Peru Sharma got his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at LSU, but he was always interested in cooking.
Like many of us, though, he loathed making constant trips to the grocery store.
“I hated going to the grocery store,” he says. “I loved the farmers market, but I couldn’t make it all the time.”
The 29-year-old started thinking about food business trends that focused on delivery, convenience, local foods and fresh produce. Last summer, he teamed up with a few friends to start the business Indie Plate. By December last year, the startup’s online grocery store and delivery service launched, offering fruits and vegetables, prepared food items, eggs, milk, desserts, nut butters and much more.
“We started with the idea to be a matchmaker for people who wanted to find produce and foods from farmers,” he says. “Then, we started testing out what we wanted to be. We found out that we needed to be that delivery service and didn’t want to be dependent on a third party to bring this food to our customers.”
As an online grocery store, Indie Plate prides itself on finding products that customers would find in a store, Sharma says, as well as introducing customers to new, slower food items.
“We’re constantly innovating what products we can bring in to fit the customers as well as seeing what can be found locally,” he says.
Already, the business has attracted around 200 customers and provides them with foods from local businesses and farms like Rocking R Dairy, Chenier Farm, Briarhill Farms, Feliciana’s Best Creamery, Brew Ha-Ha and Bonnecaze Farms, just to name a few.
“There are so many items,” he says. “Our job is to give customers the entire swath of food that is available locally so they can experience what they want.”
With business exceeding expectations so far, Sharma is careful with operations, revealing that he wants the business to grow at a manageable pace. However, the business has been one of the best experiences of Sharma’s life, he says, and he can’t imagine doing anything else.
“I never thought I would enjoy this so much,” he says. “Delivering these foods, it makes people really happy. I didn’t understand it until I delivered my first order with those colorful carrots bursting out of the bag. It’s a lot of smiles.”
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