The Startup Saturday event in Kolkata on the 29th of November manifested a phenomenal combination of quick service restaurants and real estate. The mix of more than 60 participants, comprising of passionate students, vivacious professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs at the overwhelming ambience of Indian Council of Cultural Relations was the highlight of the event, sponsored by Nasscom and Google.
Mr. Aman Singhania, one of the volunteers at SSKOL, kindled the event with an introduction to Headstart and its events, followed by a quick precluding of all the participants of the day’s event. He also showcased a simple presentation on Headstart and highlighted the importance of the events and the benefits of networking through Startup. The event included eminent personalities of the real estate field like Mr. Harsh Modi, one of the established developers of Eden group and Mr. Abhinaba Dey, the owner of AVOW group of Industries. It also included the celebrated Quick service tycoons like Mr. Nikhil Chawla, Mr. Rahul Arora, Mr. Sagar Daryani and Mr. Naveen Pai.
The process of instigation of the event began with a detailed discussion on Real estate. The convention was initially highlighted by Mr. Harsh Modi. He is the Executive director of the Eden Group and holds deep understanding of the real estate conceptualization, marketing and its execution. He has been in the field for some years now and an active Angel investor and part of the board at Calcutta Angels. Since he has always had a keen interest in startups and has also invested in some startup projects through angel networking, he did not hesitate in sharing whatever might be needful for startups in the domain of real estate. Mr. Modi kept it very precise and discussed about the pros and cons of the sphere. He defined real estate by explaining that it is the building and selling of good quality projects as per the demands of the customers and involves every possible endeavor of the work sector. He inaugurated with the cons first stating that it is one of the most high risk industries, involving a lot of capital at the initial stage of the set up. He revealed that the real estate market is known for its uncertainties like- the ownership of land, political issues, cash flow valuations, etc also declaring that dealing with the government of India is also not too easy. So keeping all prevention updates and having a cautious mind is necessary for a real estate developer. Mr. Modi also preached that in some projects, the capital can also get stuck because of local issues so the developer should have a calm mind to deal with them and sort it out. And if it does not work out, its safe to back off from the project and lose minimal funds rather than to get engaged in small scale riots. He went on with the pros of the real estate empire, stating that it has and will always involve good profits with the increasing availability of lands now a days. The empire we are discussing about may involve complications initially but once a start up starts with the contracting, the low income space gradually diminishes leading to long-time profits. He also threw light upon the online market space which is working very well momentarily giving the example of Housing.com which is an established online real estate marketing site.
The inciting conversation went on with the arrival of yet another entrepreneur, Mr. Abhinaba Dey. He has been an entrepreneur since 2006 and the inventor of his own real estate company, AVOW group, which is a fast growing company in Kolkata providing a luxurious and quality living. One of his passions is to encourage and innumerate the aspiring entrepreneurs. He plays the role of a startup associate with Headstart, Nasscom and TiE and also devotes his time in building and promoting the startup culture of West Bengal. With an experience of four outstanding projects he stated that real estate is a “Bigey”. With a career of eight years in hand, he experienced various opportunities in this field but highlighted that the major concern in this field is brokery. One to two percent of the funds of a project goes to the broker, thus it is better to be cautious about which broker the startup gets involved with. Real estate is an unorganized sector in India as stated by him, and ninety five percent of the brokers do not have any idea what they are up for. His advice to the participants present was that reading of the documents very efficiently is a must before signing up for any project and it is very necessary to have complete transparency with the broker to have clear knowledge of the land that the startup plans to invest in. one of the key points mentioned by Mr. Dey was that it is beneficial to have a good connection between the buyer and the seller. Proper understanding of the market is useful because the seller should know what actually he is providing to the customers and the customer should be provided with all the correct information for what his well-earned money into. He concluded by saying that bank partnerships for any project is itself a verification for them and that evolution of new and innovative business models is needed at this time.
The real estate session was very well planned and presented. Mr. Singhania then opened the floor for a quick question and answer session with the two magnificos, which were very well answered by them.
The Next session involved a splendid discussion on Quick-service restaurants, which was instigated by Mr. Rahul Arora. A food lover having instincts for cooking since the age of five, Mr. Arora went on to become a trained chef under Taj and worked for the ITC hotels for four long years. But being a chef at the renowned hotel did not give Mr. Arora the happiness he fancied for. He was depressed and wanted to really cook for the utmost happiness and pleasure of people. After a span of time devoted to research and exploration, Rahul came to Calcutta to discover that Chinese and rolls were a regular at most food outlets, but it lacked the perfect, classic cheese sauce pasta. This idea clicked for Rahul, and with some help from his mother financially he opened his first outlet called Bon appetite. He was ready for a fresh start with only six tables initially, that expanded to nine, then twelve and then there was no looking back. Today, he has two outlets with a new opening in Ballygunge Phari. He is also the proud owner of a health and soul cuisine called café Pranah. Rahul says that he has grown as an entrepreneur and learns something new every day. He stated that Hospitality is the most beautiful industry for anyone, because people love to eat. In today’s world, with most of the family members working, eating works as a therapy and the smile they have on their face after tasting the dishes provides Rahul with the delight he craved. He concluded by saying that the food industry has no looking back if a startup does his job properly.
