Zero cost food-ex

There’s nothing like a free lunch, but Chennai-based Yo! Potato delivers your food for free. Big deal, most restaurants do, you might scoff. Yo! Potato is not a restaurant, but a delivery service, that can fetch food on your behalf from any restaurant in the city, at no extra cost. “Even a small family of three has three different preferences. When they decide to go out for dinner, obviously some sacrifices have to be made. Yo! Potato can gather any food from any restaurant you wish,” begins Krishna Chidambaresh, one of the co-founders, on the concept of the startup.

Research plan

Yo! Potato, which was started in December 2011, doesn’t insist on a minimum order, nor is there any restriction on ‘tipping’ the boys. Chidambaresh along with his partners Pavan Kumar and Shaukat Jamal, pooled in `30 lakh, mostly sourced from personal savings and borrowings from friends and relatives. The co-founders spend another `3-4 lakh monthly towards operational costs. They have a team of 20.

It doesn’t come across as a great business model, but the co-founders are just biding their time and building up the brand. “As of now, we would like to know which restaurants are favoured big-time by the public. Then it would be easier for us to forge tie-ups with them and monetise Yo! Potato. We are also exploring the idea of asking for a very nominal fee from the customer, albeit not now,” says the 32-year-old, who holds an engineering degree from University of Madras.

Unique venture

Chidambaresh candidly admits that it will take a couple of years to break even and this has put him in a tight spot as angel investors and venture capitalists are shying away from his venture. “This is a novel idea and I can proudly say that this has not been attempted anywhere else on the globe. Most people tend to dismiss us saying we are just delivering food, but we believe we are solving real problems. Innovation is not always about big bucks,” says Chidambaresh, oozing confidence.

High on hopes

Having started with a humble deliveries of 17 in the month they began, now Yo! Potato does almost 900 every month. On challenges, Chidambaresh, lists, “As of now there is zero sales, zero marketing. I double up as a delivery boy too. Salaries, bikes, petrol, all need to be taken care of. The hope that we can make it big someday keeps us going.”

Order here

Delivery-related requests can be made to 044-45541111. Those interested to know more about Yo! Potato, can log onto www.yopotato.com. Chidambaresh can be contacted at krishna@yopotato.com or (0)98404049999 ■

— shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com