Giving Home Chefs A Leg Up: Co-founder Anujj Mehta Talks About His Brand ‘HeyHomie'

As they take confident strides towards enhancing their profiles, entrepreneurs are constantly pushing to introduce new concepts and to enable people to recognise the ideal opportunity. Because, innovation and fresh perspectives on entrepreneurial ideas can help change for the better how businesses operate. And, as more and more individuals look to take a chance and explore whether they’re capable of leaving their mark in the world of business, the competition heats up. Anujj Mehta is among the many with a mission, a man eager to bring something extraordinary to the table. This he has done by launching a platform, HeyHomie.me, a disruptive venture that seeks to empower talented Homepreneurs, specifically home chefs in Delhi-NCR. In this interview, Mehta opens up on his brand and the business model behind it.

1. Tell us about HeyHomie.me, and your business model?

At HeyHomie.me, we are a hyperlocal community-led that empowers Home Chefs in starting and scaling their food business from the comfort of home and enables people living in those communities to buy home-cooked food from their neighborhood. The founders empower Home Chefs with all the tools required from setting up their digital store, menu set-up, payment integration, last-mile delivery services, order management, customer acquisition, to marketing & customer retention.

For our foodie friends, we offer authentic food bites and a delectable palette of flavors from various parts of the world without compromising on hygiene. With a flexible and user-friendly platform in place, we serve customers at convenience and comfort and allow them to choose their location or select the sector they live in. At the organization, I further look to present the best home chefs available in their condominium or who are available to serve within a certain vicinity. The buyer then picks the best suitable option for them from the breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner categories and places an order. 

Alongside deliver-at-home services and offering conveniently accessible and healthy food, we are also -

Aiding home chefs in gaining experience and setting up their business through our platform leads to onboarding them.

It offers multiple benefits to chefs, including starting with a 30-day free-trial period, which can extend up to 60 days.

Having an adaptable and mutually beneficial revenue model, letting the chefs have complete control over how they pay and what prices they set for their dishes

In addition to this, we also cater to professional home chefs who have been in this business for a long time and yet have also chosen to associate with us; we’ve established a monthly remuneration for them. HeyHomie.me is also focusing on targeting a larger audience with our marketplace section, where we will be inducting homepreneurs from all over the country to register and contribute to an extensive portfolio of non-perishable products or perishable products with longer shelf life ranging from pickles, savories to bakery products and more. 

2. How has the progress been for the brand since the launch? What are the brand’s vision and further expansion plans?

HeyHomie.me is a bootstrapped company that has developed strategic relations and witnessed a surge in customer acquisition for the home chefs and community convenience stores. We express much gratitude towards the Indian audience, who warmly embraces us and inspires us to reach out to more customers by the day. Our vision is as simple as growing multi-fold in the coming times and having an expansive presence across Delhi-NCR in the future. We intend to examine our analytical presence in April and start our fundraising. This shall further trigger our growth as we make our way to other cities, including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai. 

3. How does the app connect the gap between home chefs and the consumers using tech? Kindly explain it to our reader?

The customers can contact the chefs in their local condominium, escalating the business to a new level as they support local chefs rather than buying from a seller or a commercial kitchen. This helps them to support unrecognized chefs coming together and buying from like-minded households. So the experience of purchasing home-cooked food is very different from what people otherwise do while buying from a restaurant. We further make sure that although the chefs are not commercial, there is empathy and a knack to handle customer conversations alongside a healthy WCH (Work Culture in a Home-based venture).

4. How have you made HeyHomie.me? Is the User Interface easy to use for consumers and home chefs? Share some USPs.

Extensive experience of half a decade in the industry has helped us comprehend and resolve challenges and pain areas consumers and home chefs face. Our brand is helping home chefs learn the tricks and knacks of business, making us the leading home-chef-friendly brand. Aiding homepreneurs, we help them amplify their game and upskill into becoming the next buzz in town with their expertise.

The platform further helps the homies rationally decide when to start selling and how to inflate their reach in an efficient and time-saving manner. Aiding them with customer acquisition, letting them customize their menus, and giving them complete control over their products and how they wish to sell the items is how we believe in making it the best platform for sellers. 

In addition to this, our Whatsapp-first approach covers the digital-friendly audience. It instills an innovative virtual dynamic making the seller experience hassle-free and less draining. Furthermore, we also offer the flexibility of the number of days they wish to operate and provide them with end-to-end logistics. The payments on our platform are credited in real-time, making us a financially viable option for many. Guiding the debutants and helping them level up, we focus on giving an online identity to every chef by hosting their website through HeyHomie.me. 

5. Is HeyHomie.me one of its kind, or do you think there is a market that already exists with similar offerings?

We stand apart from the crowd due to our USP of supporting homepreneurs and building a user-friendly space for people of all ages with Whatsapp as a touchpoint. With utmost hygiene, quality of food, and USP of serving home-cooked meals, HeyHomie.me is building its legacy. We’ve created a market of our own and are prepping home chefs to set up shop and connect them to the customers who are looking for such options and do not mind exploring. HeyHomie.me has unique offerings and services, making the platform one-of-a-kind in the industry.