Madira Vogue Podcast

I normally need to be two, three drinks down to sound so interesting. Well, getting drunk with mad podcast is all about drinking responsibly and having good conversations over a drink or two, don't we? How did you, you know, come up with this name? Uh, when I wanted to start Scandalous Foods, I realized that uh you know, India needed more sweet shops, but the restaurant industry didn't need one more pandem. He needed a a a midhai operating partner. So you know we wanted to break the traditional conventional thought behind a mai walla. The full form of

scandalous is standardization, convenience, affordability, nil wastage, dependence on skill, labor, accessibility lightning fast. So that is the scandal of the industry as I call it. So my first business was actually a major to get into the good books of a of a teacher. Before I knew exit was a term. That was my first exit from my business. I sold him my business. So today I have a very interesting guest with me. He's a veteran in the hospitality sector. He has more than 15 Years of experience. He has been growing one of the most unconventional businesses

I must say in the country. He's actually getting the mitai business organized which is the most toughest when you know Indians have their sweet tooth and they love their own personal mitai walla. So he's ventured in a domain which is currently very unorganized but getting there and he's doing it like a magician I must say. So without further ado hi sank thank you so much for joining us on getting drunk with madira. Thank you Priyanka for such an interesting introduction. I normally need to be two three drinks down to sound so interesting. You you've saved

me 230 mls by making me sound so interesting even before that. Well, getting drunk with Mad Ro podcast is all about drinking responsibly and having good conversations over a drink or two, don't we? Drinking responsibility responsibly is debatable, but let's try. So, Sankit, I mean, I have known you for a couple of years now. I mean your network has been doing great content you know your content I mean especially I must give you a credit for the kind of names you come up with for you know especially the current one scandalous food you know wow

I mean I and that too for a very um for a food startup to have a name like that you know it's very adventurous I must say that so how did that happen you know how did the name come into the picture and because it is In an industry where people like to be safe, they like to be corporate. How did you, you know, come up with this name? So, uh, Priyanka, when I, uh, when I wanted to start Scandalous Foods, I realized that, uh, you know, India needed more sweet shops, but the restaurant industry

didn't need one more Pandi sweets. It needed a a a midhigh operating partner. M so you know we wanted to break the traditional conventional thought behind a mai walla and and of course you know because I was entering a B2B business in 2023 and uh so you know I wanted a name which was uh uh you know like a conversation starter plus which also had a meaning to it. So, by the way, uh, Scandice Foods, uh, I mean, you know, like, you know, back in the day, uh, I used to jokingly tell people, you know,

MMS, but that's not the fact. Uh, so scandalous actually stands for the problems uh that the food industry faces. it uh the the full form of scandalous is standardization, convenience, affordability, nil wastage, dependence on skill, labor, accessibility, lightning fast. So that is the scandal of the industry as I call it. But yeah, but yeah, there is a meaning to the name and and for sure it is a conversation starter whenever I go for new meetings to pitch to clients. That's interesting. And you know because whatever I could understand that you know you've had a huge

journey you know last 15 years specifically in the food domain you've seen the the industry grow and how can you tell me how did it all begin for you you know how did it all start? So um interestingly uh when I was in the 11th and 12th grade and I was obviously doing u science uh during 11 12th but uh I had begun to realize my inclination towards events and food. Um it started with you know like doing the socials during school and all of that and and during the 12th standard I went home and

told my mother that I wanted to do uh hotel management. Mhm. And so in our times event management was not even a full-time course. It was a part-time course and hotel management of course was a full-time course. And being an only child um I was you know like literally emotionally blackmailed and threatened to not do it. I was literally told you know hotel management today I need to tell You that's a different thing but yeah so the inclination was there since then and my first food business um contrary to what people think is not urban

spice I had like I I told you I was emotionally back blackmailed into doing engineering and I'd gone to NASC to do engineering so I have spent four years in Nasik Um and u while I was doing engineering uh so my first business was actually a majuri to get into the good books of a of a teacher. So I had an attendance issue and uh okay engineering colleges do have a mandatory attendance. Yeah absolutely and the vice principal of the college uh was apparently like you know very strict. I'd said the pug but you know

you have to be in the good books of the vice principal also. And I came to know that you know he he there was some space that he had behind the college which he wanted to rent out you know I went and spoke to him and so ground floor was you know hall which he was renting out for 4,000 a month okay and fortunately you know being I used to get pocket money so I thought this is manageable I took that place on rent I manage and you know like 4,000 a month is not a

big cost to take care of for the attend attendance and then you know I took that space and then I realized that uh the the guy was actually running a hotel on top of it. There were some 26 kids in the hotel and he the person who took that place he actually wanted that person to run a canteen for those 26 kids. I like I like damn. So you know like my first business was out of like so I took the space first and I was like okay let me so then because I had to

start a canteen then I saw that uh you know there was a der of north Indian food in NASC so we decided to start a north Indian tiffen service and this was back in 2005 or six in Nasi okay and yeah six to be precise and obviously you know like Nasik I mean it's still tier 2 but it was very tier 2 at that time so you know we uh named that business Shri Krishna tiffens because you know you know like gave it that religious connotation because that's how people there appreciated it and we started

a north Indian tiffen service for you know kids there so you know I mean apart from those 26 kids you know like there were these seven Kashmiri friends of mine who also started taking that tiff service and then a lot of these northern Indian kids from college started taking so within about 3 4 months we were doing about 400 tiffins a day. Wow. Uh in fact then uh I you know grew then suddenly becoming interesting you know at at whatever age you are running and especially when you're in college that's like an extra pocket money

and destiny has it who knew you would actually go doing engineering and you'll find your passion in the canteen you know. No wait so let me correct you. I dropped out of engineering but I continued the defense service. Okay. Then I got into I got into BCOM and I completed my BCOM finally. So my graduate Z And uh um then I uh obviously at that time you were making fresh food. I didn't know frozen food and then I realized that there was uh a requirement in another pocket of Nasi as well. So I opened another

uh kitchen in Nasi. Okay. And my tiffen service was due to about 600 700 tiffens a day. Then you know when I opened another kitchen in you know on Gangabur road I apparently started eating into the business of this one caterer there called STAungi cater he wanted called me and he was like you know like you know why you doing this because he knew I was like some 19year-old kid threatening his his monopoly there I said like so like you know you like I'll give you 15 days money like what do you mean so He

