Discover Your Perfect Food Match With Ketchupp

It often happens that we know what to eat – say, biryani – but we don’t know where to order it. And even if we do make up our mind on the restaurant, how do we know that their biryani is the best in town? Simply because they have a high star rating? That could very well be because of factors other than the biryani, like service, ambience, or other dishes on the menu. So just how do you make sure that what you’re eating is in fact the best in the area? Enter, Ketchupp.

Launched in 2015, Ketchupp is an online platform started by a bunch of food-loving engineers who had had enough of answering/hearing questions like “what’s the best dish here?”

“There were platforms available who could tell us where to go, but no platform to tell us what to eat especially in case of Online ordering “, their website explains. “We tried to utilize what we did in engineering to make a product (Ketchupp) which tells you the best dishes that can be delivered to your doorstep.”

Image: Facebook | Ketchupp

We got talking to Ketchupp’s co-founder, Chirag Taneja, and here’s all that you need to know about the platform and its clockworks.

How Does It Work?

Ketchupp uses natural language programming, which is an algorithm that analyses the words in the search bar and picks up the key words. It further filters negative and positive reviews to match your search and accordingly suggests only the best dishes/places to order a particular dish, based on other recommendations. This analysis takes into consideration social media feeds, blogs, and other reviews to finally churn out the most accurate crowd sourced suggestions.

The process also works the other way round and you can look up a restaurant on Ketchupp and know with a single click of that particular restaurant’s most popular preparation. And that resonates with the company’s tagline “yahaan best kya milta hai”. Brilliant or what?

The team aims to become a personalised recommendation platform for dishes where users are recommended dishes basis their personal preferences, behaviours, climate and demographics. And in addition to their crisp search algorithm, the website features a neat and hassle-free user interface for you to order your food, which is then delivered at your doorstep. Ketchupp takes care of the logistics in partnership with third parties like Zomato and Swiggy.

Image: Facebook | Ketchupp

The Team

The power-packed Ketchupp workforce is a hard-working unit of food-loving “forever hungry” folk. Or as their website reads: “We are a bunch of your IIT waaley khaatey peetay ghar ke padhaaku waaley friends who are petu as well. We have never said No to anyone who says,” bhai, khaane chal raha hai “.”

The key personnel behind the Ketchupp clockworks are Chirag Taneja (co-founder), Narender Kumar (co-founder), Abdul Khalid (co-founder), Rohit Taneja (Marketing Manager), Farhan Khan (Backend Developer), and Bipin Taneja (Chief Evangelist).

Speaking about the thriving work environment, Rohit Taneja pitched in a few really interesting facts about the hiring process. “Among the many things we ask during hiring new recruits, we also ask the candidates whether they are vegetarian or non-vegetarian”, which goes on to speak volumes about how seriously the organization takes its greens and meats! “And given all of our shared interests in food, the work place feels a lot more relaxed”, he added.

Image: Your Story

Media & Marketing

“Social media is our biggest traction point”, says Chirag. Ketchupp markets its platform through various digital outlets, out of which Social Media has the biggest stronghold followed by Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

In addition to a solid social media presence, Ketchupp also rolls out weekly blog posts to keep its subscribers up to date with the latest “outrageously delicious”, “seriously yummy”, “bucket list worthy”, and “totally lip smacking” dishes in town.

The Food Calendar

An interesting initiative by Team Ketchupp, the Food Calendar is an accumulation of 365 food-dedicated days for a year-round gala. The calendar has categorized each month based on a particular them that best suits those 30 days. For instance, January is the ‘Month of Resolutions’, February is the ‘Month of Love’, March is the ‘Month of Exams’, and so on.

The calendar further designated a particular food to each day of the month (like National Starters Day, National McDonalds Burger Day, National Mutton Biryani Day, etc.). Further, Ketchupp gives a plethora of options to help you celebrate the day. Basically, Ketchupp has mapped out our day’s menu for the next 365 days, and we couldn’t be more stoked!

Check out the food calendar here.

Image: Ketchupp

Ketchupp of the Future

Currently Ketchupp operates out of nine major cities – Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata. So, will we see Ketchupp eateries, restaurants, or even the start-up’s own kitchen in the future? “Right now we do not plan to become operationally expansive, though we do plan to go in-depth and grow in terms of food recommendations and increase our presence”, says Chirag.

Ketchupp is expected to cover more North Indian cities like Chandigrah, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Lucknow, Shimla, Manali, and Jammu & Kashmir.

Why Ketchupp?

Simply because your palate deserves only the best and Ketchupp helps you binge on only the best dishes in your area. Need we say more? And if, for some twisted reason, you’re still not convinced take a look at the video below.