Maa Ka Dulaar – The Beginning

Ideas are like the wind, they are always there, and it depends on whether you catch, utilize, and pursue them or not. Here we have a similar story proving the point even further. From a college boy who missed healthy home-cooked meals to the founder of the startup, this is the story of a young entrepreneur – Mr. Shekhar Mittal – Maa Ka Dulaar.

In the words of Mr. Mittal, when a person changes their place of living, the change is not just in the place but also in the type of food that changes with it. To illustrate it further, let’s move to Bangalore (a place where Maa Ka Dulaar is set up). People who are coming from the northern states are coming to the southern states to pursue their studies or career, which if thought is a major change or transition in the place of living and the food style. The taste and likes of both the states have a huge difference in the style of food and a lot of other facts like culture, environment, etc.

How it all started?

The idea struck his mind when he was a student and got himself enrolled in an Engineering college. By default, he had to eat the food which was available in the college’s canteen which was hard to intake every other day. So eventually the students found themselves eating outside the college as the only resort to survive.

They found themselves eating outdoors not once a month or a week but every other day. But at the back of his mind, the concern for health and hygiene always lingered and worried him a lot.  He always thought that there should be a place that provided healthy and hygienic food.

That was the moment he realized that this was it, the idea that he caught was that of providing healthy food. He always believed in the superiority of the food that is cooked at home with the love of a mother and also that health and hygiene are taken care of and so Maa Ka Dulaar came into existence. Their main motto was to help the corporate employees, students, and workers who are far away from their families and home and provide them with home-cooked healthy meals. 

But that is just not it. Maa ka dulaar is more than a home-cooked meal provider. They are empowering women as well. As the name also suggests, Maa Ka Dulaar means that the food is cooked by moms. Hence they are working only with the Mom-Chef and the reason behind that is to provide them a place to showcase their culinary skills and stand on their own feet with excellent skills in making food, healthy and hygienic. They also deliver homemade snacks and sweets to PAN India which are filled with the goodness and love of the moms.

Challenges

Now everything is a challenge if thought about, even living is a challenge so of course, starting a whole new business in such a competitive world won’t be all unicorns and cake, there will be a good share of thorns as well. So like any other business, when questioned about the challenges of the initial days of this prestigious start-up, Mr. Mittal says that initially, it wasn’t all rosy as usual. He had to do the work on his own making the deliveries and packing the things. The experience of the starting days is very valuable as they taught him a lot.

So when asked about the major challenges in the initial days here is what the founder had to say: “I was very enthusiastic and took 10-15 orders but wasn’t aware that there had to be a fixed radius in which I could cater. So I had taken orders across the north and south parts of the city, but I was the only person doing the deliveries so it became very difficult.

The deliveries were not made on time.” Even though the deliveries were spread all over Banglore the first day impressions were good as people liked their services. So the main glitch was regarding the delivery only, and how to handle the partners. “But now as the operation increases, we have a business tie-up with the delivery company “Dunzo” where delivery has been taken care of easily,” Says Mr. Mittal.

This venture wasn’t a full-time but a side-time venture. Things got a bit difficult to manage as he was working and managing his job as well as business operations and deliveries of Maa ka Dulaar solely. As he goes into the flashbacks and thinks about the hiccups it was, that only one guy was there for delivery and if he was not on time he had to leave all his in-hand work and make the deliveries. Slowly they moved ahead and started getting repeat customers who want to subscribe to them on a monthly basis. Hence when it becomes difficult to manage both things, he decided to quit the job and pursued it full-time.

Humanitarian Work

During this pandemic situation where everyone was stuck and a bit hesitant to take outside food. Maa Ka Dulaar came in front and catered meals to frontline heroes, doctors, and patients with proper safety and security measures issued by the government. Even Maa Ka Dulaar joins hands with the association, where they catered meals to the needy who are on daily wages.

Locations

As of now, they are established in two cities Bangalore and Aligarh (U.P.), and have launched their mobile application with which they can also explore other tier-1 cities like metropolitan cities, for instance, and are planning to move ahead with that. In Bangalore, 15+ chefs are working and covering 60+ areas, and Aligarh, is comparatively smaller than Bangalore but they are covering the area with 2 chefs.

Family support

Now as the topic of family support comes up, Mr. Mittal says that in India, most parents and family members don’t support ideas in the initial days of a business or new work, as they think that it’s not going to work. But, eventually when they start to see the growth and that people are acknowledging and respecting the work they later give all the support. So initially they were not supportive but now they are also considering Maa Ka Dulaar as their own venture.

innovative ideas

They have also come up with the interesting concept of homemade hampers for this Diwali in which they include their delicious sweets and snacks for corporate or individual orders. The hampers are also made according to any special occasion, making it more special with handmade cards as well. Another new addition from their side is their application. They own a chef-friendly application that is now live on the google app store and they are getting enrollments from various chefs on it.

They are eventually creating a market space in which chefs from different cities can enroll directly with them and register themselves, go for subscriptions, and can even upload their menus and start taking orders at their premises. There is a customer-friendly application too, where they can look for food services available near them and schedule the order at their convenience. 

Overall Maa Ka Dulaar is a successful and inspirational venture which also motivates the fact that “Change Starts From Within”.

And if you are looking for corporate food/events or individual orders in Bangalore/Aligarh, then simply go through maa ka dulaar menu card or connect at 8618330924.

recognitions

To add to their feathers, they have received awards for their venture in the year 2020-21 : 

Starlet Women Entrepreneur Award

Best Emerging Home Chefs Food Ordering & Delivery Platform

(Best Home Made Tiffin Services in Bangalore)

 

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