said 600 into 60 into 15. He gave me 5 lakh 75,000 rupees. Oh and before I knew exit was a term that was my first exit from my business. I sold him my business and by the way then I invested that money into mutual funds and gold and my family business was financial services about I sold mutual funds for my father for a couple of years. Nice. And then I came to Bombay to do my CFP. And uh and when I was in Bombay, I I thought I could eat butter chicken every day of my

life. Uh but after 6 months, I started ordering giralu and dal fry from a restaurant in paw. Uh and because you know I had run a tiffen service and I knew how so I didn't want to order from those tiffens. difference. Yeah. And uh and that's when I thought that there was a huge scope of doing you know hygienic meals in a box for homely meals and that's how urban spice started in 2011. Nice. Uh so that's then that started my professional food journey. You know, I've been hearing a lot of uh entrepreneurs talk in

their podcast that, you know, it's very necessary to, you know, do the grind, understand and let your uh startup come from a place where you know you're solving a problem. And whatever I could hear today, I understand that you always wanted to solve a problem which was about getting hygienic, tasty food. You know, I think that was your drive during that time. Um, so you put it very rightly, Priyanka. So you know I keep telling people that you know unless you're papagari uh your problem is usually a problem of most of the people. So if

you if you have a problem and you think you can solve it at scale instead of cribbing about it uh if you you know solve that problem at scale you're going to even make money out of that problem and plus you're going to solve your own problem. Sure. And you know the fact that every uh place has their specialtity and you know in Bombay we do crave you know because we all come from different cities people sitting here today in the podcast also come from north you know so we all know that the north Indian

food has a very different palette than what we have in Maharashtra. So you know so did was that gap something that you always wanted to fill and that with your ventures it became more and more you became more confident that that demand was growing for that kind of. So um what I realized I mean in retrospect I realized that you know I have this uncanny you know ability to find gaps in crowded unorganized markets. Okay. So that north Indian gap was in in NASC back in 2006 in defense then I mean you know now when

we say disposable packaging and all it's a it's a norm I mean everybody does it but in 2011 if you remember aluminum foils and all so it was not like a norm and then homely steel so at that time that was disruptive then you know when we started doing food event in 2015. Uh that time there was only Domino's which was an organized brand in in the food at trade exhibition space. Others it was all these Ramlal Shamal kind of caterers. We saw that gap and then we got there. So that's and now mitis I

mean you know I mean India eat 17 mis for every ice cream eaten. But uh mis is a complete widespace in postmeal impulse purchase. So we saw that gap. We realized that you know restaurants are not selling mis because they're not available with the shelf life and convenient packaging. So we just created another channel for the mis. We didn't do we've not reinvented the wheel. You'll throw a stone. We just got the ras malai in a singles of 95 g cup with a six month shelf life and we're serving giving it to the restaurant menu

so that restaurant industry so that they can add it to their menus and sell it to people like you him and him. Yeah that's interesting. So you know I remember your one of your LinkedIn post was talking about the big gap that which is there. You went viral also for that about the skill sets that the graduates have and versus you know the gap when they join a startup or it initially got me into a lot of so apparently you know I want to know more about that you know post and how it so yeah

I spoke about how you know MBA kids uh I think it was that post if I'm not mistaken how MBA kids need to be more trained for the industry and yeah apparently that post went viral and then economic times and business standard and all covered that post and uh yeah I mean there was some controversy also around it which I I don't think I should talk about today but anyways uh so um what I meant by that was that you know um I think the education system in India needs to Undergo a massive change right

um I see I work with a lot of hotel management kids in my production unit I work with a lot of food technologist in my in my in my production unit. And uh even today uh you know people who come out of hotel management have no freaking idea of what food processing is. Hotel management the you know they want to go and work at a Marriott as a waiter eventually. You know their thing is that waiters manager in the front end or P you know like from a you know like a commi to a sue

chef to a chef banjangle or they think that they can go to a cruise and work in a cruise this is their only ambition because that is what the hotel management people are teaching them there is such a humongous opportunity with the whole cloud kitchen industry coming up QSR's coming up food processing coming up food service coming up hotel management books may in 3 years there is all of two pages on food processing. Are you serious? That's about it. So these kids do not even know production units or they you know forget startups like Scandal

there are huge legacy brands like Mday BKL FS IPL they don't even have the ambition to go and work with them. On the contrary, food technologist of course by virtue of their you know degree they are they they know what food processing is but barring These top two three colleges like CFTI ICT and maybe NIFTIM most of these food uh technology colleges that I've seen kids that come out of there do not even know what blast freezing is do not even know what reach is which is you know like a huge gap like like it's

technically to make it simple it's like the ABC of food technology So I I don't know what these people are teaching them. Maybe it's like so theoretical and we all know you know we all know I think these guys I mean if it's a four year course two years should be on ground they should actually be sent to companies to learn stuff. That's true and that's when there will be a change. So the change has to start from the education system level and and during the co I was with you know one of these CSR

companies is trying to do some work with you know you have to upskill everyone right like unskilled labors semi semi skil that's a very interesting thought you know and it's not that the Indian you know the the way things are going we all I mean we've done our I have done my MBA and I I could see the huge gap when I started working you know that in a way the the whole economy was that time you know there was a recession in the market and we were not getting jobs in 2008 so you know

the the fact that if I had more skills and that is when I went and I did my journey so first of all I I mean you know I mean I I'm not saying that don't do MBA I mean of course like people should do MBA If they think it makes sense for them but I think after completing your undergrad And you should go and work for like 2 to four years before doing an MBA because that's how abroad works you know because yeah because without working doing MBA is so theor I mean it's theoretical

right like otherwise it'll be so practical and five out of 10 times if you work for four years you'll realize because you'll anyways grow in life if you're doing you know the right things and I think MBAs need to teach kids ownership. Yeah that's true. I think people in India lack ownership to another level. Yeah, that's so true. They have any debatable topic for a long time about it for like a whole podcast. But today, no, but the the fact that you're bringing it out and more and more entrepreneurs are bringing this up. I'm sure

the Indian education system needs to take care of it now. Yeah, it is high time they do. So sankit you uh apart from the name being scandalous foods you know the fact that you've already exited from couple of brands you know from being urban spice to you know your own initial startup which was a canteen you know that's very interesting that you know earning five lakh rupees back in the day must be a big jackpot you know and and that to coming from a very unorganized unconventional place you know that the person saying sell me

