BENGALURU: Musthafa PC may be the CEO of a multi-crore company, but at his core he is still a “village boy.”
Hailing from Chennalode village in Kerala, the co-founder of iD Fresh Food still spends 3-4 days a month back in Wayanad, and firmly states he hasn’t lost his roots yet. “We didn’t have enough for me to be able to carry a lunch box to school every day. But my close friends ensured I didn’t go hungry,” he says, adding that the friends still share a meal together.
The entrepreneur who today considers namma ooru his home, having even set up his food products company here in 2005, works out of a co-working space in Whitefield, where he also resides. “It’s not like a regular office so I feel younger too,” he says.
It’s no surprise that our conversation with this 47-year-old begins with what he ate for breakfast -- a dosa, made from the very batter his company produces. What started out from a 50 sq ft space in Tippasandra with his cousins, is today a brand that is synonymous with a healthy breakfast.
The business started out with an initial batch of 100 kg of batter, which has today transformed into 65,000 kg of sales in a day alone, with Bengaluru taking the crown as one of the company’s top markets. Today, they manufacture parathas, chapatis, vada batter and filter coffee decoction.
Recently, the company announced the launch of a smart sip tender coconut, along with grated coconut packaged within a coconut. Interestingly, while Musthafa’s wife, a homemaker, is a fan of the parathas, his three children, aged 17, 14 and 10, enjoy the dosas the most. “I make sure my boys eat the product before it goes out into market. They are the initial testers so they must be tired of South Indian food,” he laughs.
Currently working five days a week, Musthafa has now managed to achieve the elusive work-life balance. But this was not always the case.
The former corporate employee always awaited the last day of the month for his salary but today, this is the day he looks forward to least. “I now have to run around and make sure everyone gets their pay,” he jokes, adding that taking the entrepreneurial plunge has been his best decision. “Our biggest strengths comes from the fact that we cousins work as a team. I’d be a big zero if I were alone.”
The hustle and hard work, however, is not new to Musthafa. Running his first makeshift sweet shop – made from his mother’s saree and father’s bench – at 10, he would use the money earned to support his family.
“I bought a goat from those profits, which soon turned into three or four goats. I then sold the goats to buy a cow to sell milk,” he recalls.
Though iD Fresh Food was set up in 2005, his connection with the city began in 1995, where he still remembers what he did with the first salary he earned at Manhattan Associates. “I owned only two pairs of shirts and trousers for school. My friend, on the other hand, wore a crisp white shirt every day. I always wanted to do the same so when I got my first salary, I went to Brigade Road and bought a white shirt from Zodiac.”
One could say Musthafa is living the dream today. But that’s what the power of determination proves, he says. “We didn’t have the experience of eating a breakfast. But today we are able to provide healthy food to a million people on a daily basis.”