Three years ago I arrived from India to Montreal for my MBA at McGill. By that time, I had worked for 4 years in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe.
Shortly in my journey here in Montreal, I met my now wife Melissa! We both enjoy cooking and we always felt that it was tough to get authentic Indian ingredients. Being from the millennial generation, we also questioned why our favorite Indian brands weren’t easily accessible online. Moreover, who doesn’t want things delivered at home in the famously cold Canadian winter? While it is true that Indian food was already very popular in Canada, we found it particularly difficult to access outside the major hubs of Indian communities. Here, distances are large and weather can be harsh.
Exposure to a wide variety of business leaders, professors and other speakers at McGill allowed me to appreciate the comprehensive and integrated nature of business. One of my clearest memories of the MBA is from a class called Creating an Enterprise, where we learnt that for something to be innovative, it doesn’t have to be rocket science! If you have a simple solution that solves your customers’ problem, then it is innovative.
The concept of e-commerce for food is available everywhere. This being said, we wondered why it was not available in the South Asian retail space in Canada. That is why in January of 2017, we launched Singal’s, a Indian Grocery Delivery Service Website, featuring 75 products in Montreal.
Within one year, we started supplying over 400 products and delivering them all over Canada. We serve not only the Indian communities who enjoy these products on a regular basis but also the food enthusiasts who just want to try something new. We also share the authentic Indian culture through our blog.
I specialized in Marketing during my MBA and this knowledge has proven immensely useful in establishing our presence online. Melissa is responsible for ensuring our selection and service delight our customers.
Setting up a business is an incredibly humbling experience. It has allowed us to learn more about ourselves, while enjoying the thrill that comes with running a business. Looking into the future, we are excited about implementing a variety of new ideas to scale. The most joyful part for us is the feeling of bridging cultures and communities through our business.
About the author
Yatin Singal did a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology, where he graduated with First Class Honours in 2010. Shortly after graduation, he started working in various position in the Pharmaceutical industry, first in the United Kingdom and then in Switzerland, where his final title was Global Value Chain Manager. He joined the McGill MBA in 2015 and did his summer internship at IBM as a Product Manager in Toronto. After graduation, Yatin joined Sensoreal as a business consultant, while starting his Indian grocery delivery business Singal's with his wife Melissa. Established in Montreal, Singal's now delivers more than 400 products all over Canada.
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