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Abhiraj Bhal (Urban Company CEO) and Abhinav Chaturvedi's Podcast<br>- Untold Seed Stories: First 500 Days of Urban Company<br>Podcasts have been one of the ways we try to bring out untold stories of startup founders. Continuing<br>with this tradition, we at Accel are excited to introduce our new podcast mini-series: Untold Seed<br>Stories.<br>This new show aims to unravel the first 500 days of our foundersu2019 startup journey u2014 ranging from how<br>they first conceived the idea and met their co-founders, to details of how they secured their first<br>funding and challenges along the way.<br>For the second podcast of our Untold Seed Stories, we chat with Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Co-founder and<br>CEO of Urban Company. (Gurugram-based home services marketplace that offers services in cleaning,<br>painting, spa & beauty, plumbing, carpentry and so on.) Now having its centers in 22 cities across<br>India, Singapore, UAE and Australia and Singapore, Urban Company boasts of 30,000 service<br>partners and more than 10,000 beauticians.<br>An engineeru2019s mental model<br>Though born in Mumbai, Abhiraj grew up in places like Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu) and Visakhapatnam<br>(Andhra Pradesh). His father served in the Indian Navy, and that led to a sheltered upbringing with<br>focus on academics and sports.<br>Coming from a family of engineers that included his grandfather, father and sister, Abhiraj went into<br>the natural transition of becoming one himself. He is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from IIT<br>Kanpur from the 2005-09 batch, and went on to do his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad the next two years.<br>During this rigorous two year MBA, Abhiraj had to spend more than 17 hours a day studying and<br>working the course. An internship with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) later transformed into a<br>full-time job after the MBA.<br>While consulting with the companies BCG was serving, he was smitten by the meritocracy, the<br>fairness and the high quality the firm came with. Gathering some inspiration from these clients, he bit<br>his own entrepreneurial bug and wanted to build a large business like the fortune 500s he was<br>advising.<br>Abhinav Chaturvedi, Partner at Accel said the company continues to facilitate the same principles to<br>this day. Abhinav met Abhiraj and the co-founders at Bhikaji Cama Place, one of the typical Dhabastyle eateries in Delhi. The place was small, dingy that served the likes of Chole Bhature and Butter<br>Kulchas, with a ton of oil. It was the right anti-thesis of tech culture and was against anything that<br>supported a technology-based conversation with a venture capitalist.<br>Abhinavu2019s idea was to meet the team in Delhi to understand a few things on the tech stack, as part of<br>his due diligence. Looking back, he says the only investment thesis he had at the time was his decision<br>to invest in Urban Company.<br>Listen to the podcast here https://www.seedtoscale.com/podcast/abhiraj-singh-bhal-and-abhinavchaturvedi
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Abhiraj Bhal (Urban Company CEO) and Abhinav Chaturvedi's Podcast - Untold Seed Stories: First 500 Days of Urban Company Podcasts have been one of the ways we try to bring out untold stories of startup founders. Continuing with this tradition, we at Accel are excited to introduce our new podcast mini-series: Untold Seed Stories. This new show aims to unravel the first 500 days of our founders’ startup journey — ranging from how they first conceived the idea and met their co-founders, to details of how they secured their first funding and challenges along the way. For the second podcast of our Untold Seed Stories, we chat with Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Co-founder and CEO of Urban Company. (Gurugram-based home services marketplace that offers services in cleaning, painting, spa & beauty, plumbing, carpentry and so on.) Now having its centers in 22 cities across India, Singapore, UAE and Australia and Singapore, Urban Company boasts of 30,000+ service partners and more than 10,000 beauticians. An engineer’s mental model Though born in Mumbai, Abhiraj grew up in places like Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu) and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). His father served in the Indian Navy, and that led to a sheltered upbringing with focus on academics and sports. Coming from a family of engineers that included his grandfather, father and sister, Abhiraj went into the natural transition of becoming one himself. He is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur from the 2005-09 batch, and went on to do his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad the next two years. During this rigorous two year MBA, Abhiraj had to spend more than 17 hours a day studying and working the course. An internship with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) later transformed into a full-time job after the MBA. While consulting with the companies BCG was serving, he was smitten by the meritocracy, the fairness and the high quality the firm came with. Gathering some inspiration from these clients, he bit his own entrepreneurial bug and wanted to build a large business like the fortune 500s he was advising. Abhinav Chaturvedi, Partner at Accel said the company continues to facilitate the same principles to this day. Abhinav met Abhiraj and the co-founders at Bhikaji Cama Place, one of the typical Dhaba- style eateries in Delhi. The place was small, dingy that served the likes of Chole Bhature and Butter Kulchas, with a ton of oil. It was the right anti-thesis of tech culture and was against anything that supported a technology-based conversation with a venture capitalist. Abhinav’s idea was to meet the team in Delhi to understand a few things on the tech stack, as part of his due diligence. Looking back, he says the only investment thesis he had at the time was his decision to invest in Urban Company. Listen to the podcast here https://www.seedtoscale.com/podcast/abhiraj-singh-bhal-and-abhinav- chaturvedi
