Poonam Vasantha Kumar: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became CEO of Saavor

Choose your partners wisely: Your team is another family and it is very important to choose the right people. We did encounter a few issues and setbacks because of that in the past, but we were blessed enough to have encountered the right people who helped us handle our hurdles. They are a part of the team now.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Poonam Vasantha Kumar.

Poonam is the Co-Founder & CEO of Saavor Inc., an online marketplace that empowers home-chefs and bakers to turn their creative passions into rewarding opportunity by showcasing their culinary items for others to purchase, creating a business from the comfort of their home. Saavor enables users to search and discover these professionals and order their unique, homemade items in their community through its easy-to-use, mobile delivery app. These kitchens are approved by the their respective state’s Health department and most of our chefs have the food handler’s license. In the US, 19 states have legalized the sale of baked food from home with California recently going a step further by legalizing the sale of food from home without limiting it to only baked food. Saavor is set to have a soft launch in New York this September and soon has plans of launching the application in California.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I LOVE to cook and try new recipes. As a kid I spent a lot of my time in the kitchen with my mom helping her chop vegetables and watching her and my sister Dr. Nivedita cook these amazing dishes.

Being the youngest in the family, I have always been pampered. Despite everything we had growing up, my family, especially by brother Dr. Abhay, made sure I learned how to cook before I came to the US for my MBA program. But there were days in the US when I was so tired that I couldn’t enter the kitchen.

As an international student who was thousands of miles away from home, I missed my mom’s food and that craving made me buy food from a nearby family just like many other students on campus. I realized there was a need and a market for home-cooking. I thought if only I could circumvent the FDA regulations and create a food delivery and home chef platform it would have a huge potential.

After graduating and working for a while in the industry as an engineer I was able to raise funds through family members Dr. Suneetha Thota and Mr. Ramesh Thota. Dr. Suneetha thota supported me by believing in my vision and Saavor was born.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

A year ago I realized that there are so many people who love to share their food in the communities in which they live. My conversations with people in the community who are passionate about cooking were so interesting that I ended up tasting their food for free.

That act of love and kindness has helped me to foster a strong bond with them. It made me realize the importance of networking in the community we live in via food: which is one of the basic requirements of our everyday life.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I thought Co-Founders and CEOs have a very comfortable lifestyle irrespective of what stage the company is in and that they have people working with them to whom they can easily delegate most of their tasks. Little did I know that I was in for a roller-coaster ride. It makes me laugh when I think about it.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. What is it about the position of CEO or executive that most attracted you to it?

I am a first time entrepreneur. All I knew was that I had a dream, a responsibility, and I need to work hard to make Saavor a success. In most startup companies the co-founders usually end up taking executive roles (Having an outside executive is expensive during the early stages) and you learn the ropes along the way. My dad was a self made man. I used to see him work day and night in order to achieve what he had in life and that inspired me the most.

It is all about teamwork, not about the position you hold within your firm. Sure the CEO position sounds good, but being able to collaborate and learn from these amazing minds in the industry and having them around you as part of the management/advisory team, and working with them to build something from scratch excited me the most. You don’t get this opportunity in your 9 to 5 job working under someone else.

Thanks to my advisors and mentors Arun Narayanasamy, Jerence Go, Eray Guven, David Magli and Shelly Lipton who have supported me through out and mentored me.

Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

Envision, plan, work and delegate. Wear different hats within the team, be a team player and represent the company in the best way possible by adhering to the mission and vision of the company.

What is the one thing that you enjoy most about being an executive?

Learning and growing professionally and personally. Every morning I am excited to work for the company that I believe in. It is an amazing feeling.

What are the downsides of being an executive?

There is this tremendous amount of responsibility, work load and stress when you hold a very important position within a firm. Hence it is very important to be around positive people.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

There are so many but I would like to highlight these two myths:

1. A CEO has the best skill set and is solely responsible for the success. A company is not run by a single person. It takes an entire team to achieve milestones and scale a company.
2. You need to have a prior executive position to be a successful CEO. I do not think so. There are so many scenarios to prove this wrong in the industry.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

Challenges are faced by everyone in the industry irrespective of their gender. Women are still challenged by men but it’s thankfully changing.

