Zain Ali, founder & CEO of IndiFix, joins Cheddar News to discuss her Indian snack subscription box company.

Between Bells

IndiFix Delivers Authentic Indian Goodies Straight To Your Door

Welcome back to between bells, sparking. The beginning of our next guests business was simple. She needed comfort after moving across the world feeling homesick after moving from New Delhi India to Wisconsin. The inspiration behind specialty subscription box Indy fix seemed to be the perfect fix for the issue. The company offers boxes full of authentic indian goods delivered right to your door, joining us. Now to discuss is founder and Ceo zen ali's N Welcome to the show. I mentioned how you were feeling homesick and that's what led to the creation of indie fixed. But how did getting treats from your local indian grocery store help you create this? You know, even though I had grown up with all these snacks, just seeing them in a different setting all across the world brought a lot of comfort and that's what made me feel less homesick. So when I moved to new york right after graduation, I really wanted to find a way to get all these snags delivered directly to me and you know, new york is full of indian stores, but in order for me to get all the snacks that I loved, I had to go from one store in Manhattan to another one in Jackson Heights queens and then Jersey City. So I was wondering, hmm, I wonder if there's a way to just get all of them delivered to me all at once and that's how I started and I grew up in Jackson Heights and I know how delicious the food is. So you brought some goodies here. What sort of goodies can you find in your boxes? I see a lot of different items here. So it's everything from chips to cookies. Do more traditional Indian snacks and sweets and it's also a lot of you know try some sodas. So pretty much everything from every flavor profile from like sweet too spicy. So everybody finds something they like. Is it just indian snacks? It is just indian snacks for now. Although we have included some Pakistani snacks and some Bangladeshi snacks once in a while, but it is primarily just indian snacks. So eating the snacks from the boxes is only one goal of yours. Every box actually purchased. I love this allows indie fix to feed malnourished Children in need. Why was this such an important goal for you? So I think that was giving back was crucial to me just because in order for me to promote indian culture and celebrate my tradition across the world, I had to remind myself that there is still a huge population of India that is still going to bed hungry. That's living below the global poverty line and that means a lot of kids just don't even get one meal a day. So what we do is we for every box you purchase, we give one meal to an indian child in need. That's absolutely incredible. What challenges did you face when it comes to your company and I'm gonna start eating some of these because these are, this is interesting. These are lazy, but they're India's magic masala which I love. I've never seen these and I'm a lace fan. So tell me about some of the challenges you face. So some of the challenges in the beginning were people just because we were the forced to do that with indian snacks. A lot of our distributors and even the snack companies did not really understand what we were doing because they're traditionally only dealt with brick and mortar grocery stores and I think some of them still don't get it. But that was a challenge and just being a woman, a woman of color in business, it's always, you know, it always has its own challenges. We'll have to say these are delicious. Tell me about some of the products that are on the table for our viewers who are wondering what they are. And also tell me about the future of in defects. So the future of indie fix. When I first started the company, I did not just wanted to be like the indian snack fix. I also wanted it to be maybe like a yoga fix or wellness fixer and I agreed a fixed. So in the future we're definitely thinking of bringing more indian fixes um to the community. So as I was telling you off camera on Pakistani, we very similar foods to India and these are things that I grew up on. But I'm sure a lot of my american friends didn't know what this was. So what are we looking at here? So these are mostly savory snacks, snacking is a huge part of indian culture. So if you go visit somebody's home, I'm sure it's the same in Pakistan where you go somewhere and they'll have a huge area of snacks just waiting for you. Ah and it's a way to connect with people. So what we're looking at here is traditionally what you would have a t, you know, you would have cookies, you would have some savory snacks or you could just snack on them throughout the day. What is a P. I month mean to you, especially moving from India to the states and launching your own business. I mean first of all let's just recognize that we are to first generation brown muslim women on live tv right now. So that is amazing. We've come a long way getting women in general, especially women of color. But I think as much as it is about celebrating how far we've come and the impact we've had on american culture. I think especially given what's happening in the country right now, it's really important for us to realize that we belong here and to remind ourselves that we belong here as much as everyone else. I love this so much. My husband is not south asian and I might actually get these subscriptions just for him. Thank you so much in the fixed founder and Ceo zen ali