The Exchanges

Q a healthcare startup. So, you know, spouses play a very important role, especially when they are entrepreneur spouses. So tell us when you started, how was your family's reaction from where you started? Tell us about your background, because I really believe that background And childhood plays a very important role. Like they shape you to, you know, to become, to make you a person one is right now. Right.

A Yeah. I think giving a brief about my personal life. I think I am, uh, born to a farmer. Uh, my father used to grow a lot of coffee and pepper. Uh, I come from a remote place, uh, in Karnataka called as Saklishpur. Uh, today, a lot of people go there to holiday, you know, there are a lot of, uh, homestays have come up there and, You know, people go there for trekking and things like that. I have been blessed to be born there. It rains like eight months in a year. You always have to have a raincoat and a umbrella handy. So that's how my younger days passed. I did my schooling there in Sakleshpura. Uh, it is to 25 kilometers from Bangalore. Uh, for, you know, uh, then for higher education, actually, uh, I shifted to Bangalore. Uh, I did my graduation in Bangalore. Uh, and I always had aspirations, you know, to do my MBA and, you know, Uh, do something in marketing and finance. During that time, after my MBA, after my graduation, I did not want to do anything immediately for an MBA because I want to also wanted to have some experience, you know, working, uh, before that. So actually I joined a firm where it was into largely into spices trading, uh, and I actually grew there and started international business there. So I got an opportunity, uh, to travel, uh, say to Vietnam, you know, Sri Lanka, China, uh, and all of Malaysia, Singapore and other countries. When I started importing…

AI assessment note: “I think I am, uh, born to a farmer.”

Q So I believe you have to be on the moment and you have to be ahead of the time. And you know, the list keeps going on for the founder, you know, Vikas, you have so many customers who love happy look, right? Uh, I'm one such example. Tell us about one customer story that's surely close to your heart. If you remember.

A During my initial days, we didn't have much technology and all those things. So, we had a customer query in Whitefield, which was a little far from our factory where we operate. He was actually a senior citizen, right? He was 60 plus. So, he called me and said, I'm not able to get the stocks in my nearby store. How do I do it? I said, it will be available in some time, then you can buy there. So, I called up my local sales team there. They said, That they're about to pay into stocks in a day or two, but, uh, he was actually wanted to travel somewhere, and he was a great fan of Happy Low. So, you know, what we did was, uh, we actually started, uh, you know, sending the stocks directly from the factory, usually don't ship from the factory. I asked my, one of my close team members that, you know, go there and personally hand over the stocks to the person, and we also gave him a small thank you note, and with one more additional pack, uh, you know, uh, to him saying happy journey for the thing, and he was super excited, and then, Even now he's in touch and he sends me pack shots of, you know, uh, it's like a retail store for us, right? How many store packs are there in a retail store? He actually has those many packs in his, uh, kitchen, uh, in the closet. So that's quite fascinating that he's, he says, I am a Happy Low customer forever. So these kind of small, small stories actual…

AI assessment note: “we had a customer query in Whitefield, which was a little far from our factory”

Q brands in India selling dry fruits and healthy snacks. Indians munch on You know, healthy and both unhealthy, uh, snacks, right? And there have been so many local brands serving these snacks to Indian consumers, and you said there was no standardization in the market, right? That was the market gap you realized, or what was the gap you realized, or what was the key inside with which you started?

A See today, you know, with so much of disposable income in India and the kind of growth, Uh, the country has taken, uh, in the last five, 10 years. This is, uh, there's a great demand, uh, and a great disposable income across all prathoras of life, right? And, uh, today people want to actually eat something which is healthy and, you know, are willing to pay for the brand, and today people don't want to actually, uh, go and, you know, buy dry fruits, uh, where somebody is actually filling it up from a barney, or, you know, maybe, uh, giving in some loose packaging without any, Proper information of what the product is, when it was, when was it packed? What are the hygiene criteria? You know, or even in terms of shelf life, if you buy something from an unorganized market, uh, which is loosely packed or, you know, filled from a bharani and all, the shelf life won't last much long, right? You get it to home and maybe in, in seven days, 15 days, that might spoil as well. So the people today want to associate with the brand, you know, today it's all about, uh, being associated with the brand and people aspire Uh, you know, to eat products which are good for them. Today, before COVID, actually there was, we are seeing a lot of changes where people wanted to buy branded stuff and all, but COVID has actually reinforced that, you know, uh, you are what you eat kind of thing. So people tod…

AI assessment note: “today people don't want to actually, uh, go and, you know, buy dry fruits”

Q on completing six years. Vikas, uh, you have 17 years of work experience, right? And you have 10 years of experience specifically working in food industry, right? And there are so many entrepreneurs who are starting up, you know, they don't have, they don't even have college degree, you know, and you have such solid work experience. Like, How does this solid experience help? Like, how does it exactly help?

