Every month we feature members from the Everything Marketplaces community to help highlight their story, marketplace journey, and share more about what's ahead. In this member feature we highlight Ajith Govind, who's the Co-founder & CEO of Cravd. Cravd is an early, but exciting marketplace for hiring personal home chefs.
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So what’s your background briefly and what led to the idea for starting Cravd?

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Early on, I became a gamer and my love for games got me into coding. After graduating in CS, I dove into Data Science. At 20, I helped Dell’s CMO optimize $1B and contributed to Mu Sigma’s unicorn status. My first company was a consulting firm where I learned that CPGs like Pepsi, Unilever, and Coca-Cola take 12-18 months to launch a new product. We pivoted to create an AI B2B SaaS product that got into Y Combinator in the W20 batch. I learned a lot scaling the company to Series A stage $20M+.

Avinash, my co-founder and CTO in Cravd, joined my previous startup as a founding engineer. He’s also my college batchmate. We knew we’d be co-founders. Both became dads around the same time and needed home-cooked meals. We realized millions of busy families felt the same need and that home chefs were more available and willing to cook in customers’ kitchens. As we hired more chefs for our personal needs, it was obvious that there are operational and admin pain points in matching, scheduling, menu management, and payments.

During a family trip to Legoland, we overheard a group of moms venting about meal kits and wanting to find home chefs. It was the moment we knew we had to bring Cravd to life.

What were some of the first steps you took to start Cravd? What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced?

Before building a product or writing code, we validated the need by engaging friends and community WhatsApp groups. We manually onboarded chefs and connected them with customers.
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One of the biggest challenges early on was to help the new chefs grow their business. Initially, we tried a food delivery model, but quickly realized it has limited growth and profitability for chefs. This led us to pivot to the at-home private chef model, which became our core focus and we never looked back.
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What’s the problem that you’re solving for and how has building Cravd as a marketplace proven to be a great solution?

90% of the population doesn’t enjoy cooking or cleaning up, lacking the time, energy, or interest. As a result, many families turn to dining out or ordering in, spending an average of $4,000 annually—a figure that has been growing by over 20% each year for the past three years. 

Cravd equips private chefs with AI agents to handle customer qualification, scheduling, menu management, and payments. As a marketplace, we enhance the visibility of private chefs, help them grow their businesses, and support them in managing and scaling their operations.

For busy families seeking healthy home-cooked meals, we match them with background-verified and vetted chefs. We simplify the process by gathering requirements, finding the perfect match, and assisting with scheduling, menu planning, and payments.
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How have you approached solving the initial cold start problem, start creating transactions, and get the flywheel spinning for Cravd?

Our approach to solving the initial cold-start problem was to focus on every single chef as they joined our platform. In the early days, we ensured that each chef who was onboarded achieved a certain level of attractive business with us before onboarding the next chef. Yes, it was a slow process, but through this approach, we learned exactly how chefs grow and manage their businesses. These learnings made a significant difference as we began building the product.
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Even when we had just five chefs onboard, we started observing flywheel effects. We focused on the quality of our chefs in terms of both food and service. Every time one of our chefs visited a customer’s home, we would receive a referral to another customer in need of a chef. This allowed us to fill up that chef’s bandwidth. Once a chef realized that we were empowering them and helping them grow, they began referring many of their chef friends to us! Through this process, we also discovered that culinary schools are an excellent source of talented chefs, and we have since started partnering with them.
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What’s been the biggest learning(s) so far?

The biggest learning so far has been to focus on distribution. Initially, we concentrated on bringing consumers onboard and matching them with chefs. However, after speaking with over 1,000 chefs, we discovered that they are each generating $10k in average monthly revenue and need assistance with operational and administrative tasks. As a result, we now prioritize onboarding chefs, who, in turn, provide a significant distribution effect by bringing their existing customers onto our platform.
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Another key insight is that our pricing model does not need to reflect future monetization strategies. Currently, we charge a minimal 10% take rate to prioritize growth. In the future, there are numerous monetization opportunities, such as SaaS subscription fees (monthly or annual) and revenue from advertisements. We are confident that the unit economics of our business will remain healthy in the long term due to the intense and urgent consumer demand.
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How big does Cravd get and what’s needed to get there?

Our mission is to make private chefs accessible to everyone! We aim to empower private chefs across five continents within the next five years.
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We aspire to be the trusted operational and growth partner for private chefs. Every private chef dreams of running a successful business, whether it’s a restaurant, pop-up, or catering service. Cravd will be the platform that enables them to grow, manage their operations, and achieve their aspirations.
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To fulfill this vision, we are focused on developing an AI Copilot that automates administrative tasks such as customer qualification, scheduling, menu management, and payments. We are already partnering with over 100 chefs who are experiencing the benefits of joining Cravd.
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To scale further, we are collaborating with businesses that have strong distribution in parallel markets. For instance, companies in the dietician and elderly care sectors are seeking private chefs to meet their customers’ needs.
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From day one, we have prioritized building a team culture rooted in transparency, product focus, and a "win-together, lose-together" mindset. We strongly believe that "being nice" is a superpower.
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What’s exciting and ahead for Cravd that you can share with us?

We’ve been doubling our GMV over the past couple of months, and growth has truly accelerated! Both Avinash and I have made the big move to San Francisco, which has already proven beneficial as we’re now right in the heart of the startup ecosystem. Come visit us at our Dogpatch apartment office!
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In 2025, we plan to expand rapidly across multiple states in the U.S. To achieve this, we’ll need support and are already in discussions with a few incredible individuals. Additionally, we’ll be growing our team, with a focus on product, engineering, and GTM roles.

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Connect with Ajith in the Everything Marketplaces community. ‍‍