One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

― Virginia Woolf

Dreams, they take us to places unknown to us. Far away from the love of your mom, discipline of dad and playfulness of the siblings. It takes us to new lanes, new people, new cultures and new food. Imagine a pure vegetarian surviving in the non-vegetarian dominated society. No wonder your Dadi is so concerned when you come back home for Diwali Vacations looking like a thin piece of cardboard or like the Big fat burger you hogged each day during lunch !

But what is one supposed to do when ‘Maa ke haath ka khana’ is only available back in the comforts of your own house and your amazing cooking skills are discouraged from being put into use by either lack of time and energy or by the scare of burning down the house.

This problem lit a bulb in food lover Prasad Mehta’s head who then came up with the healthy alternative of The Lunch Box Factory, a great outlet providing a blend of healthy, tasty and hygienic lunch to those starved of good food! Here’s what Prasad Mehta had to share with us about The Lunch Box Factory.

Prasad Mehta

Tell us a bit about your background and the path that ultimately led you towards The Lunch Box Factory.

I have completed my Masters in Commerce from University of Mumbai and done entrepreneurship from S.P. Jain Institute of Research and Management. Since childhood I have been passionate about food and I even love experimenting as well as cooking when no one is around. Like every other youngster, I wanted to open up a restaurant where people could hang out and eat good food. The idea of The Lunch Box Factory came when I came to know that people, especially individuals who work did not have any facility to eat good home like cooked food and had to eat outside food or cold tiffin.

That’s where it struck me that I can help them out by providing them healthy, quality food that they can eat every day. And that’s how The Lunch Box Factory was born. Initially it was a proprietary firm and today I have 2 Partners who happen to be my friends too, Saurabh Padwal and Pratik More. We are together as a team and it is great that they share the same vision as I do.

How long did it take to put together The Lunch Box Factory?

Every business needs to have proper planning and without planning, you cannot proceed further. It took 7 months to initiate the launch of The Lunch Box Factory. From making Business Plan to brainstorming with different people, it had to be shaped perfectly.

How difficult has the journey been? Any stories you would like to share?

Difficulties reveal how skilful you are and how innovatively you can tackle the difficulties. My journey has been difficult as well as beautiful. Without difficulties you cannot learn how to move ahead. As the saying goes, “Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors”. Initially when I began, there were lots of difficulties and one of the difficulties which every meal services faces is the logistics. On the very first day, I had experienced that not giving quality services to your client can land you in the soup.

What happened that the delivery person was having some difficulties to find the address and the client did not receive the food on time and it got cancelled. I was devastated as it happened on the very first day. And that made me realize that whenever a client places an order with us, the first thing to keep in mind is timely delivery. And since that day, we have been delivering food on time.

How do you plan to monetize The Lunch Box Factory? Do you have any tie-ups?

We are planning to monetize our company by selling healthy food to health conscious people and providing easy food solutions. We are also in talks with a company which provides health and nutrition consulting and we will be soon having a tie up with them which will be very beneficial to health conscious and people who are looking forward to eat right and stay fit.

How different is The Lunch Box Factory from its competitors?

At The Lunch Box Factory we make sure that our clients have hassle free meals. From packaging, delivering to coordinating with our clients, they never have to face any difficulties. We interact with each one of them very frequently and make sure that we are able to cater to their needs.

What is next in line for The Lunch Box Factory?

Well, we are looking forward to open up our very first outlet where people can order their fresh meals and even take away. And even provide franchising option for people who share similar views like we do i.e. providing quality, healthy meals and making customers smile with satisfaction on their faces.

How do you plan to promote The Lunch Box Factory?

Currently, we are promoting The Lunch Box Factory on Social Media Platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And also we are promoting it by distributing flyers and sending mailers to potential clients. We are looking forward to Radio and TV Ad’s soon in the near future.

What is the hardest aspect about this job?

The hardest aspect about this job is to work patiently yet efficiently, have proper communication and coordination. One mistake and it can ruin the whole process and eventually it can lead to a mess.

Five years down the line, where do you visualize The Lunch Box Factory?

