Looking for a Chief People / Culture Officer

Ok, I am back here looking for people on behalf of Faasos. And I think this would be THE defining job post in the short life span of our little company. We are finally looking for our Chief People / Culture Officer.

Briefly, we are probably the largest and certainly, the fastest growing Mobile Food on Demand business in the country. Everyday we serve around 10,000 customers who order through our mobile app and this number is growing significantly every passing month. Somedays we are hit by a thunderstorm and our servers give in and our delivery network fails, but we are keeping at it. When we all stop running this mad race (if ever), we want to look back and say we have changed the way customers ordered and got food delivered, in India, and across the world.

Today Faasos employs 1200+ people (up from 500 a year back) - from delivery boys to super smart techies to business leaders, who are propelling this company to a new orbit every day. Two things that tie this group of people together are : entrepreneurship and certain craziness about customer experience. However, as we are moving to the next level and envisage at least a 100% growth in head count in the next year or so, we need someone to come on board and build an ever-expanding tribe that remains true to those two ethos, come what may.

This person will be at the heart of the company and will build and implement incentives structures, rewards and recognition programs, leadership development programs, recruitment frameworks and the rest of it - all of which will be perpetuating the values of entrepreneurship and craziness about customer experience. She / He will be responsible for achieving the true scalability of Faasos, so that we can ease into a hyper growth phase, without having to worry about the motivation and commitment of our people.

It will not be an easy task. Rarely you will find a more diverse set of people from educational and socio-cultural backgrounds, who come together for a common goal and in numbers. Also, rarely you will find a company that's so perpetually in start-up mode with ideas (90% garbage though, somewhat like a VC portfolio :)) floating all around, and taking a toll on corporate-like behaviour.

It will require much more than policy formation, payroll and recruitment SOP (all of which are important and happen today at Faasos, in case you are wondering how much sh*t we are under). It will require, in short, breaking many conventional norms of HR and making up a few new ones, so that we build a truly unique tribe.

So, if you think HR is about building and perpetuating culture and not about mindless admin work, and if you think you are not enjoying the crappy corporate grind that's killing your creativity around how to build a supercharged work force, then please do drop me a line. We can save you if we like you enough :).

You will need to have some sense and experience about how HR works (after all we need to deposit correct salaries in people's accounts at the end of the month), but beyond that you will mostly need to be passionate (not unnecessarily extreme though, as we cant handle schizophrenia) about building a great company, one person at a time.

Some mundane details: you
- will be working with me (which may not be the most exciting thing about this job)
- will be based out of our headquarters in Pune (the only city in India that has no traffic, great climate, low rentals and reasonable job opportunities) but will be traveling across India
- will be compensated reasonably along with stock options (so that all this hard work helps you take some time off some day)

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jaydeep Barman
Co-founder and CEO,
Faasos

Jaydeep@faasos.com

Head of Growth Needed - Faasos

Head of Growth is like Head of GDP or something. A few years back, the title didn't make any sense. But then everything moved by about a 100 years in the last few years. Same thing happened here at Faasos too. We started as a qsr selling wraps but Internet and mobile app changed everything. Customers mobile is the all important thing. " On demand " is the super critical factor. And we are seeing that day in and day out. Our mobile app business grew by about 500 pct in the last few months, month on month.

Hence, we need an entrepreneur to join the Faasos gang and take care of growth. Get the app in the hands of a few million people ( from current 50k+), get them to open the app every day to see what's new, and get them to talk about it all the time. In technical parlance it means, downloads, cohort retention and vitality. 

This person needs to

- be in love with everything mobile. 

- understand analytics, understand customer behaviour on mobile and get kick out of seeing the download / retention graph grow exponentially. 

