Coimbatore is famous for ' The Coimbatore Kennel Club's Championship Dog Show '. The city has been a pet friendly city for a long time. Long ago, the successful entrepreneur Verivada Chettiar used to be accompanied by his pet dog to the club. The famous tennis coach Noor Muhammed was forever found walking with his Dalmation companions - Jerry & Ruby. Coimbatorean Ashwin Kashyap Raghuraman is adding a new facet to this interest through his venture ' BOWCHOW SUPERDOG '.
Coimbatore is famous for ' The Coimbatore Kennel Club's Championship Dog Show '. The city has been a pet friendly city for a long time. Long ago, the successful entrepreneur Verivada Chettiar used to be accompanied by his pet dog to the club. The famous tennis coach Noor Muhammed was forever found walking with his Dalmation companions - Jerry & Ruby. Coimbatorean Ashwin Kashyap Raghuraman is adding a new facet to this interest through his venture ' BOWCHOW SUPERDOG '.
The youngster grew up in Chennai and Mumbai. His father Raghuraman was at Saudi Arabia. Nowadays he trades in imported paper from IFP ( International Forest Products ) , USA. The mother Srividhya is a passionate paddy and sugarcane farmer who takes care of her lands in Mayiladuthurai . She is an expert in the cultivation of water lilies and lotuses. The Tamilnadu Agricultural University has hosted her programme in connection with her expertise in this domain . The sister Aishwarya is currently at the United Nations - Nicaraguan High Commission at Geneva in Switzerland. Ashwin has done his BBM through correspondence from the Bharathiar University. He had been a Pilot prior to this incarnation.
" I did my flying course at Amman in Jordan. The programme was continued in the USA. Now I have about 400 hours of flying experience. Cloud Dancer Aviation used to make me do scenic tours in a number of beaches. The beaches and spots included - Daytona beach, Ormond by the Bay, Flagler and the Cedarkey Airport for its 800 metre runway was in the ocean area. The take offs and landings were experiences that were cherished by people.
Quite a few romantic moments were savoured due to these trips by people from all over. Cloud Dancer Aviation ran retrievable services and I was part of that activity too. I used to retrieve planes which had gone through an instrument failure. Basically I had a Private Pilot and also a Commercial Pilot License plus an IR ( Instrument Rating ). Well now I am back in Coimbatore and am volunteering with dad, " chuckled Ashwin while taking about his recent past.
Ashwin is a pet parent and has three dogs at home - Rottweiler, Rajapalayam and Dogo Argentino. His venture BOWCHOW - SUPERDOG is a start up connected to his interest. " We are from a Tambram background and all of us are vegetarian. Therefore meat was never available at home. Our household help used to cook some non veg food and give it to our pets. The concept of feeding pets with dry food is perceived to be operationally convenient. However, I observed that the pets enjoyed cooked food. I am sure quite a few pet parents would agree to this.
One of my friends was having the same issue with his pet and it was simply refusing the many dry food brands that were made available to it. I offered to drop my homemade pet food for his dog. The dog ate it up completely. The friend ( Prashanth ) suggested that I make it into a business and I went ahead. Its always good to be well prepared before undertaking any kind of work. My instructor had taught me to think ahead of the aircraft. I follow this in my day to day life, " added Ashwin while sharing interesting tidbits about his venture.
The young entrepreneur had gone on a solo birthday trip to Srilanka and had met up with a number of people while halting in the hostels during the course of his visit and discussed his idea. Most of them felt that it was a good idea. He had come back and told one friend Janani ( Virtual Artist ) about his idea and she had assured him of her support. Well, when queried about the brand and logo, Ashwin was frank about the genesis of the same, "
The first part happened over a phone call with my mother who was in our farm. I could hear her two dogs barking while I was talking. I told her to feed them and suddenly ' BOWCHOW ' occurred in my mind. My mother felt that it was a nice name and it stuck. The logo happened when I was on a call with my sister Aishwarya.
