The concept behind Ekplate is simple yet impactful – to help people find and connect with street food vendors in their vicinity. They define street food as food served on the streets or traditional dishes found in small eateries. To build a comprehensive information base of street food vendors, the founders along with the dedicated team of Ekplate painstakingly map out entire cities and visit new vendors daily, ensuring that the app remains up-to-date and reliable.
Welcome to the captivating world of gastronomy and culinary delights! In this post, we will take you on a delectable journey filled with flavours, stories, and the passion of a visionary foodie. Today, Harsh Shah, the mastermind behind Ekplate, joins us in this session of ConflatingVisions. He reveals how this groundbreaking street food-finding app is transforming the way we explore the hidden gems of street cuisine. Get ready to tantalize your taste buds and discover the remarkable tale of ekplate’s inception, challenges, and its mission to empower street food vendors while delighting food enthusiasts worldwide!
Hi Harsh, welcome to conflatingVisions. To begin with, we would like to know a few lines about the founders of Ekplate.
Hello, glad to be here on ConflatingVisions. I am Harsh Shah, a 23-year-old Business Graduate, and the founder of Ekplate. Since the end of 2014, I have been working on making Ekplate a reality. I am a true foodie by heart. For me, doing your own business has been a family tradition so it was natural for me to take that route.
Please tell us about Ekplate. How do you go about building the information base of street food vendors?
Ekplate is a street food-finding app that helps people find street food around them. We define street food as food that is served on the street or street food, for example, chaat and other typical street food dishes served in small restaurants.
We have a dedicated team that maps out the entire city and visits new street food vendors and adds them on the app every day.
What inspired you to start working on Ekplate?
This may sound dramatic but when I was in my final year we used to have a break during lectures for lunch . There used to be one famous sandwich vendor near our college and everyone used to only flock there. What used to end up happening was that sometimes you would miss out on getting the sandwich you wanted.
Once walking towards my college I noticed a small sandwich vendor that was near my college but I had never seen him before. After talking to him, I realised that he has been there for the past 20 years! That’s when it hit me that these vendors have been working so hard and have such amazing stories but have nowhere to promote themselves.
I truly want to make a difference in their lives in the smallest way I can and I am looking for people who share the same long-term vision as me to create a social impact.
How challenging was it for you to bring the idea of street food finder application to reality?
It was not hard to find people who believed this app should exist. But it was really hard finding people who were ready to put the money and actually fund it.
In the start-up space nowadays everyone is looking for a quick entry and exit. But we are creating something more than that.
Team building was another challenge. In the beginning, it was hard to find a team that wants to truly help and uplift the vendors. But eventually, it got easier. We still are looking for like-minded people to join us on this journey.
Please share the investment details.
Ekplate is a self-funded platform.
When are you expecting to break even?
In 2 years from now.
How are you reaching out to prospective users to try out the Ekplate app?
As we are in the Bootstrapped stage, we are focusing on getting users organically. Since Ekplate has been in the street food space for quite a long time, we have successfully created a good social network presence.
How has been the journey so far for you?
The journey has been extremely enriching. I have personally met over 200 street food vendors and have the insights and problems they face. The stories and life experiences each of the vendors have had are amazing. We are trying to get these stories out there through our social media.
What are your future plans?
We want to aggregate the biggest possible repository of street food information and contacts and connect the street food patrons to their favourite “Ekplates” Fist in Mumbai and then across India.
Ekplate also wishes to train the street food vendors on maintaining hygiene and food safety. We have already started sending sms and WhatsApp messages to our loyal vendors about the same.
In the future, we want to create a standard that if a street food vendor is affiliated with Ekplate, the food served would have some level of quality.
And one last question of this session Harsh, if you have had one wish…
I wish I had free food for the rest of my life.
I wish for 1 million street food vendors registered on the Ekplate app.
Oh, that’s more than 1! Sorry, I wish for 1000 more wishes!
DOWNLOAD THE EKPLATE APP today.
