To keep it fresh and affordable

FOOD FOR SOUL

Rashmi is a busy woman. Mother of a four-year-old, her day starts at 5:30 am, as she gets ready to pack off her kid to school and manage a bit of exercise. Then she heads off to work (sometimes, as early as 7:30 am), to attend a slew of meetings, interviews, tests, location searches and everything else that her job entails. Who said being the founder and CEO of a food startup is easy?

“Right now, what with all the hectic lifestyles people are living, it’s very hard to find time to cook at home. Add to that the rising prices, hassled travelling, lack of credible options and unreliability of cooks — and it’s a mess. Freshmenu started in October last year to resolve some of these problems by offering fresh food fast,” says Rashmi Daga, the founder of the food startup that promises to deliver fresh food at your doorsteps, anywhere in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon.

The company’s forte is best exemplified by their tagline ‘meals without borders’, as they offer Pan Asian, Continental, Chinese, Mediterranean and Lebanese cuisines, at prices that your wallet will love (Rs 100-400). Known for serving scrumptious dishes from “neighbourhood kitchens”, they you get food from a kitchen closest to your place.

“We wanted to change how food is perceived,” avers Rashmi, who has had her fair share of trying experiences with inaccessible food joints and lack of maids. Today, Freshmenu caters to about 5,000-6,000 people every day, she says.

But a food startup in a place that is already dominated by many traditional and modern food joints is a pretty bold step. “Food as a business is a big industry. So, there are plenty of opportunities for us to explore,” maintains the entrepreneur, who believes that an online food portal fares better than a full-fledged restaurant, in terms of economics. “Today, if you want to open restaurants across any city, the cost of setting up those physical units and then trying to drive footfalls there is very high. In such scenarios, a model driven by digital marketing as its front makes life easy and simple,” elaborates the IIM graduate.

Business sense

Describing the journey of her ambitious startup, Rashmi says that forming the right team of people who were not just good at their job, but also as passionate about food as her was one of the biggest challenges. Of course, being clear on the ethics also rated high on her priority list. But doesn’t the intense competition scare her? “Since food is such a big field, all the players can have the luxury of catering to their own set of audience. As long as we keep delivering quality work, we can be assured of our customers. The only
competition is with yourself,” says Rashmi.

This, however, isn’t Rashmi’s first venture. A few years ago, she had launched afday.com, a website that curated art and craft for interested customers. While the bootstrapped venture managed to do decent business, Rashmi realised that it wouldn’t last for long. “There’s no point in keeping a business which had no signs of growing bigger,” says the businesswoman, who has also worked with Ola Cabs and Bluestone before.With Freshmenu, Rashmi seems to have got it all in place. Backed by angel investment from GrowthStory, the company is showing signs of approval and sustenance.

“There will be times you will succeed and there will be times when you won’t, but always follow your convictions,” says the lady, whose future plans include coming up with innovative food. And yes, aggressive marketing and presence in many more cities is also on the agenda.

Not a woman thing

Rashmi is a strong believer of the fact that gender has nothing to do with how
successful a person can get in his or her life. She, in fact, thinks that all aspirational people have similar battles to fight and we all need to find our own ways to deal with complex situations. “It’s wrong to say that men have had more opportunities than women and that’s the reason for their success. The whole man-woman debate is very hard to comprehend and it’s difficult to say if you are on the good side of life or on the bad side,” she says.

But as far as her business is concerned, Rashmi has no problems in comprehending the challenges that need to be met. Come to think of it: it’s a food business and these days, all it takes is a bad review to bring a food establishment down. “Yes, that’s true. Also, our challenges are bigger as we are an online entity. But we take all kinds of feedback seriously and do an internal root cause analysis to understand why the customer wasn’t happy.

But when it comes to food, there are many subjective analyses. Not to forget, ours is a very young company and hence, all the processes aren’t full-fledged as yet,” avers the entrepreneur, who’s working on the long-term plan of getting the best of world
cuisine at affordable prices to all corners of the country.