“Do not start the cloud cuisine …”: Gurugram Startup, how to expand quickly destroy their business.

The founder of the cloud cuisine shared a honest novel brutally for their business trip, from selling 12 salads per day in a small cellar to the management of 78 cloud restaurants and submitting 14,000 daily requests. The height was a meteorite, but the rapid scaling facts, investor pressure, and dependence on the platform led to a decrease in a dream.

The founder, with Squishywaffle username, shared their journey in a post on the social media platform.

Modest beginnings for prosperous business

Six years ago, the founder began selling fresh authorities from the 180 -foot lower floor kitchen in the Galleria market in Gurgown. With only $ 8 in savings, the project started with 12 requests per day at a price of $ 250 each. The losses were inevitable, but customers were interested in fresh ingredients and ideal parts. Within six months, requests grew to 200 days, as they were cut off with the outbreak of savings.

By 2021, works exploded during the epidemic. Wholesale companies and increasing the demand for healthy food paid revenues to 1.2 rupees per month. I followed a $ 5 million financing round, with a vision to expand to 100 kitchen across India. At its peak, the company boasted 14,000 daily requests, $ 45 to lead daily revenue, and 400 employees.

Hidden costs of expansion

The dream began to collapse as the rapid expansion of cracks revealed. High prices of raw materials, high platform committees, and intensive competition that received profits. The waste jumped from 8 % to 18 %, the training costs rose, and marketing expenses rise $ 12-15 per demand. Dependence on platforms like Swiggy and Zomato for more tense processes, with algorithm changes change vision and commissions that rise to 32 %.

The investor doubled from 3X growth on an annual basis, which prompted the work to burn 80 dollars per month. Today, 30 % of kitchens work with a loss, and the founder thinks about closing 40 % of operations.

Thinking about the trip, the founder shared valuable visions:

• Giving priority to the economy of sustainable unity for growth at any cost.
• Avoid excessive dependence on third -party platforms that control customer data and clarity.
• Build a work that corresponds to your life, and not who consumes it.

“If we looked back, I should have stopped at 8-10 kitchens,” the founder admitted. “We were profitable, controlled, happy. Food was better, and we knew the names of our customers.”

The post, the common on Grapevine, has sparked reactions from users who provide support, advice and admiration. One of them suggested building a direct request application to reduce the statute fees. Another note, “Sometimes the best way to build a big thing is to stay small enough to survive.”