Praveen Parihar is an information security enthusiast & entrepreneur from heart. He used to work as Lead Technical Consultant – Payment security at Controlcase. Being an entrepreneur at heart, he conceptualized Dailycacy, a unique dish based platform, the first of its kind, to solve problems related to food ordering.
Please provide a brief overview of your product/ service.
Unlike other generic food ordering platforms, Dailycacy gives you a list of dishes – not restaurants – chosen after having been tried and tested by our food connoisseur panel. You don’t need to scroll through endless menus of different restaurants anymore. Just find signature dishes and popular street food at your fingertips anytime, anywhere.
What inspired you to build the above product/ service?
Online food ordering has only recently evolved in India. With the main focus on technology, the food itself, which is the crucial element, is overlooked. There were some problems in conventional food ordering, which really encouraged me to come up with Dailycacy, such as:
- Endless scrolling menus – too many choices, without any quality filters leaving the user confused.
- Almost none of the popular street food joints are online.
- Too many reviews to go through, most of them focusing on the ambience and service, which don’t help in selecting a dish.
- No standardized criteria for Rating.
- Random Hit & Trial based selection.
The only way to deal with this situation is to have a personal food assistant, who will filter and curate the best dishes for you. Thus, Dailycacy was born.
What is your life mantra?
Even when life hits you hard, don’t lose faith.
What was the most challenging part of your journey till now?
Right from the very beginning, the early players have spoilt the online food ordering market, by not charging any delivery fee. As if that wasn’t enough, they started giving excessive discounts as well. Not following the unit economics, these companies incurred heavy losses and a high cash burn rate to attract customers. Even after a few start-ups shut down after such losses, the others continued with these practices. The end result was that the customer ended up getting used to free delivery and discount offers on everything; also, with no company trying to change this trend, investors lost all hope of the food delivery industry ever turning out to be a sustainable one. Changing this sentiment in the market is the biggest challenge we face. People need to understand that good things come at a price. As the celebrated economist Milton Friedman rightfully quoted, “There is no such thing as a free lunch”.
How do you plan to overcome these challenges?
The current food delivery start-ups have begun to charge delivery fees already. We are still breaking the barriers where nominal delivery charges are being levied to ensure that we deliver with efficiency. We aim to build a solid and efficient delivery system, with a revenue model that is not completely dependent on commission from restaurants. We have designed subscription models for restaurants, and are also working on subscriptions for users. We have partnered with small businesses and street food vendors as well. This provides users with a variety of choice options at very affordable prices. We won’t be frivolous with discounts and cash back offers either. Our expert curation and speedy delivery service will attract and help retain our customers.
Share some details about the investments that you have been able to fetch for the business till now.
We are bootstrapped as of now, and in talks with investors to raise funds.
According to you, what are the three qualities an individual must have to achieve success?
Perseverance, a learning attitude, humility.
Which online tools/ services/ apps do you use the most and would like to recommend as well?
Asana, Trello, UrbanClap, Uber, INC, Entrepreneur, YourStory
Share any one habit which you think makes you more productive.
Reading about successful entrepreneurs.
Share any one habit which you wish to change in yourself.
Losing patience when things don’t work out as planned.
Answer in less than 50 words
Just follow your passion.
- One mistake you believe every individual must avoid:
Not learning from the past
- One most important lesson that you have learnt till now:
Don’t let your past mistakes hold you back. Move on.
What are your plans for next 3 years?
We plan to build a dish review platform focusing solely on food, allowing restaurants and street food vendors alike to showcase their dishes, and allowing users to get and give more meaningful insight on their food.
We intend to expand our model into other categories as well, such as curating and delivering fresh meat, dairy products, organic and healthy meals, fruits, etc.
If you get a chance to start your career again what would you do differently this time?
I would probably become an entrepreneur again.
What are your top three getaway destinations?
Prague, Istanbul, London
Share a quote that inspires you the most.
“If you have more than what you need, share it with those who need it the most!”