It is easy to travel on a path paved by leaders, but it is a different ball game to travel on the untrodden path and make way for others. Viral Thaker, the Founder of Décor-Tech brand iDecorwala.com and the Managing Director of the Thaker Group has been part of both phases. He was a regular employee in a Management Consulting firm once. After a successful brief stint in corporate jobs, he donned the hat of a serial entrepreneur and was the brain behind iDecorwala. Under his leadership, iDecorwala is not only acknowledged as a leader in the wall décor industry but also in the new space of décor products & solutions business verticals. The company has introduced these verticals as a part of a one-stop solution for its patrons and consumers.
“A job is a job; it must be done as an employee or the employer. Both have a role to play and a process to own and relay,” says Viral. As an employee, he was encouraged to be innovative and work independently. In his previous job, he claims to be an ‘Intrapreneur’. Viral was not new to this style of working. Coming from a family of businessmen and entrepreneurs, stepping into uncharted territory is in his blood.
While summarizing his strategy, Viral told, “You need to be agile to understand the market needs and formulate solutions that give you first mover advantage”. This is visible in various ventures launched and ideas implemented by Viral in the past. In 2010 Viral took a leap and started his own business, ‘The Social People, ’ which rapidly grew into top 10 social media marketing firms in India. His venture continued to grow and was recognized by the industry. In 2014, he received the ‘Best Upcoming Entrepreneur of the Year” award from CII and the Government of India. ‘The Social People’ ended up being just one of the milestones in his entrepreneurial journey. Viral was pulled into the family business of Wallpaper and décor’, a traditional brick-and-mortar shop. Being an IT and technology stalwart, it was not appealing to him. It was then he decided to overhaul his business. Interior and décor business was mostly unorganized. . Viral’s plan was to disrupt, siege & reorganize the market. He used his services and technology experience to transform this business into a tech-enabled start-up.
Under his leadership, his team scaled up iDecorwala, an AI-driven eCommerce & Decortech portal. Assiduously built in India, the portal boasts of having indigenously developed experiential and interactive custom interface technologies like AR & VR. The move of adopting & implementing experiential technologies is disrupting and reorganizing how people decorate and style their space. Completely unheard of in the market, this has delighted customers. “This segment of wall covering market in India, both organized and unorganized, has a potential market value of around INR 1,000 Cr. We have witnessed 120% growth in the last few years. And this is just the beginning,” says beaming Viral Thaker. During an online interview, Viral demystifies the nuances of this industry. According to him, iDecorwala.com, in India, has a top-line projection of INR 200 Crores by the end of 2025, including a direct Serviceable Achievable Market (SAM) of INR 320 Crores.
Covid19 led to another breakthrough for the company. The hard work of creating a good interactive portal for selling décor paid off. All businesses had online shifts due to the lockdown. Although an unforeseen event, iDecorwala was proactively ready for this challenge because of Viral's growth vision.
Today company has established itself as a major player in the market. Viral believes this is a trend in vogue, and its popularity will soar. iDecorwala is on its way to creating a distinctive segment of the wall décor and furnishing industry with a strong following. With further experiments and improved services, Viral hopes to strengthen its brand; the best is yet to come.
For more information: https://idecorwala.com/