Inspirational Woman: Jyoti Patel | CEO & Founder, Red Rickshaw & FeastBox

Jyoti PatelGrowing up, I was fortunate to spend many evenings with my Indian grandmother, who taught me how to cook delicious and traditional dishes with Asian ingredients.

When I later went to University, I assumed everyone would know how to cook good food and that I would be able to find the ingredients I liked to use easily. However, it quickly became clear that wasn’t the case. I realised so many people were missing out on incredible flavours and experiences, and so I wanted to make the ingredients more widely accessible in the UK.

In 2017, Red Rickshaw was born and today, I’m the CEO and Founder of Red Rickshaw and sister brand FeastBox, with my mission to source authentic, high-quality, seasonal ingredients from all over the world and introduce them to UK consumers.

Red Rickshaw is the largest international online grocery store in the UK, primarily operating in the grocery and retail sector, providing services to a wide range of consumers and wholesale food outlets, including Michelin-starred restaurants and street-food market vendors across the country.

FeastBox is a world cuisine recipe box, bringing discovery and adventure back to weeknight cooking. Showing people how to use global, unknown ingredients with step-by-step guides delivered directly to the door, FeastBox operates in the food and beverage sector.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career?

I was always very planned in terms of my corporate career, but making my passion into my main career was something that slowly became my reality the more the business grew.  I had a passion for food ever since it was nurtured in my family home while cooking dinner with my grandmother, and so I always knew food was going to become a big part of my life.

I identified an opportunity in the market and used my passion to drive forward my vision for an online platform to help consumers, like me, who loved experiencing new flavours and rare ingredients from around the world.

Your career can take you in different directions, often spurred on by meeting new people and having new experiences – and owning a business is similar.

Through my first business, Red Rickshaw, I was sourcing rare ingredients but struggling to find the time to experiment with them. Like my customers, I needed a convenient way to inject excitement back into everyday meals and so FeastBox was born, growing rapidly during the pandemic as demand for home delivery meal kits boomed.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

As with many other businesses, the pandemic presented a significant obstacle over the past two years. At the time of the first lockdown, our core team was made up of just six people. As a digital platform though, we were well placed to pivot to the ‘stay at home’ guidance. As a result, we saw a monumental increase in huge, urgent orders. Meeting customers’ demand for products became the hardest challenge of my entrepreneurial career thus far.

I was often working until 2am and totally burnt out. Over time, we were able to work through the pain points and supported each other. We sourced new suppliers, upgraded our technology, and hired new, fantastic staff members. We showed that with the right mindset, there is no problem that can’t be solved.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

Looking back at my career, one of the things I’m most proud of is that I’ve created something that allows foodies to discover. Both businesses take people on a journey of delicious, fresh food.

What’s more, I’ve done it in an industry with restrictive, age-old traditions that make it even more difficult for someone like me to be successful.

More recently, I’ve been particularly proud of our achievements as a business to make a positive change to society. In October 2020, we altered our business model to make sure that every time a customer purchased a FeastBox, a donation is made to Action Against Hunger: a global humanitarian organisation dedicated to tackling global hunger and malnutrition around the world. We also support campaigns like World Food Day to raise money for medical supplies.

We’re also making sure that sustainability and positive environmental impact are at the heart of our business. Our insulation material is made from recycled denim offcuts, our ice packs are reusable and our pods, box & paper bags are all recyclable. We are also leading the industry on reducing plastic packaging on vegetables and are working with partners that support our mission, such as delivery companies that have offset carbon emissions.

Other partnerships such as with Give Back Box, enable customers to reuse our packaging and to donate unwanted items such as clothes, shoes and books to a charity of their choice, simply by using the Give Back Box label. We’re extremely proud as a business to be giving back to those who really need it and helping our customers do the same.

Who is your role model or inspiration? 

I’m always on the lookout for inspiration, but ultimately the most influential person throughout my life has to be my grandmother. She’s a truly remarkable character. She never went to school and was married by the age of 13. She instilled in me a can-do attitude, a willingness to be positive in the face of life’s challenges and the importance of sharing joy and happiness along the way.

Do you have any advice or tips for other female entrepreneurs?

I believe there are more barriers to becoming an entrepreneur as a woman. I started Red Rickshaw when I was pregnant with my first child who was closely followed by my second; I was finding my feet in business whilst also finding my feet as a new mum.

You have to wear many hats as an entrepreneur and get hands-on across an array of tasks – from accounting, to legal, to procurement and manufacturing, marketing, and recruitment. It meant a lot of hard work with many late nights, which took time away from family life. To this day, I still feel mum guilt, but I also want to inspire them to follow their dreams too. 

My experience shows that it’s possible to be a mum, as well as a successful business owner. Women cannot let glass ceilings hold us back from dreaming big and making it happen. I’d be happy if I’m able to inspire even just one woman to take a leap and follow her passions.

If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Equality, what would it be?

There is so much that can be done to make proactive changes to accelerate the pace for Gender Equality – but I do believe it starts with wider communities and businesses creating opportunities that promote gender parity, setting an example to others. Within both of our businesses, we ensure there are equal opportunities for everyone, based on your skillset and experience and nothing else.

We proudly have a wide range of women in senior roles across the business, offering flexible and agile working conditions to make work more accessible to all. Being a mum, I understand how hard it can be to juggle work and family, but it is on companies to step up and ensure they are proactive in striving for gender equality.

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Looking back to the early days of Red Rickshaw and FeastBox, it would have been a lot easier if I had the excellent team I have now. Although recruiting the right people takes time, often the solution to many obstacles is to have a talented team working towards a common goal. When the business started out, we were just a team of six, but by growing the number of employees and bringing in experts in their respective fields, we were much better positioned to tackle any obstacles that could come our way during the pandemic.

What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?

I hope I have helped to make the world a slightly better, fairer place. I’m really excited to see what a difference both FeastBox and Red Rickshaw can make to peoples’ lives over the course of the next decade and the positive impact it has on the planet.

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