Rapid fire with YS Life: Shan Kadavil, CEO and Co-founder at FreshToHome
YS Life poses fun, quirky questions to startup founders and investors to discover their personalities, beyond their businesses.
The metropolitan India gets everything delivered to their doorstep, at the click of a button. Groceries– or it; for medicines–; and for home cleaning there’s Urban Clap.
Similarly, in order to buy fresh fish and meat, one need not wake up early on a Sunday morning and fight their way to the best catch in a local market anymore. There are apps to make one’s job easy. One of them being Bengaluru-based .
The D2C brand was launched in 2015 with the purpose of making fresh fish and meat easily accessible to everyone. A brainchild of Shan Kadavil and Mathew Joseph, the startup delivers over 2.5 million orders to over 160 Indian cities, and the UAE, every month.
Kadavil, one of the members of India’s ‘Champions of Change’ programme, earlier served as the Country Manager (India) and Early CXO at Zynga (the company behind popular games Farmville, CityVille, and Mafia Wars).
A seasoned entrepreneur and a multi-functional leader, Kedavil has also been honoured twice with the title of ‘100 Top Tech Indians’ by the Exhibit Magazine.
Recently, YS Life posed fun and quirky questions to the startup founder to discover his personality, beyond his business.
YS Life [YSL]: What are the three words that best describe you?
Shan Kadavil [SK]: Difference-maker, altruistic, and hardcore foodie.
YSL: When was the last time you ordered through FreshToHome? What was it?
SK: Today! Scarlet prawns.
YSL: What is your most ordered item from FreshToHome?
SK: Fish and chicken, of course! But seer fish in particular.
YSL: The one thing that you love about your job?
SK: The impact that one creates to the consumers by providing toxin-free food and the opportunity to elevate the lives of disadvantaged segments of society.
YSL: The one thing that you hate about your job?
SK: Being a proclaimed foodie, the fact that I’m exposed to delicious food every single day and it’s tough to follow a strict diet regime.
YSL: If not an entrepreneur, then what?
SK: Only an entrepreneur, nothing else.
YSL: Which was the last book/movie/show that made you cry?
SK: I use books, movies or shows as a pure mind-numb entertainment so don’t really watch anything that makes me cry.
YSL: What is your guilty pleasure?
SK: Indulgence in food.
YSL: Two startup founders that you don’t mind getting stuck on an island with?
SK: Mark Pincus, Former CEO of Zynga; and Nandan Nilekani, CTO of Indian startup ecosystem!
YSL: What is the first thing you do in the morning?
SK: Spend some quality me time–it’s a magical hour.
YSL: What is the last thing you do before hitting the bed?
SK: Spend time with family.
YSL: Fame or money--what is more important?
SK: Dreaming big, and the grit to achieve your dreams. Fame and money will eventually follow.
YSL: Quality or consistency?
SK: Consistent quality!
YSL: Your golden rule to stay ahead in life and business?
SK: Focus on your goals and inspire the leaders to achieve that.
YSL: An advice that changed your life?
SK: ‘You are your own CEO.’ To elaborate, fostering a work culture that allows each employee to think and work like a CEO. Each employee must consider themselves to be the CEO of a company–the organisation and its people thrive together.
(Disclaimer: The story was updated to correct a factual error.)
Edited by Megha Reddy