Kelvin Subowo is deeply embedded in the world of food and beverage. He enjoys culinary activities in addition to being accustomed to witnessing his mother operate a home catering business since childhood.

 

 

 

 

 

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He went bankrupt in 2011 after his potato chips business failed. However, the failure did not dissuade him. He examined his company's flaws for potential improvements.

Kelvin then established Dailybox in 2016 after he internalized the lessons he gained from the failure of his first business.

"I realized that while doing business, you have to focus on your talents and be willing to collaborate with the rest," said Kelvin.

Dailybox's philosophy

According to Kelvin, the difficulty in locating healthy home cooking in Jakarta prompted him to create Dailybox. Instead of creating another establishment that peddles unhealthy food, he wanted his next venture to sell practical and proper meals.

Kelvin incorporated the word "Daily" in the venture's name in the hopes that people would not only buy the meals once or twice but that it would also become the menu of choice for office workers who prefer home-cooked cuisine. Dailybox's dishes are "ordinary" at a glance — you'd be able to find the usual items such as "ayam geprek" or salted egg chicken — but in terms of taste, they are anything but. 

"We provide the safest and most convenient menu. It's safe in the sense that the price is reasonable, and it's comfortable in the sense that the quality is excellent, and it's easily available," he explained.

Dailybox and expert help

Kelvin's initiative has attracted several celebrity chefs to collaborate with him, including Chef Juna Rorimpandey, who he said was the first big-name chef to collaborate with Dailybox.

"[All I did] was to contact him via Instagram DM. He was so modest — he still responds to my DMs today," said Kelvin, who had only five outlets at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

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"Through this new partnership, we were able to produce a meal that is one of Chef Juna's specialties, notably the woku chicken," he said. Today, the dish is still one of Dailybox's most popular dishes.

Dailybox has also successfully developed other new and fresh recipes with a variety of other parties. Chef Renatta Moeloek assisted Dailybox in the department of business communication. Then it was Raffi Ahmad's RANS Entertainment turn to make the business go viral.

These collaborations have been extremely advantageous to Dailybox. With menu and publicity handled by professionals in their respective fields, all Kelvin had to do was to focus on production.

"We want our company to be a technology company that sells food. Our core or strength is more towards food technology," said Kelvin.