Bombay Dessert Company — a food startup by IIT Bombay alum is here to make all your sweet desires come true

Started in 2018, Bombay Dessert Company is an emerging brand, which promises a variety of dessert options of top most quality at affordable prices.

Founded by Vernalli Mohanty, an IIT Bombay alumni, along with her mother Pranati and her fiancé Abhishek Yadav (IITian, also the writer of Kota Factory). Started with just 1 outlet in Andheri East, Mumbai in 2018 is now 4 branches and 3 brands strong and aims to reach 100 outlets within 3 years.

Vernalli, who is the face of the brand, comes from a background where academics are the prime focus and securing a job is the aim of life. She was always interested in entrepreneurship from the very beginning. While in college, she found a business partner willing to invest, and started looking at different ideas. But the startup bombed before it could even materialize. She realized she needed to arrange funds for herself she could enter the business world.

Out of parental pressure, she decided to take up a job in a multinational company. However, she was definitely not thrilled by the idea of spending her entire time working for her boss and going up the ranks through that company didn’t entice her much. She decided to start her own business. “I wanted to start slow and because of a secure job, I was able to obtain a personal loan. I wanted to do something in the food industry and I had this idea of fried ice cream. I also conducted a survey of around 100 people, asking them about their food preferences where I found that people’s food choices were more or less consistent with either Chinese or North Indian. But when it came to desserts, people wanted a variety of things. People like having waffles, pancakes, ice cream, jalebi, and dessert was the only thing that people were most comfortable to experiment with. So, I bought a fryer and a freezer, figured out a recipe with lots of trial and error and I started with fried ice cream, which is our signature recipe, and milkshakes. The response was pretty good to begin with. So we kept on adding several different products like mini pancakes, cheesecakes, waffles, brownies, etc trying to make it a one stop destination for high quality desserts, which was my brand vision all along, and we were rewarded every single time”, she says.

She also owns three brands now, Bombay Dessert Company, Bombay Cheesecake House and Dough and Stuff, making it a total of 9 outlets. “ We have a lot of items now, that have become our signature offerings and are really loved by our customers, products like fried ice cream, churros, cheesecakes, extra crispy fries, mini pancake bombs, milkshakes, cronuts, cropuffs”, that are all vegetarian and rarely available at other places.”

She intended to create a one stop destination for all dessert lovers, where they can order something new every time and be assured that the quality will be top notch.

Talking on the business front, “ We reported a 577% increase in revenue from the first year and looking at the customer repeatability, I was sure that all our products are loved by everyone. We made a lot of modifications to our recipes and a lot of flavor additions, price changes, etc as per customer feedback. If you don’t listen to the customers, they won’t love you, it’s as simple as that. Only after being 100% sure of my brands I wanted to start giving franchises.”

Even during these uncertain times of COVID-19, she has given out 2 franchises and is in the process of giving out 6 more by end of this year. “ Now is a great time to invest in the food business and grow. Every crisis brings an opportunity. Now with rentals lower than ever, there is a greater opportunity to make higher profits once this lockdown ends.”

“I am proud of the brands I have created and my only aim is that our delicious desserts reach more and more people because of the joy that it brings to our lives. I am happy and grateful that I persevered and chose to follow my dreams. In spite of all the ups and downs, every day is different and exciting and I’ve found this venture to be the best way for me to channel my creativity” says the brand owner Vernalli Mohanty.

Do contact us to become a part of our journey and order now on Swiggy, Zomato and visit their outlets in Powai, Vile Parle West, Kandivali East and Ghatkopar East once the lockdown ends.