I see The Lunch Box Factory as one of the established companies in healthy meal services. It will be one of the few organizations who will help people in becoming fit, healthy and guide them to make their health better. And not only Mumbai but also other cities will have this privilege as we believe that you are what you eat and we want to make people eat healthy quality meals and see them healthy.

What has been the one important lesson you’ve learned in this journey?

One important lesson which I have learned is that never compromise on the quality, maintain good relations with your clients and last but not the least, never give up!

Lastly, one piece of advice to our budding startup entrepreneurs.

Keep your concepts and ideas very clear as it helps you to move ahead and it becomes easier to execute the decisions and plan ahead. And lastly, believe in yourself and your business because it’s your baby and you need to nurture it the way you imagined, the way you dreamed about it.

Do not let Junk Food win this battle and lure you into its trap of obesity and diabetes. Make a wise choice; go for food that helps you in nourishing your mind, body and soul. Your body deserves much better than what you put it through.

The post Do away With The Burgers At Your Favourite Fast Food Joint, Let The Lunch Box Factory Pack Your Tiffin! appeared first on .

Today, Hatti Kaapi has 27 outlets in Bangalore, Mangalore and Hyderabad. The bigger outlets even serve Poha, Uthappam and Idli. It has also managed to create its presence in Bangalore and Hyderabad airports, campuses and some IT companies with its store size ranging from 100 to 250 sq-ft. Interestingly, the rates haven’t increased much with the coffee priced at Rs.8 in most of the outlets and Rs.15 in airports.

Hatti Kaapi was founded by Mahendar U.S. after being some years in the coffee bean trade in his hometown Hassan in Karnataka. He attributes his business’s success to sound advice and strategic inputs from T.S. Lakshmana Swamy, a Hindustan Unilever veteran, who is now part of the Hatti Kaapi team.

Whenever we think of a coffee shop, the image of an air-conditioned room with classy seats, comfy sofa sets and sophisticated design appears in our minds. But the fact is, not everyone can afford to waste 100 bucks for a cup of coffee. No doubt outlets like CCD, Costa Coffee and Barista have been doing consistently well in urban areas but what about the lower middle class segment? Hatti Kaapi has managed to target the non-complaining lower middle class by providing them with the taste of a traditional coffee.

“We are not competing with Cafe Coffee Day (CCD). Our target audience and marketing strategy are different. Alongside the lower middle income category, we aim to attract traditional south Indian families for whom filter coffee is a culture,” says Mahendar.

Sunalini Menon, coffee expert and founder of Bangalore-based coffee consulting firm Coffeelabs, says Hatti Kaapi follows all the rules for making good filter coffee. “The consumer gets both quality and quantity at a low price and they are expanding slowly and cautiously.” She says.

The company had started with an initial investment of Rs 1 Lakh and now its investment has gradually increased to Rs. 2 Crore. It had a turnover of about Rs 7 Crores in the year 2011-2012. Hatti Kaapi employs about 120 people and buys its beans from Karnataka’s Chikmagalur district. It sells 30,000 to 50,000 cups of coffee daily and is planning to add 13 more outlets including five in Chennai.

Hatti Kaapi has managed to create its own identity amongst western-style Cafes and proved that sometimes it’s better to follow a different path than to be a part of a rat race.

Have a look at their site here http://www.hattikaapi.com/

The post It started in a Tiny Room and is now a 27-Outlet Chain: Hatti Kaapi’s Piping Hot Success Story! appeared first on .

If you’re a Chennaite you won’t have to crib anymore as this is the time when Yo! Potato helps all the couch potatoes to relish the food they want. Yo! Potato is a service provider in Chennai that delivers food orders with a free home delivery option. The most exciting feature is that a person can order from various restaurants at the same time and get it delivered without any extra delivery charges. People nowadays prefer staying at home and ordering food than going out to a restaurant, but the problem is most of the restaurants have a minimum order amount due to which people end up spending more than required. With the help of Yo! Potato, you don’t have to make orders to meet a minimum requirement, the representative from Yo! Potato will make a purchase of everything and deliver it to your own place free of cost. All a customer needs to do is dial 45 54 1111 and that’s it, food will be delivered at his doorstep!