- have spent the last few years doing the above in one of the new generation growth driven consumer internet companies

- be acutely creative and entrepreneurial 

- believe that the next big thing after taxi ( Uber), vacation rental ( airbnb) etc to disrupt would be "food" - the most innate, habit forming need of humankind (at least among the ones that can be discussed publicly) 

If you tick most of the above boxes, then we can give you the opportunity to run " growth " for a sequoia capital funded, intensely entrepreneurial, crazily ambitious company. As head of growth, you will build an incredibly smart team, work with the tech, product, food and ops guys to fulfil the Faasos vision of becoming world's most loved food on demand company. And may be, in the process, become one of the most respected growth hackers of all time. Needless to say, you will be one of the core team that is building this company, and there will be a healthy stock option, in addition to salary, to ensure you can take some time off before you start building the next big thing. 

Pls drop us a note if you think you can be the this person. 

Many thanks,

Jaydeep

Co-founder and CEO, Faasos

jaydeep@faasos.com

Making Wraps. Breaking Norms.

The proverbial bottle of old monk that was largely responsible for the birth of Faasos, keeps coming back, especially on the days we can afford it, and screws our heads up totally. Problem is it's happening with alarming frequency. When I look back at the last 12 months of so, I shudder at what I see. We have broken more norms than the number of wraps we made.

First up, we needed to train folks to run our outlets, which were popping by the dozen. We hired an industry veteran - KFC and all - to run our training. But soon, it was clear that, in absence of a manual and highly automated machines, our man was a headless chicken (and hence was aptly positioned to be at KFC. Sorry). So, again, over a late night bitching session, we made a resolve, which was - never to hire anyone from the industry. Next morning we posted our now infamous "Entrepreneurs wanted" job ad. Man, deluged we were. Finally hired three crazies who never had anything to do with restaurants (apart from of course eating at them). These 20 somethings have changed the face of Faasos in 6 months flat. They brought on board tremendous ownership, incredible self-starting attitude and complete ignorance about the impossibility of a task. One of these dudes is now starting "University of Wrapology" - to prepare 100s of lost souls to make delicious wraps in 30 varieties in super quick time.

Then came the fresh vs frozen debate. Frozen was the order of the day. Once made, stays for a quarter of a century. No wastage, no difficult trips to market every day, no issues with transporting to all corners of the country, no hassle. But, then we never liked frozen and fried food. And our dinner, lunch, evening snack happen at Faasos. We said, "Naahh... we cant eat that shit". So, we remained fresh. Make on the day, sell on the day. Whatever is left, throw away.

Also, we are probably the laziest buggers on the planet. Hence we got really disturbed when we had to read reports, go to outlets to check on people, policing the cash etc. etc. So, we decided to make the store managers the real CEOs of the company. We asked them to make their own profit-and-loss projections (some of them thought it was a new wrap) and adhere to that. We also told them that we were there to help them and customers wrote their pay-checks. Beyond which, we left them to make their own calls. Not one phone call came to us, from that day, to ask if they could give a complimentary meal to a customer who did not get food on time or got the wrong wrap. Phew what a relief.

The biggest one was this "location" thing. Everyone said, boy you want to start a restaurant, you got to keep in mind three things "location, location, location". We were relieved that we had to focus on only one thing. But, when we went shopping, we could hear three things "Deposit, Rent, Lock in". And they actually meant "die today, die everyday and keep doing that for a long time." So, we started looking for tiny stores in side alleys. With the hope that if we keep making that fresh, juicy, desi wrap and reaching it to folks in super quick time, no one is going to notice if we have a huge, swanky, air conditioned outlet on the high street.

Anyways, hope the luck does not run out on us while we are pushing the boundaries of sanity. But then, we dont want to do it any other way. What fun is there to copy century old traditions and end up with some run-of-the-mill, boring organisation that manages to make some money.Who wants to be a Compaq? Its much more fun trying to be an Apple. Even if that means failure.


Jaydeep
Founder n Pretending CEO
Faasos

Well lets face it...a letter from FAASOS is not the same thing as one from the Nobel committee, your secret admirer, future spouse or future ex spouse. We believe you have tried and hopefully liked the food we serve and thus we thought of reaching out to inform you of some changes that are happening here. Usually, these tasks are given to me, as I am the one, who is the most dispensable in the kitchen. I also pretend to be the CEO of Faasos for the same reason.

