Three friends and an idea

BY ARTI DAS | NT NETWORK

THE NAVHIND TIMES February 19

Three young Goan engineers are creating a niche for themselves in the web world by launching a food portal for all
food lovers. ‘The Navhind Times’ logged in to find out more.

Pic by Hemant Parb I NT

Three is Company: Rohit, Govind and Sager share a light moment

They say 'great minds think alike' and if these minds are of three great friends then it can really do wonders. The
new food portal, www.foodlets.in launched by three young Goans is a classic example of the case. The brainchild of
three engineers - Sagar Arlekar, Govind Naroji and Rohit Barretto, this is a one of its kind portal that gives loads of
information on food. "Foodlets.in is a piece of information with a picture of a food item, its name, location and the
price," says Rohit a computer engineer from Calangute. This portal, which has not been officially launched yet, is
already becoming popular in the web world. They already have on their site visitors from 703 cities and 86 countries.
Foodlets envelops a large subject, which is cuisine and restaurants, and is an interactive platform, where
food lovers can themselves upgrade it.

They are also becoming the viewer's favourite site on the Google search engine. For example if you write 'prawns,
Martin's corner', among the first four links that pop, one will be of the foodlets website. “Our site is listed even
before the restaurants website," quips Sagar an IT engineer from Calangute, who adds that this idea emerged purely
from necessity. "Necessity is the mother of invention," he goes on to add. Govind an IT professional from Morjim
states, "Soon after completing engineering I started working in Bangalore. Since I stayed on the outskirts of the city,
I had a tough time finding good places to eat at. When I told my friends about my dilemma, we hit upon the idea of
starting a website where people can get the required information with just one click." From here the idea started
and it took shape by mid of 2010. However, this is not their first stint at innovation; the streak of creating something
different was always with them. "During our college days we came up with a dating application called, ‘Patao' which
was part of our academic course. This too, went on to become popular with college going crowds. As students at the
Goa College of Engineering, we (Sagar and Govind) came up with the idea of having an IT magazine. The magazine,
which was called 'Spirit', began with me as the editor and Sagar as the technical editor," recollects Govind. Being IT
engineers, networks like Google, Wikipedia and Facebook always fascinated them because of the interactive features
of these sites. Foodlets envelops a large subject,. which is cuisine and restaurants, and is an interactive platform,
where food lovers can themselves help to upgrade it. Says Sagar, "we have made our website as simple as possible
and you do not have to be a tech savvy person to find your way through. One has to just type in the name of the dish
and restaurant. Also viewers can contribute just by signing in and adding a picture of the dish, mention the place
where it is available, cost, etc."

Not yet officially launched, it is already becoming popular in the web world. They have on their site visitors
from 703 cities and 86 countries.

The three are also cashing on the fact that 'seeing is believing'. "When you are aware of how the dish looks and
the quantity you get for a certain price, it arouses your curiosity even more,” elaborates Rohit. These youth are
continuously in the process of adding new applications to their portal. "We are also planning to start a wish list
option that looks at what the reader/surfer desires to eat," informs Rohit. Even though this site is online only for
the past six months, they have managed to get quite a good fan following. "On Facebook we have around 500
followers. Interestingly, we have got much recognition in Spain. We are being listed on some Spanish blogs and
we are the 55,000th most popular site in Spain," exclaims Sagar, who is quite surprised at their popularity as they
do not have many Spanish dishes on their site except for the Spanish omelette. Govind further adds, "One of the
Romanian blog has called us as the food guide of the world." They are planning to make their site truly international
where people from any corner of the world can add information about their cuisine. "Currently we have restaurants
located in Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and Goa. Also we want to feature some of the smaller joints or kiosks known
for their authentic taste. With plans to officially launch the portal in Bangalore by April they are also in the process of
upgrading the site in the beta version and looking forward at putting the portal as an app in mobile phones.