Monday, July 30, 2007

Young Entrepreneur Series - II

Here's the next instalment, as promised.

I interviewed three young entrepreneurs making a difference to the food business. The kind that you and me want to have on an everyday basis coz we can't (or don't want to) cook ourselves.

Of course dabbas and dabbawalahs have been around for a long time. What started as a Bombay phenomenon has now become a nationwide cottage industry. The difference with these ventures is that they are building brands and have bigtime scale up plans.

Vinamra Pandiya and Ashwini Rathod run Mom's Kitchen in Pune which provides simple, homely food to the young working professional. On the other hand, Cyrus Driver's Calorie Care caters calorie counted meals for the health conscious at the upper end of the market.

The full story 'New Age Dabbawalahs' is published in this week's Businessworld and can be read here. A more detailed interview is featured below.

Interview with Vinamra Pandiya and Ashwini Rathod
Company: Mom's Kitchen
Founded: September 1 2006
Age: 26
Educational background: Vinamra (IT BHU 2005 batch, Infosys from campus placement); Aswini Rathod (NIT Allahabad 2005 batch, Cognizant from campus placement).

Vinamra and I are childhood friends. He graduated from IT BHU in 2005 and I passed out of NIT Allahabad the same year. I joined Cognizant while he was in Infosys. Initially we were in Bangalore, then we moved to Pune.

We had big dreams in our college days. Ki kuch karna hai. That coupled with the frustration of working in a big company ("at the end of the day you know, you do nothing!) led to the idea of starting a business.

Being bachelors living alone we sensed that there was a big gap in food. It is a very fragmented industry. And from the beginning we knew ki hamein khana ghar ghar pahunchana hai. We ourselves used to order a local dabba. But we felt there in no 'brand name' in this business.

Vinamra left his job while I continued to work for a while, to provide some support. We both put in Rs 1 lakh each to start it off.

Neither of us had experience in the food business, or any business for that matter. We took 1-2 months figuring out how to do and what to do.

The name, we felt was most important. The name 'Mom's Kitchen' came to Vinamra at 3 in the morning. The nect thing we did was design a logo and then a website.

Next came the cooking part. We decided to bring a couple of workers from my college mess. We didn't anyone too experienced, but someone who would learn quickly our style of doing things. The food we wanted was very simple, the way moms cook at home, with minimum of tel and masala.

They were in a government job, we convinced them to move from Allahabad to Pune and work with us.

We took a flat at Pashan Road on rent to set up the kitchen. Although the rental should have been around Rs 4000 we had to shell out Rs 7000 because we were using it for Mom's kitchen. The workers were provided accomodation in the same flat.

We started with 11 orders, 1 cook and 1 helper. The first 3 days Vinamra and I personally went to deliver the dabbas. "Badi sharm aa rahi thi ki company mein koi hamein pehchaan na le".

Then we kept one more person but of course he too was not native to Pune so we had to explain the route and rasta personally, actually go along for the deliveries. But by now we were no longer feeling ashamed. So what if we are educated, 'IT types' etc the important thing is to lead by example.

Actually with our cooks and helpers from the beginning we established a very close relationship. We felt ki yeh log hamare ssath hain. Unke saath baith kar khana chahiye. That's been the philosophy of Mom's Kitchen ever since.

Why it clicked
Now Mom's Kitchen does business differently from other dabbawalas. For example, normally you take 1 month tiffin but with us you can cancel by calling up or logging on to our website before 5.30 pm. We have made a program which makes such a customisation possible.

There is also no delivery charge. Meal costs Rs 30 each. 3 schemes - 6 day trial, 15 days (get 1 day free) or 30 days (pay for 27). The scheme works on prepaid basis and the online database tracks how many meals you have availed of.

Our promotion was mainly thru pamphlets and sticking up posters at bus stops where IT people gather. We would go at 7 am and stick up the posters. We also used online discussion forums of companies, orkut scrapping and emailing to promote MK. We handled calls personally - we offered 1 week trials to hook people. And it worked.

In the second month we had 30-35 dabbas and it steadily grew from there. Yet in January we were absolutely broke. We would skip breakfast to save money for petrol which we needed for our delivery bikes.

