Dare to Dream: An Inspirational Story from Dheeraj Gupta, an MBA turned Vada Pav Salesman
The startup ecosystem in India is booming at a fast pace. PM Narendra Modi’s new Startup India and Standup India program will be an accelerator factor in encouraging people to turn their idea into a reality. And young entrepreneurs can now seek help from India’s start-up consultants on anything from an idea to sales and marketing techniques and various financing options.
Inventing your own startup success story is not an easy test. it is important to have an inspiration that fires your idea. For a budding entrepreneur, running and financing the business without any mentor is a little less possible. But then there are the people who dare to dream and take risks to satisfy the ever challenging little bug inside of them. One of the many successful entrepreneurs in India is Dheeraj Gupta, who saw a dream of making a discreet product famous throughout the world.
In 1998, Dheeraj Gupta, an MBA by profession, outperformed his peers when instead of doing a job; he decided to market Indian sweets all over the world. The idea failed miserably and at the end of two years, he lost Rs 50 lakhs. But two years were not wasted as, during his days of struggling with the candy business, Dheeraj kept a close eye on giant food corporations like McDonalds and Dominos. Even in difficult times, Dheeraj did not try to seek help from his parents and was brave enough to take another big risk of his life.
The staple food of Maharashtra, loved by all Mumbaikars, delicious and cheap, Vada Pav had already become someone’s dream. Competition was high in the market, but not enough to dampen Dheeraj’s spirits.
With a corpus of just Rs 2 Lakhs, Dheeraj rented a place outside the Malad railway station and named his first store. Jumbo King was the first such stall that would sell real Vada Pav 20% larger than normal size. On the first day of his business, he earned an income of Rs 5,000. At the end of the year, Dheeraj made a profit of Rs 40 lakhs. Gupta always outsourced Vada Pav’s burger and put all his attention on hygiene, food packaging and price. Jumbo King is just like any western fast food chain today. The Franchise model practiced by Dheeraj was a great success and was even awarded the Innovative Franchise Model Award. Currently, there are 45 Jumbo King outlets. Dheeraj aims to open 1,000 Jumbo King outlets by the end of 2020.