IDLI HUT - A Start-Up Visit

‘We just couldn't stop ourselves from starting this restaurant’ says Ram, one of the founders of IDLI HUT, when asked about his decision to go for a start-up. IDLI Hut is a startup restaurant founded by Ram and Rajat back in 2010. They started their business with a ‘Tri-Cycle’ selling delicious and hygienic south Indian dishes in a place called ‘Chappan’ in Indore (famous for Food items, especially north Indian CHAT). They slowly grew their business by shifting from ‘Tri-Cycle’ to a proper location ideal for restaurants in Indore city. Now, after three years since their startup, they are located in four places in Indore, one in Pune and one in Mumbai. They are also constantly expanding their business by adding more franchise in and around Indore. The startup has reached revenue of Ten Million INR within three years which is a great progress for a startup.

The main motto of the startup is to provide Hygienic and Delicious south Indian food to satisfy the customers craving for mouth-watering South Indian Cuisine. They offer a plethora of dishes, which includes 25 varieties of soft Idlis, 19 varieties of crispy Dosas, many varieties of Uttapams and also other items like Pav-Bhaji, many varieties of Cold-Coffee, soft drinks and Ice-creams. The have a properly framed training material to train the chefs in all their branches and provide their own raw materials like masalas and other ingredients for the menu, ensuring the same quality and taste in all their branches. They also have regular training for their chefs to maintain the quality of their service.

Q: What is the main motive or driving force about the startup? Why did you choose this startup?

A: We both had plans during college for doing something different other than the monotonous job which the companies provide. Many people including me have wondered why only Mumbai has restaurants providing delicious south Indian food and not Indore. We wanted to bring authentic South Indian Cuisine here in Indore. So we came up with the idea for this startup. When we planned for this startup, we were already working. Ram was a professor and I (Rajat) was working in HDFC. But both of us weren’t happy with the job and we had to startup something different which they dreamed for. But we had lot of problems, problem for initial capital and many more. So we planned to do both job and the startup together. So me and Ram hired a ‘Tri-cycle’ and two chefs and one more worker and started making and selling Idlis in the ‘Tri-cycle’ after the working hours, from 6PM to 10 PM. This way we had job security and also lived our dream. When the business started to heat up, it was more demanding and we had to choose between either of the two. So I and Ram took the toughest and riskiest step in our life. We chose to leave the job and follow our dream. Initially we didn’t have much support from our parents. But we had to do it. We had interest in no other work other than this startup. So we continued with the ‘Tri-Cycle’. After few months we collected some capital to start a proper restaurant in Indore city area. Initially the business was slow, as people weren’t aware. We never lost hope in our business; we started including new recipes every month. Slowly our customer base grew, and we started taking orders for parties and other college events. Now we are successfully running four centers in Indore. Proper planning of training modules ensured the quality in all the centers.

Q: What are your present expansion plans?

A: We are planning to expand our business also to towns around Indore. We are not particularly interested in opening our business in big cities as the capital required is more and also there is heavy competition. We are presently concentrating on small towns around Indore, but will surely come to other cities once we earn a good brand name and when the business is stabilized.

Q: What will be your advice to students who are interested in startup?

A: I would say ‘Just go for it’. There is never a better time, than doing it right now. We will never know how the situation will be in future. Just follow your dreams now, or you will be following others later. The difference between the two sides is just a small step, but this small step makes huge difference.

A Team of three SESC (Student Entrepreneurship Support Cell) members visited IDLI HUT on Nov 16, 2013 in one of their main branches in Indore. The interview lasted for an hour and was very inspiring to students planning for a startup right after their college. For more details about the interview please hear the Audio recording sent along with this report.

SESC NEC Team

Read More

Differences of start-up ecosystem in India and Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations as well as thousands of small start-ups.  It is the leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, accounting for one-third of all of the venture capital investment in the United States. It was in Silicon Valley that the silicon-based integrated circuit, the microprocessor, the microcomputer, among other key technologies, were developed. The region employs about a quarter of a million information technology workers.

Bangalore has for long been known as India’s answer to Silicon Valley, and this is the city where most large software companies have set up their state-of-the-art facilities. The Government of Karnataka has also been extremely positive about the software and services marketplace, and has helped create the relevant telecom and policy infrastructure conducive to the growth of this sector. The high efficiency and reliability of the IT companies in Bangalore soon earned a name for themselves among giant IT companies in the world and Bangalore has emerged as an important IT hub. 

Start-up ecosystem

Start-ups are the backbone to any growing economy and America’s Silicon Valley has the tailor-made environment to promote and foster them.  The access to capital, presence of angel investors, mentors, availability of talented workforce and more importantly liberal rules and regulations to stimulate entrepreneurship are some of the remarkable asset an entrepreneur will have at his disposal here.

