Born in 1988, Aniket Karia, completed his schooling from St Mary’s High School and went on to graduate from KC College, Mumbai, and did diploma in Entrepreneurship from S P Jain School of Management. Having started his career with iBall, one of India’s leading IT companies, Karia decided to follow his passion in the Food and Beverage (F&B) industry and nightlife space. He tells us more.
Tell us about your earliest memories of food?
I was a fussy eater while growing up. My mom would try and make me eat veggies by stuffing them in parathas or soups. I would be one of those kids who would run away from healthy food. But I remember my mom used to send me makhana tossed in turmeric, chilli and salt long before it became a ‘cool’ snack. Cucumbers with some chilli and salt was also something I used to enjoy a lot.
How hard was it to switch from an IT job to entrepreneurship?
I worked for a large corporate for almost four years and was heading an entire division. But I knew there was something more for me. After a lot of deliberation and pep talk from my near and dear ones, I took the plunge and quit.
Quitting iBall was one of the hardest decisions I have made. I was leaving my financially stable job without a plan and I was also entering a whole new industry with no real prior knowledge and knowhow. But I always knew I wanted to do something in the F&B space. Honestly, it was this passion that made me take the leap and thankfully it has worked out.
When and why did you start All Heart?
Long and tiring hours at work were a part of my everyday corporate life. This meant eating at odd hours, eating anything that was quick, easy and cheap which pretty much equals unhealthy food. I used to fall ill very often and one of the things the dietician had prescribed was to have a handful of mixed seeds to increase my immunity and protein intake. I could never eat those raw so I put on my chef’s hat and tried to make some kind of energy snack out of it. People loved it in office and that is when I realised that I could definitely do something much more with this.
F&B has always been my passion and I have a keen interest in this field. When I quit iBall, I started working at a PR agency. I was simultaneously working with an events company and ran some of the best nightclubs and eateries in the city. This helped me earn just enough money to start All Heart.
After a lot of trial and error, All Heart was finally born on December 11, 2017. It was started with one simple vision: How do to provide customers a healthy product that will not make them think twice and still have a yummy taste.
What kind of products do you make?
We make genuinely healthy products that taste good. Our hero product is our Seed Crackers that are made from five seeds — chia, sunflower, flax, sesame and pumpkin. We bind them with gluten free oats and bake them in olive oil. We have other variants like Peri Peri Seeded Crackers, Lemon Chilli Seeded Crackers, Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt. We have enough and more options for vegans and all our products are gluten free. We also do ‘on the go snacks’ made of dehydrated coconut flakes mixed with cranberries, pumpkin seeds and chocolate chips called Enerjetz.
What is the USP of the products?
Our products are high protein, high energy, some are sugar free and the rest are low sugar. We do not add any preservatives and our products are made with 100 per cent real seeds, oats and nothing else.
What are some of your key learnings as an entrepreneur?
The idea of being an entrepreneur is more fun than what it actually is. It feels great to say that one is an entrepreneur but when it comes to execution, you are the owner, admin, HR and an office boy all rolled into one.
Every day you learn something new, every day is a new challenge but I can safely say it is the most rewarding work I have ever done. Failure is part of being an entrepreneur but the changing point is when you start enjoying and embracing your failures and not dwell on it too much. That is when things start to become fun.
The health food market is buzzing, what is your value proposition?
The health food market has been buzzing for a while. There are lots of different diets and weight loss food that are out there, packaged well and healthy. What I feel has changed, is the way people have started understanding what they are consuming. Now it is not so much about diet fads, it is more about healthy eating, a healthy lifestyle and learning what we are consuming.
The health food market is only going to grow and people are going to accept only products that are genuinely healthy even if that means the consumer has to pay slightly more, which, now, a lot of consumers are fine with. As a brand, All Heart wants to provide consumers the best sourced ingredients without compromising on the taste.
What are your plans for the near future?
The plan in the near future is to enter the retail market starting with Mumbai and moving on to other cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune simultaneously growing our online presence as well. We have a few new products that are currently at the R&D stage which we hopefully should launch by the end of May.