the startup you know or and that time nobody Wants in a place like NASC you know but today it's all about raising funds you know you see brands are going all out creating a lot of equity be it via marketing be it via whatever ways but mostly it happens in the tech space you know you see SAS brand now today with AI in the picture you know everybody wants to raise funds do marketing develop the product so I want to understand because you raised like 50 CR which is a huge money when it comes in

the food startup place. How was that? And was it difficult to make those tech I'm sure there must be some techies in your fundraising place as well to make them understand what actually happens in a food startup you know when I'm sure they don't come from that space to invest in a space like that. So really want to know what is it about raising funds you know in a food startup right so I'll break that into two parts. Yeah. So first of all u you're absolutely right that most of the VCs in India come have

made money from tech. The the problem is that most of these tech entrepreneurs of the '90s in India have made money by being a back office to product companies in the US. They themselves have not built product companies. You know I mean you've got massive companies and massive respect for like the emphasis and the vipros of the world but they are technically recruiters for companies in the west they are back office operators for them You know like the I mean for the lack of word the glorified punes or maybe glorified assistant managers for them is

how I look at it while obviously you know like the owners of those companies must be they are obviously brilliant people to do had but most VCs that have come out of there they come with a very uh services uh mindset and not a product mindset and hence I've seen uh in India uh still there is uh you know a problem uh with VCs investing in manufacturing companies or B2B companies I've seen that mindset there that's true and second uh just to correct so I've raised money at a 50 plus lower valuation and but I've

raised a little over a million dollars as of now for scandalous of course uh the urban spice I mean overall of course I've raised multiple rounds and you know like in different companies but uh that is how it is and India I think you know for the startup ecosystem I see a lot of genzies today starting companies for all the wrong reasons I mean I have I've actually met a couple of startup founders who are 23 24 years old and I asked them you know so what is your agenda with the business and their answer

was like and in in all of this he did not speak about the business model he did not speak about his vision he did not speak About his mission so I think now because I and I and some friends of mine in the media I keep telling them that you know we have started glorifying the wrong things in the media in India you know uh the startup media companies uh some of them are friends so I don't want to name those companies uh but you know they glorify funding and exits you know like they talk

about baves and you know Agarval of oo and you know all of this but you need to realize for every Aarwal there are thousand other startups who have not made it there right so I mean of course you know you have to glorify so that there are more people coming in the ecosystem but you also need to be candid and tell them about the hustle the grind in the startup ecosystem right like I mean it's not all hunky dory or 365 days there is that one day in a year where you're going to raise that

funds 364 days which today I see a lot of entrepreneurs are not prepared for which is is is really sad and uh and on the other hand you know like things like agriculture in India are not being glorified. You know there our mainstream media talks about farmer suicides and all. I mean I I have some farmer friends who will probably buy not this studio but like four bungalows and they'll still be left with like you know like like a,000 crores in their account. I mean farmers are doing so well and just Because you are you

know you're like talking about farmer suicides farmer debt and all of that which is I mean of course problem industry I mean you know so that is in every sector it's not only in the agriculture sector and India is such a a agrarian economy and you're not glorifying that and you're glorifying this and that's the reason why in India uh you know like 51% people are in agriculture and it's contributing to only 17% of your GDP that's that's sad you know which is which is sad I mean imagine like the the skeess and yeah I

think so yeah so that is so coming back to the fact that yes we are not a product economy yes you are right that you know we still in that service space and the tech startups are the ones who have been leading because of their the kind of attention but when it comes to okay I'm a food entrepreneur and what are the two things I should do if I want to go down that road of you know raising funds you know what are those two things I should really keep in mind of course business model

is there in place so what are those two three things I should keep in mind so see first of all when you're starting let's say if you're talking about food business let's talk about food business only so first of all uh when you start a food business you need to have clarity whether you want to build a lifestyle business or you want to build a business at scale Uh and there is nothing wrong in doing either of them by the way. I know some guys who are doing lifestyle business and they're doing a phenomenal job

like let's say some great wedding Caterer in parla he probably must be doing business of 20 perom just in that 6 months right the day that business was gone. So that's a lifestyle business but he does a business of 20 perom which is super phenomenal. Then there are scalable businesses like let's say how a rebel foods is made or how a wow momo is made where they made one kitchen. They created a ecosystem around it of systems, processes, infrastructure and then they scaled that systems, processes and infrastructure to 400, 500, 600 kitchens and and it

made sense because with scale they attained economies of scale. So you know uh so basically let's say they were spending 10 lakhs on one gig they didn't end up spending 60 crores they ended up spending 20 cr. So with economies of scale their expenses went down. So that's when it makes sense to scale up a business and such businesses are funded by by investors. So if you're in a business that can scale up and scale up exponentially an investor will be interested in funding you dra I think you need to be very clear that you

know when you raise funds uh stop celebrating a fund raise that's Your f like that's your means to an end and that's not the end. So you know the first step so you I mean I I keep telling everyone congratulate all the best because or responsibilities. That's true. So the day uh all of us startups realize that you know it's it's a means to an end and not an end we will take fundraising more seriously and we will be more disciplined post a fund raise and I feel that raising funds is amazing because when an

investor comes and sits on your cap table you become more respon because you know as as a as a business owner technically you're not reporting to anyone right but when you raise funds you start reporting to an investor in a way I mean not that they are very you know they don't come into your daily operations and all of that unless you're doing really bad um so that responsibility and that discipline comes in your business which is very good that's true and specifically talking about the Indian food sector which has been highly unorganized like you

explained today you know there are there are reasons for it being unorganized as well because you know food is very personal you know you know there will be someone in the community who would take up that role of you know leading the wedding business or you know doing that thing for the community but yes now with the scales economies and so many global brands coming on in India as well it's a Huge place that you know people have to become more and more responsible about raising their funds in the right fashion not just showing the

numbers and glorifying the figures but like you said the hustle becomes begins after you raise the fund so what are those two three things you have learned after raising funds you know that what I mean apart from the discipline you know how do you keep your investors happy if you know in simple words we have to understand that so see um um I mean I'm not not a first- time entrepreneur uh I I bootstrapped my first business so you know I had that discipline from that business uh so and uh once you raise funds uh

