Here We are Again. Getting Ready to Celebrate Bio Basics' Anniversary!
Nine years ago, in 2015, we started real small. Neesha, a good friend, joined us from Mumbai to help us with the launch. Soundar, Devi and I had been planning the launch for months.
Back from The Netherlands just a year or so ago, we had yet to buy ourselves a vehicle. We wanted to do it the Dutch way - use a bicycle. And we did survive for a good 18 months - managing with public transport and a couple of bicycles! Soundar’s car helped us, and we could see we would not go far without a car ourselves. We gave in, got ourselves a Hatchback (a Nissan Micra which we still have BTW!!) in March 2015 - barely a month before we launched Bio Basics.
Devi had identified our first few organic farmers, mostly vegetable and fruit farmers.
We had lined up the operations by then - the weighing machine, the knives, cutting boards, the packaging. All this in our living room.
Neesha posed with the longest Snake Gourd we had seen in our lives, almost 4 feet long. Our first photo!
We had reached out to our friends - mostly new friends we made in Coimbatore, requesting them to buy our first offering. Our first customers! (BTW Devi was Bio1 - our first customer).
April 14, 2015 was a Tuesday. Also, the day of Vishu, the Kerala and Tamil New year. Auspicious day, we reckoned. Our first day at operations!
Rathina Kumar came to us a week before we launched. Introduced to us by a friend. He was an Engineering graduate, wanting to work in the food and agriculture space. Quiet, patient and hard working. All of 23 years! We took him on. Our first employee!
We had got all the customer orders in advance. We prepared all the bags for the customers. 20 on our first day. 10 went into Soundar’s car, and Rathina hopped in to help. The other 10 into our new Micra with myself as the Driver and Devi as the delivery executive! Our first delivery!
Stopped over first at Lakshman’s apartment close by. They were about to settle down for their Vishu lunch. His father was happy to see us, and wished us well with our venture. Our first customer engagement!
Those 20 bags took all of 3 hours and tens of kilometres for both the teams to deliver and return to home base.
Our exciting first day at Bio Basics had come to a quiet end with all of us sitting around soaking in the experience of having launched Bio Basics. No fanfare, no celebrities, no rituals, just a few folks choosing to eat safe, organic, whole foods from the organic farms of committed farmers, and sharing it with enlightened customers who care for their health, the farmers and the environment. Very caring. Very Honest. Very Passionate. Very Bio Basics!
Nine nice years have passed by.
And a lot has changed since. 35+ employees across 3 facilities/offices, 5 Directors working pro bono, 5000+ farmers (both individual farmers, and from 12+ FPOs), 50,000+ customers (Devi reminds me it is just an estimate!) across 1899 pincodes, 300+ products with 60+ rices, 10+ wheats and a whole lot more, actively engaging over Insta, and a new logo & tagline (ICYMI)!
But in spirit, we are just the same (too cliched?!). Caring, Honest, Passionate. Very Bio Basics!
