MUMBAI: Food is emerging as one of the most interesting territory in the online business world (e-commerce). If international brands like Dominos, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut amongst others had expectations of running a monopoly when it came to home delivery or accepting orders online, they must rethink and re-strategize. One who stays out of home misses home cooked food, or food cooked by home chef and it is this consumer behaviour which has laid the foundation stone for the startup Cyberchef.
Just after completing her Masters in Marketing and Strategy from Warwick Business School Neha Puri (CEO and founder) teamed up with her brother Anuj Puri to start Cyberchef.
The concept of Cyberchef is different than the local tiffin service providers as it delivers food, selected online by customers and then prepared by home chefs at their residency, which then is handpicked by the venture and delivered at the customers’ doorstep. Based on the demand placed by customers, orders are given to these home chefs, who then have adequate time to prepare the meal.
The venture started its operation in Gurgaon and has so far roped in 55 home chefs who prepare different cuisines on a daily basis. Launched a month back, the startup delivers more than 450 orders per week in Delhi-NCR.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com Neha Puri says, “We have a number of repeat customers which proves that they are satisfied with our service and that’s a huge encouragement for us.”
In terms of marketing strategy, flyers and road shows are the areas where the venture aspires to explore. Cyberchef has already organised number of road shows in NCR to generate awareness. Apart from that it has associated with many grocery joints to explore joint marketing opportunities.
Hygiene and quality of food are the major criterion for a chef to be a part of Cyberchef. “We are very particular about hygiene factor, so before roping in any chef we visit their house and inspect the cooking arena. Also we do surprise visits and chefs are aware of that so they always keep it clean and tidy. Chefs don’t need to have any professional training or certificates. What they need is just the culinary art needs to be accepted by customers,” asserts Puri.
The venture follows a 60-40 revenue model where 60 per cent goes to the chefs and 40 per cent comes to the organisation. For now sales is the only source of revenue for Cyberchef. “With the help of our marketing we want to enhance our sales, also rope in corporate contracts where we will be serving orders to mass. We have already started party orders where we take bulk orders for party.”
The venture has expansion in its pipeline and Mumbai and Pune are the locations they are targeting. “We already have 20 chefs registered with us in Mumbai and we are getting more entries, Mumbai is next and then we will go to Pune once the monsoon settles. Post that we are looking towards Bengaluru. We sense good opportunities in all these places. In the next two years, I want Cyberchef to be a leader in the food space and have presence in over six cities,” Puri concludes.
