Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, Founders, FoodieBay.com
Never say die: When the going gets tough, the FoodieBay guys get going.
Deepinder is a just another 2005 graduate from IIT Delhi and Pankaj is yet another graduate from the same IIT in year 2007. But what sets them apart is that they now lead the foodies to their destination through FoodieBay.com When they were in college and moved on to become executives in Bain Consulting, it was always a struggle to find menus of restaurants around. They had to either head to pantry areas or ask friends for the menus so that they could order food or head to a nice joint.
This need helped the germination of the idea. They could make the menus available online. Presently they have listed around 1400 restaurants in NCR region. The future plans are even bigger. They plan to bring respite for the hungry people of Bombay, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore soon.
But the ride was never easy for Deepinder and Pankaj. Deepinder started "foodlet.com" some time ago. The venture was to have tie-ups with restaurants and put up their promotions through Foodlet.com. The customers could order food online through Foodlet. The team worked on the venture for 9 months and fought hard to make it operational. But the lack of resources suffocated the start-up. Deepinder attributes the failures to particularly two reasons. Firstly, customers were not willing to order food online; secondly, lot of time was required for operating the venture.
Deepinder started off with the idea of Foodiebay with one of his friends Prasoon Jain. Prasoon Jain went on to Bombay because of personal reasons. There was severe lack of human resources, but Deepinder went on with the struggle. That was when Pankaj joined him in his dream venture. The joining of Pankaj is regarded by Deepinder as a turning point. He also calls Pankaj the lifeline of Foodiebay!
Foodiebay is currently targeting corporate offices. They are trying to promote their venture through word of mouth publicity. They have also tied up with some upcoming restaurants like Orange Hara. The site was bought in April 2008 and operations have started from July 2008 onwards. They want to become the Customized Food Guide with personalized reviews and menus attached. In such a short span they proudly say that "We are the No. 1 food website in India right now!"
The current team of 6 in Foodiebay is very excited with the responses of the customers and eating joints around. The customers are so much associated with their venture that they have even started giving them feedbacks of food and restaurants. They were contacted them by a customer regarding some problem with McDonalds. The team contacted McDonalds. McDonalds team appreciated them and gave them a prompt reply thanking them. The customer was also pleased with the kind of efforts the team at Foodiebay put in for his suggestion.
Deepinder and Pankaj are really enthusiastic with all the developments. They also feel low when the things are not working out as planned. But they feel that "the kick" that they get out of their own start-up is worth every drop of sweat. The same "kick" pushes them pushes to new limits. They find pleasure in creating a new product or service. The satisfaction of doing something worthwhile keeps them going even when we get tired.
Both of them feel that the right team is necessary for a successful venture. The right team then needs to have the proper planning so that the ideas can be materialized. The correct mix of both the factors can do wonders according to them and take them leaps ahead towards success.
Deepinder still thinks that Foodlet.com was great idea. Now, he wants to first make Foodiebay, his current passion, a huge success and then evolve the features of Foodlet into it. Pankaj is too busy playing the role of a lifeline with sights on success.
YourStory would like to wish Deepinder and Pankaj good luck with their venture, FoodieBay, and promises to track their progress as they climb the business ladder.