A All my experience has been food and, you know, food and rated products only, so I've been blessed with that, and also a lot of exposure in terms of initial days, in terms of farming, product, agriculture, and all those things, because my father was having his own estates and farms. He also used to aggregate a lot of products and sell it across various regions as well, so I had a good understanding of how business runs or how How the products are grown and things like that. So the basic was very good in terms of, you know, maybe I got a lot of learnings from my father. So that was helpful. And also the work experience is like that, seven years of experience, you know, the experience actually is very, very critical, uh, because you do very less mistakes than, you know, you know, uh, what is good, what is, but in today's world, it's very easy to spend a lot of money and, uh, you know, because otherwise I get no returns. For example, when you want to promote your own website, acquiring a customer on an Instagram or a Facebook, Uh, or even on Google, it's like, you know, typically the, the CAC, the acquisition of, the customer acquisition cost is typically, you know, 500 hundred rupees. So that's very, very expensive, right? Today you, in food, you'll not have so much margins. Uh, say like in IT company, in tech companies, where the customer once downloads the app, he's there foreve…

AI assessment note: “the experience actually is very, very critical, uh, because you do very less mistakes”

Q Yes, I think you are right. Uh, you mentioned about branding and marketing, and you recently partnered with Rajasthan Royals, right? Uh, tell us about it, how it will add value to your business and tell us about the other brand initiatives, uh, Hapilo is working on. I saw two ad films recently. Tell us, tell us more about that.

A Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, see, we always wanted to create a big impact in terms of branding, you know, and when I started, uh, we actually, uh, have, uh, who all joined us in initial days, right? In the two run 16th and seventies, uh, around 90% of the people are still with us, right? So at that time we were very nascent and we didn't have much, Uh, deeper pockets. I used to try to see the IPL and say that, you know, one day we'll be there on a cap somewhere or on the, you know, trouser somewhere. We'll be having a small logo of ours where people will be, you know, seeing as an IPL. So, uh, when the opportunity came, it happened with Ryerson Royals. When I met the CEO, I was quite fascinated about the kind of setup they have, you know, kind of, you know, motivation they have, kind of treatment or kind of social media following they have. Uh, very good stuff, and great ethos the Rice and Royals team had. So, it immediately clicked, right? They are a royal brand, and we are a premium snack brand. So, we thought the partnership can be actually a lot of synergistic, and a lot of natural integration can happen in terms of consumption as well. So, uh, immediately it clicked, and we met a couple of times, and the deal was done. So, uh, we happened to be the title sponsors for Rice and Royals for this IPL season, and it has been a fantastic, uh, you know, exposure to the brand today. Uh…

AI assessment note: “They are a royal brand, and we are a premium snack brand.”

Q many brands, DTC brands in India, like every other day there, like someone is building, launching one DTC brand. And, but there is one common struggle, uh, everyone is facing, which is distribution. Like everyone, not everyone, but many can build one product, right? But not everyone can, you know, crack the distribution. And how did you crack the distribution? How did you acquire the first hundred customers, let's say?

A See, we started very, very small, right? I never expected, uh, what will the, you know, the path of success be, or part of the long-term journey be. I always believe in doing small things, right? And, you know, when we started, we started very, very small, uh, like, Some 10,000 odd rupees is how we started the company. We had just one, one more team member other than me, right? So just a team of two when we started. Very, very humble beginnings, but we were actually a beneficiary of some government schemes as well, right? There was a scheme where a government used to promote the nationalized banks to give funds to younger startups who had a vision to, you know, do some automation or invest in capex. Right. So we got a 80, uh, lakhs loan, uh, under the CGT, MSC scheme. Right. Uh, so we initially did not have to, you know, dilute our, uh, equity to raise some seed capital. So we were a beneficiary of a government scheme, and then we invested that into our automation as well. So that is how initially, uh, which gave us a scale. And before that, even, you know, my wife, uh, helped me with some 20 lakhs of her, uh, uh, life earnings to, you know, help me actually start up. In fact, she was running the entire, uh, household, you know, expenses and everything, and she had a job at that time, and I was trying to, you know, figure out my new startup. So, it's basically, you know, it was…

AI assessment note: “and in terms of first set of hundred customers, I think, Uh, because”