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Cyrus Driver (PGP 2000), Calorie Care
Cyrus quit his private equity job in Singapore to launch Calorie Care, India's first professional, calorie-counted meal delivery service. His own battle with weight prompted the idea of the business!

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On the job or on your own? The question just got harder for recent batches, given the vastly improved placement prospects. And one piece of advice almost all the entrepreneurs of the earlier generation had for today's dreamers is: Don't join a cushy job with a big brand name company. You won't learn much there, and you'll probably get addicted to the creature comforts. Sitting in Cyrus Driver's cramped little office in Sewri, I can only think, that theory is wrong. If you have the idea of entrepreneurship coursing through your veins you will do it - anyhow. Cyrus worked with J P Morgan in Singapore before returning to India in 2004 to set up the unique concept of Calorie Care. It had been a success but like all early successes the company faces the difficult task of scaling up from here. We don't know how he will do it, but the story is important enough even as a work in progress. Because this story could be yours.

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Cyrus Driver (PGP 2000), Calorie Care

Cyrus Driver is an Air Force child. Everyone went the doctor-engineer route, and so did Cyrus. He joined IIT Bombay. But much before that, as India was opening up in the 1990s. Cyrus found himself fascinated by business and big businessmen. I felt these are the real rock stars and knew I wanted to do something of my own early on. With this in mind, Cyrus joined IIM Ahmedabad and that's also the reason he joined J P Morgan in their private equity division. He figured it would be a great learning ground, and it was. I worked in both India and Singapore, from where we invested in a lot of promising young Indian companies. The work included everything from hiring salespeople for investee companies, to looking into finances. It was the dotcom era when a lot of companies launched with Rs 5-10 crore advertising budgets. And fizzled out quickly as well. I learnt the importance of starting small and growing big. And I knew my company should be built the bootstrapped way. In August 2004, Cyrus quit J P Morgan and came back to Mumbai. He had a nest egg to invest and also an idea to invest in: Calorie counted healthy meals. I've always had a weight problem of sorts but after I started working it became worse. I knew there was definitely a demand for such a service because I myself had a need for it. Secondly, it was a good opportunity to be an early mover in a growing space. And thus was born Calorie Care. The first step was constituting the product. Recipes which were low in calories but tasted good as well. Sports nutritionist Lisa John worked along with two professional chefs to create a library of calorie counted recipes. It took 10 months to put together a database of 150 such recipes across different cuisines. Everything from masala baked beans in tomato cups to grilled hara bhara (soya) kebabs.
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Downloading a list of low-cal recipes would take 60 minutes on the internet as there are thousands available online. says Cyrus. The reason it took almost a year is because we actually cooked and tried out literally a thousand recipes and modified them by trial and error to come up with 150 that we thought were tasty as well as healthy. The next hurdle was getting the sundry municipal licenses required to set up a food establishment in Mumbai. There is so much corruption! For the first time I came face to face with this whole different world. Finding a location to set up his kitchen was also not easy. It took 5 months to zero in on a property which met the requirements and was affordable. It happened to be in less-than-glamorous Sewri and clinching the deal involved a lot of haggling and negotiations. Next came the task of setting up a professional kitchen and this is what required a sizable investment (Rs 45 lakhs, put in by Cyrus himself). Calorie Care is modelled along the lines of a flight kitchen and at its helm was chef Kamlesh Kumar, who had worked with Ambassador Skychef. And no doubt it is most impressive: gleaming stainless steel counters, uniformed workers with caps and gloves, and an air conditioned area where salads are cut and food is packed. Utmost care in terms of freshness and hygiene is very evident! The meals are even delivered in our own air conditioned vans. You notice a lot of attention to detail. Attractive packaging, small touches like a napkin with each meal. But the big idea is, not only are the meals calorie counted but they are customised. This means, when you wish to order Calorie Care, you must first consult their dietician (in person, or on the phone). Next, you indicate your preferences and this could be as detailed as: I like Indian and continental but not Chinese. I am allergic to onion and hate green peas. No salad with yoghurt dressing. Delivery at office Monday-Friday, and Saturdays at home, please. Technology makes it possible for us to handle this kind of customisation, says Cyrus. A specially written software conveys to the kitchen the entire list of orders daily, and how much needs to be packed for each individual as serving sizes vary from person to person. Every meal is packed in food grade containers with individual labels, similar to inflight meals. Of course all this does not come cheap - a month of Calorie Care meals would cost between Rs 3500-4500. But clients from the financial services sector (Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and consulting companies) form the core customer base and they aren't complaining. We've found success with well paid professionals pressed for time, willing to pay for health and convenience, says Cyrus.
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This is certainly an achievement but also an issue. How much more can a premium service grow, and that too only on word of mouth? Currently Calorie Care delivers 600 meals a day, and caters generic healthy meals to some corporate houses. The company clocked sales of approximately Rs 2 crores in its second year and some profit - which was reinvested in the business. The issue is: where does the company go from here? Calorie Care entered into a joint venture with Sterling Biotech, a company launching health malls. The company also runs health food cafes at select gyms in Mumbai. But both these activities yield more in terms of visibility and brand awareness than any substantial revenues. We had ambitious plans of launching in Delhi and Bangalore, which we've dropped for now. The problem is finding and retaining senior managers. We are finding that extremely difficult. Money is not an issue, as Calorie Care raised some venture capital. However money alone is not enough... Or maybe it is a question of being in a hurry. Graduating from a small, self sustaining business to a large, multi-city operation with substantial scale is always difficult. A number of entrepreneurs interviewed for this book have done it, but not in 2-3 years. 8-10 years is par for the course, and it could take even longer. Cyrus, and other young entrepreneurs, may not be willing to wait that long. I am in talks with a couple of strategic partners.This would mean parting with a large chunk of equity but I think we will get much in return. So far the business has grown purely on word of mouth. But now it needs advertising, a salesforce to market it and well, all the muscle a large organisation can provide to take it to the next level. If you feel you are not growing fast enough would you fight it out on your own, or would you take the practical path like me and look for a partner? he muses. To me control is not as important as the brand becoming bigger. Something I created, living on... In fact, he is brutally honest when he says that at present the business is na ghar ka na ghat ka. And that also describes his own career in a sense. Cyrus divides his time between Calorie Care and working as the India hand for Helix investments, a PE firm looking for companies to invest in India. I don't take a salary from Calorie Care, whatever profit we make is put back into the business. Helix is what pays my bills, he reveals. Again, this is something many entrepreneurs do to keep their dream alive. But one can't help wondering, is giving 50% of your time and energy to a young business enough?
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There are many unanswered questions and answers as varied as the Calorie Care's customised meal plans. What works for one company may not for another. Calorie Care has lessons and learnings which will be evident - but all in due time.

ADVICE TO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

This is a good time to start up but keep in mind, the odds will be against you. You must carefully plan how you will be financially sustainable. Create a nest egg to draw on or, like me make sure you have some alternate source of income. The other option is to set up after 10-15 years when you are an industry expert. Start small and then expand, after you feel you have the product and processes right. It's good to be a consumer of the product you are planning to launch, as you don't need to do endless market research. You know what will sell.

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad