CREATIVE LONDON: Aneeqa Khan

We caught up with Aneeqa Khan, CEO and Founder of eporta.com to find out what inspires her and what parts of London she loves.

1. What inspired you to set up eporta?

I always wanted to run my own business, and come from a very entrepreneurial family so it was really inevitable. The idea for eporta came while I was head of strategy at property website, Zoopla. I was redesigning my Brixton flat and was unable to quickly and easily find what I wanted online. Digging deeper, I realised that the real issue was that unlike in other industries there was no online platform aggregating global suppliers to help professional buyers discover and order products all in one place, which meant it was difficult for me to find products as a consumer. We have created a completely new eco system and solution for a fragmented global industry in which hundreds of thousands of brands are dotted around the world.

2. What excites you about the products?

We have created a design meritocracy. Professional buyers can find their perfect product for their project from an established brand such as Cassina, Roche Bobois or Tom Dixon, or choose from an unknown talent that is actually a very small business.  Deliberately style agnostic and uncurated, we cover every style from Art Deco to Scandinavian design classic. We are focused on only working with brands that meet a certainly quality threshold regardless of the size and currently cover 800 brands in 45 countries from Romania, Portugal to the States. It’s exciting to see that a lot of the most popular design talent on the site is coming out of London. The Design schools are some of the best in the world and draw the finest talent – it’s a huge creative hub for international design and that is a really exciting environment to work in.

3. Any exciting plans for the future?

We will be celebrating one year since launch in September and in that short space of time, we’ve grown to be the world’s largest trade-only online interiors platform with more than 2,000 trade buyers and 800 suppliers. We are now expanding globally and currently planning a launch in the Middle East.

4. Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Move quickly and iterate.

5. Favourite places to hang out in London

Our office is in Clerkenwell which is a great area to be in – creative and entrepreneurial and I’m a big fan of the café’s and independent shops on leather lane. There’s also a brilliant new design store around the corner called Clerkenwell London with a great restaurant.

6. Your ideal Sunday?

My working week is often back to back meetings so the weekend is golden. Sunday would start with a long morning run in Hyde Park followed by a late brunch with friends near my home in Kensington – there’s a great ‘hole in the wall’ kind of place called Kensington Square Kitchen that does the best breakfast in London in my opinion!

If it’s sunny, then I’d be outside roaming busy streets or in Hyde Park.  I’m a big fan of the theatre and try to see as much as I can in London, so ideally I’d be watching a play in the evening followed by dinner at E&O in Notting Hill – great Asian fusion food!

Website: www.eporta.com