FoodieBay.com is an online food portal founded in 2008 that lists menus for over 1800 restaurants in Delhi, India. It aims to provide equal exposure to both large chains and small restaurants by not giving preferential treatment. The founders created FoodieBay to address the lack of online menus from local restaurants and dhabas that were being outmarketed by larger fast food chains. FoodieBay operates sustainably by having a primarily part-time workforce to manage costs and using zero-cost advertising. It also focuses on environmental and social issues through practices like remote work, donations to nutrition programs, and minimizing paper use.

1. Case study on FoodieBay.com

3. Lists menus for over 1800 restaurants in Delhi NCR region

4. Perfect platform for restaurants to reach highly targeted customers

5. Gives the customer increased number of options to order food and also helps them in choosing the same

7. Realizing that the bigger fast food chains had nearly out-marketed all local restaurants and food joints due to huge marketing budgets, they thought of creating a solution which would bring everyone on a level playing ground

8. FoodieBay.com was born!3

10. No special treatment given to bigger chains even though they are potential clients and chief ‘revenue drivers’ for FoodieBay’s business

12. Free access to other user reviews/ comments to help them differentiate good restaurants from bad

14. Part-time workforce: >90% workforce is part-time workers (including the founders) with minimal payouts as salaries; this ensures optimal output when employees have time to contribute; also creates a very non-hierarchical and fun environment to work

15. Zero-cost advertising policy: advertisement is done only through barters, free press releases and restaurant partners

16. Proven start-up model – the zero-cost part time model has been proven to be successful during incubation by a few other start-ups too!5

18. Pankhudi foundation: FoodieBay last year, tied up with Pankhudi Foundation (an NGO which teaches and provides nutrition to slum dwelling kids), to donate 3 rupees for every new visitor that visits the FoodieBay website – helped market the website as well as generate substantial funds for Pankhudi

19. Zero paper use policy: The company does not use office stationery at all – we agree to almost everything (including deals with our clients) over email and treat email as the final written word. FoodieBay’s business cards are made out of recycled paper