Feb 14th was a special day indeed. Apart from the fact that it was Valentine’s day which is celebrated universally it was also the day where entrepreneurs gathered in Pune & dozen other cities across India to hold Startup Saturday, the monthly entrepreneur meetup event. For a true entrepreneur his first love is always his preneur and it was proved when they preferred to be at the Startup Saturday session then be with that someone special.
As always Arti welcomed the audience to the special session which had F & B Entrepreneurs as its primary theme.
It was my pleasure to introduce Avinash Agarwal – Founder FoodJockeys as the first speaker. FoodJockeys holds exclusive Regional Master Franchise for Cocoberry’s Frozen Yogurt for most parts of Western, Southern and Central India. It has also acquired franchise rights for India for setting exclusive outlets as per tie-up with American coffee company called Classic Rock Coffee. This is going to be the first of its kind with not only coffee but also alcohol being served for people who live to have a good time. Avinash has announced that it would have live bands playing to liven up the ambiance.
The audience was all ears while hearing story of his journey from an graduate student who joined the family business to someone who decided due to his entrepreneurial streak to venture out on his own. The various good & bad experiences narrated by him certainly provided audience with tips & insights into the life of an entrepreneur. The Q & A session was more interactive with lot of questions being asked by entrepreneurs in various fields and they being answered with enthusiasm By Avinash.
The second guest speaker of the day was Varun Varma who is the original founder of Rush Hours – a quick service food chain that has now 6 outlets in Pune. Varun who is a IIT graduate spoke of the times when he was working after his degree and after some time found that he wanted to do something on his own which led to the creation of Rush Hours. Though many of his friends from IIT batch joined him they couldn’t give their 100 % to it all the time when led to exit of some of the co-founders. This taught him a lesson which he passed on to the audience that ‘never have friends as co-founders’. Also audience seemed inspired by the fact that he was involved in supervision of infrastructure development of his outlets as well as delivery chain management which he believes he is very strong in. Having put in processes in place since the founding of Rush Hours in 2010 things are soon so smooth that even if top management took a leave for 6 months things would be just as efficient. The Q & A as expected was very interactive with audience seeking answers to some of the challenges they face running their ventures.
Tenglible the local media partner then made a short presentation about their venture which had the audience interested.
Finally Arti helped in proposing a vote of thanks and also felicitating the guest speakers with a rose plant and some sweet celebrations each which was befitting for a special day.
It was only shortage of time that forced us to halt the Q & A but audience did take the discussion offline with founders. All said & done it was a very useful session for the audience and pleasure for us to host it.
Write up by:
Amit Rawat
Headstart Pune Volunteer
IT Consultant (Software, Hardware & Networking), Technical Content Writer, Book Reviewer, Social Media & Promotions @PILF (Pune International Literary Festival)
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