A serial entrepreneur since his teenage years, founder and CEO Bhupinder Madaan of Theka Coffee had one mantra in life, and that is, – ‘never give up.
Since his early business days, he learned that great business ideas evolve by finding a gap in the market. To achieve success, it’s important to provide services to bridge the gap.
This 100 percent pure, handmade coffee manufacturing firm, serving freshly brewed Arabic coffee in a beer bottle at 100 rupees, appeared on Shark Tank India to raise 50 lakhs against 10 percent equity.
Though the sharks gave a miss in investing in the venture, it was the turning point for Theka Coffee.
Many investors have shown a keen interest after the 27th episode of Shark Tank India featuring founder Bhupinder Madaan of Theka Coffee got aired.
Microsoft had offered to operate a cart from its Bangalore office, while Reliance had approached with a business connection, and Theka is set to launch 10 carts at Reliance retail outlets in Mumbai.
Entrepreneurial Mindset
It all started with the zeal to prove to the world that he can do something. At the age of 14, when he was challenged by his teacher, who called him a failure, he made up his mind to take it up as a challenge. He started selling pamphlets for shopkeepers at Ahmedabad for two hours and earned 200 rupees per day.
He got enrolled as an external student, which helped him to carry on his business while he only appeared for the exams. Wherever he spotted a gap in the market, he always tried to bridge it.
On one of his trips to Delhi, he spotted ‘momos’ sold on the roadside, which was a missing link in Ahmedabad. He started his momo stall in Ahmedabad at 15 years old, and in two years, he had three such stalls.
He was approached by a company to introduce North Indian food in their canteen. That made him launch Happy Hours – selling paranthas for breakfast.
He ran these two businesses simultaneously and earned 3000 to 4000 rupees per day.
Soon, he started freelancing for an IT company and also an app development company. He realized that he can be an excellent salesperson and gained confidence.
His love for premium coffee gave birth to the idea of Theka, – the freshly brewed, affordable premium coffee. The Millennials mostly preferred hanging out in cafes and paying heavily for freshly brewed foreign flavours. He wanted to bridge this gap and offered premium coffee with Indian flavours.
Journey of Theka
Theka Coffee started its journey in September 2017. After the idea struck him, the founder of Theka Coffee had done extensive research on food and beverages.
Hand-crafted 100 percent Arabic coffee was sold in beer bottles at 100 rupees near the roadside. He wanted to shatter the mindset that premium coffee can only be offered in cafés. He sold Theka coffee from his luxurious car at Sindhubhavan Marg in Ahmedabad.
He believed chiefly that quality products at an affordable price is always the key, and he build a customer base with the unique products and names that the customers could relate to.
Theka served three variants of coffee after getting them roasted and brewed. Dark roasted coffee or Palangtod, medium roasted coffee or Next Level, and lightly roasted coffee or Coffee ki Jawani.
Besides this basic variant, Theka also has nine additional flavours: Desi Santra, Minto Rani, Pataka Popcorn, Chocolatey Patola, Nut-Khatt, Berry Pia, Kala Gora, Chota Bomb, and Angrezi Tharra.
Business Model
The unique touchpoint of the brand was selling freshly brewed coffee, which was not a shelved FMCG product. The brand operated in a franchisee model and within two and a half years, opened 14 Theka Cafes in Pune, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jaipur, and Bhuj. Baroda and Anand. These outlets fetched him a turnover of 3 lakh rupees a month.
Rise After a Fall
2020 struck like a bolt out of the blue for many businesses, and so it did for Theka. He was excited to keep up with his initial business growth, but his setup costs and operational expenditures were high, which he ignored.
The final nail in the coffin was the pandemic, which had closed down all the 14 outlets due to high rentals, cash burn, and no turnover.
His belief in his product and his never-say-die spirit kept him going. He didn’t mind going back to his basics from where he started, and post the first wave of the pandemic, he bought a cart and started selling Theka coffee again from the place of its origin.
The business picked up at a snail’s pace, and he sold coffee worth 2000-3000 per day.
Learning from life experience, he decided not to invest much in setting up units and decided to expand his business organically. He decided to appear on the television show Shark Tank India and his pitch was shortlisted. He gained fame, and now Theka records sales of 15000 rupees per outlet every day.
Funding and Future Roadmap
His shot to fame helped the ambitious entrepreneur Bhupinder Madaan raise $2.5 million from a Dubai-based venture capitalist company, – Zenith Multi Trading.
He is receiving corporate offers to operate a cart from the office campus and at the same time, Reliance has come up with a business connection to open 10 stores in retail outlets of Reliance in Mumbai.
Making its pan-India presence felt, Tekha plans to launch its Theka carts in cities like Gurugram, Surat, Pune, Kolkata, and Chattisgarh.
Conclusion
India, the sixth-largest coffee producer in the world, has a lot of potentials to experiment in the café segment. With the concept of co-working and business ideas brewed over a cup of coffee, strong coffee culture has developed in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Mumbai. With the ambitious mindset of the founder, Bhupinder Madaan, Theka Coffee has crafted a niche in the market and is ready to create a disruption.
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