Ex-Flipkart exec now Housejoy CEO

Saran Chatterjee, the former vice-president of product management at Flipkart, has joined home services provider start-up Housejoy as its new chief executive officer. The appointment comes in as Housejoy plans rapid expansion into more cities and services.

With Chatterjee’s appointment, Flipkart has become the launch pad for senior executives eyeing bigger roles in other start-ups. On Monday, Ravneet Phokela, former vice-president and practice head of strategic brands group at Flipkart has joined Ather Energy as its chief business officer. Recently, video streaming service HOOQ had appointed Flipkart’s former marketing head Ravi Vora as its chief marketing officer.

In less than a year after inception, Housejoy has had about 800,000 bookings till date, with about 4,000 orders a day. The company provides services ranging from maintenance and home repairs to high quality plumbing, electrical, computer repairs and also specialised services in beauty and in-house bridal make-up. It has presence across nine cities.

Chatterjee said, “I am very excited about the home services industry and joining Housejoy – which is already the leader in this space. Still early days in this  challenging sector but the market is large and that presents the opportunity to organise the supply and  shape the customer experience." The on-demand hyperlocal services market has attracted a huge interest from both investors and entrepreneurs. Housejoy competes with players like Timesaverz, LocalOye, TaskBob and Qyk, among others.

Sunil Goel, cofounder of Housejoy, said, “Saran is a proven leader in scaling up organisations which are in early stage growth phase. His technology expertise and understanding of customer behaviour, will help Housejoy scale up rapidly”

Chatterjee had also worked with Yahoo for about six years in various roles, including senior director for global product management, business management & operations director, among others.