first thing I kept in mind was that I don't I'm not I'm not doing business to keep my investor happy. I'm doing business to make money. True. I'm doing business to you know you know like ensure that you know like let's say there are 50 60 people working in my company so their families get money on time they grow sure the you know like the the mission that we have of you know postmeal impulse purchase of deserts that is reaching a distribution network. So if those things are clear and we work towards that your investors

will anyways be happy right I mean uh our first investors you know like the first round we raised in Feb 24 we were at an x revenue today we are at a 9x revenue so we've in the last 2 years we've grown 9x That I assume has kept our uh has made our investors happy at least if not a if not a laugh at least it's got a smile on their face I assume so that is uh I the key right like so I mean that's the mistake that a lot of us startups make investor

because you in all likelihood will get 10 15 investors on board and everybody will have an opinion and of course they they mean good to you because they've also invested their money they have skin in the game but you know your business best so keep your ears on the ground you know keep your blinders on be very focused and keep growing and do Do not keep pivoting or do not keep changing your ideas or do not u you know like do not spread very wide like you know be focused on on like that particular idea

and keep growing there that is the key to grow after raising funds. very interesting and the fact that you have built a very unique uh B2B business today which is you know in the mid high space you know I really want to know you've explained in this in the past how the idea came through because obviously there's a gap but how did the process and the learning be you know today there are some amazing partners on board that you have you know but was the day one uh a were you able to see these partners

when you started started at day one you know in this in the scandalous food. So uh what I interestingly saw younger was that obviously you know so after Urban Spice I had actually run a cloud kitchen brand uh with a celebrity chef. Oh nice and even for that I had backended my food and uh and within a year we' grown to 11 kitchens across Mumbai. Nice. very encouraging 4 4.1 ratings but at the end end of the year I shut that business down because I I was getting this feeling that I'm working for Zumato and

Swiggy without a salary right because uh I I'm sure other people do a great job there but at least for me uh you know the commission structure CPCs discounts that didn't add up I was not sure how I'll make money even when I'm at 100 outlets and hence I decided to mind up that business and maybe because I've always come from from a B2B, B2B, B2C background. So maybe that B2C was not for me. Mhm. And um and because I had backend like you know I had learned food back ending in urban spice because I

backended my dish Chinese line in 2016. We scaled urban spice because I backended uh my you know like the the the products for the the cloud kitchen brands. We scaled up cloud kitchen brands to 11 kitchens. So I realized that this is the need for the food service industry and postco restaurant industry had started accepting frozen as the new fresh. So I realized that uh you know now the growth that will come in the food service industry will be from organized players. The wow moments and the rebels will lead this growth and not probably you

know like the shift sagers of the world and for them to grow they will ape the organized players of the west. So you know McDonald's and Burger Kings of the world grew on back of frozen supply chains from commisseries and this was going to replicate in India. Now I realized that instead of so then I realized that the the plate of the industry is divided into the center of the plate and the side of the plate. So let's say if we take biryani as an example, biryani is the center of the plate and categories like

tikkas, kebabs, sweets, desserts, beverages are side of the plate categories. Now I realize that side of the plate categories if done well and integrated well into the menus they contribute to about 20% of the top line and 70% of the bottom line. It's more profitable to sell the fries than the burger. It's more profitable to sell the the iced tea than the pizza. Right? So that's the concept. So I realized that makes sense to concentrate on side of the plate. Now in that I started seeing where the gap is because I wanted to be a

category specialist and I don't I didn't want to be a journalist doing 200 products. Sure. So I saw that there are 41 lakh restaurants in India. 99% of them don't make their own fries. But 25 lakh restaurants are selling fries. Wow. Yeah. Sorry. 20 Yeah. 20 17 lakh restaurants are selling fries. 99% Restaurants are not making their own ice creams but 25 lakh restaurants are selling ice creams. Interestingly 90% of restaurants are not making their own mitis but less than 1% restaurants are selling milk-based mitis. M and I realized that they're selling ice creams because

ice creams are available with a 12- month shelf life and they're available in convenient packaging of cups, cones, tubs, bars and hence it's easy for restaurants to buy them and store them and hence it's available on the restaurant menus. So we realized that while and you know interestingly when you talk about preferences India it's 17 mi for every ice cream eaten but most of the really yeah most of the huge most of the mai sold in India planned purchases celebrations occasions and like I call them pin code heroes sell them the maias and I realized

that postmeal impulse purchase it was a complete white space that's when scandal foods was born in May 23 with the idea of M getting Indian milk based mid eyes with a 12 6 month shelf life in convenient 95 g single serve packs for the restaurant industry and of course you know when I started I realized that our obvious targets will be you know like these online ordering first restaurants because for them this is a perfect solution it's zero kex zero opex zero wasted zero pilfridge it obviously you know they can easily add it into their

restaurant menu it you know gives them 300% gross margins you know so if they buy it from us as X they sell it to you at 3X so it's it's phenomenal margins for them So it was a win-winwin for all of us so and you've solved a huge problem in the industry because I think Indian matis have such a huge you know like gap still you know because not like you right said we only go for them because they are not available so easily and it's like you you literally have to go to a mitai

shop or you know and that effort nowadays with fast commerce nobody wants So interesting. Yeah, absolutely. And interestingly, while people think that, you know, we are a midi company, we actually are eventually going to be a distribution company, right? I mean, there are 41 lakh restaurants in India. I think 35 lakh restaurants can sell midis. So, the idea is that over the next 6 years, can we be available at about one lakh restaurants? Yeah. And that would actually make us a distribution company and not a product company. So, that's what we're working towards. Very good

vision and all the best for the vision. Thank you. So Shange you also are an honorary member with the Thai food network here in Mumbai. You've been running it pan India and you know like you meet a lot of food entrepreneurs you know how did that journey happen and how did uh that network come into place you know I would be very interested in knowing about that. So um I have actually been associated with Thai since 2012. Oh wow. So at that time I was a young entrepreneur. I I was all of 24 years old

and I'd uh you know founded Urban Spice and I used to initially go to Thai as a volunteer and you know I used to help them with events and then you know I kept growing in Thai and there was the there were there were a lot of places where Thai helped me meet people get access to people and you know all of that uh and then um when I sold Urban Spice in 2019 in 2020 Jan I co-ounded Thai food network as a special interest group with Thai Mumbai. Uh because I realized that a lot

