Shachin Bharadwaj and Sheldon Dsouza, Founders, TastyKhana.com (Trinket Info Services Pvt Ltd)
If you are a lover of the culinary arts like me then I am pretty sure that missing out on special cuisine festivals is at the top of your pet-peeve list. Shachin Bharadwaj and Sheldon Dsouza are the patrons of gastronomic delight who promise to deliver gourmands from this nightmarish situation. Their venture delivers the goods on what’s happening at your favorite restaurants.
The duo told us more about their venture saying “TastyKhana.com is a one-stop solution for any food related requirement. We help people have the right food at/from the right place. We started this based on a personal
need & added many more things (not planned earlier) as we went ahead, learning from clients and customers. The name was based on combination of good service (for which Tasty sounds a good word – related to food) and food (Khana)”
“We have trademarked the name TastyKhana.”
Their services have delighted approximately 8000 people who have used them (ordered food, booked a table, planned a party etc) and 20000+ people have used it for information.
Its not just about informing you where the best meals or the sushi you have been dying for since forever are to be found. They actually get you there and at no cost to you. Our food patrons say “We provide end-end to solutions to customers (not just information). Revenue sources are
- Commissions from restaurant
- Charged services to end users
- Advertisement income
- Registration/Retention Fee
Getting logistics right is the challenge at hand for TastyKhana. Once their logistics are organized and tested in Pune they plan to move to more cities (first among which I hope shall be mine). The scaling up of their operations has been solved by automating the processes and is currently a work in progress.
Their entrepreneurial quest to make “foodies” happy was all the result of an idea. They explained saying “Once an idea gets into your head, which you think can be your career; the choice is easy to make.”
They have learnt to overcome their obsessive love of perfection and to concentrate more on what really matters. They spoke about what consumed their attention saying “Excessive focus on getting things right (for things that wouldn’t have mattered much) and in the process losing focus on important revenue generating sources”
In October 2007 they started with just 2 people, and 5-10 visits per day on the website. Only 3 clients were supporting their ideas then. Since their humble start they have tweaked and networked their way to July 2009. They currently employ 22 people and have 70000+ page views every month. The fact that 131 clients use their services is testament to their skill and smart work over the last two years.
They have been featured in Outlook Money India Magazine (June 17th issue) and are elated to be celebrated by the people who use their service on a daily basis
The duo would rather ride a screaming roller coaster of entrepreneurship because in their own words it’s “Much better than riding the toy train”.
Their opinion on Entrepreneurship is of the “all or nothing” variety and they stated “Take a shot only if you are ready to come out of your comfort zone (for good)!”
Yourstory wishes the facilitators of Gastronomic Delight, Shachin Bharadwaj and Sheldon Dsouza, Bon Appetite as they prepare to dig into the feast of success that life shall undoubtedly lie before them.
