Scaling too fast is scary, says this salad startup founder
From receiving 12 orders a day to delivering over 14,000 a day, the food startup delivered its 5 millionth order last month
Hyderabad: Expanding business can be scary too. As this founder of a salad startup just realised.
“I’m writing this from our Bangalore central kitchen at 3 AM, looking at next month’s projections, and for the first time in 6 years, I’m scared. Not just for my business, but for everyone rushing to scale without questioning if they should.” His post on the downsides of scaling too quickly has gone viral.
From receiving 12 orders a day to delivering over 14,000 a day, the food startup delivered its 5 millionth order last month.
Read the founder’s story on Grapevine:
https://grapevine.in/post/i-went-from-selling-12-salads-day-to-14k-salads-day-dont-start-a-cloud-kitchen-business-a76cb589-98d6-4f03-91d9-c9f7dde02c8a
The story of his salad business started in frustration as the founder couldn’t find anything healthy to eat in Gurgaon. “Every salad was either wilted lettuce drowning in mayo or overpriced fancy leaves that didn’t fill you up,” he shared on Grapevine.
The solution? He hired a cook and taught her how to make delicious greens daily. The recipes soon became a hit with his colleagues becoming his customers.
Sensing a business opportunity, he quit his high-paying job to build a cloud kitchen. The beginning was modest: an investment of around Rs 8 lakh from savings and a 180 sft rented basement kitchen in Galleria Market, Gurgaon.
The cloud kitchen started with 8 salad varieties costing Rs 250 each. “But something clicked. People loved our portions and fresh ingredients. Reviews started pouring in about how we were different — no wilted vegetables, no dry chicken, no drowning in dressings.”
The climb was swift. Within six months orders hit 180-200 daily. The startup added smoothie bowls and protein boxes, Hired 6 people for the kitchen, and finally breaking even.
The Covid pandemic in fact came as a boon. While other food chains quit, this startup saw a jump in its order volume to over 600 daily. More kitchens were added, and monthly revenue skyrocketed to Rs 1.2 crore.
In 2021, the business raised $5 million. The pitch was simple: “Healthy food at scale, targeting 100 kitchens across 8 cities.”
The expansion began with the setting up of 8 kitchens in 3 months, then 25 in 6 months and finally today the startup boasts 78 kitchens across Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.
Order volumes peaked at 14,000 and revenues to Rs 45 lakh daily. With over 400 employees, the food chain thrived in rating and was featured in top restaurant categories on popular food delivery platforms.
Then began the nightmare. “The cost of raw materials exploded, and competition flooded in. Platform commission increased to 32% (plus 18% GST) while algorithm changes buried us in searches and “Suggested substitutes’ pointed to competitors.
The founder says today around 30% of his kitchens is operating at a loss and he is considering shutting down 40% of them.
“These platforms are not your partners, they’re your landlords. They own the customers, they own the data, and they can change how visible your business is overnight. I’ve watched our orders drop 40% because of a single algorithm update,” says the founder.
As reality bites in, the founder says instead of pushing for scale he should have focused on building something sustainable.
“Looking back, I should have stopped at 8-10 kitchens. Running this business took more than just money — it took everything. I lost time with my family, gained weight (lol, talk about someone building a healthy food business), stopped sleeping properly, and completely lost the joy of cooking that started this whole thing. Success in numbers doesn’t always mean success in life,” he says.
Talking about his first kitchen in Galleria, he says it is still profitable and running good with around 300 orders a day. Small is beautiful? Indeed.
What is a cloud kitchen?
A cloud kitchen is a professional kitchen dedicated to prepare food for online deliveries. This facility does not require any separate dine-in space. One can operate the kitchen by partnering with online delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato. All one needs is the equipment based on the type of food they will be serving, FSSAI license, trademark registration and a fire NOC from the government. They also need to develop their marketing strategies.
