How I Market “The Oven Guy” on a Shoestring Budget

I started The Oven Guy in February 2026. It’s a Pune-based cloud kitchen pizzeria, built on minimal investment and a lot of ideas. People often say starting something new is the hardest part and that it takes courage. For me, starting was the easy bit. Growing the business was the real challenge, and honestly, it still is.

I didn’t have a big marketing budget, so I had to make the most of what I had. The first thing I did was open Canva and design an advertisement poster. I sent it on WhatsApp to everyone I knew and asked them to pass it along. The result was a flood of good wishes and congratulatory messages. That was lovely, but it wasn’t what I needed. I needed orders. I needed customers.

Looking back, I should have seen it coming, because my strategy was basically shooting in the dark. I tried the same thing on Instagram, posting stories and hoping my DMs would fill up with orders. Again, nothing.

Lesson one: Know who you’re talking to

After some research and an honest look at what went wrong, I sat down to come up with a new plan. This time, instead of broadcasting to everyone, I focused on the people who could actually order from me.

I was still using WhatsApp, but now I shared my poster in my apartment complex’s group. Then I found contacts in the groups of neighbouring complexes and posted it there too. That’s when things started moving. People asked about my menu and pricing, and real orders began to trickle in. I kept the momentum going with weekly messages in these groups and regular Instagram stories, and each week brought in a few more orders.

Still, the audience felt too small to grow a real business.

Lesson two: Being on a platform isn’t the same as being found

So I took a big step and registered with Swiggy. Then I sat back and waited for the orders to roll in.

They didn’t. I hadn’t realised that listing yourself on a delivery platform is only half the job. You also have to get discovered, and that means getting the algorithm on your side. It works a lot like SEO, where the right keywords in your name matter. “The Oven Guy” didn’t have the word “pizza” in it, so when I searched for pizza, my own kitchen didn’t show up.

The fix was simple but effective. I changed the name to “The Oven Guy – 100% Whole Wheat Pizzas.” That one change did two things. It put “pizza” right in my listing, and it told customers my USP at a glance.

Also read: From Employee Recognition to Partner Loyalty: The Expanding Role of Corporate Gifting in India

Lesson three: Reviews are currency

A better name wasn’t enough on its own. To rank near the top of search results, you need reviews. And to get reviews, people have to order from you first.

That’s when I ran my first paid marketing campaign on Instagram, announcing that The Oven Guy was now on Swiggy. The response went far beyond my expectations:

• over 10,000 views
• around 100 shares
• more than 100 DMs asking about the business
• a handful of orders

Where things stand now

Today, my go-to approach combines targeted paid campaigns with steady local promotion through WhatsApp groups and Instagram. It’s not glamorous, but it works.

The Oven Guy is still young, though, and there are plenty of moving parts. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow, so I’m always brainstorming new ways to reach people and scale up. If these past few months have taught me one thing, it’s that growth doesn’t come from shouting louder. It comes from talking to the right people, in the right place.

– Written by Ishan Saini, he founder of The Oven Guy, a Pune-based cloud kitchen serving 100% whole wheat pizzas. Pizza may be his passion, but it’s only one part of what he does. He’s also a business consultant and trainer, a writer, a wildlife photographer, a certified yoga teacher and an avid traveller, and he brings the same curiosity to building his business that he brings to everything else.