The advent of information technology has changed the face of urban living in India. Bangalore, the silicon valley of India, is probably one of the forerunners in claiming the title of “city that never sleeps”. How many times have you craved in vain for hot and sumptuous food late in the night? Not any more, we present to you Late Night, your one stop shop for midnight hunger pangs!
Shalin Mishra, an engineering graduate from Bangalore and an IT professional himself for 2 years, co-founded Late Night along with his college friend Gautam Boudh. “Being a part of the IT industry for two years, I faced unsettling food cravings at vampire hours. All food joints are closed by then. At midnight if hunger strikes, the time honoured practice of the customary noodles or, in some rare situations, hastily cooked food is a mundane experience. When awake at 2am studying or working, I myself wished for something delicious to munch on. This desire and yearning for scrumptious food during those late hours led to the idea of Late Night. I did some research about legality of issues related to food delivery and take away services after standard stipulated time by the state government. On positive findings, Late Night was conceptualized.”
“With offices open 24X7, people working in night shifts and a huge student population staying away from home, we saw a huge potential for night food delivery in Bangalore. We felt that people working in night shifts are deprived of one major benefit, which their counterparts can easily access. That is the option of ordering fresh, hot, delicious and hygienic food. Also with numerous colleges in the city, Bangalore is home to thousands of students. Late night parties, gatherings and staying up late is common for college students. So initially, our target customers were college students and people working in night shifts. But with time we realized that Bangalore has a lot more to offer. Our clientele now covers a wide spectrum of people including families, visitors, businessmen, etc.”
Late Night has had a great response from their customers. Ironically their celebrations take place early mornings. “The response has been overwhelming. We take our feedbacks very seriously and work on it. A simple text from our satisfied customers that says, “Food was good, loved it,” becomes a reason for early morning parties (yeah!!) for the Late Night team. But our thirst for more prevents us from basking on the glory for too long, and brings us back to our goals. We often receive orders from areas outside our delivery territory. As for any business it is necessary to grow, and for that we need to explore new markets. We are gradually entering new locations in the city but since each locality has its own blend of demographics we don’t get equal responses from all areas”.
The team takes us through their initial days, when they were pretty much doing everything for their venture. “Late Night started its operations on a very small scale with one cook, one helper and two founders doing all that was required. Things ran smooth for a month. In the next six months, as business grew we were bombarded with various challenges. Since we both lacked experience in the hospitality industry, things became challenging. The biggest issue was that we needed an expert chef, trained kitchen and delivery staff to work at night. Our chef once quit uninformed, but we didn’t succumb to the situation. We ourselves cooked and delivered the orders for a couple of days. Soon things got into place. Today we have a dedicated team of 15 members, working hard to deliver freshly cooked food at odd hours.” If you think cooking at such odd hours is difficult, planning what to serve at such odd hours is even more challenging. “Another challenge was finding out what our customers want at late hours of night and deciding the menu accordingly. During initial months we experimented a lot with our menu.”
Late Night talk about their menu as it looks today, “Late Night’s menu includes veg/non-veg Chinese and Indian food. Our customers have the option to choose from a wide variety of appetizers, Indian breads (Nan, Tawa roti, Tandoori roti, etc.), assortment of rice and noodles, biryani, paneer/chicken/egg gravies, tandoori items, soft drinks, chocolates, pastries and smokes. With time and with an expanding customer base, we are including more dishes to the menu. Any new dish first enters the menu for a test period of a month. We recommend it to our customers while taking orders. If we receive a positive feedback, it goes on the menu. Certain items on the list have been added after repetitive requests from our clients, like Dal Fry.”
Shalin tells us about how courage and determination play an important role when you are stepping into the land of entrepreneurs. “I did want to start my own business, but Late Night was not my first choice. While I was working, I used to come back from office and spend the nights working on business ideas. Due to time, financial constraints and certain other difficulties, the idea I originally had in mind could not be converted into reality. My family and friends advised me to focus on the job I already had, but by then I had evaluated my constraints and limitations and had again started to work on a new venture with a greater commitment. And in the next three months Late Night delivered its first order.” Based on his experiences, his advice to budding entrepreneurs is to, “believe in yourself and generate a quality product/service. Learn from your mistakes because they are the best teachers. Success will eventually follow. In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”
Late Night’s future plans include taking over the city and serving night owls wherever they are. “Within a short span of a year and half our infrastructure has grown considerably. By 2015 end, we plan to cover all of Bangalore. Next year we plan on entering other cities. Since expansion is on our list, we are open for investments and partnerships from interested parties.”
All you IT professionals, students or late night party goers, why settle for less when you can get yummy and hygienic food at your doorstep even at bizarre hours. At Late Night, the team works from 7 pm to 4 am delivering all that you need when the refrigerator is empty and you are longing for some “desi tadka” or delicious hot food.
Late Night is a night time food delivery service operating in Bangalore. Visit their website to take a look at their menu, and delivery areas.
You can mail them at contact@latenight.in or call them on 080-6565-2324/+918884-93-2323 with your queries.
Don’t forget to stop by their facebook page to stay updated.
AMAZING!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING…