Two women with a Facebook page show how to run a startup grandma’s way

The VillageFair founders Radhika Menon and Priya Deepak.

Radhika Manghat Menon and Priya Deepak fondly call their clay pots and cast iron pans “our babies.” So do their customers. These are not the mass-produced, Teflon-coated, non-stick cookware that you would use and throw eventually. Each of these pieces is seasoned by loving hands. Each has gravitas.

To those unfamiliar with traditional Asian cooking, ‘seasoning’ for utensils might sound like wizardry out of Harry Potter. But those who have seen grandma clanking them in the kitchen, with finger-licking good results, will know exactly what I am talking about.

Radhika is the founder and Priya the co-founder of The VillageFair, a Kochi-based niche ecommerce startup that took baby steps to peddle traditional, natural cookware from the southern Indian state of Kerala through a Facebook page last year. Today they sell goods worth US$4,448 every month, shipping out around 50 pieces a day to clients in India and abroad.

The startup is bootstrapped, highly profitable, with a margin of 40 to 50 percent on everything it sells, and is empowering a clutch of women from lower economic backgrounds by letting them practice an ancient skill – that of seasoning cookware by treating it with natural materials to make it more durable.

Priya spells out one of the biggest reasons for their success: “A frugal, no big bang, approach.”

The founders, both women from the corporate world, decided early on that they would operate on a small scale and sacrifice fast growth for sustainability. Like grandma’s cooking, they would go slow.

It all started with Facebook

The pull of The VillageFair lies in the inherent promise of health in natural cookware made of cast iron, clay, stone, wood, and bronze – not to mention their antique-like look.

Baking pans. Photo credit: The VillageFair.

In fact, a Facebook food blog post by a US-based doctor about the health benefits of using iron in cooking is what triggered the startup. “When Radhika read it, she put up pictures of the cast iron wok she had at home, and suddenly there was a flurry of people asking where they could buy it. That got her thinking,” says Priya.

Radhika has years of experience in the service industry, Priya in software. The two had become acquaintances during business meets. “She called me and we knew exactly what to do. The purchase process, the supply chain, the deliveries…I could handle the backend part very well,” says Priya.

Radhika created their Facebook page, and within a few days the orders started coming. “Facebook has played a big role in our growth,” Priya tells Tech in Asia. Even now, two months after they have set up their own website, a lot of their business comes via the Facebook page.

They set up the company with an initial investment of around US$200.

The seasoning sisters

Slow and steady