Success story: Musthafa believes it was team work all the way that helped.

Every employee in the company is an entrepeneur like he is, believes Musthafa.

TOPICS
Karnataka
Bangalore

human interest
people

Musthafa P.C, a school dropout who went on to study at IIMB, quit his software job
to start an enterprise that sold idly-dosa batter. His is a success story that has
trickled down to his 600 odd rural employees too
A young techie who could just about make himself daal, rice and papad in his bachelor days now
runs a company with a 70 crore turnover that provides almost five lakh idlis a day to hungry
Bengalureans. Most young working people in the city in a rush, simply fish out the now-famous
iD Fresh readymade idly/dosa batter from their refrigerator for their quick breakfast fix.
While Bengaluru is where all this began for techie-turned-entrepreneur Musthafa P.C, his idlis
and dosas find a place on the breakfast tables in households in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hyderabad,
Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, and even Dubai! And its not limited to idlys and dosas anymore. Their
oeuvre now includes parotas, chapattis and chutneys too, all made without chemicals and
preservatives, Musthafa is quick to add.
It started in a small corner of the citys Thippasandra locality where Musthafas cousins ran a
grocery store. This was eight years ago, and a local supplier would sell idly/dosa batter in an
unbranded plain plastic bag tied up with a rubberband, on weekends. There was a great demand,
but they couldnt keep up the quality. Thats when I felt there was a gap in the market, says the
42-year-old Musthafa, CEO of iD Fresh Food, one of the new-age food startups in the city.
And then, one can conclude, the Malayali business instinct kicked in!
The enterprising cousins set up a 50 square foot kitchen our so-called factory laughs
Musthafa, and started a trial in 10 stores in and around Indiranagar. In a years time we were
selling 100 packets of batter a day. During that time, Musthafa had quit his plum job to study his
MBA at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B). I did a proper survey and found
that Bangalore then had a production requirement of 5,000 kg of batter a day. The sales and the
survey gave them the confidence to set up a 600 square foot kitchen in Kaggadasapura, where
Musthafa pumped in six lakh from his savings. They were still using regular household grinders
to make the batter. I had a high-profile job in Dubai. I had worked with Motorola, Citibank, had
lived in the U.K., and then later even worked with Intel. But I wanted to come back to India to
pursue higher studies, spend time with my parents, and give something back to society, says
Musthafa of making the proverbial switch.
It is with this intent that Musthafa is very particular that they identify smart guys from rural
areas who are unemployed and provide them opportunities in their company. Today they
employ 650 such people from the eight regions they work in across India. I come from a life of
poverty in Wayanad (Kerala) where my dad was a coolie, and breakfast was a luxury. I was a
school dropout after I failed my sixth standard. The teacher persuaded me to repeat the class and
continue my studies.
No one supported his decision to quit the IT industry; it was a job that had brought stability to
the family, helped him build a home and marry off siblings. Even his wifes family was upset that
he was becoming a rice merchant.
But by 2008, his company had expanded into a proper factory in Hoskote, with the help of the
Karnataka State Industrial Development Council (KSIDC). Custom-made grinders were brought
in from America. With Indian grinders, cleaning is the most difficult task. Moreover the small

grinders would take an hour to grind a kilo of dal. So we had to import these large, modified
grinders that self-sterilise at the touch of a button. Musthafa swears the actual batter making
process is the same that your mom uses at home, starting with the soaking. We are only
professional assistants to the homemaker. Our products will always be ready to cook, not ready to
eat. So they dont reach the dining table; they first go into the kitchen. If the idli is good, the
homemaker gets the credit; if the idli turns out bad, iD takes the credit! All the products, he says,
are first tested on his children aged 12, nine, and five.
Business is of course growing phenomenally with venture capital (VC) firms wanting to invest in
them; 60 companies evinced interest in pumping money; mostly American. Finally Helion
Venture invested Rs. 35 crore in their expansion plans. We are targeting expansion to 10
Middle-Eastern cities over the next five years. As well as expanding into north India, especially
Delhi. While initially a friend named it iD for idly-dosa, Musthafa says it now stands for their
identity.
Musthafa makes it a point to stress on the fact that it has been team work all along the way; first
his cousins came on board, then his engineering classmates and then family friends, to start the
operation in various cities. We dont work on an employment basis; there is no fixed pay. Every
employee is a micro-entrepreneur. For example, each area sales team is given a vehicle and they
have to maintain their own profit and loss account, explains Musthafa. Whitefield, Jayanagar,
Indiranagar and Koramangala is where they do their best business, he says. They have a SAPbased backend platform so that they have a zero inventory model 90 per cent of the products
are sold on the same day; a mobile app keeps track of sales patterns in each store.
Musthafas personal favourite from his company is the wheat parota. We eat our idli and dosa
once a week at home, then three days of wheat parota, he breaks into a boyish grin.