February was the turning point. We hit 200 dabbas and from then on there was no looking back. Word of mouth had spread, we set up a second centre in Karve nagar. 10 months after starting we have 550 customers. There are IT workers, students, senior citizens and even couples.

Actually there are about 3000 people in 'queue' (we got many enquiries after an article in the local TOI). But we are doing a controlled expansion. Our delivery and cooking systems must be able to cope. We want the processes to be scientific so we are going for ISO 9001 and six sigma also.

Each centre can cook for a maximum 250 people. So we will set up new centres - one in Vimaan nagar soon. The scalability will come with in house training of cooks and documentation of the cooking method (ie for 100 people'sal we need so much dal, so much water, this kind of pan etc). We did it when setting up the second centre.

We have 25 cooks/ helpers and 5 people in office to handle calls. Calls come in for 14-15 reasons - we have taught them how to handle them. So far we have had no complaints re: food except a very small number who find it too simple/ non spicy.

The future
Now we have investors willing to put Rs 25-50 lakhs into the business. We plan to expand to 10,000 in Pune by next year. Already we have a waiting list so it's more a question of having the cooking and delivery ability than generating demand.

We may also start a thali place which is going to be different - it will be exactly like home. Very simple food, ghar jaise curtains, newspaper - a total non restaurant feel. Max Rs 40 per thali. Whatever we do must be 'different'.

Our entire business is built on trust and personal relations. We hire only non Puneites as they are more dedicated, don't ask for too many holidays etc.

They say there is a 50% profit margin in the food industry. But given the amount of customer service and processes you have to put in we make 25-30%. The break even point is 150 meals per centre. Now we earn more than we did when we quit and down the line prjections of course make us feel v happy. Earlier our families said 'tum drunken pagal ho' for quitting secure IT jobs. NOw they also are happy.

There has been a lot of trial and error. As well as experimentation. We customised our bikes to be able to carry 36 tiffins for delivery. We were outsiders to Pune, so when MK started doing well we even got threats from locals whose business was affected. But we did not back down.

In future we will enlist housewives also to provide for 'special requests' like Andhra food etc. We will provide raw materials and pay them a fee for cooking.

We are both 26 years old. The dream is professionalise meal services in the whole of India. Companies today have fancy canteens but their khana is pathetic. First 3 days you are excited with the glass and fabcy varieties but it all tastes the same.

We design our menus along with the cooks and promise 'no repeat' for 30 days. or money back. We take weekly customer feedbcak. Like many people said khana garam hona chahiye so we started packing food while it was still on the gas. We got demand for regional dishes like dal baati and also parathas, chhole bhature etc which we provide once a week.

The most amazing thing is the support the people working with us have given. "Inhi ki duaon se ham aagey bade hain".

Initially we promised them Rs 1800 and that too we did not pay for 4 months. And they never complained. They would get up in the morning at 7 am, then make two times ka khana, undertake delivery etc. So much hard work and no complaints.

Today we pay our cooks Rs 6000 and of course provide food, acco and mattresses etc. We feel proud that Mom's Kitchen is supporting 25 families. "Koi 5th std pass hai, koi 4 th std pass hai." They may be uneducated but they are not dumb. We constantly ask for suggestions and feedback thru a letterbox at each centre.

Also Sunday sessions where we feast together and even encourage them to discuss their personal/ inter personal problems. There is no 'sir' here, no maalik everyone is a bhaiyya. IN return we address them with izzat also eg Dubeji. We show them motivational movies like Boxer, Guru.

Woh customers se pyaar se baat karte hain, even if they are occassionally blasted by someone.

Extras we do for our customers: If someone makes a special request like 2 rotis extra we give it to them. We pack rotis in alumnium foil and some things in disposables. We're trying to build an assembly line for packing.

We are trying to check which process causes delay, how to speed it up etc. We are very quality conscious. Once the bhaturas cracked and we phoned up all customers and informed them we could not deliver the food that day. Was it necessary? We feel with food you have to be very careful. Poor word of mouth can destroy your brand name.

Right now abt 60-70- people order both times,mainly senior citizens. IT guys mainly order dinners. We may do company catering later but perhaps under a different brand name.

We tell our cooks: Subah naha ke pooja karke khana banaiye. We're planning to introduce them to yoga also. A person in a nsaty mood can't cook well can he? Remember how your mom cooked after fighting with dad?

