The Awestruck story.
It all started around 9 months ago. When this flaky, malnourished guy decided to quit his job in search of something that he would want to do. So he resigned his stupendously high paying job, did nothing for 2 months but talk to people in different industries (and nihilistically mundane household chores). He realised that there is this gap in Indian F&B market, a gap worth atleast INR500,00,00,000 (USD 83,000,000) waiting to be tapped. There was no structured food truck existing in the country!
Hence started the idea of Awestruck. Months of designing, fabricating, getting mugged in small dubious lanes of old markets searching for right parts of the truck or kitchen, getting conned by fake consultants, sleepless nights and insane amounts of alcohol lead to the birth of the first truck in November 2013.
The truck remains to be the lone player in the structured food truck category in India and we are now looking for somebody who could invest money and more..
We have already:
- Established a successful PoC.
- Resolved legal licensing issues.
- Standardised recipes and trained staff.
- Started a base kitchen.
- Established the pre-order and office delivery logistics.
- Achieved operational breakeven from the second month of operation.
We have plans to expand quickly with 5 more trucks and then with another round of 10 more trucks taking our gross revenue from a mere INR9,00,000 (USD 15,000) to a projected revenue of INR 3,20,00,000(USD 500,000) in 20 months and would keep growing exponentially thereafter. There is a whole new segment of F&B industry waiting to be established. Awestruck has already taken the first step into the market and it is only a matter of a small time when this would soar into a giant brand to tap the multi-million segment.
Ohh and winning the Merc thing… hmmm…
Help us to raise funding and you could win a brand new Mercedes AMG SLS. How? When we get funding, Awestruck would become a big corporation. Big corporation would pay big money to its founder and the generous founder would be rich enough to buy you a Mercedes, simple!
(:
asha chaudhry
hi shreesh….
three things:
i) where was this first published? could you pls share the link at the end?
ii) how can anyone help crowdfund you if you haven’t shared your crowdfunding link here??
iii) i would’ve used a headline that talked about awestruck directly!
Rajeev Roy
Congratulations AWES(um)TRUCK.
Welcome to the never ending Roller-Coaster life of a FOODPRENEUR.
Kudos & Hats Off to you for executing your ideas into a REAL Business Venture.
However, please help me understand the following:
1) Great thought and even greater NUMBERS to ponder upon. ( INR 500,00,00,000 (USD 83,000,000) waiting to be tapped.)
What is the source ? Which segment is this representing ? What is the context ?etc etc.
Would be of great help if you share a very brief on this.
2) “Structured Food Truck Category” has been there for ages now.
If it is a new category created by some Food Industry Chamber or Association, pl forgive my ignorance. I have seen numerous CHINESE CARTS all over Delhi for many- many years now. And to my knowledge usually the owner of a CHOW-CART, as they are called, has 3-10 more running in different places. They have Licenses from MCD & Legal Electricity & MTNL connection. Ping me in case you want the details of few to help you roll out more in less time.
3) Established a successful POC.
Help me understand this too. You launched it in Nov 2013 & its April 14. Just FIVE months and a successful POC in F&B sector. They say in Punjabi (pardon my foolishness to quote this here though very relevant ) :
PEHLE saal CHADDI ( money goes from home)
DUJE saal HATTI ( time to establish the business)
TIJE saal KHAATI ( time to reap profits )
Wow if done & proved otherwise.
4) Resolved legal licenses & issues – The most difficult part but again hats off to you . I was told by one of my mentors that there are more authorities in Indian that Hindu Gods & Deities ( i.e More than 33 Crores as I remember quoting him). You have met them all in just 5 months has come to me as a pleasant surprise.
5) Three Points together.
Your Menu Card says AWESTRUCK team comprises of YOU ( Shreesh ) , Balwant Ji & Jitender Kumar. Don’t you think a base kitchen with standardized recipes & established office delivery is a VERY HUGE COST BURDEN to feed ONE (1) AWESTRUCK as of now. How do you provision for the cost as you have written its already in place.
6) Even after reading 5 times could not understand the below :
“gross revenue from a mere INR9,00,000 (USD 15,000) to a projected revenue of INR 3,20,00,000(USD 500,000) in 20 months”
Breakdown Assumptions with ONE (1) AWESTRUCK :
1) If revenue is PER ANNUM
So, it works out to be Rs 75,000/- per month or Rs2500/ Per day with Rs 9,00,000/-PA sales.
