mycity4kids: A ready reckoner for all your parenting demands

In February 2012, mycity4kids, anonline marketplace for servicesrelated to children, had almost
clinched its first round of fundinguntil the investor changed his mind atthe last moment and scrapped the dealsaying the model lacked scalability. Thethree-year-old Delhi-based portal thatstarted as a listing website for offlinebusinesses offering activities for childrensuch as swimming, dance classes
and the like, has since added a bevyof revenue models to the existing one.Started by Vishal Gupta (29), PrashantSinha (38), and Asif Mohamed,(39), thewebsite has grown to become a readyreckoner for parents who are looking forextracurricular activity centers in theirlocality for their kids.

With nuclear families being the normin urban India, parenting has undergonea sea change and a new industry of businessesoffering various activities forthe mental and physical developmentof children has risen. “The number ofservices on offer for children has grownmanifold,” says Gupta, Co-Founder andManaging Director, mycity4kids.

Fully-knitted services
Currently, there are around 50,000 childservice providers across six cities-Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad,Bengaluru and Chennai-listed on theirwebsite. Based on a freemium model,the company provides these offlinebusinesses with an entry-level packagewith which they can go online and set
up a profile on the mycity4kids platform,explains Prashant Sinha, Co-Founder andCOO, mycity4kids.

In this model, any business can registerand get a site to display basic informationabout their services. However,those who pay Rs 3,500 annually get apersonal login feature where they canpost upcoming events, yearly schedules,etc., and also upload pictures, videosand testimonials.

The website also offers an InteractiveVoice Response (IVR) service for businessesfor quality check and records.“The moment we assign a number to abusiness, it works as a virtual number forthem where all their calls are recorded. Ifthey are not able to pick up a call, it will goto someone else in the same team. This isa lead and response managing solution,“says Sinha.

Swati Goswami, Founder ofJabberwocky, who runs speech anddrama classes in South Delhi has been a
partner with mycity4kids since 2010 andsays the IVR service has increased thenumber of leads she gets from customers.“As I work alone, I cannot spend toomuch time handling calls. Hence, theirIVR service helped me get more clientsand I was able to handle them better,“shares Goswami.

Adding models
Sunil Goyal, Founder and CEO, YourNestAngel Fund, who invested $1 million inmycity4kids in April last year says theteam worked on reviving their revenuemodel. “Their revenue model becamecapable only after our investment,” hesays. Earlier, the founders had raised Rs 50lakh between themselves in 2010.

Gupta tells us that till October 2012,they did not have a scalable businessmodel. However, post-October they haveadded many revenue streams such associal media promotion of special classes
of listed business who pay Rs 5,000 yearlyfor this service. The startup has acquired2,500 businesses in the last 12 months,whereas in the combined 24 monthsearlier, it had listed 450 businesses only.

One reason for investors pulling outof the deal in February, Gupta says wasbecause, “they said there was no abilityto do transactions on the website.“Around the same time in April, a musicalpuppet play for children, The Wizard ofOz was scheduled at Epicenter, Gurgaon.“We quickly set up our whole ticketingcapability and launched it in a span ofthree weeks. We were their ticketingpartners and sold almost 75 percent oftickets,” recalls Gupta. This set off theticketing business for mycity4kids andthey charge 8-10 percent as transactionfee on total volumes and Rs 5,000 asupfront annual fee to customers availingof this service. They offer otherservices like cash collection facility forlisted businesses.

“We also provide auto-paymentreminder services. If you own a playschoolor conduct a hobby class and youwant to collect fees for the month, youcan enter names of all the parents andchildren, the payment due date andautomatically an e-mail or an SMS willgo to the parents reminding them that
the fees are due,” explains Mohamed,Co-Founder and CTO, mycity4kids.

The ticketing business has grownso much that they book 45 percent ofall tickets for shows directed towardschildren in the cities they operate in,says Mohamed.

Brand promotion
The company claims to have over 12,500unique visitors visiting the site and 40percent of these are repeat customers.Gupta says he wants to leverage thesenumbers in a better way.“We have this homogenous community of parents and we have sellers whowant to reach out to them. There are
various models that can be carved out,“says Gupta.

The portal is planning to accept advertisementsand specific brand promotionson its website.

“We already have a huge communityof parents and businesses listed withus and brands can target them for theirpromotions,” adds Gupta.

This article first appeared in Entrepreneur India magazine.