Back home in India, although the 1991 economic reforms had greatly opened up the economy and provided a great degree of manoeuvrability  and flexibility to the Indian entrepreneur, the environment was no way near to that of America’s. The bureaucratic system and red tape in India meant that one had to run from pillar to post to complete the necessary formalities and cumbersome documentation.  However, the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem has come a long way since then. Enhanced awareness regarding entrepreneurship and its lucrative advantages is the key reason. Moreover, the innovation ecosystem in India has improved immensely with the greater availability of resources at optimal costs, government concessions, ease of starting, scaling and even winding up; and most importantly, the rapidly improving image of the ‘made in India’ tag.

SEZs  

With a view to overcome the shortcomings experienced on account of the multiplicity of controls and clearances; absence of world-class infrastructure, and with a view to attract larger foreign investments in India, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were allowed to be set up. SEZs are  hubs  for economic growth supported by quality infrastructure complemented by an attractive fiscal package, both at the Centre and the State level, with the minimum possible regulations.  Besides, until recently many American IT companies were given tax breaks for outsourcing which further encouraged them to invest in developing nations like India.

Conservative and risk averse Indians

American start-ups and companies are more energetic, imaginative and agile than those in India, could be attributed to their risk taking attitude. Indians are more conservative and risk averse, Indian entrepreneurs are cost-conscious and sometimes this makes them compromise on the quality of input and, consequentially, this reflects on the output quality too. The risk averseness is also due to the fact that the Indian banks and financial intuitions are unwilling to lend to an earlier failed business, however in US for an entrepreneur’s start-up to fail and return with a successful ideas is considered as an asset and looked positively.

Capital availability

Big ideas usually require a lot of investment however the amount available for investment in India is still relatively small. Furthermore, there is much more information available in the US on markets, clients, and other related information. The legal system for making venture investments is much more streamlined in the US, especially for US investors. Further, potential return valuations remain stubbornly high in India . All of which makes the US a much more favourable place for investing.

The other challenge that innovators in India face is the lack of private funding. This becomes pronounced when it comes to tech start-ups. Since the Indian IT sector is dominated by service-oriented companies like Wipro and Infosys, it becomes difficult for product-oriented start-ups to either get funded or acquired. Thus raising funding for technology start-up remains a big challenge for Indian start-ups.

Broad-mindedness of American entrepreneurs

The companies and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are more open than their counterparts in Bangalore. They are of the opinion that to recruit best talent and to attract top investors it is necessary for their company to be open rather than closed. This is how they create a buzz about their products and services. Indian companies are on the other hand closed in the sense that there is not much information about their latest projects as they are not available on their website and not being talked about in the media.    The ventures in Silicon Valley are much more aggressive with press releases, blogs write ups, invitation to join beta versions and many other activities to inform and engage potential customers.

In times of failure….

Another vital point that must be mentioned is Silicon Valley’s reassurance-provision in times of failure. In the case of many successful start-ups, failure has proved to be the stepping stone for success and this attitude has to be attributed to the relative ease at which one can dust oneself off and start afresh.

However, in India, along with failure comes the very daunting task of rebuilding from scratch. Hence, Indian entrepreneurs are much more conservative.

Role of mentors

Besides, in Silicon Valley, most of the mentors or entrepreneurship experts have a direct relationship with the ecosystem which enables them a better vantage point to impart wisdom to their colleagues and at the same time, directly utilise their intellectual resources in their start-ups. On the contrary, in India, mentors only play an outside ‘guide’ role. Most of them have no direct relationship with any start up and are hence limited to passive roles.

To sum up, one must express great appreciation at the rate at which the entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing in India. One must not get demotivated by comparing ours with Silicon Valley’s …after all, Silicon Valley culture is much mature than ours. The rising enthusiasm to entrepreneurship coupled by our dedicated work force and the fact that we are one of the fastest growing economies in the world means that the start-up ecosystem in India has a promising future and who knows….one day, it might surpass America’s Silicon Valley. 

Read More

T-Shirt and LOGO Designing Competition

Hi everyone,

We here at SESC want to have some cool LOGO and T-Shirt for the Cell.The entries can be hand drawn (Hard Copy) or computer drawn (Soft Copy). We would like the students to submit their entries before this Sunday (27 Oct 2013) 2359 Hrs. The winners will be provided certificates and special privileges for SESC events.

Please submit your entries to :
sesc@iiti.ac.in (for soft copy)

Dharmil Chandarana (for hard copy)
T.C. 40, Silver Springs

For Queries mail:
sesc@iiti.ac.in

The mail should have the subject [SESC LOGO] for Logo and [SESC TSHIRT] for T-Shirts. The students are requested to submit Logos and T-Shirts with different varieties of background.

Regards,
SESC Team,
IIT Indore

Read More