[Culture Series] They Deliver TastyKhana at Your Doorstep, But Here’s What is Inside

This article is a part of the Culture Series we are carrying as a run up to the Startup Jobs Fair, India’s first exclusive campaign to connect the most promising talent with the most exciting startups. This series will bring out the culture of some of the most dynamic startups that have managed to scale and make a mark. Today we are showcasing TastyKhana.

Shachin Bharadwaj, a fresher who joined an IT firm after college was always in high demand in his first job. He was the guy with the resources to satiate anyone’s craving for food. He used to place food orders for himself and his team. Over a period of time, he had a spreadsheet of restaurant menus, including the lesser known local restaurants serving mouth watering food, and contact numbers to get food delivered to the desks. In 2007, he founded TastyKhana – online food ordering portal to help people from Pune get tasty food delivered to their doorsteps.Today TastyKhana spans across 6 cities and has grown to a 42 member team. But one thing that has remained unchanged in the last six years, is the fact that Shachin keeps his team as happy as he wants his customers to be. He says, “We are in the business of delivering food which entails high standards of customer service as we are always serving hungry customers, a stressed out, unhappy team cannot handle the job.”

TastyKhana gets most of its business when people want to relax and laze around, especially on weekends and holidays. So you’d think it is tough to be working hard, especially when other people are relaxing in their couches? But the young team begs to differ on it.

8 a.m. cricket to 8 p.m. celebrations

The energy of the team through the day is commendable. Be it 8 a.m. when they are celebrating a cricket match win, held among themselves or be it 8 p.m. when they are celebrating somebody’s birthday or achieving a sales target. They may cheer together for their teams playing in IPL but compete hard with each other in their paintball battle. However all through the time that they are together, one thing that is a constant is their amiability. “We can give some credit to this lively, high spirited behavior round-the-clock, to the parties focused we have at TastyKhana,” explains Shachin.

Comfy and Conducive

Salomi Parmar, who heads customer care for TastyKhana across India, says “We are a very close knit and open team. Everybody knows everybody else and we have amazing inter departmental relations which makes us very comfortable at the workplace and lets us work efficiently too.” The team has grown together and the bonding among all employees has grown over the course of the time they have spent together. Saquib Jawed, who works with restaurant marketing and relations team, says, “The entire team is available for help and support whenever anyone needs it and this makes the environment very conducive and productive.”

What is palatable and what is not?

With the increasing business and the handsome bunch of customers they have, TastyKhana is looking for young talent to join their team. Shachin is very clear about the kind of talent he wants on his team. “We want people who can have fun with the TastyKhana family. We are ready to welcome people who are self motivated and do not need a push or instructions to work on a daily basis. Customer service is an integral part of our business and every customer is precious so ‘Chalta hai’ kind of attitude does not work.”

The team is not averse to the fact that everybody makes mistakes and doesn't have a problem as long as the same ones are not repeated. There are times when there are disagreements in the team, but even those and are sorted out over lunch or couple of beers after work. Shachin Bharadwaj adds, “Different perspectives and ways to approach a challenge helps us come up with the best solution. We want people with values, who respect their colleagues but not someone who agrees to me or anyone else in the team blindly just because of the position or authority of the person.”

If you feel you can be the next member of TastyKhana team, meet them at Startups Job Fair.