We also had a peculiar situation where one kid preferred Mom's Kitchen food to his own mom's food because we had variety. We had to go and convince him, "Beta ma ke haath ka khana hi best hai."

My observations
The idea is simple and the case for such a service strong. But to make a success of it operationally the big challenge. And that has been cracked by Mom's Kitchen.

It's a tough business: daily production, finicky customers, tricky delivery logistics but through a mix of inventiveness and doggedness Ashwini and Vinamra have fashioned a workable system. And replicated it at a seocnd location.

Key to their success has been the bonding they've created with the workers. Something they instinctively embraced because it was the right thing and the smart thing to do. A lesson in that for many would be entrepreneurs!

Also good to see techies involved in such a hands-on business.

Mom's Kitchen got a canny feel for the market as well. A budget version of the dabba was introduced esp. for students @ Rs 25. It has everything except foil packaging and raita!

At current order levels Mom's Kitchen will do Rs 65 lakhs worth of business in the coming year. Probably more, with expansion in Pune as well as Chennai on the cards.
Here's wishing them all the very best!

56 comments:

  1. Nice post.. I have been looking forward for this for quite sometime..
    It takes a lot to quit such jobs to pursue their dreams against all odds. Keep more such articles coming in..

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  2. great to read :-)

    Something in here for the "so-called" strategists & planners to learn.

    THE GOD LIES IN EXECUTION :-)

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  3. Sorry to be a bit 'numbers' led...
    65 lakhs of business with 25% margin = Rs16.25 lakh profit. I'm sure/hope they share it with dubeji etc but even if they dont, then its 8lakhs per year (take home) in the bank for the two. I'm assuming the margin was post-tax here (i doubt it, but am being generous). Most people with 3-4 years work-ex in a decent company (esp MNC's) can get more + lot more in terms of perks / assured lifestyle / weekends off etc.

    My POV - at least for the numbers, compare your 5 yr business projection to what your 5 year salary projection is (they're comparing current business to past salary, which is wrong)and then make the right call. Of course, if they're happier this way / feel better about themselves, then go for it...

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  4. Don't go to the numbers dude. Life is not all about sticking your bottoms to a 9 sq feet cubicle and earning gold. There are hardly any people who dare to live their dreams. Godspeed.. pune folks.
    ~Kudos...!

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  5. Hi Rashmi,

    Thanks for that wonderful article and this blog.
    A slight error:

    I passed from IT-BHU in 2004 and not 2005.

    Rgds
    Vinamra Pandiya

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  6. Great article..And kudos to them :) Let India witness many more of these people..

    @apurv -- Dont look @ those numbers man.. There is more joy in doing such things than making money sitting in a cubicle..there is more meaning to it :)

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  7. Amazing Article..hope i can imitate them some point of time through some work :-)
    Kudos to these guys.

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  8. lovely post rashmi...

    this is what inspires people... especially people like me who are looking to get into such grassroots level business by themselves... keep them coming...

    hey vinamra... if you are reading this I have a request for you... can you please post in detail about the problems/challenges that you faced when you embarked on this venture... things like dealing with local people... rival businesses... goons... police etc...
    these are the things that I don't think would be taught at my college...

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  9. Inspiring article, but what about the biggest hurdle, Indian babus? How did they take care of food inspector? And do they use commercial Gas cylinders? Also, I believe that they cannot run a commercial establishment in a house. One reason being the electricity rates, which are different for domestic and commercial customers.
    If they are doing everything as per the law , its wonderful that they are able to start a business this early.Because, in every goverment office they have to either bribe their way out or wait patiently.Do tell me if there is a third way :) ?

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  10. This article came as a pleasant surprise. I work with Infosys Pune and vividly remember the time MK started. They advertised a lot in Infosys's internal network (many people felt that their ad was not in good taste but they got the attention they probably wanted). I also tasted their food once but found it pretty bland; so did not continue. It seems that they have improved a lot and are doing well now. Good luck to them and thanks to you for this article.

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  11. Very interesting read. The courage and down-to-ground realities attitude of these guys is very commendable...

    Wishing all the very best to Vinamra and Ashwani... you might have inspired more people than you realize...