The session was continued by some speaking up by Mr. Nikhil Chawla. He is an MBA from the United States and had an experience of working at restaurants in Glasgow and London which gave him a better insight of the food industry. He shared his story with the participants declaring that initially he never has a conscious decision to start a food franchise. He was out of college is early 2004, when he met up with Mr. Naveen Pai and after tasting the awesome food at Coffee Pai café, he mastered guts to ask Mr. Pai about opening a food outlet. After a food trial with a little research, exploration and travelling to Delhi, Bombay and Chandigarh, he still took his time to take a decision. As said by Nikhil, he lacked the affinity and idea about opening a proper food outlet but his research was solid. As the saying goes, “A lot can happen over coffee”, Nikhil had it in his mind that most people chose coffee as their savior after a hectic day, or a business discussion, or a casual date. This idea was all that he needed and in 2009, ‘Mocha’ came to Calcutta. Even though he was given everything that he needed, he stated that running a food outlet has been a great learning experience and he is now a proud owner of two more food outlets~ Salsa Grill and Salsa café.
The next orator was Mr. Sagar Daryani. He is the owner of the very famous ‘Wow! Momos’ and currently stands at a very eminent position with 37 outlets in the five happening cities of Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Kochi. Mr. Daryani is without a food background and had just invested a minimum of thirty thousand for a six by six feet area in Spencer’s to sell nothing but Momos! This break in 2008 was a great learning experience and a fight within him. He had it in his mind to serve the best to his consumers and as he was a marketing guy he made sure his presentation was bright and eye catching. He goes with the notion that “Jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai!” ups and downs, both have been his cup of tea but he has grown as a whole with his team. On being interrupted by a participant and asked – “Why momo?” he came up with the answer that he wanted to created food for Indian people which went all the way to abroad and he always knew that momos could sell. He put science behind the art to be different and created stuff according to his free will like momo chaats, momo burgers and also a desert called chocolate momo. The key points mentioned for a startup by Mr. Daryani was that your product is like your baby and we should always keep our eyes open and observe to make the product better. The greatest strength of Mr. Daryani is his staff. They are like his part of the family and his greatest assets. He believes that if the staff is happy then there is no doubt that the customers will return without a smile on their faces. Mr. Daryani’s ultimate dream is to open four cancer hospitals that would work for free to bring a change that he wishes for.
The event’s last rhetorician was Mr. Naveen Pai. He is a certified restaurant management professional, specializing in chain restaurant management and South East Asian cooking styles. Mr. Pai has his whole generation of family behind him in the food industry but declared that he has absolutely no falling for the business. It was only at age of 19, when his father has a heart attack, he had to manage a get together and look after the food preparation that introduced him to the business. Today, he is a lot into the affairs of hospitality business and also brings to the table a mix of the national and international restaurant industries. In a span of 7 years, from 2001-2007, Naveen has taken his company from a 75,000/- turnover to a 9,00,00,000/- turnover. He also has 355 employees under him. He had just two things to say to the participants that negative feedback is very necessary for any startup. A startup learns more from his fall than a step up and that hard work always pays. He asked the aspiring startups to be Bold and make new mistakes. But not repeat them.
Mr. Aman Singhania concluded the event by thanking all the panelists for their time and kind words of encouragement to all the participants present. The event was a hit and ceased with the handing over of the beautiful mementos to all the mentors present by Mr. Singhania himself.
SSKOL November 2014, ended with a great networking session and exchange of ideas and contact details.
Shared by:
Srishti Surana
Special thanks to our Headstart Kolkata Team:
• Mr Abhinaba Dey @ AVOW Group and “VolunteerMentor” at SSKOL
• Mr Avijit Mondal @ Mobile Heathcare Technology
• Mr Subham Das @ TutStu
• Mr Ajay Pandey @ AncileTech Solutions
• Mr Pankaj Pilaniwala
• Mr Kumar Chandan @ ExamVeda
• Mr Saket Jajodia @ Dzire 2 Dzine
• Mr Aman Singhania @ Red Launchers