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Startup Saturday: Expert chefs at your doorstep with HandyBro
A family of four can hire HandyBro’s services for ₹6,000 a month, where their cook will prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the entire family. If it is just one meal, then the charge is ₹3,000 a month.
What began as just a tiffin service for students of Sinhgad Institute of Technology, Lonavla, in 2014, grew into a full-fledged business called HandyBro. Rishabh Sitoke, who founded Rolling Caboose in 2014, was also a student of the college at the time and could not help but notice the hungry students who had very little options to fill their tummies.
Rolling Caboose provided home-cooked food to students of Sinhgad college in 2014. “I had a friend, Suraj Shah, who was a cook. Me and Suraj hired a place where he would cook and that how it all started,” says Sitoke.
However, after two years, Sitoke observed the entrepreneurial possibilities in his amateur tiffin service idea with the increasing number of customers. “Most of these students were from out of town and had rented shared apartments. While they were happy with our dabbas, the wanted more; the taste and feel of homemade food. That got me thinking. Why not use their kitchens and raw materials to provide them food cooked at home, in their respective styles?” says Sitoke.
In June 2016, Sitoke began his venture HandyBro, a service that provides chefs to the customer. “We also provide the customer different cuisines, like Chinese and Italian. The chefs at HandyBro are trained on how to behave with customers, how to use their kitchen, and most importantly, how to cook delicious food,” says Sitoke.
When Sitoke launched the service in Pune, he initially had only four households as customers. However, through word of mouth, the venture quickly gained publicity, and within the first six months, he managed to get the customer count to 35 households.
HandyBro chefs are mostly from villages who take leaves for a month or so. This often leads to, what Sitoke puts it as ‘cook’ crunch. To deal with ‘cook’ crunch, Sitoke has tied up with people from different states who are now their channel partners.
“They know of people who are from villages in Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Orissa. These men may have some small experience working in small restaurants and dhabas. These channel partners provide us with the staff as and when we need them, and we give them a commission. So, if one of our guys wants to take leave, he has to let us know at least a month or two in advance. That allows us to get a replacement. We guarantee a cook at your place at the set time, day after day.”
This, it seems, is the biggest advantage HandyBro offers to its customers who would otherwise have to deal with their ‘bai’ challenges. Guaranteed attendance is what gives HandyBro an edge over the home cooks as we know it.
Sitoke pays a newbie ₹10,000 per month and can go up to ₹18,000 per month. They are provided free lodging and boarding, in addition to free training.
“For every four cooks, we have a head cook, and for every four head cooks, we have a manager. So, there is a proper hierarchy. If a cook falls ill, then it is the head cook’s duty to see that there is a replacement immediately,” says Sitoke.
Talking about ensuring safety and security of the customer, Sitoke says, “We have a very strict policy. All of our staff is verified by the police, their village address and backgrounds are checked for any criminal record. If it ever happens that there is a theft, then this man will not be able to go far, because we have all his data with us and with the police. He simply cannot run away.”
Providing this service means providing the logistics. HandyBro currently has 50 cooks on its pay roll. “We have rented out eight two-bedroom apartments in Pashan and Hinjewadi areas that house our 50 cooks. We have a van that transports them to their places of work. Each cook works for about four hours in the morning and five hours in the evening,” says Sitoke.
A family of four can hire HandyBro’s services for ₹6,000 a month, where their cook will prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for the entire family. If it is just one meal, then the charge is ₹3,000 a month.
HandyBro has not just managed to gather customers without actually spending on marketing, but has also self funded their operations until now. Sitoke says, “When we started, we borrowed small amounts from friends and dipped into our own savings. Now that we have 200 customers, we have ₹8 lakh turnover a month with about 20 per cent profit.
However, HandyBro is ploughing the profit back into the business to acquire more staff. As of now, Sitoke is looking for a funding of ₹50 lakh. He says, “We want to cover both the east and west of Pune. Our aim is to have about 200 cooks and cater to a different segment. Currently, we cater to the middle income group, but I have noticed that there are a significant number of people who are health conscious and want food that is so. However, our cooks cannot whip up healthy foods, such as soups and salads.”
When asked if he has any plans of expanding the services to other cities, Sitoke says, “We have plans to enter Mumbai and Bengaluru markets, but after two years. The main challenge will be the logistics. Providing accommodation and commuting will also not be easy. I aim to outsource these functions to grow as a business, else it will not be possible.”
To expand his services, Sitoke is tying up with a professional with a degree in health and nutrition, who will train his staff. “I have hired a place in Hinjewadi and have plans to have in-house training. My cooks will live there for two weeks and learn how to prepare nutritious food.”