of young entrepreneurs uh do not know what to do when they start. They do not have access to uh you know slightly more experienced entrepreneurs. So can we build a group which could help these people and plus also for fellow entrepreneurs who've done some work in the space a platform where they can meet each other probably do business with each other sure uh exchange ideas with each other get access to investors get access to mentors all of that so that was the whole idea of co-creating typhoon food network and uh because you know we've been

through the 2011 is how I I keep saying right. So I wanted to solve that problem for uh today's uh generation of entrepreneurs. So that was the whole idea of doing this and um I must say that you know our ecosystem is so wellnit and you know the Whole I mean of course within 3 months co came so it by default went digital and the whole industry supported like you know right from Saga of Wumo to Jib of Rebel to Jaspal of Burger King to chef Harpal to chef Sanjiv Kapoor to Perisa of Zorabian all

of them rather of cha IO Amulik of Chai Point they all came together they all came on different events of our uh of Thai food network and that actually helped Typhoon Network grow we've directly indirectly touched up touched upon 3 4,000 food entrepreneurs uh I've also done an event for Thai Sydney I've done an event for Thai Singapore in India of course you know we've done events with Thai Delhi and I know some other chapters as well. Is it like you know staying with these entrepreneurs the pulse of the market you are able to gauge

as well where what are the problems they are facing and what could be the pulse of the market I think it's a cruery to that I think because you know I've learned one thing very early if that you have to keep your ears on the ground you always have to you know keep the get the pulse of the market so maybe because to an extent we know the pulse of the market or we understand some bit of it uh A lot of young entrepreneurs want to also meet you, stay with you and vice versa. And

because then there are people who are senior to me or who've done way better. I want to stay with them because they know the pulse of the market. You can't grow without knowing the pulse of the market. I mean um just by blabbering stuff you can only go there then you know you would have not created a foundation. So you will somewhere fall. That's true. That's true. Great. Great. Great. you have created a good community of people you know who can you know bounce off ideas and I think Tai network is a great place for

a lot of young entrepreneurs to you know come and connect with you and you know founders who have already been doing it for a while you know and it's and you know interesting like so it's it's it's a win-win for everyone because you know I mean seasoned entrepreneurs uh get to meet young entrepreneurs so that gives them an opportunity to mentor someone and probably invest in them fellow entrepreneurs like let's If I have spent 10 years and I there are three other people who spend in the 8 to 12 year range we probably meet each

other get to do business with each other or like bounce of 5 years like I was amazed you know I mean I was uh like to give you this example um I mean I think 3 4 months ago I waso like you know doing a offline food founders meetup in Bombay and coincidentally the owner of uh biki was coming to Bombay and I And you know fortunately I know him and you know uh we happened to chat and he told me that I'm going to be in Bombay you know why don't you know we catch

up for some work. So I said like you know I'm I'm doing this food founders network. Would you want to come there as a guest of honor? So he asked me you know like what it is. So I said I told him and I said like you know he's the owner of Bikaji. It's a 36,000 cr company right? I said you know he'll probably come for half an hour. I said and you know it's a closed dooror event. there are not going to be more than 40 people but because he was coming we had to

I mean there was so many requests we had to then increase it from 40 to 65 people and cap it at 65 people because that space was for 40 people. Wow. It was amazing. I thought he will you know like Mr. Deepakal I thought he will come for like at 5:30 he'll leave at 6:00. M he came at 5:15 before the event so that you know he could like you know like you know understand how the flow will be. He stayed there till 8:30. Wow. He met every startup there. You know the startups would got

samples. He tried their uh staff. I don't know I mean like maybe you know in the future some he might invest in someone you know someone might get his mentorship whatever it is. But this is how the platform works for people. That's great. Yeah, that's and it's a good space because end of the day we all want to bounce our ideas. We all want people to vet a bit of it because there's money is involved. Hardship of burning your hands. You don't want to keep burning your hands like you please. Thank you. Thank you for

starting that kind of a network here. So Sange very very interesting food for thought. I mean there's so much to go back and think about when it comes to you know food and hospitality sector. It's growing like crazy because of the disposable income, the FOMO in the Zenzes today and more experiential driven uh you know things that are coming up in the market you know. So I as a content creator always have been toying with the idea if Madira Vog had to start a service or a product what would that be in a food space?

What do you think with your experience you know a brand like Madira today which is just talking about Alcov nightlife can do as a product to offer to its audience. So before I uh answer your question, uh this is a collab that I had not expected. Madira X Candace and it's looking so tempting for like for a change. I'm I mean I I try these sweets every day but now I'm like super tempted to have them. But of course I will control and so will this ba behind the camera control. But yeah coming back to

your question. So I I jokingly keep telling you Priyanka that you know you should start another series called Madira Goes Rogue which I which I think is like a lovely series but of course we'll talk about that uh later but on a serious note so I think what you've done is you've created a crazy digital distribution right uh and I think I think it's time to monetize it with You know like in very different ways I mean everyone is a content creator today in terms of uh I mean of course there are not many like

you who've crossed cross that 50k 80k mark on Instagram which is phenomenal. Congratulations for that. Thank you. But uh I think uh because you meet so many alcohol uh I think uh you know you should also start offering other services to these bars which is not only promoting them because promote. But if you give them, you know, like market research insights, you give them, you know, culinary uh insights, that's going to, you know, give give you an edge over the others. Sure. And that's where, you know, so I mean, I remember there's this amazing company

called Tact, you know, um, in fact, a mentor of mine runs that company. uh we done a they were doing an ethnography uh uh you know research report for monkey bar and bandra and I had also participated in that with them you know uh and I thought it was very interesting. So uh what they wanted to come out with was that uh uh I mean at the end of the research like the the menu that Monkey Bar has is is is offering the drinks that Monkey Bar is offering versus the crowd that it is attracting

is it is it matching or does it need tweaks? Wow. and uh you know so it spoke about market research it spoke about consumer research it spoke about the geographical area that you were in the kind of people you know like the kind of people uh the probable spending power that the people have there you know the kind of people see because back in the day I remember when I used to you know party a lot in 2006 11 14 days uh I remember I had to travel to Juu Andra Kulaba from Pawai today every

