Entrepreneur Shivi Jawalia has started a Rajasthani-themed restaurant NH10, but the pandemic has badly hit the hospitality business which slows down the business of Shivi. Shivi is a part-time academician teaching MBA at various institutes and entrepreneur. When her business slowed down this provide her an opportunity to start another venture.
She established Chakkiwalein in May 2020, which is a venture that provides organic flours, hand-ground spices, millets, dry fruits, pulses, and more. Before starting a new venture, Shivi herself has been using a chakki (mill) and grinding flours for consumption at home rather than purchasing from the store for a while. She would also hand-pound spices and masalas at home.
Many times when her friends visited her, they would always tell Shivi that her home food tasted very different. When pandemics has hit her restaurant business, this gave her the reason to start Chakkiwalle. During the pandemic, she started using their farmland on the edge of Bengaluru which had been lying unused for so long to good use.
She started making half kg packets in very simple bags. She wrote her phone number on the bags so if customers want to order more. When she started selling within their apartment complex, she would distribute a Google Form and ask them to add their orders there before creating an e-commerce website.
When Shivi started getting messages about the process of how the products were made. She made WhatsApp and Telegram groups to share video snippets informing people about the process. Shivi disclosed that they don’t stock up on the products and advised customers not to do the same as well and persuade them to order every seven days. So, Chakkiwalle grind only after orders is being placed in order to guarantee fresh products.