Food in restaurants, hotels, and street vendors is delicious, but one can’t have it on regular basis. Home cooked food is what everyone craves for. What if we told you that there's an app that delivers only healthy, hygienic, quality and tasty home cooked food in the cuisine of your choice? The app Fudpro is a lifesaver for anyone concerned about their health or who exclusively prefers home-cooked meals. Additionally the platform also empowers several housewives, allowing them to monetize their cooking skills. And all of this is courtesy Namita Gupta for conceiving this idea out and materializing this concept.

Namita is a serial entrepreneur and a loving mother. In her search for home-cooked food for her daughter, who was away from home, Namita discovered that there were various enterprising housewives eager to provide home-cooked food but were unsure of attracting customers and were unable to arrange deliveries. Thus she laid the foundations of Fudpro, a digital marketplace for the delivery of home-cooked complete meal services.

The Women Entrepreneur team got an opportunity to speak with Namita and learn about her ventures and expertise as an entrepreneur.

Give us an overview of Fudpro. What are some important features about your expertise as an entrepreneur in the Indian F&B industry?

Fudpro is an online food delivery company, supplying exclusively home cooked food, especially complete meal. It aggregates home chefs who can offer variety of Indian cuisine like Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Punjabi, North /South Indian and endeavors to supply home cooked food to its various users.

In Fudpro there are 2 parts:

Fudpro – in which customer can order home cooked chef from nearby home chef of his choice

Fudpro Partner – Home chefs can register here free of cost

The USP of Fudpro is that ours is the only online service which offers complete meal, unlike others who offers snacks, or some are offering only Diet food, we offer two square meal which is affordable to common man’s pocket.

We come with a wide range of experience in the service sector and firmly believe that good customer service is the key to any business.

We consciously onboard home-chefs thus monetizing culinary skills of women. Fudpro’s online e-commerce platform offers complete ecosystem for willing and enterprising housewives to start their home-cooked food delivery business. We have kept registration free of cost, offer delivery assistance and charge minimal charges as our fees is only 5%.

Through FUDPRO we are trying to inculcate the habit of eating genuine home cooked food and avoiding junk food. The Idea of Fudpro is to enable people to order home cooked food of their choice on their fingertips, Just like one can order hotel food on an app.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table. Throw some light on your entrepreneurial journey.

I come from a very humble background. I did my schooling from small villages in Madhya Pradesh. It’s only when I got selected for MANIT Bhopal that I was exposed to professional learning experience and that changed my life.

I am Mechanical Engineer graduate from MANIT Bhopal and have completed Masters in Marketing Management from Mumbai University.

My entrepreneurial journey started from engineering days. I always wished to be an entrepreneur however after graduation I worked in Chicago Pneumatic (a hard core engineering firm) and L&T InfoTech in IT sector.

I took the plunge into full time entrepreneurship in the year 2010. I along with my partner, John Ratnam, (also a Mechanical Engineer) specializing in Projects marketing and advisory services company operating in EPC domain. We have been running manpower placement and detail engineering Consultancy Company in Oil & Gas and IT sector.

The idea of Fudpro was so powerful, that it occupied my head and heart for months together, then we decided to give shape to our idea, and we got this App developed from a Tech firm Creative Orange, who developed a beautiful App Fudpro and Fudpro Partner.

What drew you towards becoming an entrepreneur in the F&B industry while also taking the social entrepreneurship route?

The idea of Fudpro took birth when my daughter was required to go outstation for six months for her internship.. Like any other mother I was worried about her health, I did not want her to eat from a hotel.

During my search for genuine home-cooked food supplier, I realized that there were many enterprising house wives who are willing to supply home-cooked food but they were not sure of getting customers and were not able to arrange deliveries. So I decided to build an online platform wherein I can aggregate all enterprising housewives who are willing to supply home-cooked food which can be displayed on the app and can be viewed by customers using the Fudpro App.

The fact that in Roti, Kapada aurMakan, roti is the basic necessity. We wanted to work on this problem, how one can find basic food that too in his vicinity and of his choice. Because its also a common experience that if food is not of ones choice it will go wasted.

“The fact that in roti, kapada aur makan, roti is the basic necessity. We wanted to work on this problem, how one can find basic food that too in his vicinity and of his choice”

At the same time we wanted people to experience food at the lowest cost possible and hence we consciously decided that we will keep our charges only 5% and registration Free of cost for suppliers.

What are the various roles and responsibilities that you shoulder at Fudpro and the challenges associated with it? How do you keep in track with the changes that occur within the industry and the technology world?

As a founder we had to face and overcome many challenges. The biggest challenge is winning customer trust and building a brand. The challenges are multifold...few are managing finances, keeping the supply side alive, quality control, logistics. These activities need specialized skill sets. But, in a start-up, until funding is available the founders are compelled to perform all these roles. In nutshell one has to be

peon to president in a startup. I am an avid reader and follow latest trends on social media platforms and my passion to provide home cooked food easily to everyone through which I can contribute to people’s health keeps me on my toes to consciously improve the service levels.

How do you balance between your professional and personal life? Are there any activities or hobbies that you indulge in? What would you advice women aspiring to become business leaders and entrepreneurs?

Being a founder of a start-up is a highly demanding role. Start-ups are generally boot strapped, money is always a problem so a founder ends up donning multiple hats. However being a woman entrepreneur I did not have the luxury of neglecting my homemaker duties so I learnt to strike a balance between my professional and personal life. I have compartmentalized my mind to devote my time to myhome & family completely when I am at home and in office I devote totally to my venture, so I plan and priorities the activities.

Fortunately I have a very supportive family and they do understand my priorities and adjust with the same.

Cooking being one of my hobbies and since I aspire to build a home cooked food supply company, my cooking skills have helped me greatly to talk to potential food supply partners, who are mostly house wives.

To all the women, I would advise to have a clear vision and develop good communication skills so that your vision is communicated to all your team members effectively thus motivating the team to work towards common goal.

Another important ability is to develop a deep commitment to your cause and a thick skin to absorb multiple rejections and negativity and still be positively motivated, and NEVER give up.

Namita Gupta, Founder, Fudpro

Namita Gupta is a mechanical engineering graduate turned entrepreneur. She has over 16 years of experience and wide range of expertise in variety of industries.