at least I'm talking about Bombay as a city uh every pin code in Bombay has become self-sufficient in terms of offering party places or places to go out right like uh I mean I don't know about Dubli and Vir and all of that I'm sure even they must be having but like for that matter even Tane right like even Tanya has enough places has enough places uh Bandra has enough places Ju has enough places I'm sure Borivi has enough places so people from Boravei are not going to travel to Monkey Bar and Bandra to visit

it. You are going to attract people from that 3 4 km radius. Plus you have competition from so many other places. So I think if you can start offering those kind of services to people or you collaborate with such companies because you have the distribution, they have the intel. Uh I think those kind of combinations could work very well for Madiraog. uh and you know it could create like a madira plus. Thank you. That's a very interesting thought. I had never thought about it because every time uh you know you are as a content creator

being told oh Launch a product oh la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la launch a product but yeah that's a very interesting thought you know and I would definitely like to know more about it you know and do more research. Thank you for sharing that with me. No problem. And you know coming back to the uh space that you know today all spaces are becoming

self-sufficient and you know trying to do their bit to attract the customer where they are. Definitely there is scope to keep reinventing but in the in the space that we are you know right now talking about the alcob you know we see so many bars shutting down sit I mean it's it's not even funny. They come, they go, they come, they go. Very few cards like monkey is one of those that you know has been surviving for so many years or bonobos of the world. But because they have developed a very c following for themselves

but for somebody starting today, why would you know I mean breaking down into two parts. First is why do bars shut down? You know why do you think they shut down? So before I answer this question, I have a question for you. I think I because of the work that you do. I'm pretty sure every Friday, Saturday, you're visiting one bar or the other because your work takes you there and obviously you will end up eating and Drinking there. So in the last 10 outings of yours, what is it that you have ended up eating

at these bars? to be very honest very less because you know food is never uh but yeah mostly it's the finger foods like the starters like chicken or you know something which is uh maybe sushi you know something which goes well with your drinks and obviously because you don't want to drink empty stomach something like that makes sense and and what do you usually drink like you know I mean let's say if like out of the 10 outings what is it that you usually end up drinking on let's say eight of those 10 outings most

of I'm now I've skewed towards whiskey. So I have become a very big whiskey drinker. So mostly I've been trying cocktails like old-fashioned to whiskey s you know things which are around whiskey. Fair. Awesome. So I got my I just was trying to be sure like what I'm going to say is is in the right direction. So you know uh I remember once I was interviewing Sanjiv Kapoor at uh during my that you know one of those webinars at Typhoon Network and he told me something that has stuck with me. He said that Indians talk

newness and we consume familiarity and I think a lot of these cult bars I mean of course they by virtue of being there for the last 20 years they've de they've created that loyal following but it is also because Uh they have only been 20% experimental and 80% they've stuck to the basics of giving familiar products. True. Uh today also if you go to a monkey bar you will get some you know like like in that menu of 20 items you'll get like four items which are very atangi but 16 items which are you know

which are there which are regularly eaten by us you know it there will be a I mean there might be a different name to it but there will be a chicken chili there there will be some drums of chicken there. There will be that typical Sriracha prawns there. There will be veg typical finger foods. There will be that typical you know masala peanut whatever there and um of course sushi has at least in that circuit has entered mainstream now there will be those typical two three sushi's there two three dimums there but you know I

mean there will be product there will be products which are known to us and familiar to us that's true and that's why we are comfortable eating that and even in like see you like you know I mean you have access to the best alcohol that Bombay provides and I think Bombay provides the best alcohol in India for sure but you still stick to your old fashion you still stick to your whiskey sour and that's something that probably even my father had probably my I don't know about my grandfather but my father for sure had it

we had it I mean genzies are having it so that familiarity familiarity stays so uh I think uh these Days a lot of these new bars are spending crores of rupees to make Instagrammable places to studios. I mean the bars I mean of course sure you need to provide the ambiencece. I mean you're not going to always go into a hole into the wall place but apart from the ambience you're coming there for the drink, you're coming there for the food and then you need to be very clear on who you're targeting. If you're targeting

Jenz's then you know make sure that you're not very heavy on the pockets. M if you're targeting millennials then provide the ambiencece that the millennials will like. If you're expensive then you're in all likely you're targeting millennials because we still have more spending power than them. We still apparently drink more than them. We still are a more intelligent generation. I just wanted to put this in in this answer. We are more intelligent than the genzies. Uh so then the ambience needs to be right like I mean on a Wednesday evening I don't want to go

to a place which is you know like which has glaring music and which doesn't allow me to have a conversation with you. I mean on a Wednesday I need to go to a place where there is music in the background and I can have a conversation with you on a Friday then I'm very clear that I'm going there to party so I'm okay. Yeah. So or there needs to like you know I mean I remember back in the day there used to be I mean root lounge is obviously still there but there was this root

lounge was you know like one of the first root lounges opposite paw lake it was brilliantly banned you know you they they had this this calendar so Monday Tuesday you knew it was like you know quiet TV screenings cricket screenings Wednesday used to be Bollywood night so you knew that if you're going on Wednesday it's going to be Bollywood night Thursday will again be like a quiet scene Friday will again be some you know night and Saturday will be some night and Sunday is going to be again you know whatever so you were very clear

night and food drinks familiarity and that's why that place is still there yeah got it and in fact it has scaled and that's why I think a lot of these places we should not name them because you work with a lot of them but every 2 years you see certain locations these it locations where you will always see a new bar opening there every 2 That's true and you know adding to the fact that you rightly said the familiarity sells but and that is how you need to attract the customers but sadly because it's again

becoming all about Instagram people are going there and clicking more pictures of the food than eating it. I have seen it happen so much and one of the reasons I went towards blogging about alcohol was because I saw a gap. Nobody used to talk that time you know when I started 5 years back nobody used to share their drinks on you know camera everybody used to share their food pictures so I also saw that gap and I did it but today lot of people and there are reports and globally zenzes are drinking less you know

and it's worrisome because billions of dollars of worth of alcohol is not being consumed you know while uh you can drink response why do you think zenz are Drinking less and how does it affect the hospitality So I think that gen that you know that generation I mean of course it's a good thing if you know like they're doing it for the right reasons but I think u I mean uh if I have to be very candid about it I think uh I jokingly tell people you know like they're like consuming less alcohol which is

honestly a fact. I mean I mean there will be no research about it but you know I think the consumption of you know like probably the the the the weeds of the world has gone up in that generation uh and that's why they probably are consuming less alcohol. Secondly, you know, when they are going out, they like you said like they are living for Instagram. So they want to portray a certain thing. They want to portray that they're matcha drinking people. They are like these, you know, like healthy juice drinking people. So they want to

be seen that ways. Plus, you know, I I jokingly tell uh some of my friends running these bars that, you know, come out with a new rule like, you know, come out with a locker system. when you enter the bar, you know, you if you put the lock if you put your mobile in the locker, we'll give you a 10% discount. Automatically, your sale of food and drinks will go up. I have seen people go out and it is so weird at all levels. I've seen I mean so many times I've seen like these two