This time let me introduce you to a New Faasos in Pune. I say new, because we have made a lot of changes (hopefully mostly positive) to our company, our product and our services in the last few months -

First the product:  

a) We are launching 6 new wraps (from BBQ chicken to Corn Salsa) in pune as I am writing this note
b) We are launching low oil versions of our regular paratha wraps, so that you can enjoy without looking for tissue paper at the same time
c) We're launching meals, where by you can add a chutney, a packet of wafers and a drink to your wrap
d) We're launching some great desserts starting with a glorious mix of motichur and rabdi. You will know cannot be called anything else but the Meetha Fantasy

Check the new menu: http://www.faasos.com/pdf/FA_webmenu_pune.pdf

Then the company:

a) We realized that running franchisees does not give us enough control on the quality of product, service, hygiene levels etc..  And hence, we have discontinued 8 franchisee locations in Pune: Aundh, Pimple Saudagar, Kalyani Nagar, Viman Nagar, MIT Kothrud, Bnaer, Model Colony and Hinjewadi

b) But, the good news is we have / are coming up with 4 brand new locations of ours: Aundh, Kalyani Nagar, Viman Nagar and Baner. Please check http://www.faasos.com/contact.html to look up the new addresses and numbers

We are doing a special promotional launch across all our 10 outlets in Pune on August 15, to celebrate the New Faasos. I will keep you updated.

FAASOS is very much a PUNE company. We started here way back in 2003 not really knowing where we were going with this. Most of you have tolerated our many failings over these years and that is only reason we are still around - for that and for all your good wishes we are truly grateful.  

Many thanks and hope to see you soon

Jaydeep
Co-founder and CEO
Faasos

ENTREPRENEURS WANTED

Eating at one was the only exposure we (and our ancestors) ever had to restaurants. A bottle of old monk and some incisive bitching about our jobs on one fateful 2003 evening convinced us to open a restaurant. We named it FAASO’S - Fanatic Activism Against Substandard Occidental Shit - just so that it kept reminding us how crap burgers and pizzas were. So we decided to sell only desi stuff - rolls, kebabs and the likes. Close to heart, close to tongue, no issues if maid didn't turn up to make food at home. Period.

The one restaurant in Pune became 6 by 2010. In the meanwhile, we dabbled in MBA at INSEAD, consulting at Mckinsey London, selling enterprise software at Bosch Singapore and similar useless pursuits. Finally, last year it dawned–the queer little thing called Faasos was the true calling. So, we left everything, came back and started expanding the concept.

Much has changed in the last year. Notable among them are, 18 more outlets in Pune and Mumbai, a first round funding from Sequoia Capital, heightened blood pressure, and an ingrained habit of day dreaming about 1000 stores and IPO.

As we are putting up 2 stores a month in Mumbai and hatching plans to make the rate 5 a month, we realize that we need a bunch of maniacs to pull this off - People who are in a hurry, never had anything to do with restaurants, love pounding the streets, can't manage hunger, and can tell balance sheet from P&L. And yes, dream incessantly about running a company one day. 

So, we are starting a program called FER - Faasos Entrepreneur in Residence. We are not hung up on the name, suggestions are welcome. Basically, we need folks, who will come on board, rotate through running a store, an area, a couple of other functions for 6 months and then assume P&L responsibility of either running 15-20 stores or opening new markets or running a function like Marketing or HR.  Eventually (TATAs are not a good example of how long this will take), they will manage a city, a region, a country.  Throughout this journey, they will report directly to the CEO, until the CEO starts reporting to one of them.

What we can't promise is a very systematic and standardized experience with calendar entries 6 months in advance. What is guaranteed is a hell of a fun ride with you in charge of a boat with plenty of manufacturing defects (well we made the boat after all!!) 

So, if you had made a sub-optimal decision to do an MBA about 3-4 years back and are realizing it now based on 1-2 years of post MBA absurdities, then do write to us. But, please write a smallish paragraph about you and your intentions (including hidden agendas) in the email itself. No word cv or ppts pls. We have banned attachments (we use them only when we meet Sequoia).

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Jaydeep (jaydeep@faasos.com)

www.faasos.com

Twitter.com/faasos

Facebook.com/faasos