From Batter to Better

HOW PC MUSTHAFA BUILT A BUSINESS OF IDLI-DOSA BATTER FROM A FAILED BATCH, NOT IN A CORPORATE BOARDROOM, BUT IN A SMALL KIRANA STORE

- ANEES HUSSAIN

THE IDEA FOR ID Fresh Food was born not in a corporate boardroom but in a small kirana store in Tippasandra, Bengaluru. It started with a simple observation by PC Musthafa and his cousins that the idli-dosa battersold in plastic covers tied with rubber bandswas messy,inconsistent, and often unhygienic.

Forastaple food found in millions of South Indian homes, the lack of quality and trust was striking. In 2005, they decided to change thatwith just $50,000, a 50 sq ft kitchen, and a promise to make fresh,natural batter the right way, every day.

That idea would eventually become ID Fresh Food, a %900-crore ready-to-cook packaged food company. But the journey to this point was anything but linear.

Musthafa’s life began far from the comforts of business schools and investors. He grew upin Chennalode,aremotevillage in Wayanad, Kerala. There was no consistent electricity, no paved roads, and the nearest town was 14 kilometres away. His father worked as a daily wage labourer on ginger farms, earning 50 fora day’s work. His mother collected firewood to sell by the roadside. For Musthafa, education seemed likean abstract dream, until failure made it real.

He failed Class 6. The shame of sitting with younger students and watching his friends move ahead broke his confidence completely. He quit school and joined his father in the fields, earning 10 a day uprooting ginger. That could have been his life’s path, had it not been for one teacher.