We are a family that loves food, and after my grand mom passed away we really used to miss the pickles she made at home . When I looked outside in the market for what kind of pickles are available in the market, they somehow did not have the same taste or appeal as homemade pickles do. That's when I realised that there is a gap in the market.   I started collecting all the family recipes with the help of my dad and family members. I did a small farmers market to test the product and we sold out. There was no looking back since then. Post which the scaling journey started and we started growing our ingredients and stabilised the recipes and standardised processes. The key insights for us were most of the working professionals in India don't have the time to make pickles at home, do not have easy access to homemade pickles and what they find in the market is filled with preservatives. 

Q2. What made you start working on The Little Farm Co and executing this idea?

Once we market tested the recipes, the next step was to stabilise the recipe as we don’t use any preservatives. We managed to stabilise it to 12 month + successfully and started scaling. In fact, we make these tasty pickles with minimum manual intervention but preserve tasty old forgotten recipes using our secret and quality ingredients. 

Q3. When did you realise the need to raise Venture Capital - Seed funding?

Think of it pickle is consumed in every Indian household, be it breakfast, lunch and dinner. But one turning point for us was when we got published in one Hindi national paper organically and our website exploded with orders from pin codes we hadn’t even imagined. We decided this could be big and if we have to scale we would need capital to make The Little Farm Co. a household name. Another reason apart from capital was access to the right partners, FMCG sector is usually a very closed off sector and having the right set of partners helps in achieving the right product market fit. With a VC like 100 x coming in, we realised they could help us in our scaling journey like they have with other FMCG brands.

Q4. How has 100X helped you at the beginning of your journey?

100 x didn’t just come in with capital, but also mentoring and the pool of networks that it opened for us. The 90 days we spent in Mumbai for the 100 x masterclasses definitely really helped us as founders. 100 x connected us with many founders in the consumer space, which helped us understand and learn from their journeys. The value of this is huge because it helps us save a lot of time as we can learn from other founders experiences.  

Q5. Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has the pivot been?

The ethos of our brand has always been the same, there have been some smalls pivots which I feel are essential as per what is needed for the brand to grow. One of them was me running this brand in a self-funded set up profitably before and then deciding to raise Venture capital and successfully doing so. The other pivot was, we were selling offline via farmer markets and boutique stores but now shifting the focus to digital and only focussing on a few geographies. They main reason was not to spread ourselves too thin and expand based on revenue bases targets after mastering a few areas and channels. This pivot has definitely helped us scale rapidly.

Q6. What challenges did you face & how did you overcome them?

One major challenge for me was that I did not belong to this background, I come from a marketing background and had no experience in the food space. But I am happy to say that I learned on the job and built the right team, got the right mentors to scale this. Apart from this FMCG space is a very competitive space so scaling operations and distribution wise was a challenge. But post our fund raise we have started to build the right team and distribution networks.  

Q7. What stage is The Little Farm at present?

We are at a scaling stage and my vision is to make the little farm co a household name in the condiments space. We are currently a digital first brand selling via our website, amazon and quick commerce platforms. the vision in the near future is to dominate these channels. 

Q8. As founders, what are your goals for the next 1-2 years?

Our vision is to focus on our strength of distribution and accessibility and build a solid FMCG brand in the condiments space with a 360 degree approach via multiple sales channels such as MT,GT, Quick come and website, as well as internationally and further scale the business 

Q9. What keeps you motivated & keeps you going?

One major thing that always motivates me to keep going is to see how far I have come and the efforts we have put in so far. The others being customers feedback and approval on the product, the sales and repeat customers. And lastly, the farmer women we are supporting while building this.

Q10. Your message for Startup founders building in the same sector?

One message I give to all founders is to is that if you have a great idea do try it, you wouldn’t know if it works till you explore it further. Deep dive into testing your product and market research. If you get the right fit there is no stopping.

About Niharika Bhargava:

Niharika Bhargava is the founder and CEO of The Little Farm Co. Niharika comes from a digital marketing background , a Ted-x speaker and has done MSc in Marketing strategy and Innovation from Cass Business School London and further worked in the corporate industry.  The Little Farm Co. has received the 3rd women Astitva Award 2018 by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry a recognition to promote women empowerment. The Little Farm Co. was started by her as a personal need when her grandmother passed away who used to make pickles at home and she realized that most of the pickles available in the market and filled with preservatives and do not have the same taste or appeal as homemade pickles do. Now this brand supports many tribal farmer women and their families.