Like most good ideas, MyRoomie happened over a drink. Two passionate souls and entrepreneurs by choice Dennis Basil and Arun Murthy met at an IIM Bangalore Alumni event where they shared their common vision of doing a differentiated foray into the space. Initially Dennis whose background is into Realestate development wanted to build specialized student housing as an asset class. They studied the market and realized that there was far greater scalability and margins in operating as opposed to building! The large natural demand for student housing was mostly being served by fragmented, unstructured players and the industry was ready for massive aggregation using digital as a core strategy, to build a massively scalable business. In due course, they zeroed in upon creating MyRoomie, one of the first student housing focused companies in India addressing a massive unmet demand for high quality accommodation with all the amenities of today for the Gen Z. "Once we had clarity on the exact market segment we would go after, the next step was to roll out a MVP and understand the unit economics. We raised the seed round from experienced Angel Investors, put in our own money and kick started the operations in 2018, in Bangalore. Today we have a core team of around 20+ people and outsourced staff," says Dennis.

The company offers an array of facilities

some of which includes Dining with menu curated by Nutritionists, Hi-speed WI-Fi Internet, Yoga and Music Instruction, Beautician on call, Tuck Shop, Gym, Indoor Games, and Chill Zone. It makes all efforts to ensure a secured and safe environment to kids where they can study and excel in their studies. "For us, it is not about providing a set of facilities rather it is about providing an experience and atmosphere for young mind to thrive and make a mark for them. We provide round the clock security and have CCTVs, BioMetric access. And everything is connected via a robust technology platform," informs Arun. In addition to this, it embellishes experiences like outings, cricket, football, table tennis tournaments movie nights, and welcome parties for students so that they feel connected and become part of the 'MyRoomie community'.

MyRoomie furnishes experiences like outings, cricket, football, table tennis tournaments, movie nights, and welcome parties for students so that they feel connected and become part of the `MyRoomie community'

Attention to human factor is what gives MyRoomie an edge over others. Each of the campuses has a pet dog that is adopted. Both the dogs (Pearl and Milo) are vaccinated, healthy and are being trained under a mentor. "This is one such way of providing social and emotional support to our students, which help in their overall well being," he mentions.

The Growth
MyRoomie has a flat organizational structure where the decision makers are available to all employees. The company has a strong work culture, backed by well defined Standard Operating Procedures, where employees are encouraged to take initiative and take decisions at the implementation level. It has periodic assessments and trainings to enhance the skill level of the employees.

Since inception, MyRoomie has witnessed a steady increase in its revenues. Dennis asserts, "This has mainly been due to our previous experience as entrepreneurs, our stringent operational procedures and focus on building a robust technology platform.."

"We are looking at raising the next round of capital and expanding our capacity to 10,000 beds in the next couple of years to cities across Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Pune and Mysore. We want to establish a strong presence and brand in South India, before moving to rest of the cities in India," Arun concludes.