It has been more than 3.5 years that we started working on Cakehunt.com and helping people get fresh/freshly baked cakes across Ahmedabad. Alhtough it seems to be very simple, Collect Cake and Deliver it, it's not. I could not leave Ahemdabad for many important and urgent social commitments. I have tried to keep myself away from all social and financial commitment. Why does it happened ? Who is responsible for it ?

Recently I came out of the very secured shell and visited to Pune and then Baroda this week... I saw an entirely different world and it made me think on very different prospectives towards life and business.

When our first startup ICS24BY7.com was paralysed with the thought that it can't we scaled in Ahmedabad, I was going into depression. I was trying all the options available to so as to avoid the failure of this venture or build something parallel. I distributed my business cards to almost everybody I came in contact with. I shared about our project starting from the Puncturewala to Grocery wala to Plumber to Cake wala.

And one fine day we got call from one of the Monginis Store owner to execute his cake deliveries. We delivered 3 cakes with in all the professional way giving personal touch to each and every delivery. And this is where the lad for Cakehunt.com was ploughed. Very soon we approached other bakers and started delivering cakes for them. After sometime we thought that there is huge gap between customer expectaions and supply. We thought of starting Cakehunt.com as a market place online venture to help people get Cakes of their choice, from the bakers of their choice...

It took sometime to get traction and get orders online. Somehow the ball started rolling and we were getting orders online & offline. Many friends and eChai community members helped us by referring our services. We were growing, increasing work load on me.

I tried to ensure every delivery is given personal touch and so i got involved in almost every delivery. All the communications with bakers and customers was with me. It's there with me till today :) . I started thinking that this is my new born baby and i cant leave it with others. NOBODY can take care of it better than me or even at par. Slowly and gradually I forgot that I have a family life and my commitments for them too.

Today I think that the most harmful thing for me and my venture was my conservative thinking of not leaving the baby, www.cakehunt.com, alone. Though this has helped company to manage everything in Ahmedabad, it has stopped the vertical growth which the company deserved long back.. Although it's not too late, but the market was very eager to embrace us 2+ years back. Time doesn't wait for anybody and so for us. The another fear was burning all what we have earned and saved by delivering cakes and flowers in Ahmedabad. Personal resourcsed were exhausted, so we tried to save each and every penny we earned. Expansion could have surely attacted lots of expenses.

I didn't wanted to fail Cakehunt.com even in a single delivery. This fear of failure always stopped me taking any bold step. There were time when I avoided going out with family for Dinner on weekends, avoided Pooja on Deepavali and so on... I have many names to blame for the slow growth of Cakehunt and I know the list starts with me. I could not understand that a growing kid have different needs than an infant.

Nobody in this world can help you, if you aren't ready to help yourself. I came out of this shell of FEARS which I thought is my care about Cakehunt.com. I visited Pune and was there for almost 3 days. Then I visited Baroda for one day and met the best bakers there. Almost 3/3 bakers verbally agreed to associate with us for selling their cakes on Cakehunt.com. I will be visiting many other cities in next 15-30 days to start operations. We are planning to be in at least 50 cities by March 18. We are wroking on a strategic tie up with one of the best logistic company.

A kid can't start walking till the time you leave its hand and allow it to walk alone... He/ She may fell, may get hurt a bit but will surely get up to walk on its own. Give that freedom, get away from it, be always there to support, let it grow....

ps: This post was first published here.