Hungry at 1AM? Check-out Mumbai's MAD Orders - All Night Food Ordering & Delivery Service

If the digital watch on the right hand corner of your laptop has crossed the 11PM mark, life is to get difficult. The assignments are pending, the crucial soccer match is in the wee hours of the morning and this is just the time you should NOT feel hungry. And that’s just what you feel!Time - 3 A.M. Got to work for 2 more hours. Can’t sleep on an empty stomach. Snacks at home -lame! Should I wake up mom? - horror! The canteen food – no feed me poison instead. Nothing else open outside. Should I cook or should I work? This was the just the dilemma one of the co-founders found himself in one night. And Eureka!! Born was a late night food delivery service- MADorders!!

Three guys - Jigar Zatakia – handling e-commerce (Recently graduated B.E. graduate with work stints at Accenture and thegiftopia.com), Gautam Udani - handling IT and technical aspects (MD at Infini Systems Pvt Ltd a firm providing IT solutions since the last 5 years) and Krunal Shah - handling the kitchen and the food came together to start MADorders, that does home delivery of food between 11pm to 7 am in Mumbai.

There are two ways to order- Online and on the phone. If the order is placed online, a call is made to the costumer to confirm the order. Once the order is confirmed, a team of chefs prepare the order. The packaging is done in hygienic containers to ensure proper food handling after which a delivery boy leaves for the costumer’s place with the order. On reaching the costumer’s place he gives a call to the costumer instead of ringing the doorbell considering the late hour!

They also have subscription schemes on their website. Customers can register, subscribe to newsletters and leave their blackberry pin.

Ideally they would like to get all the orders online, “But it is too soon to decide on the dependence on each medium of ordering”, says Jigar. “Currently we depend only on online marketing and word of mouth which has worked wonders for us but over the time we also want to have tie-ups with related websites.”

Launched on 15^th December 2011, MAD Orders has already executed about 112 orders. So far, they have 75-registrations, 36-leaving their BB pins and 20-subscribing to their newsletter.

However, they did encounter their own set of challenges. The first challenge was taking the concept to a practically viable ground. One other thing that also took a lot of time was coming up with a design which had mass appeal. Fortunately, the design work for their website was taken care of by their design team led by Chintan Lad, Chief Design Officer at Infini Systems.

More so, hiring staff to work at these hours was difficult. They also needed a 24hr shop and establishment license. Other licenses relating the kitchen and health were already owned by the caterer who handles their kitchen.

At the moment, they have 3 chefs with 3 helpers. Also, they have 4 delivery boys running around all night long and one manager. The rest of the work is shared amongst the three. So far, they have not raised any funds but might look at it after a few months.

One of the major markets, that MAD Orders is trying to capture, is the BPO industry wherein people work all night under unfavourable conditions. “One interesting trend we are trying to turn around is the unhygienic and bland food in their canteens. We’d like to change this trend”, chips Jigar. “We are looking for corporate tie-ups with BPOs, KPOs and any other companies that also work in the night. Such companies shall bring in mass orders. Also we are planning to increase the number of delivery centres for prompt delivery.”

For more information please visit MadOrders.com and do share you views with us by dropping a comment below!

- Abhilasha Dafria