Our first blog post on this page marks a milestone. It's been 4 years since we set on this journey. Back then, one of our founders had an idea. The other pushed hard to make it better, and they kept challenging each other to make it happen, until we became an international service provider.
The photo above is that of our co-founders Bahadir and Levent (respectively), taken at the 2016 startup Istanbul event, just as fiyatimBu was getting into the B2B world.
So, how did this happen?
Our original idea was a B2C reverse-bidding model, which is how the founders started conducting business. Even without a website, they played around with the idea that:
- When someone is buying a large cash outlay item such as a car or an expensive TV, their purchase usually takes days if not weeks.
- They are more likely to wait, and also more open to being persuaded to buy certain products if they find a better deal or better value.
With this in mind, they published the first version of our website, which was:
"A platform to announce to suppliers that you're willing to wait to buy a certain product if it is ever offered at your target price."
With enough demand, it would almost function like a group-buying site. Thus, the doors were open for consumer business. Then came:
Chapter 2: The demand from businesses
As the fiyatimBu team grew in serving consumers with their needs, so did the supplier network of manufacturers and distributors they had relationships with. Some of these relationships grew really strong, and the mutual value gave the team huge pride, as our recurring customer rate, reviews, and revenue all increased.
Yet, it was not until the demand from businesses that our core service model emerged. Faced with the same kind of requests from some small businesses, our revenue suddenly found its multiplier in the B2B world. We thus decided to focus our efforts on adding value to businesses.
Which is when we became:
The right arm to your purchasing department, or "the" purchasing department if you do not have one.
Today, we operate under this business model, taking pride in serving customers in various industries all the way from education to medicine to aviation. We love diving deep to solve for the best value, and we take pride from our customers' success.
Up until 2018, the majority of our customers have been in Turkey, which is where most of our team resides. Having recently set foot in the international context starting with Romania, we are excited about opening our doors to businesses in UK, USA and Canada, with hopefully more to follow. Stay tuned....