Gen Z couples because like you rightly said, they want to click that and put it on Instagram. And they want to click that nice cocktail and put it on Instagram, but no, they're not talking to each other. They're on Instagram all the time. And I'm like, dude, so I think if you know people start offering 10% discount to people who are willing to keep their phone in the locker, I think the sale of food and alcohol will actually start going up because if they want to put it on Instagram, they're done. I mean then they

don't need to eat more and drink more. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I think with too much of exposure I think it's overexposure and there are lot of and what I've seen and what I've seen with that generation is that what they eat out and what they show that they're eating on Instagram is very different from what they're eating 6 days a week. That's true. I work with a few Jenzies. have seen you know every time they go out they will talk about the sushi but on a daily basis they will eat that dal bhaji

chaval chicken chapati and all of that and regular homemade stuff so if 12 out of 14 meals you're eating that then you're not a sushi person you're not a ramen person you're eating that once in a week or once in 15 days because that's what your credit card is allowing after all your spend that You've done to show off on Instagram to eat that and because that will make you look cool like I keep saying that yeah you know that's what I mean I I think that question is very rightly now that you brought this

Then why don't we have a global brand of Indian mitis abroad you know or why are we not exporting or exporting at scale we are exporting but why is there a a gap you know still there where you know we glorify waffles and you know donuts but why there is no glorification of a gulab jamun in US or in UK. So it's not only about gulab jamun and rasalai I think it's about we not glorifying any food. you know, I mean there is, you know, we we've grown up eating ch so we are very excited

about it. But US consumes more cauliflower in the name of vegan pizzas than than we consuming here, right? Because they've glorified that. I mean you go to some nice uh you know European places in in Bombay also they will sell you a nice aubber gene and you'll be like oh let's eat this right so I mean I mean so I mean it's it's funny at all levels So we wait for Europeans or Americans to tell us that this is really cool but we don't want to glamorize it on our own. I mean you know why

can't we name it well Like I remember I was um I was traveling to uh Rajasthan for some work. I was in fact in Bikaner and I had gone downh to the hotel for a breakfast and when you're in biker why would you not eat kachori jalabbe rabi and all of that right like and it was a fab buffet spread and there was this huge table you know with like a huge family must have come for wedding or whatever waffles pancake mommy proudly know my son only eats pancakes and waffles but it is so stupid.

You've gone to bloody biker and you're eating pancake and waffles. You're supposed to go and enjoy the I mean the jelly be was outstanding. The rai was outstanding and I being a midi company and I'm saying it was so it was so bloody good there. and that guy was even pancake. So that's the problem with India. Yeah, we're not glorifying our own. I think that's so true that except for butter chicken, we have never had any other item and while our chefs you see butter chicken or chicken because the the English people started loving it

because we've not worked hard to popularize Is it it's just that fortunately these Britishers uh started loving our butter chicken and Chicken tikka masala and that's why it's become popular there and then that's why now everybody talks about it and it's such an irony you know because our wars in the past were fought for spices why our economies were running on spices you know so how this gap has come you know why we are not glamorizing our own food is a very very big question I think we should let the audience also answer this in

the absolutely and I mean even if you're talking about desserts right I mean you know like Italy took the the cakes to the world you know like baklavas are now sold across the world. Yeah. But and you know I think in fact rasalai was now named in the top 10 desserts as a Indian cheesecake. Oh, we could have promoted it that way. And you know like they sell chocolates as aphrodesiacs and you know high energy products. It's all sugar and you know whatever and there's nothing else in it. In fact you know honestly like ras

malai is high in protein. I don't promote it that way because for there'll be these smart banks coming on Instagram and you know like they'll bash bash us saying protein and I don't want to get into this. We are shamelessly indulgent and that's how I want to sell it. Otherwise you know I mean technically some of our like rasala is very high in protein because it's condensed milk chenna which comes out of milk moonong dal you know it's it's a pulse which has high protein It's made in ghee it's so good so you know why

don't we promote our mai in in that fashion we've not made them on the go hopefully scandalous foods in the years to come will work on that and I hope scandalous food makes the Indian mai go global and on the global map absolutely India plant is never going to work because India 32% people are vegetarian 68% people are nonvearian the non-vegetarian people in India also 12 out of 14 meals on an average veg we used to eating veg foods we don't need those plant-based meats and all of that India most of the products are plant-based

anyways goal plantast planted lab that's true that's true very interesting a lot of food for thought I think as we grow more smarter about the wellness trend we should also go get more smarter about what food we are putting in our guts and not just go behind Instagrammable content absolutely yeah thank you sank this has been a lot of pleasure but none of my guests go uh out without answering a rapid fire. So, we're going to have a rapid fire round with you as well. And because these drinks are so tempting, I am going to

tell that in case you don't want to answer a rapid fire, you will have to take a bite of I know. I'm I think I'm so tempted. I'm going to have a bite of this so that I can answer rapid fire better. Be my guest, man. Please, let's let's, you know, have a small bite of it and, you know, start our rapid fire round. Let's try this. God, these look so young. You just glorified the ras malai. I've tox intoxicated the ras malai today. This is crazy. Mhm. M. Wow. The bittersweet is too addictive. Yeah.

