As part of our endeavour to bring unique and compelling startup stories from the ecosystem, we invited Dilshad Karande for an interview with BrilliantRead to understand more about her food startup Parsilicious.
She is the founder of Parsilicious – A food startup that serves flavoursome food to all the food lovers at a reasonable price point. The startup is a little over two months old and has gained good traction. They have already spread their wings to Pune, Bangalore, UK, Abu Dhabi, Doha and New Zealand. Let’s read more about her inspiring journey and her way forward!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with her:
When you are a mom, a wife and an entrepreneur, it is never so easy to organise everything seamlessly but you make it look so easy. How do you do that?
It is indeed not so easy. We had our own share of difficulties and challenges. But, thanks to my husband for his relentless support and also to all our customers who loved our food and gave us great feedback. We have put in a lot of hard work to make this dream a reality. It is just the start and a lot more is yet to be done.
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
Cooking for my girl child always gave me immense satisfaction and every time she expresses how yummy the food is – gives me inner happiness. There is no better feeling than seeing a toddler enjoy her mother’s food. As she grew up she started praising my food more and it would sound like, “you are the best cook in the whole wide world, mom”. Now, when a 6 yrs old feels so than for a foodie it will be an absolute treat to get irresistible and flavoursome food.
I grew more confident and thought of this idea to club my passion with the opportunity to solve this major problem of every food lover. As we know there remains a huge problem and an opportunity to not just meet but exceed customer expectations when it comes to quality and delicious food.
It was my brother’s dream for me to start a venture because we saw our Dad cater to people since our childhood. My Dad is a well known Parsi caterer. This is why I said goodbye to the advertising creative industry and said hello to the creative food industry and here I am!
I started it on 3rd April 2019 which happens to be my brothers’ birthday.
I thank everyone who supported me immensely especially my dad Dinear Tampal, my mom Silloo Tampal, husband Tejus Karande, brother Eric Tampal, My lovely sister Havovi, my cousin Sherzad and kids Mysha Ayaan and Pashmin.
With all their support and love, we would take Parsilicious to the next level.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
It is the fact that there are many who need to fill their stomachs before they rush to work and mothers who are dependent on my food for their children’s breakfast and lunch boxes and the oldies who love anything and everything I make because they feel my food is something that takes them to their roots.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
A food business is very competitive and very challenging anyway and I fight it every day and I am sure will have to till Parsilicious exists😊 however obstacles are in anything we do these days, considering competitive world so one just needs to be positive and confident.
What advice would you give to someone starting out, particularly to women entrepreneurs?
Just do whatever u do with all your heart and needless to say once a heart is involved u will put in your 100% always live your dream and stick to the very old saying there is nothing impossible even impossible is spelt as I M POSSIBLE. So just go out there and live your dream but with a plan.
Follow Parsilicious at:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Parsilicious-1469841483153348/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/parsilicious/?hl=en
If you are a food lover you then you know where to go