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  12. Hello
    I like ur blog

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  13. i like your blogs u got good information

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  14. this is gr8 service
    recently I got the job near Viman Nagar... m waiting for their Viman Nagar center to start :)

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  15. wow that was an inspiring post :) thank u for sharing..

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  16. Excellent, eagerly waiting for more in this series.

    One more thing there is a Mom's Kitchen in Hyderabad too, run by some Moonga ji, the food has become oily of late, though everything else is same(i mean dabba for IT people)

    Dont you guys have a trademark over the NAME?

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  17. well it was fub ready your articles well keep it up

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  18. well from it feild and the struggle to get such jobs is mind blowing well it is good to read this thing

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  19. well a nice post i have read and it is wonderful article.

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  20. "We hire only non Puneites as they are more dedicated, don't ask for too many holidays etc."

    I find this statement very offensive and immature...

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  21. After reading the article and the comments i feel so happy to see the way MK has come up, it is defntly "Lead by Example", all the best !!

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  22. This article is fabulous.. I really like these guys for what they are doing. I mean it really does take a lot of courage to leave plush IT jobs and get into a business without any experience. Its really inspiring coz these guys have the metal to live their dream and not just dream and do nothing about it. Accolades to Ashwani and Vinamra for the wonderful job!
    I have taken their food each time I come to town for more than 3 days and its very good. I love the food and it reminds me of my Mom. Mom's Kitchen ROCKS!

    and Mr. Apurv, don't go by figures. Whats the use of these figures when one is not happy with the job and the monotony of it. There are somethings in life beyond numbers and it takes a lot to do something as creative and good as this. not everyone has the metal to prove themselves in something like this at such a young age!
    KUDOS to MOM'S KITCHEN!

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  23. Excellent post - highly inspiring to all wannabe entreprenuers. A clear demonstration of the old saying about requirement of strong will power for success. Wish Mom's Kitchen a grand success.. and hope they become the Leela's of tomorrow.

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  24. Nice post, Rashmi

    "kudos"

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  25. lovely post.....
    shrawan

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  26. Awaiting your next post. Its already one week since you have posted anything new. Busy watching India vs Srilanka 'A' practice match or what? ;)

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  27. wow..this is really inspiring!!...guess its success stories like this which makes u wanna take the first step forward!

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  28. As a young Indian-American entrepreneur I found this blog (and your other entries) very rewarding to read about. I admire and encourage the attitudes of the MK founders. Many would be entrepreneurs in the US have unrealistic expectations about immediate earnings and lack the thick skin that expanding this business surely required, so I am glad to see Indians who are go-getters and hope that others continue to follow this lead. If India can encourage entrepreneurship with its business education and government deregulation, I believe that the economy will continue this exciting growth phase and expedite India's path to reducing poverty and competing with other economic powerhouses.

    Best of luck Vinamra and Aswini. I look forward to your future posts, Rashmi.

    -Jason
    JasonShah@INeedAPencil.com

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  29. Really Inspiring.

    I believe that most of the current youngsters have the urge to pursue something different rather than the normal corporate life. We will see such entrepreneur come up on a large scale a few years down the line.

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  30. good job man...

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  31. Anonymous6:48 PM

    It is really inspiring. I could really understand their initial fear and excitement when the business grow, since I too experiencing the same with my business. All the best for their career.
    Right Recovery Options For You

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  32. An inspiring venture for all the techies out there. Rather than complaining about working for a big IT company doing "boring coding" , have the guts to go out and try to out new stuff !!

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  33. For the rest of us:
    http://iim-jobs.blogspot.com

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  34. my gf personally tried out Mom's Kitchen on my insistence...though they are good on hyginbe and professionalism , the qaulity of food is nothing gr8 to write home about. in short it sucks. a good packaging cannot substitute a good product...whatever be their credentials or background and popularity through such articles(seems thy are using it as a promotional tool) - at the end of the day its customer's who make/break any venture. i realy appreciate ur article and always am pro young entrepreneurs , bt dissapointed by their bad bad service. hope u pass on the feedback to them. Guys a lesson for all ventures - never underestimate ur customer's , media articles cannot substitute a satisfyng customer experience. all this hype followed by bad service actuallu is more harmful than no publicity at all ;-)

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  35. Hi Rashmi, Its been two weeks since your last post. We are missing your post. Awaiting your next post with interest....

