Are you bored of eating restaurant food every day? Have you ever found yourself too tired to cook? Or maybe it’s just the lack of time? Fromahome.com is the right place for you. Founded by Chennai-based Vinodh Subramanian in February 2015, it connects people in search of homemade food with homemakers who cook quality food. It also helps home cooks get online and convert their cooking skills into an income-generating business providing homemade dishes to people looking for authentic home-cooked food. Vinodh Subramanian lets us in on his story:
You are a first generation entrepreneur from a rural background. Tell us how you got started?
I hail from a small town called Denkanikottai. My father was a bus driver in the transport department. My mother is a homemaker. I have a B TECH degree in biotechnology. I founded fromahome.com in 2015. This is my fourth venture. We are a food/tech company that bridges homemakers or as we call them, home chefs, and people who are in need of homemade food. When a customer visits our website, he can select a location and he will be shown an array of options available within a two-kilometre radius.
How has your family background influenced you?
My father was a bus driver. We used to travel in the bus driven by him to go to school. A surge of pride would engulf me as everyone knew him, as a driver plays an important role in a place where people rely on buses heavily. Little did I realize the problems my parents faced in raising me and my two brothers. There was a time when my father was posted 500 kilometers away and we could see him only once in 15 days! Even my mother chipped in by stitching blouses and salwars. With the mission of making many mothers self-sufficient, I started fromahome.com.
What creates an entrepreneurial mindset?
The willingness to take risks, the ability to learn from whatever did not work out well and move on with vigor, and above all a supportive family. In my case, my brothers are taking care of our parents.
What were the challenges you faced when you started?
We hired the wrong people and deferred the launch of the app, which we had designed for our home chefs, as we wanted it to be flawless. Instead, we should have gone ahead with the launch with whatever was ready. We thought that we could do everything ourselves without a network of mentors
What should a student wishing to start a business do?
They must build a prototype and test it. For instance, we created a basic website, chose Medavakkam for a pilot run, circulated newspaper inserts, visited home cooks to take samples, and assess their cooking standards. When we realized that there is a demand in the market we took a plunge. Nowadays, there are many accelerators and incubators to help them discover customers and build companies. To be profited by them, one should have a clear business proposal with a working revenue model.
What would you advice those who wish to do something, but don’t know what to do?
I heard this in a conference. To get a business idea, we must think of problems that are pressing people and an innovative way to solve them.
What are the qualities that can help along the way?
Passion, perseverance, vision and continuous improvement are mandatory. Many of my business ideas were rejected by TIDITSSIA (Tiruchi District Tiny and Small Scale Industries’ Association), Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute (MSME-DI) and Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDP) for lack of experience, but I believed in myself. My vision is that everyone should get food from their own neighbours to their apartment anywhere in India.