I did not have a plan to become an entrepreneur but the day when I heard for the first time about Mother On Mission (MOM) from Mr Sarthak Patnaik, founder of MOM, I could not resist myself but to immediately start working without having a second thought. The day when I did not take a second thought but rather took a risk of quitting my well settled job at an MNC without letting my surrounding know about it and started working for my baby startup MOM. That day I realized my entrepreneurial instincts or that is how my entrepreneurial journey started. I promised myself not to lead a purposeless life and today thanks to the Almighty I have got the privilege to share my story to inspire all the women around. From that day onwards I never looked back and now, I am responsible for the overall working of the Company and I am instrumental in making strategic decisions for the Mother on Mission.

I believe Living life with a purpose is the key to empowerment.

I did not have a plan to become an Entrepreneur, but now that I am one, I know that this is what I was always meant to be. I cannot imagine my life without it or doing anything else. This is my Story”, says, Sayed Nawrin who is the Co-Founder of Mother On Mission (MOM) when asked about her road towards becoming an Entrepreneur.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur, Nawrin talks more about the unique operations of Mother On.

Can You Explain More About The Services That You Offer And Its Uniqueness?

MOM-MOTHER ON MISSION is a concept where non-earning women (above 16yrs) join us as a MOM CHEF and earn from their daily cooking. There are two applications-MOM CHEF & MOM. For users/customers, the application is MOM. User can download the MOM app and can order mom food from MOM CHEFs within 5kms. The main objective of the app- MOM is to provide all healthy mom-cooked food for people from all across India and to keep alive some recipes which are getting extinct.

There are a plethora of factors that helps us to stay unique in the industry including 1) We do not take any registration fee from the women as we want each and every woman from all walks of life to join our platform and enjoy the benefit of earning from their daily cooking, 2) We help women by providing them continuous support and assistance through 1:1 calls as well as online meetings, 3) We believe every MOM CHEF is important and unique in her own way and every home has a special traditional dish that has to come to the market and people should taste it and 4) One best thing about our MOM app is that we provide instant mom-cooked food to the customer’s doorstep. In this way, people get to enjoy food which is cooked by a MOM CHEFS instantly. We do also have kept an option called schedule so that customers can see the calendar and schedule the order according to their preference.

Throw Some Light On The Various Cuisines That Mother On Mission Team Specializes In?

Every home has a special traditional dish prepared in their own unique way and we wanted to get this into the market and through the app ‘MOM’ this was possible. We are currently operating in Bangalore, Delhi NCR and Chennai. The MOM app has a wide range of dishes starting from South Indian to North Indian, Chinese, Mughlai, various types of Biryani, Dessert, Bakery, Beverages, Healthy dishes, snacks, etc.

Can You Elaborate More On Your Operational Model?

Our team continuously stays in touch with the new MOM CHEF who joins our platform and provides her 1:1 calls and meetings to make her completely aware about the process and provide her continuous support. Once a MOM CHEF uploads her menu in the vendor app, our team makes sure to check her uploaded menu and see if everything has been properly uploaded. If any changes are required our team helps them with the changes. As soon as the MOM-chef receives the order, she accepts it and starts preparing the food. Meanwhile, our team gets in touch with her to make her aware about the asked menu. Once she is ready with her prepared food, we make sure the MOM CHEF sends the photo of her prepared food. Only when our team approves it is when the food is handed over to the delivery executive. We make sure the MOM CHEFS who join our platform are FASSAI registered. License certified. If in case they are not, we provide them the required help so that it is done as early as possible. We also ensure that the food prepared is preservative-free, has no added color and the ingredients used are fresh.

How Has The Company’s Growth Journey Been So Far And What Facets Of Your Personality Or Leadership Style Have Helped You In Taking The Company Forward?

