All Heart is a conscientious brand that is all about wholesome ingredients which make snacking healthy and fun.
Born in 1988, Aniket Karia, completed his schooling from St. Mary’s High School and went on to graduate from KC College, Mumbai and do a diploma in Entrepreneurship from S. P. Jain School of Management. Having started his career with iBall, one of India’s leading IT companies, Aniket decided to follow his passion in the F&B and nightlife space. He tells us more.
Tell us about your earliest memories of food?
I was always a fussy kid growing up. My mom would try and make me eat veggies by stuffing them in parathas or soups. I would be one of those kids who would run away from healthy food. But I remember my mom used to send me makhana tossed in turmeric, chilli and salt long before it became a ‘cool’ snack. Cucumbers with some chilli and salt was also something I used to enjoy a lot
How hard was it to switch from an IT job to being an entrepreneur?
I worked for a large corporate for almost four years and was heading a whole division. But I knew there was something more for me. After a lot of deliberation and pep talk from my near and dear ones, I took the plunge and quit. Quitting iBall was one of the hardest decisions I have made. I was leaving my financially comfortable job without a plan and I was also entering a whole new industry with no real prior knowledge and knowhow. But I always knew I wanted to do something in the Food and Beverage (F&B) space. It honestly was this passion that made me take the leap and thankfully it has worked out.
When and why did you start All Heart?
Long and tiring hours at work were a part of my corporate life every day. This meant eating at odd hours, eating anything that is quick, easy and cheap which pretty much equals unhealthy food. I used to fall very ill often and one of things the dietician had prescribed to have a handful of mixed seeds to increase my immunity and protein intake. I could never eat those raw so I put on my chef’s hat and tried to make some kind of energy snack out of it. People loved it in office and that is when I realized that I could definitely do something much more with this. F&B had always been my passion and I held keen interest in this field. When I quit iBall, I started working at a PR agency and handled a clients in the same space. I was simultaneously working with an events company and ran some of the best nightclubs and eateries in the city. This helped me earn just enough money to start All Heart. After a lot of trials, errors, tweaks and burning one too many batches of crackers, All Heart was finally born on the 11th of Dec 2017. All Heart was started with one simple vision, how do we provide our customers a healthy product that they not think twice before eating and still make it a yummy snack.
What kind of products do you make?
We make genuinely healthy products that taste good. Our hero product is our seed crackers that are made from five seeds – Chia, sunflower, flax, sesame and pumpkin. We bind them with gluten free oats and bake them in olive oil. We have nine variants like the Peri Peri Seeded Crackers, Lemon Chilli Seeded Crackers, the Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt. We have enough and more options for vegans and all our products are gluten free. We also do ‘on the go snacks’ made of dehydrated coconut flakes mixed with cranberries, pumpkin seeds and chocolate chips called Enerjetz.
What is the USP of these products?
Our products are high protein, high energy, some are sugar free and the rest low in sugar. We do not add any preservatives and are made with a 100% real seeds, oats and nothing else.
What are some of your key learnings as an entrepreneur?
The idea of being an entrepreneur is more fun than what it actually is. It feels great to say that one is an entrepreneur but when it comes to execution, you are the owner, admin, HR and an office boy all rolled into one. Every day you learn something new, every day is a new challenge but I can safely say it is the most rewarding work I have ever done. Failure is part of being an entrepreneur but the changing point is when you start enjoying and embracing your failures and not dwelling on it too much and that is when things start to become fun.
The health food market is buzzing, what is your value proposition?
The health food market has been buzzing for a while, there are lots of different diets and weight loss food that are out there that were packaged as healthy. What I feel has changed, is the way people have started understanding what they are consuming. Now it is not so much about the diet fads, it is more about healthy eating, a healthy lifestyle and learning what we are consuming. The health food market is only going to grow and people are going to accept only products that are selling genuinely healthy products even if that means the consumer paying slightly higher, which now a lot of consumers are fine with. Hence as a brand All Heart we want to provide to the consumers the best sourced ingredients without compromising on the taste.
What are your future plans?
The plan in the near future is to enter the retail market starting with Mumbai and moving on to other metros like Delhi, Bangalore, Pune simultaneously growing out online presence as well. We have a few new products that are currently at the R&D stage which we hopefully should launch by the end of May.
This story first appeared in Sakal Times dated Feb 12, 2020 here:
