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Dhruv Bonnerjee
Bookseller. Venture Builder, Co-Founder at A Box of Stories.
Dhruv Bonnerjee is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of A Box of Stories, a company that delivers surprise book boxes to customers.12 Here are some key details about Dhruv:
Professional Background
Dhruv is an entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of success in driving revenues and growth.2 His role at A Box of Stories focuses on growth and revenue generation as the COO.
Founding A Box of Stories
Dhruv co-founded A Box of Stories with Aasha, who came up with the initial idea for the business. The company was started as a way to rescue books from being pulped and give them a second chance to reach readers.1
Technical Contribution
When the company was first launched, Dhruv played a crucial role by building the website for A Box of Stories. Interestingly, he built the website while he and Aasha were in Italy for a wedding.1
Current Role
As the COO, Dhruv is likely involved in the day-to-day operations and strategic growth of the company. A Box of Stories has grown significantly since its inception, now helping tens of thousands of book lovers discover new reads.1
Online Presence
Dhruv is active on professional networking platforms:
- His LinkedIn profile can be found under the username dhruv-bonnerjee-13ab8a4.2
- He is also present on Clubhouse, where his profile describes him as a "Bookseller" and "Founder, A Box of Stories".3
Dhruv Bonnerjee's entrepreneurial spirit and technical skills have been instrumental in the growth and success of A Box of Stories, which has become a venture-backed startup in just two years since its founding.1
Highlights
Looking for 😍: E-commerce expert. Has previously taken an E-comm/ subscription business beyond $10mn. Revenue Share model.
- Scale up A Box of Stories U.S. Already done a successful MVP pilot.
- Launch A Box of Stories India.
- Get rich.
Pls DM.
Geography not important.
pls help spread the word.
“These are Sh*t books. And I know books,” pretty strong opening 1 minute of a potential investor meeting.
He was right. In the sense that he did know books. He had spent over 30 years in books. Building a wholesale business that re-distributed unsold books, with an annual turnover of about £20mn. I thought he would be a dream industry investor to have on my team.
He was right to think A Box of Stories, then just 6 months old worked with shit books. In fact they were books that the gentleman himself had passed on. Didn’t think they were worth considering due to poor sales… in fact terrible sales numbers. Passed on to the ‘Pulp List’
Except he was wrong. About 3 things.
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These books weren’t shit. They were curated on the basis of real reader reviews from across the internet.
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They had poor sales number because they didn’t have any marketing exposure. Just 15% of published titles receive a decent marketing exposure.
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I wasn’t relying on my readers to pick these titles. I was curating them for curious bookworms wanting to discover books they had never heard of.
The problem was because he started from a strong bias he just didn’t accept any forecasts I made. His answer to everything was “There is just no way.” Even to statistics.
Why did I think they weren’t Shit Books? Trustpilot Score of 4.5 Comments on FB Ads by previous purchasers A feedback loop called First Impressions Return Rate of 0.001% 80% Repeat Purchase Rate over 4 months.
It’s been 4 years since that meeting but the numbers have held.
But this is not a ‘Screw You I was Right’ post. We both lost a great opportunity that day. To do something cool together. One of the biggest Wholesalers and a tiny 6 month old business with a very bold idea. Helping bookworms discover four books they had never heard about, while saving four brilliant stories from being lost forever. In a country that pulps about 77 mn brand new books. Every year.
Experience was his bias. His bias was KPIs like Book Sales Figures that weren’t relevant to my business. My problem was I kept pitching data and numbers and believing it would convince anyone.
I didn’t know what I was really building. We thought we were in the e-commerce / book box business. We weren’t. We were re-inventing Curation. Our Curation Engine could today go through his library of over 100,000 titles and create personalised bundles for a single reader in less than a minute.
When you’re an outsider pitching a new business with the strategy to prove your business is right, isn’t always going to win you a veteran industry influencer.
When you’re an experienced Indistry veteran looking at a new business idea / initiative don’t ask yourself why you think it would fail. Try and ask yourself what is the upside…should it succeed. Would it be a big win moment for the industry?
The day the two can find a way to work together. Chances are it will be an unstoppable force.
#startupecosystem #venturebuilding #publishinghouse
