Entrepreneur, Suraj Goyal, Print Bindaas, on his Attempts to Capture USD 5 to 6 Billion Web-To-Print Market in India

Edited excerpts from the conversation:Print Bindaas sounds cool. What is it all about?

Print Bindaas is an e-commerce startup that uses Web-to-Print technology. The portal allows users to design their own stationary and marketing collateral such as visiting cards, envelopes, flyers and brochures by making use of the hosted online templates. Customers can also upload their own logos, pictures on the templates and even upload complete designs. The printed products get delivered to the users within 4 to 7 days after placing the order. In case the customer wants help with custom design, we have attractive design packages as well.

How is Print Bindaas beneficial when compared to a retail store?

A person can order from the comfort of his home/office 24/7 without the need of traveling to the retail outlet. The facility to design and customize online, eliminates the need for a graphic artist and hence reduces the price of the final product. As opposed to retail model(in most cases), online model has the capability to reach a wider audience. Our model can meet demands of small towns and villages as well, where it is hard to find quality printers. Without having to pay design charges, our customers have access to design templates by professional designers. If the customers want an exclusive design, we provide that service as well, at a charge.

Very exciting. When was Print Bindaas started? How big is your team?

Print Bindaas was started in April 2010. We started our sales operations in October 2010 and online business in May 2011. We are a team of 16 now.

How many clients do you have right now? Where are they predominantly based?

We have executed over 500 orders till date. We get orders from all over India, to my surprise once we got an order from a remote village in Orissa. We also have a few international customers from Europe. We get a lot of orders from startup companies and professionals.

How do you cut cost involved in the supply chain?

Our technology allows us to take the order to print directly with minimum human intervention. Also, we have signed up long-term contracts with logistics companies AFL, First Flight and Fedex to help us ship our products nationally and with DHL for international shipments.

How much money was required to start Print Bindaas?

We have spent close to 1.2 crores till now(from our own pockets) and are now talking to a few angel investors and PE/VC funds for funding.

What is the projected revenue?

We plan to close this year with 1.6 to 2 crores in revenue. Next year, we see an inflection point in our business where the business should grow 5 to 6 times.

What is the market size you are trying to capture?

Web-To-Print is a large market, and estimated market size in India for this service is 5 to 6 Billion USD. Right now, this market in India is unorganized and growing.

You are currently based in Mumbai, where do you plan to expand next?

We opened our office in Delhi last month. We also plan to have an office in Bangalore next year.

How do you plan to scale?

Technology behind Print Bindaas is hosted on the cloud environment and is quite scalable. We are scaling up our print operations in Mumbai currently, and very soon plan to have a second set up in Jaipur.

What are the biggest obstacles to scale in this business?

Web-To-Print is a complex business and needs multiple skill sets; technology, creative thinking and thorough understanding of print operations. Also, it is a very capital intensive business!

Do check out Print Bindaas’ website for further details.

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