Launching a startup can happen really quickly. Making it a real business- Now that takes a lot of time. It takes some years just to get to a point where it can be called a real business. Our company’s journey was full of ups and downs and that’s normal. I believe that building a startup isn’t easy- it’s an emotional marathon that revolves around business milestones. In year one we got the patent and that was the most important thing that gave us the courage to start the business immediately, we then started with the MOM CHEF marketing and managed to get MOM CHEFS, and after months of wait from the app development team we got our website published and then again after a few months wait we got our applications ready. We did not get the proper application at the proper time from the app development team but I had to make a decision that overnight we had to change our app development team, which was a tough decision for a startup like us because we were crawling but I realized maybe today we are slower than the crawl, but this decision if done in proper time then we will be faster than the bullet train and yes that did work and today we have wonderful applications, customer base, MOM CHEFS all around. This was one of the most crucial periods we went through.

I Believe It’s Important To Be Decisive In Business

Making decisions that are well-informed and time sensitive is a crucial part of being a successful leader. I think I am grateful that I have the ability to make clear cut and timely decisions with the proper amount of information. I make decisions that are clear and final and this has helped us many a times in taking our company forward whether it was taking decision to change app development team to make new applications or choosing the best resources, add members to the team etc.

“We want to give women a whole new dimension to dream and visualize life because when women rise, we all rise.”

It’s Also Important Sometime To Be Straight Forward

Being straightforward does not mean you need to be brutal. You just need to be honest and transparent. My experience is that to deliver a message that could be painful, hard to grasp, it should be done in just few words because at times it’s the leader’s responsibility to identify the difficulty in a scenario and alert others of the potential consequences. I believe a leader cannot let improper conduct go uncorrected.

In our second year, we revamped our application and we increased the number of MOM CHEFs as well as the customers in our platform. After seeing the increasing requests from all over India to start the services, we immediately planned to start in Delhi NCR and now, we have started receiving collaboration requests from both inside and outside India.

A leader to have a vision is very important. My ability to take risk and being persistent and enthusiastic about our goals has helped the company throughout. I have always ensured the vision becomes reality by setting clear goals, making strategic plans for achieving those goals and empowering each member to take action on the plan.

How Has Your Journey Been As An Entrepreneur?

Imagine having the opportunity to make good money per, year and choosing to make zero. Or worse, spending all your hard earned savings. Imagine starting a business that no one thought they needed. This is how I began my journey. As said before, I never planned on becoming an Entrepreneur but now, I can’t imagine doing anything else. This is my story. I am forever grateful that I did start – however physical and emotionally draining this journey was- because what it has led to today is more than I could have ever asked for. Looking back to my journey I feel it’s important to share few things:

• It’s important to start. Validate the idea as quickly as you can and “Just Do It”.

• If life has given you an opportunity, grab it and make the most use of it by putting your full energy into it.

• In your life sometime to go ahead it’s sometime required to step back and sacrifice.

• Always respect your team members and their work

• Work on small goals/milestones and in achieving these small milestones you will see your bigger goals are actually getting turned into reality.

• Take short breaks

• Celebrate small wins- recognizing small victories can boost your morale and energy. They provide you with the motivation to keep Going.

Being an Entrepreneur has its frustrating moments where you just want to quit. It has happened to me many times but with inspiring entrepreneurial quotes like this one from Alistair Cook who said, “A professional is someone who can do his best when he does not feel like it”. So, when things don’t go according to your plan, you have to keep pushing until you achieve success and keep trying. This I have always followed and it has helped me throughout.

“I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something, but I cannot accept not trying” this is what gave me the courage to turn my passion into a brand like MOM.

What Is The Roadmap Set For The Company In The Days To Come?

Our business can be the channel to bring our purpose to life and make an impact on the world in a way it needs it most. We want to give women a whole new dimension to dream and visualize life. She deserves to be treated equally. We would like to expand our services pan India and outside because we want as many women as possible to get benefitted through MOM and ensure that our customers can enjoy mom-cooked food. We would like to bring more job opportunities and also would like to build our delivery workforce in the coming years.

Sayed Nawrin, Co-Founder, Mother On Mission

Nawrin has been leveraging her industry expertise and business acumen to ensure that MOM is developing into a well-established and pioneering business entity.