Yeah. Let me Yeah. Yeah. But like you know I am really tempted to suggest a bar a bar takeover with Indian mitis. You know what do you think about it? No I'm I'm actually thinking I'm going to like set up like a small I mean I have a small bar at my house. I'm going to actually do these experiments and then like I'm going to give it to you to put it in your distribution network. I would love to love to and let's let's maybe someday make some cocktails out of these. Yeah. So great. Uh

coming to the rapid fire which is the tradition here. So you can pass if you want or have a drink while you answer them. Sure. U starting with the first question. What is that one food trend in India you see overhyped? you don't so um which I just mentioned uh uh in the last answer I think these uh plant-based meat I think this just overhype that's not going to work in India what is the biggest mistake that the first time food founders do most of the time it's not a rapid fire it's like a full

okay top two mistakes or three mistakes the Indian food founders to first- timers. So I think um uh what I've seen with most food founders is that you know they either they spend a lot of time on building a great logo you know spend a lot of time on thinking of the brand uh color of the website marketing collaterals all of that but they do not concentrate on the product and the distribution I think that's the problem. So product, distribution and marketing go hand in hand. You can't just concentrate on one of the three and

not concentrate on the other two. That's true. That's so true. Uh you are a new age tech entrepreneur in its own way because you're scaling things at a Very different way for scandalous food today. How do you use AI and if you could name few apps that make your life easy in the AI space? So I would really like to tell people that you know if you think AI is a hype, it is not. AI is real. Uh it changes every day. Please learn and you know AI is making your life easy as I use

Gemini uh for all the research that I need to do. Now I've started using Gemini to even understand how my to analyze my sales to analyze my spends. I've started recently doing it. It was uh I use GenSpark to make all my presentations quarterly reports all of that. Now I've recently started learning uh Pomy and uh Open Claw. Oh, so open claw apparently could be trained to become my automated EA and Pomy will help us with a lot of marketing stuff. Interesting. So as of now I use two things Gemini pro and genspark pro and

now I am beginning to learn open claw and then hopefully pomly. Nice. So yeah, I I hope to see a digital avatar of Sankit soon in the in the Yeah, that maybe I mean maybe for the Instagram but yeah nice um Gulab Jamun versus Ras Malai Which is your favorite and you think can be scaled globally? I think Ras Malai hands down I think Ras Malai has tremendous scope to be scaled as uh like an Indian cheesecake. Mhm. Uh we've even come out with a baked rasgula which is I mean typically ras malai with thick

rai you know baked in an oven and I think it is phenomenal and you know when you want to sell it at like let's say cafes just add a blueberry comport to it or a raspberry compot to it and you know it does magic. I think rash malai if like I say glamorized well can become like one of the top five desserts in the world. Wow that's great. Uh we are in Bombay which is melting the pot for new trends in the food space. But apart from Bombay which city do you think is doing the

food right in India? I think in modern India Bangalore. I think especially in in the field that interest you a lot. I think Bangalore has I think one of the most amazing breweries. What beers they brew. I think in terms of food also that city latches on to every food trend you know like first and I keep telling people that you know just because you started a a a restaurant in Bangalore has worked well there it doesn't mean it'll work well everywhere else that's true so if you've started in Bangalore and you want to scale

open that same outlet in some other city and if it works well there then decide if it can scale to Across cities because Bangalore is very uh you know very experimental is what I would say. That's true. And then I mean and then otherwise I think every city in India has a food story. That's every city does. Every city in India has a food story. So yeah. Yeah. Uh one food trend that you see like we have a common city in place like you've you've born and brought up in Boda. I was born in Boda

because my mother said mother stay there amazing and all ga kam and then that kyi thali and all so I think every city has those that's true uh one food trend that you see zenz make a huge deal about today one food trend that you see zenz making a huge deal about U some of them you know are talking about matcha and then in food edame I don't I'm not sure if matcha would you know see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of scale I don't think so okay yeah because the

original matcha is so difficult to produce I mean sometimes even I have my doubts you know how the skills are coming in you know and you know we've all grown up be uh drinking tea and then of course uh coffee companies have done a great job in penetrating coffee into the ecosystem. Yeah, I'm not sure how much of a matcha drinking country can we be? That's true. That's true. Last but not the least, if today uh a food uh a person who's not from the food background has to start their own food startup, what is

that one piece of advice you give them that that that is the must have before they start? So 300% margins. It it is a opssheavy boring business. Glamour is only on Instagram and on certain days. You have to roll your sleeves, get your hands dirty, know your P&L, know your cash flow, know your product, know your recipe, uh know your distribution, know your back end. That is when you will be able to make there. That is when there is a possibility of making a successful food business. That's true. Uh you want to do this answer

again? I think you got a little distracted. You were looking up and then in the camera it will show you know that up. Sorry. No no problem no problem. Uh we'll take this one. If some uh Sankit last but not least, if someone had to start their own food startup Today, you know, in whatever space it might be, what is that one piece of advice you give them? So anyone who wants to enter the food space and I see a lot of people entering the food space because margins when you want to enter the food

business no be ready to roll up your sleeves and work very hard. Food business is opsey. Food business is boring. Glamour is only on Instagram and on some startup night awards. Otherwise, you need to understand the unit economics. You need to understand your P&L. You need to understand your cash flows. You need to understand your product. You need to understand your supply chain. You need to understand your back end. You need to understand all of this and then bring it all together like a flywheel. That is when there you will be able to possibly build

a good food business. So when you're if you're ready for all of this, that is when you should think of entering the food business. Thank you. That's such a practical advice and I'm sure it will go miles for people who are entering today, you know, to roll up this. But having said that uh I think uh I think in India what it did in ' 80s and '90s to the GDP of India, food service and food processing could do the same in 2020s and 2030s because I think like you rightly pointed out the disposable income

is growing up. Roti Kapraan has is a sol problem. So now people are spending on you know Consumption and I think food service and food processing will only grow seven eight times from here over the next 10 years. So I think it is the most beautiful time to uh enter food service or food processing but provided you enter with the right reasons and with the right thought process. Thank you. Thank you for you know motivating the community of Madira with these genuinely candid answers. I mean I think it's very very interesting to have you know

entrepreneurs come here and talk the real thing the real truth out which is needed today you know because end of the day people are going to be looking up to you guys to take the next leap forward globally put ras malai and other good Indian sweets on the map so we really wish scandalous food and you all the very best for that. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you Priyanka for having me here and thank you for making me try a new vodka today. I love being here and we're going to share the recipe on

our reels. So, you know, people who are looking at these interesting drinks, you know, stay tuned for the real as well. And I would love to see Madira going places, Madira going rogue and Madira starting new uh vertical like ethnography and market research. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's the it's the courage that the industry gives us to keep doing and reinventing ourselves and which is you know very Encouraging. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks again for doing