In most situations, I think we, as women, are culpable. We harbor certain fears so deep within ourselves that these challenges become inevitable. Women leaders fear being disliked, ostracized, and creating a strong personal brand for themselves. This results in a lack of confidence, and self-esteem.

I was in a similar phase at one point but thanks to my family, my amazing team, Start It Up NYC, and people who believe in me, I am finally coming out of my shell.

We need to make sure that we are surrounded by strong supportive people all the time.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

As mentioned before, I thought the work would be very easy and the business growth would be easily attainable. After starting Saavor, I realized that businesses do not grow and scale overnight. It takes time and effort.

One needs to be able to understand that and make the best decision based on current market trends. You have to constantly keep yourself in a learning mode. Be like a sponge and absorb everything you can from the people you meet and the books you read to have a smart work-life balance.

Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive?

I think all the traits that one requires to be a successful executive stems from a person wanting to make a difference in their own life and in the world. You either have the hustle, smartness, initiative, and focus from day one, or you learn them from the environment and people you surround yourself with along the way.

Anyone can be an executive, but do you really have that grit, high performing mindset and risk-taking capabilities? I think a person needs to be honest with him or herself if they are ready for such responsibilities and challenges.

What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?

I attended an event by Entre at Microsoft office in NYC and when one of the speakers said “It’s OK to not be liked by everyone in the industry” it hit me. All my fears suddenly felt like nothing to me.

The advice that I would like to give other female leaders is this: It’s ok not to be liked. Just be confident and outspoken. It is ok to make mistakes but be quick to realize and fix them. Most importantly, have a high performing mindset while simultaneously creating a culture within your firm. This will in turn promote team work.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Yes, I would not have come so far if it was just me. I have more than just one person to be thankful for. For starters, my mom, Meena V.K, my sister and my brother who made sure I always did what I wanted to and supported me, my aunt Dr. Suneetha Thota who believed in my vision and in me by supporting this venture, my entire team and co-founders, Start It Up NYC : Adi Patil and Nico Hodel who have always encouraged and supported me and my amazing friends who kept me sane.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I have just started my journey as an entrepreneur. But with what I have achieved so far, I support and help new entrepreneurs when they need me.

Through Saavor, we will be giving an opportunity for everyone to have a small business from the comfort of their home and to have a strong bond with the community they live in. Saavor will help many people to create small independent business opportunities in the US. Many jobs will be created. The world will be a better place when the bonds within a community are stronger and the means to live a decent good life is easily attainable.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

5 most important things I wish I was told before I started Saavor are:

1. Choose your partners wisely: Your team is another family and it is very important to choose the right people. We did encounter a few issues and setbacks because of that in the past, but we were blessed enough to have encountered the right people who helped us handle our hurdles. They are a part of the team now.
2. Have a working business model in place before you invest money on the technology to automate it: Building technology is expensive, I would highly recommend having a proof of concept before you invest money in the technology.
3. The product need not be 100% user friendly, bug free or perfect for the first launch. If it is, then you are very blessed. If you have a working product which gets the job done in a decent way and is more than 85% bug free and user friendly, its FINE. As long as you can scale the business and then iterate on the technology based on the feedback from the users along the way, you are good.
4. Know your market well: it helps you with your interactions and networking efforts in the industry.
5. 30% of the funds you raise need to be set aside for marketing: We spent most of our money in the product development, a HUGE mistake.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would like to address hunger and food-waste. At Saavor, we are constantly working on how to address these issues for now and in future by providing easy accessible home cooked food. We will be having a soft launch in September, 2019 so we hope we are able to help many people through our platform.,

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“You cannot go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending” .This quote is very close to my heart and I constantly remind myself of it and when you do start aiming ahead always remember it is the “Survival of the fittest”.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

Out of so many people I admire, If I had to pick just one person, then it has to be Indra Nooyi. She inspires me in many ways, her journey from the very beginning is very admirable and it encourages me to be a better version of myself with each and every new day.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I feel blessed.

For your information:

Instagram page: Saavornow

User mobile application which is available on both IOS and Android: Saavor (iOS, Android)

To sell food from home, register: Saavor Bistro (iOS, Android).

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.