Kevin Smith, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Development of SolarReserve which is a Los Angeles-based solar thermal company, is a Versatile Entrepreneur.Prior to him, that is before the year 2008,Terry Murphy was the CEO and President of SolarReserve. Mr. Kevin Smith has more than 20 years of experience in power plant development, acquisitions, financing and construction, having developed and built more than forty power facilities worldwide.

• Kevin pursued his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University
• Later he earned an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago.

About SolarReserve:

SolarReserve is a collaboration between United Technologies Corporation (UTC), a Dow 30 conglomerate, and US Renewables Group, a private equity firm focused exclusively on renewable energy. By investing $140,000,000 it stood in third place in terms of Largest Venture Capital Investments in the U.S. in 2008. SolarReserve inc.,develops utility-scale renewable energy solar power plants.

Journey of Kevin Smith:

• Kevin Smith was the General Manager and Vice President of Indeck Energy.
• Mr. Kevin was Chief Operating Officer of London-based Rolls-Royce Power Ventures,  founded and was the President of the Insight Energy,Inc.,
• Later he served as Senior Vice President of Development at Invenergy LLC in 2004 and played a vital role in it’s success and made it largest privately owned renewable energy businesses in the world.

Dheeraj Gupta, an MBA in Finance from Symbiosis, Pune once went to meet his friend in London who owned a franchisee of Burger King (2nd largest hamburger fast food chain after McDonald’s). This triggered the idea of an Indianized version of burger. His first venture was Manali Foods, selling Indian sweets abroad. Unfortunately, it ran out of money shortly after its launch due to low margins and short shelf life of the product. After going through various criticism and pain he started Chaat Factory near Malad Station, Mumbai in 2001. With the support of his wife, also an MBA and 4 other employee, he started selling Vada Pao. Mumbai’s most selling snack caught people’s attention with cheap, health and hygienic version of street food. Chaat factory started showing positive results on day one. He then renamed it to Jumbo King. What started from one outlet has now entered into franchise model and boasts of 40 outlets in Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Pune. Its target customers are mainly railways comuters.

Mantra
Rs. 6 vadao pao! Along with some innovative menu which Mumbaikar’s found tempting. How about “diet” vada pao? It also has supportive products (lassi, soft drinks etc.) to add to its sales and revenue.

Growth
Jumbo King holds 20% of market in Mumbai itself. With 40,000 customers every day, Dheeraj Gupta (Managing Director, Jumbo King Foods Pvt. Ltd.) says that the company earns about Rs 18 Crore as against Rs 6 Lakhs in the first year of its operations.

Future
If projections are to be believed then by 2008-2009 it will have an annual turnover of Rs 60 Crore. A highly ecstatic Dheeraj Gupta believes that there is a possibility of 5000 outlets in 8-9 Years. Moving beyond India, he expects this business to generate billion dollars with a capacity of 12-15,000 outlets all over the world.

Innovation. Hunger. Branding -> Dheeraj McDonald

What else can I say… i’m lovin’ it

Reference

• nenonline: Top start-ups of the week
• TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2006