A single idea can open in countless directions. Points of View is a series gathering perspectives around a concept, with each participant choosing their own journey through questions, answers, and the imagination and marvels in between.
This edition explores patterns — including how patterns can shape careers and ways of thinking, and help us predict what’s next — or not.
Here, we talk to Chitra Agrawal, co-founder of Brooklyn Delhi, a line of Indian pantry staples. As a first generation Indian American, Agrawal started a blog in 2009 to document her family’s culinary traditions and explore her own identity. This led her to start teaching cooking classes and to write a cookbook, 2017’s Vibrant India. Along the way, Agrawal realized how difficult it was to find high-quality packaged Indian foods in mainstream supermarkets, and launched Brooklyn Delhi with her husband, Ben Garthus, in 2014 to connect more people with Indian flavors.
In this conversation, Agrawal reflects on the patterns in consumer behavior that determine how and when someone might try something new, the value of grit when building a complex business, and how to move past hearing the word “no.”
What’s a surprising pattern that you’ve seen in your work or industry at large?
As a smaller brand, it’s very difficult to get any brand awareness when you’re on a shelf next to a conglomerate. People have to taste it to believe it, so we’ve had to invest a lot of money into people trying our product; when they do, they buy it. I still do demos in grocery stores. I feel like I always need to be on the pulse with what customers are saying about our products and how they’re responding to them.
There is this notion you can raise a lot of money and sell your business really quickly, and that is actually the exception to the rule.
Do you think your work has changed other people’s patterns of thinking?
We sell some items that are not as familiar [to non-South Asian diners], like achaars, for instance, which are a very traditional Indian condiment. Once people try it, they’re already imagining what else they can put it on, and not just Indian foods. And that’s what we set out to do: to show that these flavors rooted in Indian cuisine can be used in all different ways. It’s a way to redefine the American palate.
How do patterns help you to predict what’s next?
When I started [the company] in 2014, a lot of people were like, what does Indian American food even mean? I make food that’s definitely not the same as my grandmother did, but I’m not making very “Americanized” food either. There’s something in between which I felt like [at the time] was not being talked about. And now, I can’t open up my Instagram feed without seeing somebody dipping a piece of pizza in a butter chicken sauce. [The] pattern is that people are now willing to mash cultures up together on their plate more so than they ever did before.
Are there unhelpful patterns that you’ve seen in your industry or your own work that you’ve had to break out of?
There is this notion you can raise a lot of money and sell your business really quickly, and that is actually the exception to the rule. It’s not that it doesn’t happen, but [...] for the majority of founders that are grinding in and out every day, that’s just not our reality.
It takes work and grit to make something of a food business. It’s just a very hard [business] in terms of margins, in terms of the complexity. I started my work in food in 2009, and before Brooklyn Delhi, I was doing pop-ups. I met so many people during that time. Some did launch CPG businesses that are still around, but a lot of people that I started with did not make it. It’s sad because a lot of those people that started as artisans poured everything into their businesses.
How do you distinguish between patterns and illusory noise?
It’s a balance between taking in what people are saying and the actual data. We monitor our sales by SKU very closely to understand what is resonating. There’s just so many channels to get food now: it’s [direct to consumer], it’s meal kits, it’s grocery. And so understanding what products are doing well in what channel is another piece to this.
Are there any patterns that have defined your journey as an entrepreneur?
I think it’s resilience in all these different forms. Resilience in being patient, in knowing that a “no” now doesn’t mean a “no” later.
Resilience in knowing when to push and when not to push. There’s so many things that go wrong, but [the point is] to continue on the path and figure out a way to keep going.
