Leading the race, the MadRat way!

Bangalore-based MadRat Games has a 50-people team headed by husband-wife duo Rajat Dhariwal and Madhumita Halder, both IIT graduates. But it wasn't technology that fascinated them for a career. "We shared an inclination to work with children," says Dhariwal, designated Head Rat (CEO) of MadRat Games, who quit his job at the world's largest online retailer Amazon at Seattle after a few months, and came back to teach middle school kids at Rishi Valley School, 150 km from Bangalore. So did Madhumita who was working with Mumbai-based special effects company Rhythm and Hues. At school, while the duo realised the power of play to engage children, they wondered why there wasn't a language game in Indian languages, just as there was Scrabble, a hugely popular word game in English. Invented in 1938 by New York architect Alfred Mosher Butts, the game sells in 121 countries in over 29 languages, but no Indian language. That seeded the idea of Aksharit, the Hindi board game.

Today, MadRat Games is India’s most innovative and fastest-growing physical toys and games company. It has recently raised around $1 million in funds from Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (founders of Flipkart), Pine Labs and Globallogic.

Since its inception in 2010, the company has sold over 275,000 game units and has partnered with Nokia, Google, Intel, Cornell & the Government of India for original game development. In the last year, MadRat launched 70+ game titles.

Here’s sharing their exciting journey and a bigger success story in the making!

Putting together funding for the idea…

The initial funding was the classic startup way – we invested our own savings, as well as borrowed from friends and family. Eventually we raised from Blume Ventures and distinguished entrepreneurs including Sachin and Binny Bansal.

Short term and long term business plans …

Our short-term plan is to sell 100,000 units of Madzzle, the world’s first roll up puzzle for children. Once this is accomplished, the long-term goal is to focus on developing the MadRat brand, as someone which creates products which not only develop the child but are also exciting for him. Very soon, we also intend to launch interactive wearable technology based products for children.

Policies that helped or hindered …

We haven’t been much affected by policy changes as such. However, because of the excise tax, we end up losing 12% of our margins straight away, which is a big hit for Indian startups like us. An exemption in this will be welcomed by everyone with open arms!

Advice sought from VCs or startup advisors…

We have integrated with startup advisor and got to learn that consumer branding play a pivotal role for an entrepreneur. Providing qualitative product with modern design is the key to stand out with the competitors.

About the location or geography of the business, it helps to be in a place that keeps you well connected such as metros. This is from getting an ecosystem of mentors, investors and resources needed by a start-up.

Struggles during starting upphase…

The biggest struggle has been to succeed in a non-existent industry. Unlike e-commerce, our business model wasn’t spreadsheet-driven, as the consumer and market were not very well known in advance. Financially, it was difficult to sell our dream to investors, as we were intent on doing something nobody had attempted in India before.

While the thought of hitting the one-billion mark is exciting, what truly drives us is a chance to make a difference in the lives of children.

Cheat-sheets …

The biggest “hack” we used was the concept of Minimum Viable Prototype (MVP). Usually one talks about a Minimum Viable Product. Being a start-up with limited resources, we became good at developing fast hi-fidelity prototypes. We could innovate only in one or two dimensions such as gameplay.  Infact we would go as far as to say that we’ve been just selling prototypes till now - Madzzle is the first true “product” category to come out of MadRat. All aspects of a product like branding, packaging, gameplay have come together.

Succession plans …

The tipping point for us was the brand research we undertook to understand the world of children today. It completely changed our perspective of the market need. Based on this a truly transformational product came out - Madzzle, which we feel will establish MadRat as a brand.

Tracking business trends…

Well, because we’re the torch-bearers of board games in India, there are no business trends to monitor. That said, we keep learning from what the iconic companies of our times are doing, and keep adding value to our offerings.

Motivational factors…

Besides the larger vision of impacting children, its the opportunity we’ve got to work in the area of offline engagement for children today. It’s no ordinary task we have undertaken, and given how difficult it was to convince people, we feel it’s more important now than ever to keep going. We already see a few start-ups entering this space now and we hope MadRat can pave the way for many more.