PUDUCHERRY: After moving to India from the US, Sudha Sundaravaradan, 38, jumped onto the entrepreneurial bandwagon that revolves around children. Her clientele is in the age group of 0-14 years, and India having a large young population presented potential. An MBA graduate from Western Washington University, US, Sudha has a myriad of experience working as an analyst in various capacities and companies.
Urban parents usually go to great lengths to celebrate the birthdays of their children, and this is where Sudha’s Jumporee comes into the picture. Realising that there is a huge gap in the entertainment space for children, with safe, clean and customer friendly options, Jumporee, India’s first exclusive kids bounce house rental service was born in January, 2012.
“When I hired a local bounce house for my kid’s birthday party, the bouncies I got were very dirty and clearly not safe and did not follow safety regulations. The staff were pretty much never there to monitor the kids,” she explains on how she hit upon the idea of Jumporee.
As someone who was always on the lookout to do something on her own, she dived into the venture. This is how Jumporee works — they rent out bouncies (inflatable structures like castles/houses/slides where children and adults can jump and play inside) for parties. Jumporee brings the bouncies to the client’s place and inflates it during party time. Once done, the bouncies are deflated and taken back. Sudha takes pride in her toys, “We have a wide variety of inflatables to choose from. On D-day, our staff will create a play zone in the client’s space and monitor the kids. The bouncies conform to the highest standards of quality and are lead-free.”
Jumporee has broken even in terms of the equipment procured. They have serviced more than 400 events, making at least 20,000 kids happy. Operating mainly from Bangalore, their services are offered in various other cities too. Attributing her success to her husband and her two employees, she says that they have stood by her despite the initial stumbles and that they understand her vision and implement it accordingly.
A bootstrapped venture, Jumporee has no serious competitors in the field. They have also tied up with corporates like WIPRO, GE, HP, ORACLE, Trends Advertising Company, First Source and Hindustan Unilever. As part of its outreach programme, they also do special charity shows for underprivileged kids and special needs kids.
Her words of wisdom to budding entrepreneurs: “Never lose hope and always believe in yourself and your idea. Learn the core areas of your business/idea by doing extensive research before getting into anything. Every time someone critiques your idea, take that as a challenge and work hard to make the impossible possible.”
— mathew.maniamkot@gmail.com