Talks by Sikandar Khemani : Food StartupShawarma Wala

It all started when I was about to complete my postgrads from Bangalore( MBA marketing).
It was my last semester and I knew after this I have to go back home and join my dad’s business which I never wanted to as I always wanted to do something and f&b. At an early age only I had discovered my passion for the industry so I always wanted to do something in the same. It was my last semester and I din wanna go back so I decided to open my restaurant there itself so at least if it works I don’t have to join my dad’s business. So I gathered some money from here and there and some from my savings I started a restaurant there near my college thinking if it works out I don’t have to go back. I tried running it for 6 months but dint work, unfortunately, I had to pack my bag and come back. I sold all my stuff and got some money back, with that money I wanted to do something again in the same industry like part-time because full-time was dad’s business now. I did R&d before coming back and realized that Raipur and CG dint have shawarma, as this used to be the fav snack for us as students and use jyada paise b nahi lagne the as I was not left with much also, so I bought 3 shawarma machines from the money I had left with. One does not fail by committing mistakes,
But not learning from those mistakes and repeating them”

So after coming back I applied all the lessons that I had learned from Bangalore restaurant like minimal fixed costs, fewer staff, min rent, food quality, presentation, location, etc. And opened up my 1st branch at marine drive chapati.

By gods grace with a very short period, I started getting positive responses from the customers. I started getting people to invest in this, for collaborations, franchises, partnerships, etc. I wanted to grab this opportunity and wanted to expand in this before anyone else could all on my own.