Journey of school drop out making millions from idli-dosa batter

Team Udayavani, Sep 3, 2021, 1:07 PM IST

Musthafa PC, son of a daily wage worker in a remote village in Kerala dropped out of school after failing Class 6 to join his father on the farm. Mustafa is now the CEO of iD Fresh Food.

In an interview, Mustafa said, “My teacher convinced me to return to school; he even tutored me for free. Because of him, I topped my class in maths! That pushed me to study harder and I became the school topper–my teachers came together and paid my college fees.”

He initially started working in India and eventually moved abroad for a job.

After working abroad, he was able to pay off his father’s loan of Rs 2 lakh in just two months. Though he was earning well, Musthafa wanted to own a business.

At this time, one of his cousins suggested starting a good quality idli-dosa batter company after he saw a customer complain of the bad quality of a similar product. Musthafa agreed and invested Rs 50,000 in the company and let his cousins manage the business.

However since he himself wanted to get involved in the business he took the decision of quitting his job and moved back to India. He even assured his parents that he can get a job if this does not work out.

Talking about his struggles, Musthafa said that there were days when he could not pay his employees but he promised all 25 of them that he would make them millionaires once the company became successful and gave them shares.

After eight years, Musthafa found an investor and iD Fresh Food became a 2000 crore company.

“I wanted to share my success with my teacher, but when I returned home, I learnt that he’d passed away. I was heartbroken and thought, ‘If only sir could have seen what a laborer achieved because of him!’ Now, I speak of him every chance I get; to honor his legacy,” Musthafa said.