Bharat Entrepreneurs

” When I thought of starting a company, I felt India needed 100 people like Narayana Murthy and Ambani. If 100 such people support 2 lakh people each, imagine how many Indians get supported. Entrepreneurship is needed to uplift the poor. It is not easy to be an entrepreneur, especially a first generation entrepreneur. There will be lots of challenges in the beginning but you should learn to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Never give up even if there are hurdles. There are many who give up within a week. You need determination and a tough mind to cross the initial hurdles.” E.Sarathbabu

E. SarathBabu is not the typical IIM Ahmedabad student you read about in the newspapers. He did not take the easy path to earn mega bucks in spite of being offered plum jobs from top companies. Instead he chose, like a true entrepreneur, to carve out his own path to success. So he started FOODKING.

His mother worked as an ayah in an Anganvadi to educate him and his siblings. Later he went on to complete his higher education in the prestigious BITS Pilani and IIM Ahmedabad.

In the beginning, he took a loan of Rs 20 lakh and started Foodking in August 2006. Initially the losses were poised at Rs 2000 a day. The cafeteria’s he set up initially did not work according to plan and he soon came to the conviction that only by selling in large volumes that any profit could be made.

In 2006 IIM A alumni meet, he hoped to bag a contract but could not.

In march 2007 he got an offer to start a unit at BITS, Pilani. This contract proved profitable. Spurred with this initial profit and with the money that he borrowed from his IIM A friends, he wanted to move ahead. He got BITS Goa contract which was to be his biggest break. He had to cater to over 1300 students and the sales peaked at 65,000 Rs per day.

Then he got an opportunity to serve at SRM deemed college which boasts of over 17,000 students!

Right now he has a turn around of Rs 3.5 crore per annum. By next year he hope to increase it to Rs 20 crores.

At present he has BITS hyderabad in his hands and it all set to be operational by July 2008. So the future does look rosy to this Foodking.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/aug/31spec.htm

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This is the speech that was delivered by Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel, last year at Nirma University, Ahmedabad. This is like a crash course in entrepreneurship. Must read! I hope this inspires you, as much as it inspired me.

Here goes:

“I would like to receive this invitation of Dr. Patel. As I have grown up as a young entrepreneur, watching his deft entrepreneurial moves in creating an exceptional business entity which has taken major big battles with established business houses in the country, I can tell you in all honesty during my journey as an entrepreneur, his battles, his heroic fights were very clearly inspiring the entire management team in Bharti because he did it. It was difficult and trying circumstances especially since India was not open to reform since 1992. Let me say how extraordinarily lucky you are as students passing out at a time when a brave new world beckons you, invites you to participate in a glorious future of this country.

I personally believe, this country has never seen a time like this before and it should be now shaped by your hands, minds, brains as to how to make India’s future.

Let me say I have seen parts and shades of India yesterday and I am now clearly enjoying what India is today and I have some idea of where India is going to be in the future and let me take a few brief moments in sharing my own experiences oh having built Bharti into one of India’s leading enterprise.

I was born into free India in 1957. An India which was just coming out of its freedom , struggling with poverty and massive social issues. A nation which was just staring to wake itself. 1976 was the time when I graduated out of college and entered into the world of business at a very young age of 18.

I come from a state called Punjab which has very similar aspirations like this very state Gujarat. Very entrepreneurial, very focussed, very hardworking and therefore there was no doubt that I was touched upon the spirit of enterprise in the state. Our early days were difficult, there is no question what the entrepreneur has to go through. Very tiring and difficult times. That is a given. The issue is, how many of us will stand and brave the difficulties and move forward. That to my mind is the difference between those who created something out of the ordinary and those who will go with the tide or with the flow.

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