A friend, Shaheen Thajuddin drew a logo in free hand ( 4/9/2017 ) and it was later digitized by Janani. Janani has done colour psychology as part of her education. She suggested that yellow and red were food colours and we implemented them on the logo. Then ' Superdog ' got added and finally ' BOWCHOW SUPERDOG ' was born. Well , it was thus born of many parents. "
S. Raghuraman of the Tea Estate Compound in Coimbatore had been the mentor who had hand held Ashwin and taken it forward over a few months. " I could not make it because we came from a vegetarian background. Raghuraman was a great support and we used to cook in his ' extra kitchen ' everyday for sometime. He was really punctual and therefore I used to get by 5 AM, go to Race Course, jog and turn up in front of him. He used to teach me how to process and cook over a two hour schedule. We began to sample for six months and I learnt much as a consequence of this exercise.
Everyday was an experiment. New recipes were tried and I used feed my dogs with the produce of the day. Later, I began to share the stuff with my friends. After cooking till about 8 AM, I used to distribute the finished pet food personally and return by 11 AM. The rest of the day was spent for the purchases and research required for the next day. The internet was quite helpful and this became our routine. Millets, ragi, soya and chicken were used. Costing was also a part of the exercise for we began to use cost efficient varieties of rice among the types that were preferred by the pets.
Rice, ragi and chicken worked for sometime but it was withdrawn because one pet fell really ill. The feelings of the affected pet parent has helped me to ensure that I never made a mistake. I never wanted to be in the receiving end of a bad product. Finally we arrived at the present recipe. It contains - chicken, rice and fat. One can store the stuff in room temperature for 45 days from the time of packing, " added the pet food entrepreneur.
Ashwin has got his recipe tested by a lab. Nutrition analysis, shelf life analysis and the toxicology report were sought before making it commercial. He has spoken about his venture at the P.S.G College of Technology, Avinashilingam University and in a Design Thinking Workshop by YI ( Young Indians ) . Ashwin is the ' Sole Proprietor ' of his venture. The pet food is available in an aluminum pouch and the production facilities are located at Tirupur for the technology meant for packing is well ensconced in the knit city of Tamilnadu.
" We are a B2C now and our website is http://www.bowchow.in . We are also found in facebook and Instagram. Once we find traction it will be possible to seek other marketing avenues too. The pouches are available in 400 gms ( Rs. 99 ), 600 gms ( Rs.109 ), 1000 gms ( Rs.129 ) and 1500 gms ( Rs.149 ). Buying in bulk is another option and its available in 30 pouch cases. Its cheaper and easier that way. The 400 gms case is Rs.2499, while the 600 gms and 1000 gms are Rs.2999 and Rs.3499 respectively. The 1500 gms case contains just 15 pouches and it costs Rs.1999. ' BOWCHOW - SUPERDOG : Putting Pets before Profits ' is our tagline, " spoke Ashwin.
Ashwin is a socially conscious person and has been helping a few of the financially under privileged who used to train with him at the stadium in Coimbatore. He has begun to look at being ' socially responsible ' even before beginning to rake in profits. Every supply of his product to Kavin of the Saikrupa School of Autism goes back to the school. "
The printed cloth bags which are used by us to deliver the goods are made by kids from A Plus a school from Chennai and Anusha is associated with it. Again this made by kids who have issues. We do not bargain with A Plus while doing our purchases. If we can adhere to all this our brand will get built and will be successful. That way it will be ' built to last ', " stated Ashwin. BOWCHOW - SUPERDOG has recently participated in 'Petfed India ' , which according to Ashwin is India's largest pet festival. The pets which visited the fair were provided pet food by Ashwin through his start up.
" I am happy to have two interns, Ashwin Ravi and Jerome Kenny. Ashwin Ravi has helped me manage my day to day work and Jerome, the 19 year old from PSG has got my website designed. So long as my product is solid and my conscious is clean, my client base will pave the way for growth,. Now , it is Start Up time in India and all of us will have to catch up with entrepreneurship, " said the start up guy.
Ashwin plans to feed the stray dogs of the city around the 15 th of December. A team of people will go around the city with cases of ' BOWCHOW - SUPERDOG ' and feed the underprivileged dogs which live on the streets of the city. Meanwhile the brand is being registered and it is hoped that ethical start ups of this kind will add to the lustre of Coimbatore.