Chakradhar Gade | the new corporate breed of milkman

Chakradhar Gade’s name came into existence when he left his bright corporate career and turned towards a milk-tech startup named Country Delight. “Country Delight is an attempt to
take a fresh look at the $70 billion Indian milk industry-Using data and technology to innovate
in Consumer Connectivity, Products, Processing and Sourcing of milk” says Chakradhar Gade.
Chakradhar joined by his friend Nitin Kaushal founded the company when they wanted a
change in the way of consumption of milk in India. The company was first of its kind when
they first started it. Started in 2011 the company did not reach the expectations of the
founders in the initial years. And yes, they did face some struggles before reaching the
position that they are in now. Everything that goes into the making of the successful
businessman is covered here.
Chakradhar Gade quotes “We saw a clear problem to solve, a huge industry to tap into and a
sustainable business model that we could scale using technology.” in one of his social media
accounts. There are very few companies working for the real problems faced by the people
in the society and without any hesitation Country Delight is one of them. Chakradhar Gade
believes that all his consumers should consume food and milk in the same way as nature
produces.

Chakradhar Gade’s Academics

Chakradhar had chosen a rather unusual path to get to a position that he is in now. After his
graduation in 2004, he joined Infosys as a Software Engineer which he left after one year. He
then chosen Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore for his Post Graduation. Later he
joined Indxx Capital Management as Vice President in which he lasted for 6 years. The life
changing year in his life was undoubtedly 2013, it was the year that he founded Country
Delight.

Chakradhar Gade Struggles

Chakradhar Gade reckons that he started the company as a dividend based business model
and was not interested in raising the capital from the investors in the initial stages. The
company went bootstrapped for 5 years and it was in the year 2017 when he thought of
raising the investments in the company. “The journey was never smooth as one would like, it
was always a roller coaster”, reckons Chakradhar.

However, Chakradhar’s family stood behind him as a rock. His wife also being IIM graduate, helped him with the marketing aspect. The company succeeded only because Chakradhar and Nitin stood together without loosing belief. He quotes “Natural India, New India” in one of his social media accounts. He strongly believed in what he is doing and he knew that it had strong consumer demand the only thing was to stay strong and never lose hope.

Way towards success

Chakradhar’s way towards success started with the intention of providing unadulterated milk to the consumers. He conducted a door-to-door survey during a lot of residents complained of adulterated or diluted milk. After researching on milk and market sector he decided to organise supply of natural unadulterated milk to the consumers directly without any intermediate persons. He tied up with the farmers directly who supplies milk, then checks the quality and supplies to the consumers directly. He waited and did not loose hope for seven long years which made him what he is now. Chakradhar is also an investor, he invested in start-ups to support them and also succeeded in many of those.