Cost of Overall Operation including Food cost (50%)+ Salary + Rent ( depreciating value of the Cart)+ Authorities + Misc = ????? How Much ? Would love to know this.
2) If revenue shown is PER MONTH
That makes its Rs 30,000/ Per day. How on earth can that be achieved by 3 people on a 9/5 feet Truck (assuming by looking at the photo)? Have I gone wrong somewhere ? Pl correct me !
I also need to understand WHY ? WHY?( in fact we all Rodinhoods ) WHY ? Why ? have you written this post?
To my understanding the foremost reason,it seems from the tone of the article, is to attract investors to be part of your project.
If yes, than I am afraid and would suggest you to change the tone of the pitch as the figures & material fact written seems to contradict each other.I as a layman thinks so with my limited knowledge.
Do you think it would go well with otherwise WISE people called ANGELS , VC etc.
Sincerely hope you got the drift.
All the very best of luck & don’t forget to give me a ride on your Mercedes AMG SLS !!
Why listed under RIL ?
Cheers 🙂
(PS:The most important & difficult thing is to START and YOU have done that. Things evolve in course of time. Sincerely hope this only motivates you enough to replicate from 1 AWESTRUCK to 100 AWESTRUCK.)
Abey John
Nice. I’ve seen people with similar trucks around Chennai so not sure about your being ‘first’ claim. Dunno about funding but you are ideally suited to leverage twitter for your customers. Like this list. Tweet out your location on twitter and turn up at each of the outsourcing code coolie sweatshops. 🙂
Take a look at this too: https://customfoodtrailer.biz/
Abey John
🙂 yea the Mercedes headline is a cheesy gimmick and I was all set to vent and rant and rage over that. 🙂
Rajeev Roy
Just thought of sharing as it directly connects to your business but for the US Markets.
What Ever Happened to Food Trucks?
Cheers
asha chaudhry
kudos to your rodinhooding spirit rajeev!
when an author to a post doesn’t respond to comments – i usually lose interest! not you!!
keep rocking!
Rishi
Shreesh- the mercedes trick might have helped get attention but personally not a big fan of it. I don’t have any issues founders getting big and rich, but I hope you understand the money you raise is not yours.
It is a liability. It takes years to get build a “big” corporation and no investor would like to see his/her money being given away for things such as a mercedes. Even founders in a funded company have to earn their “big monies” and equity back over time, and in most cases founders do not get rich.
Rajeev Roy
I know what you mean when you say ” I usually lose interest “. So true. But the great CANVAS that #trhs is, we all sincerely believe that any topic listed here has many ” Invisible / Silent Beneficiary ” too …. At the end of the day even if it helps 1 Rodinhood it fulfills our purpose of being part of this selfless community of contributors.
Cheers
asha chaudhry
awesome! thanks for the reminder rajeev!! so glad you’ve won a tee – totally deserve it!
🙂
Shreesh
Apologies for replying late, I am mostly at the truck and replying to a post sadly cannot top my priority. Thanks to all of you for bearing with me, thanks a lot to Rajeev for asking questions and being stupendously nice.
The answers:
Please don’t loose interest, or stop posting helpful links. Thanks again for your feedback and encouragement.
Roshan Desarda
Shreesh, What was the initial investment including the awesome truck?
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
🙂
I like the “I am mostly at the truck”
Abhishek Rai
Hello !
This is brilliant stuff on execution !
Do you station the truck at the same lat-long or is it roving?
The reason is, I am not sure if Haryana has too many tourist inclined places, but if you could rove it around the tourist places on weekend, that’d be a great business.
If you ever think of expanding to Maharashtra, ping me (It is one of the states which has an ideal mix of booming cities and ever-crowded tourist places). We would work the truck during weekdays in the cities and on weekends, we would take off to a tourist place.
All the best !
Cheers!
Shreesh
Thanks Abhishek. This first truck does business mostly on the same spot. I completely agree to your idea, we have plans on going that way for the upcoming trucks.
And yes I would ping you soon enough. (: