Founder’s Story: Meet Asif Nabi from Samboora Pampore Pulwama Kashmir. Asif Nabi is the founder of Qasma Foods Pvt Ltd. After starting his company from his bedroom in 2022, he has become the head of one of the largest e-commerce companies in the Pulwama district.
They launched an online food review platform named Qamsa Foods Pvt Ltd on 20th January 2022. Asif Nabi founder of Qasma Foods Pvt Ltd says “In our bedroom, we launched our company. Only eight tables were set up. Since I didn’t have a salary during the first month of business, we had to make money each month in order to stay afloat. In less than a year, we had 400 sellers listed on our platform and 1,000 monthly visitors.”
When they started the business in 2022, the challenge wasn’t running the business – it was simple. The biggest challenge was the ecosystem in which the business operated. At the time of Pulwama, the company was facing a major setback due to strikes, power cuts, and management problems outside the city. Due to this, the employees were not able to work in the office.
“On behalf of Kashmir, it was our mission to do something big for Kashmir that forced us to face difficulties and move forward with our venture Qasma Foods Pvt Ltd,” says Asif. After doing his BSc from the Institute of Hotel Management Mumbai, Asif got an opportunity to run one of the largest restaurants in India: during that experience, he discovered food delivery companies and took them to the UK. He entered the market and saw rapid growth. Kashmir has millions of customers and thousands of restaurants, but there was no platform that could connect the two. So Asif thought that given his academic experience in the food and IT, he should venture into the online food space and make use of his skill, experience, and knowledge.
When asked to Asif “When you look back in 10 years, what will you be most proud of?”Asif concludes by saying “I will be really proud if I can be a good father, husband, son, and brother”.