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Delivering Food, With Love

When was the last time you ordered food online? You probably did recently as there are quite a number of platforms in Kathmandu that take your orders online and deliver the food at your doorstep. Now, when was the last time you ordered 'home-cooked' food online? Well, that might come as a surprise to you and you might wonder, "Why would I order 'home-cooked' food and even if I wanted to, how would I do so?" And that's where Foodmario comes into the scene.
Among a number of food delivery services in the capital, Foodmario is pretty much one of its kinds; that’s because it delivers home-cooked food and not the restaurant food like most of the others do. With the aim to build a platform that connects home cooks with the consumers, the startup was initiated in August 2017. Currently operating in a closed circle, the service is limited within the ring road for now. But that's going to change soon as the team is planning to expand the reach. "Our ambition is very high; we want to scale to different parts of Nepal and even outside Nepal someday. And that's, of course, step by step - first from ring road to outside ring road in Kathmandu valley, and then to different places in Nepal and then finally take it a step ahead to make it international", said the determined Founder/CEO, Rohit Tiwari.
With 12 cooks in the platform, Foodmario already has made over ten thousand deliveries in last few months. Priced between Rs. 25 to 350, it offers a menu with variety of different food items including regular dal-bhat, roti-sabji, pizzas, burgers, momos, chow mein, pulao and what not. "80% of our customers are entrepreneurs and different startups as early adopters, and we also do get orders from people from different fields. I have to say that the start-up community has supported us well so far", said Tiwari.
It's not the first venture of the 26-year-old entrepreneur who comes from an engineering background. "I have plenty of experiences failing", he proudly answered when asked about his previous experiences. In last five years, Tiwari started and “failed” at many startups, including a solar company and goat farming. But this time, he is positive and that's also because of the team he has built. "We have kept the team as lean as possible, balancing the work and the number of employees. We have Roshan Kalauni as the Digital Marketing Executive, who previously worked with one of the biggest food delivery companies in Kathmandu. Babin Paudel is our Communication Officer and we have two customer care representatives with three interns. As a startup, the structured hierarchy is still to be made, and we are trying to build it as we grow", he added.
With the target of making over 2000 deliveries a day by mid-2018 and empowering over 200 home-chefs, the team has been working harder than ever. The startup, that currently takes orders via its website www.foodmario.com, is working on an app that is scheduled to come out by the end of January. According to Tiwari, "the app will be one of its kinds."
"The most important part of the startup is the emotional attachment that our customers build with the cooks. And it's always great to hear the stories of our home chefs who have now got a platform that not only lets them earn money but also pursue their passion for cooking. The stories we are building are so good, that sometimes I get emotional thinking that we are actually doing something really good", said Tiwari.
Well, Foodmario surely is one of the most promising startups to look forward to this year.
Neeraj Pun
Owner/Blogger 
www.neostuffs.com



Note: This article originally appeared in the print magazine, Management Vision-an opinion based magazine of business and entrepreneurship prepared by the BBA students of People’s Campus. 

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