to every product which is calculated after taking into account all the specifications of the product as compared to maximum of that available in market.

• They have introduced a FindYogi Index, a rating out of 5, that tells users if a product is worth buying at its current market price. This is a completely automated feature that takes into account all the products, and their prices, of that particular category. This does not account for brand perception and the novelty of the product.

FindYogi’s Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs

Findyogi team has faced various hurdles and learned from their mistakes to come up with a price comparison website with a simple yet effective difference. The team advises soon to be startup founders to build products for the users and not for Google! They believe it is important to talk to people about your innovation and spend your next Rupee on it if you think it’s worth it.

More and more users are opting for an online research in price comparison websites, including the ones that prefer buying from local stores than buying online. In such a scenario, such ecommerce websites provide a plethora of options that a user can choose from and solve shopping decision problems.

Vichaarak Perspective

In the pursuit of 'Vichar' (truth), we see this venture as a testament to the resilient spirit of Bharat. It is through such innovations that we build a stronger, more self-reliant ecosystem.