Speaking of chutney, one of my favourite film scenes is when Ranbir Kapoor gets an earful from the canteen guy after he asks for extra chutney during a heartbreak.

Saman Tariq’s story, however, did not start with a heartbreak, neither from a want of extra chutney, but rather a search for flavour in his food. Two years ago, Saman figured a big gap in the sauce market.

The entire aisle of sauces was essentially different brands of ketchup. Being a fan of dips, he found it quite difficult to find newer flavours, and the ones he did find would cost around a thousand taka. Imagine pairing your Tk10 shingara with a thousand taka sauce.

With an initial investment of only ten thousand taka, Saman started his own dip page called Yumzee. The goal was quite simple: bring premium dips with fun flavours, but make them budget-friendly. What started out with the simple ambition of solving a household problem and making some money before his university would begin has now turned into a rather profitable business.

“The goal was to do something besides my studies in university and to make some money. The dream was always there to make it big, but I never thought we would still be doing this after two years,” said Saman.

One of his first bits of investment was a Miyako hand blender. Every day, he would experiment with newer flavours and different recipes, until he came up with the four original flavours of Yumzee Dips. However, he was quick to realise that the flavours he liked weren’t necessarily ones that people would as well.

“When I started, I used to make recipes that I found tasty. However, I realised soon that my tastebuds are very different from the average Bangladeshi tastebuds. Personally, I don’t like sweet-flavoured dips, but in Bangladesh, most people are a fan of it. Honey Mustard is one of the best sellers, which proves that. So now, when I have to launch a new flavour, I first test it in the market for validation and adjust recipes according to the feedback I get, rather than relying on my own preferences.”

What makes Yumzee stand out?

“The flavours and freshness are our main differentiators. All our dips are made fresh to order, with no preservatives at all. It is quite impossible of late to find food that does not include a hundred chemicals one can’t pronounce,” said Saman when asked about Yumzee’s USP.

The process of turning an experimental recipe into an actual dip takes multiple turns, each with its own complexities.

While Saman himself formulates the recipes, he cannot simply scale the entire production process alone. He recalls a time when a sense of anxiety hit him when he first hired new employees.

“I had a difficult time giving them responsibilities and trusting them to do a good job. So I would often overexplain myself, trying to control every aspect of their work.”

But running a product business is much more than just ensuring good taste. So he soon had to make peace with the fact of delegation.

“I started to focus on tasks like production, customer support, and data entry as much as possible so that I can focus on more important tasks like marketing, content, new product development, and product sourcing,” said Saman.

Stagnation, revival, and the vision

For almost a year, his revenue remained at around 10 thousand, and he was already starting to doubt the project. Then suddenly, one particular month showed a revenue of Tk30,000. He wondered how much further he could push the numbers if he tried harder. Eventually, the business grew and soon the revenue reached six figures.

As Saman shared, sometimes the business means a whole lot more than just numbers. Certain stories serve as a reminder of why it’s important to keep going. One such story was of a mum who would buy two Garlic Confit jars every month from Yumzee. After her 12th purchase, Saman personally called her, as a token of appreciation for supporting Yumzee from day one.

The lady revealed that her son refuses to have his breakfast without the dip, and how the dips are a respite in a young, working mum’s life. That story stayed with him till today, and that is the sort of relationship Yumzee aspires to have.

Looking back, he believes Yumzee could have grown even quicker. “I would tell myself that I needed to stop doubting the idea, and go all in. As I mentioned earlier, the first year was slow, as it’s supposed to be. But if I confidently pushed harder and went all in without any self-doubt, I think this growth would come even earlier,” Saman reminisced about his journey.

After almost two years, Saman has a much better understanding of what is likely to do well in the market. However, launching a new product is still a calculated gamble.

No matter how much market research is conducted beforehand, there is always a possibility that a product may not perform as expected.

“I try to keep the risk as low as possible when launching a new product and then scale it up if it performs well. When it comes to new flavours, I always try to experiment with something new and exciting, especially flavours that are not readily available in the local market,” answered Saman, addressing the questions of staying relevant.

His eventual vision is to turn Yumzee into a one-stop snacking brand, where all forms of condiments are one click away.

“Recently, we changed our tagline from ‘Your Dipping Partner’ to ‘Ridiculously Good’ so that we can introduce a greater array of snacking items into our menu. We’re already working to bring premium fruit jams and peanut butters to the local consumer.”

Currently, Yumzee produces 100 litres of dips every month, and it is undoubtedly a proud achievement for Saman to have reached this far.

“But we are not close to where we want to be,” concluded the founder.