At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring some of the meaningful and powerful stories from around the world to empower and motivate our growing community of entrepreneurs, investors, management students and aspiring entrepreneurs. This week, we invited Anshu Raj for an exclusive interview to know more about his inspiring journey and the way forward.
We all have witnessed how quickly the food market has evolved and grown as a full-fledged industry. Today we have plenty of food companies that are implementing creativity to bring a fresh wave of change. One such company, which was initially just a dream but eventually, found its way into reality, is Caterspoint, founded by Chef Anshu Raj [Food Gastronome & Product Head with 6 years of Culinary Industry Experience].
He has been a part of some popular brands like ITC, The Oberoi, and well funded startups like Frsh where he was the COO [Chief Operating Officer] looking after the entire operations. After a small stint in the industry Chef, Anshu observed a gap in mid-segment innovative food where the people want old age food in a new approach. The segment gap has been majorly captured by two-three key players but still waste space is unconquered. Other than liking for experimenting and change in taste, the consumers are exploring food options due to various reasons like lack of consistency, hygiene, long prep time being some. Such regular consumer issues gave birth to Caterspoint where the team has been working to ensure consistent hygiene, quality food is delivered in an exceptional presentable manner. The presentation and aroma have been the emphasis of the venture
With the flush of investments and huge capital being deployed in 2014 in cloud kitchen space, the food experts tried exponential growth to compromise on quality or other essential business elements, resulting in their perishability. While being COO in the last Startup, Anshu observed the market with proper research and development to evaluate that food is an essential and indispensable product but still, it needs to be served to the consumer’s liking.
Each living being wishes to have comfort hygiene food, in a cost-efficient manner. There are innumerable options available but only a few have been successful in the space due to a difficult proposition in scaling, unlike technology.
Thus, the idea of Caterspoint was sown to turn food into scalable with no compromise on consistency, quality into time. It started in Gurgaon where the head office is currently located and spread to prime areas of Delhi like Sohna Road, Malviya Nagar, and Dwarka by 2019.
Let’s learn more about Anshu’s interesting journey, way forward and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Anshu:
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
While I was working with Frsh I, as an individual, learned a lot but I also realized the loopholes and drawbacks that the industry and the market were facing. The quality challenge, the delivery system, the consistency, and also the packaging. The demands and wants of the consumer were changing. They were in need of something more innovative, consistent, and healthy too. For me, I could only suggest or be a little opinionated while I was working for another company but I wanted to implement my learnings and find a solution for the challenges that others were facing. Being an entrepreneur makes me do research and development and experiment with different ingredients and other parts of the food as well.
Both the parts of life have been a wonderful journey and I am still learning and want to bring out something new in every aspect of my life.
How do you find the industry/niche that you’re in?
The food industry is massive and further divided into numerous segments. It is a very challenging and emotional part of the market place. Food is something that is attached to your body and soul directly. It all depends on what you eat and consume. Being healthy and eating healthy is connected. It is a niche industry and very competitive in fact. Every day there are new trends, products coming out just to give our consumers a convenient life. I love the industry I am, I live challenges and it makes me keep doing a lot of research and surveys and learn so many things that keeps me updated.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
I would say not just in the morning but at night, it usually happens I am always fond of figuring out something niche or new, which may create a proposition for me and the public at large. I usually keep this mode on all the times and it serves the source of my motivation all the time. I am a very positive person and I love being around positive people and energy. By GOD grace, I have been able to do that as well, where I have created it or worked on something related to it. Also, I am currently in the process of developing something niche on lines that can help me fight the challenges in this Covid-19 crisis. I want my consumer to find what they need and I am here to serve them always.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Every business has risks. Our risks are associated with the right skill set that we look for expansion in the future. We already have a core niche team but I see from future expansion perspective, we would need innovative minds, with a flexible thought process. Although, with a clearly defined process, and innovative means to reach out to search resources, we are confident enough that we will mitigate it.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I am an emotional person. Business needs to have emotions, not personal, obviously, but business ones like concern for quality deliverables, client satisfaction, targets & roadmaps, you planned & how you will achieve it, etc. Money is obviously the priority but I believe if your value creation process is right for others, the money will automatically come as an outcome of it.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Pressure and Stress is a part of our lives now. There is no one in the world who has no stress or pressure. At work, it is very common to have certain drawbacks, worries that might stress you. But its about handling it in a positive way. I remain focussed on my goal and what I want to accomplish. I believe in not giving up at all and listening to my guts. My aim is to spread positive energy and to absorb positivity from others as well.
Sidestep the drama nd remain calm and this will help you to live a stress-free life and handle pressure with confidence and maturity.
What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
In my journey so far, what has helped me immensely is to understand customer psychic. In whatever we do, it is very important to understand what a customer needs. We have to provide him with what he requires. His way of thinking, absorbing and accepting a product or a service helps us bring out the best of our traits. All these years of my work experience I have learned how a customer thinks and desires which has made me the person and the brand I stand with today.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
There are a few and you can learn it on your way up. The keys to success I personally feel is one’s determination to do something innovative and out of the box. Experimenting and innovating isn’t very easy, there are risks involved. But your determination and confidence can make you achieve great success in life.
What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
I always work on a tag line ‘add value to get value’. Don’t focus primarily on money or investments but keep your focus on creating a sustainable venture & value creation. I believe, rest things will automatically set with time. Also, if you are starting up a venture, feel free to reach out to us. You will find us a great partner or mentor to you with innovative means. All I want to say is to keep your basics clear and right. Everything starts from scratch. If your basics are right you will never go wrong.
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