Leaders

The pandemic has taken us to a juncture in life, wherein even ‘work-from-bed’ has hit boredom – something that we wouldn’t have imagined even in our wildest of dreams. Many of us are slowly falling into the monotony of the new normal and it even feels like a curse that comes with the nine-to-five jobs. But with this epoch making us all realize the volatility of our life-plans, if you are a go-getter with entrepreneurial dreams, it’s high time you break all the shackles and start travelling in pursuit of your dreams and passion. The anecdote of Vrinda Murthy (Founder, Cubit Space), a Telecommunications Engineer-turned-interior designer, is poised to ignite an inspirational-spark in such minds.

Having kick-started her corporate career in 2013 as a software engineer, Vrinda only took a couple of years to feel the void created by the lack of passion in her career. She took a U-turn to salvage her passion for interior designing, and incepted Cubit Space – a Bangalore-based interior design & build firm – in 2015.

“My choice of undergrad and in turn the IT career clearly lacked enough deliberation. Looking back, maybe I’d have enjoyed Arts or Architecture much more, but everyone makes mistakes. What matters is if you learnt anything from them, and most importantly, if you acted,” asserts Vrinda. She adds, “I was passionate about helping people in setting up a home. There is a sense of peace, meaning, and most of all, the delight of crafting happiness for others. I worked on the math, came up with a simple business model. Yes, it looked risky, but it looked right. I guess my risk appetite was high.”

Learning It The Hard Way

The risk-factor, however, is also associated with the way challenges are perceived. For a young entrepreneur trying to build credibility in the marketplace, it was a mountain to climb for Vrinda. Managing & working with daily wage workers, establishing a new set of work attitudes & ethics, and vendor operation problems were only the tip of the iceberg. But the Young Turk confronted them with persistence and by being a jack of all trades - be it Sales, Operations, Design, or HR. Above all, she made sure that realizing customers’ dreams and personalizing things for them are of paramount importance for every member of the team.

“The respect & empathy towards those who help us deliver the happiness to customers is something that is not valued enough by many in this field. People and our relationships with them play a huge role in ensuring long term success, especially when the folks you are working with aren't sitting in front of a Laptop or have the white-collar lifestyle,” adjoins Vrinda. While establishing an in-house culture based on respect & empathy became instrumental in her way forward, the constant experimentation and willingness to fail and learn had its rewards too.

After five years, Cubit Space today is a full-fledged turnkey interior design solutions company. Give it an empty set of walls of your house, Cubitsians would make it YOUR home by designing and building literally everything that it takes – from layouts to accents, personalized modular furnishing, bespoke furniture, wall & ceiling works, flooring, civil and whatnot. The credit goes to the robust infrastructure Vrinda has built over the years. Cubit Space not only has a carefully nurtured dedicated design team that caters to even the unseen/latent needs of a customer, but also has established its own factory that allows the company to personalize & control all the build & manufacturing and suit a wide range of budgets. The company’s reputation as one of the finest ‘solution’ providers stems from this ability to bring in unique & novel materials, finishes, and concepts from far & beyond and meet the most premium demands at a reasonable price. Moreover, the SOPs and agile back-end delivery infrastructure translate to the much sought after flexible customer engagement model.

En Route To The Future With Passion

There is no denying the fact that the real estate and home décor space has been hit very hard by the pandemic. But that is a temporary market situation. Within the next six-to-eight months, people will get back to owning houses and furnishing them. “Words like Luxury, Valuable, Material Novelty, Unique setups, Rarity-in-design, Boutique, and Bespoke are not just for the rich anymore. Those who can provide it reasonably are becoming important players in the market. Our customers’ want it; we couldn’t be more excited,” adds Vrinda.

With Cubit Space diversifying within the real estate interior segment over the recent three years, and in turn continuing on its healthy growth track, Vrinda has her eyes set on new challenges. Having mastered the art of working seamlessly across the wide budget ranges, she is busy democratizing the company’ services through a number of ongoing projects. “Of the many projects that we are working on, there are two specific ones that are close to my heart. One has serenity as its theme and other has a fast-paced Familia theme. We’ve adopted Acrylics, Charcoal, Linen & Clean lines to complement each other and the lifestyle aspirations of the owners,” concludes Vrinda.

Vrinda Murthy, Founder, Cubit Space

Vrinda is a Telecommunications Engineer who graduated from RV College of Engineering. After a short stint in the corporate world as a software engineer, she set off in pursuit of her passion for helping people in setting up a home. She built Cubit Space from scratch and today it is one of the fastest growing companies in the interior design industry.