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  36. Bloody hell man, you two have balls of steel. It must've taken a lot of guts to leave an IT job and start this, with your parents breathing down your necks. Congrats guys! You're my heroes. And one request please... expand your operations to mumbai man. The shitty food over here's gonna kill me soon.

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  37. @apurv.

    Even looking at the numbers, what you are not factoring in is growth. They had 35 customers after 2 months, 200 after 6 months, and then 550 after 10 months. It took them about 5 months to break even, yet in about 18 months they will be making around 8 lakhs (by your figures). And they have barely stepped out of Pune yet!

    Is there any job which increases your pay by 8 lakhs in a year? And because you have not factored in growth, your numbers are extremely flawed. They will make 8 lakhs the next year, which means that the year after they will make significantly more. Especially since there is no dependence on a single raw material (which could cause failure if there was a shortage in supply of the raw material, for example) nor is the market even close to being saturated (they have barely hit more than 2 - 3 cities, and havent even stepped into metros yet!).

    Even going by the numbers, in 5 years I am sure they will not be regretting their decision

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  38. and also think about the number of jobs that they have created. 8 lakhs for themselves and several hearths burnings at their employee's homes! Bravo!

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  39. Rashmi,
    This is a great post. Pl. keep such posts coming. Am a long time reader of your blog.. Great job!

    Folks like Aswini and Vinamra needs to be congratulated - they had the guts to go out and do it. Great job, folks...

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  40. your article s very good and a proof that efforts never go wasted , u just have to have patience and faith in your efforts.

    m also thinking of a self dependent job. but wasnt able to make up my mind for that , now i think i have clear career goals
    thanks to you for that :)

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  41. Hi Ashwini & Vinamra,

    I appreciate your efforts but i guess your staff is cheating on you guys.

    I tried mom's kitchen tiffin service.

    It's been a week I am using their service and believe me it's bad, and am gonna switch again now.

    I felt soda was mixed in food, i could not even finish half chapati and it feels as if I can't eat any more. However, quantity is good (i don't know then why soda was mixed). Besides this, the content

    ** the sweet dish - is actually some white fluid with sugar in a small poly bag.
    ** dal - is Ok (but sometimes good).
    ** Roti - if you keep it for more than 10 mins you'll feel it's crisper :) than papad.
    ** Subji - to my surprise only 1 subji, even a local tiffin wala gives two.
    ** Salad - Well, they serve that too, lucky we. We order full-tiffin so it has four pieces of carrot and four of pieces cucumber, it depends on ur luck if you get thicker pieces ;).
    ** High quality service - first two days we got the tiffin on time b/w 7:30 to 8:30. And now we just pray that it reaches us before we sleep ;).

    And fankly speaking i tried many tiffins but after eating this tiffin for a week i got bad stomach, gastric problem as well.

    Today i had asked the guy not to bring tiffin any more. And these health problems finally inspired me to post this comment. I apologize if you felt bad but my experience was really bad.

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  42. wow..this is amazing....any plans for Hyd???

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  43. @rashmi.......gr8 post as usual..


    @tiffin wale "BONDS" Hats off guys.....U rock....besties for u...Invitation 4 u to chandigarh...ur marketing executive is waiting......


    cheers,
    Bootstrap

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  44. Hi,

    Even we have started a magazine.. It is called Simple Thoughts (www.simplethots.com). Hope someday someone writes a nice article about us just like this.

    Thanks,
    Saravanan

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  45. Anonymous8:16 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  46. I was one of the people who gave them a loan of some amount and they told me they would pay me interest on the principal and kept on waiting for 2 months and several phone calls and pleading i got only my principal back, I hear recently they have taken the deposits from customers and some money from lots of investor and closed shop and ran away

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  47. Hey guys...anyone any clue why MK seems to have closed down? A business which as the blog shows was such a success in initial stages actually breaking even in less than an year and eventually failing could give learnings to others who want to start off on their own...

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  48. I am a 2008 passout from NIT, Warangal, working in Bangalore. Its very inspiring to read about you guys. I have been working on a similar idea of break fast delivery system in Bangalore. I was amazed to find such similarities in our thought process. I would like to inquire a thing or two about your venture, such as licences required etc. If you do not mind can you please mail me your contact number on my email id: piyushjain0509@gmail.com

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