Yo! Potato is the brainchild of two childhood friends, Krishna Chidambaresh and Showkath Jamal. It ties up with restaurants and pays them a commission for delivering orders their way but that doesn’t mean a customer will have to order from only the restaurants they partner with. A customer can order from any restaurant in Chennai. “In the orders where customers call us directly, we buy on their behalf, and thus don’t make a profit. But restaurants with which we have a tie-up give us discounts on the order — which become our earnings,” says Mr Chidambaresh.

Krishna Chidambaresh, co-founder of Yo! Potato

The friends noticed that everyone, including themselves had problems whenever they wanted to order food from a restaurant. “Even a small family of three has three different preferences. When they decide to go out for dinner, obviously some sacrifices have to be made. Yo! Potato can gather any food from any restaurant you wish,” says Mr. Chidambaresh. That’s when they decided to set up a delivery team and take orders from any restaurants.  The point was simple, to have one number through which people could order anything from any restaurant in the city. What can be better than having Croque Madame, Lasagna and Vanilla Latte at the same time ordered from three different restaurants!

The company started in and around Nungambakkam in November 2011 and soon started spreading to other areas of the city. It had started with an initial investment of Rs. 50,000 and seven deliverymen and now deals with several restaurants in Chennai. Yo! Potato shuts at 11-30 p.m but it’s looking for partnership with restaurants that are open till late night.

The team has managed to come up with a simple solution to a problem faced by everyone. We all have to make sacrifices whenever we decide to go out for dinner or order something from a restaurant. They came up with a fresh and unique idea that has not been executed anywhere in the world. While some still think that they are nothing more than delivery boys the fact is they were successful in solving a problem with the support of innovation.

The founders believe great opportunities are often in front of our eyes but we tend to ignore them. We all have gone through the pain of ordering food, especially if we want to order from multiple restaurants as everything won’t be delivered at the same time. But how many have come up with solutions to this problem? Guess startup ideas aren’t as tricky as they look.

Team Startoholics wishes Yo! Potato and its team success in the future and we hope it soon spreads to other parts of India so that everyone can order meals from different places and have a blast with their friends and family!

The post Order Food from Multiple Restaurants at the same time with Yo! Potato- Momma of All Home Deliveries appeared first on .

We know how tough it is to handle the strike of the hungry creatures inside your stomach, like controlling a riot unarmed! Every such human who had to wait for his dosa must have prayed to God for help, and he has finally listened. An engineering student of SRM University, Eshwar Vikas has designed an automatic dosa maker machine, called Dosa Matic. The thinking behind it was to produce dosas in seconds so that time is saved and the dosas are cheaper. Noble thought for all dosa lovers out there, right?

In India, chapatis, dosas and many other tasty eatables are hand-made, while burgers and pizzaas are manufactured. The time along with extra human efforts make chapatis and dosas much more costly than burgers, and Eshwar had plans to fight change this. This Electronics engineering student started working on the Dosa making machine 2 years ago and spent approximately 6 lakhs on it, which was mainly earned from his internships. The user can get a dosa in under a minute, so that you don’t have to fight your hunger for too long! One can even choose the kind of dosa- thick, thin, crispy,uthapam or kal dosa. You just have to fill in some batter and oil, and the dosa gets rolled out. An auto clean feature is also there to keep you free from the troubles of cleaning the machine after every dosa.

The team behind Dosamatic has set up a company called Mukunda Foods Pvt. Ltd., and it is incubated by Indian Angel Network. They have got their own manufacturing plant and R&D team too. The Dosamatic machine they have developed is going to cost just one third of the other machines that do the same, but are much more bulkier and use complex mechanisms. This is just another story of  how the passion of doing something different along with determination can help counter challenges, even if they are related to delicious and crispy dosas. Lets hope the restaurant next to your home starts using Dosamatic, so you won’t have to wait the next time you’re hungry.

Enough use of the word Dosa, I now need to eat one! Long Live Dosas!

The post Love Dosa? Here Comes The Automatic Dosa machine: Dosa Matic appeared first on .