Are you new in the city and wondering where to hang out this weekend? Well, Little Black Book (LBB) can be your one stop online guide to help you discover the hidden gems in your city. What started off as a blog in 2012, today has grown into a discovery platform with content that makes you want to step out and explore the best food, lifestyle and events in your city. Currently LBB is present in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bengaluru.
The idea of Little Black Book came about when Suchita Salwan, the founder and CEO, who was then working with the BBC, started documenting her recommendations about interesting places in Delhi. “As a young urban consumer living in Delhi, there was no one source of information that I could trust and no one I could go to, who could suggest interesting things that I could do in my city and that’s when I started off with the blog,” says Salwan.
Though LBB is no longer a blog, the concept has not changed a bit where Salwan makes sure that it is a recommendations-only platform and has content that empowers users to step out and do something interesting. Last year in June, the Delhi-based startup raised a seed investment of $150,000 from a group of angel investors including Google India’s Rajan Anandan, Outbox Ventures’s Niraj Singh, MakeMyTrip co-founder Sachin Bhatia, Singapore Angel Network and Aseem Vadehra of Vadehra Art Gallery. “We are in the process of raising our next round of funds and we will be sharing the good news in a week or two,” says Salwan.
The startup launched its app last November which makes the whole experience more personalised through its customised features where you can go through the content and save or set a reminder about the interesting places or events that you wish to attend. The app, according to Salwan, reaches out to about 20,000 users every single month. Salwan says that it is not just that their user base is growing, they also see these users coming back over and over again. Further, she shares that she will be focusing more on technology and expansion this year.
“My tech co- founder Dhruv Mathur, is working towards making the product more personalised and we are also planning to be in five to seven cities by end of this year,” adds Salwan.
Salwan says that ever since the launch of LBB as a product the growth has been stupendous. The startup has grown from 80,000 to 800,000 monthly unique users. “In just about a year we have been able to grow our readership base by 1000%,” adds Salwan. In terms of revenue perspective, LBB has grown by about 500% in last one year and have been able to support a lot of local and international brand looking to reach out to the local audience. It has also helped local enterprises reach out to the local audience.
However, Salwan says the challenge of hiring the perfect fit is very crucial for her startup. “Finding the right team who knows the pulse of what’s happening in the city and to be able to create and curate content to empower our users is very important for us,” says Salwan.
