Aseem Ghavri, Ashneer Grover's business partner and Co-founder of Third Unicorn, revealed that his entrepreneurial journey started in 2009 with just an investment of Rs 8,000.
He took to LinkedIn to share the same. Mr Ghavri said that he always wanted to become a businessman since he wanted to "break the ceiling". "I started my first entrepreneurial stint back in 2009 while I was in my college. Since my early childhood days, I was sure that I want to become a businessman, I think being from a service-class family and seeing cost-cutting all my life made me think that job will not help me to break this ceiling," he said.
Mr Ghavri further said that he did not know where to begin and the money he had was all his savings. "But the million-dollar question was how to start. I had only 8,000 rupees saved from my pocket money and money I got from relatives at various festivals," he added
However, one day, he saw a cart, and that's when he got an idea. "One day looking at the Kwality Walls ice cream cart, an idea came to me to create a hot food cart. So I designed and worked on fabrication, tested a few food products and zeroed down on hotdogs and hence the first cart was ready."
However, he faced severe difficulties with starting a company. In addition to the neighbours, he was also threatened by "municipal cooperation goons" and the cops. "But the journey was not easy! Since it was a cart, I was heckled by the policemen. Intimidated by municipal cooperation goons."
Mr Ghavri added, "Initially, I could not afford employees so I had to make hot dogs and serve them to my customers in their cars. Engineering students serving food in cars was not conventional. I remember my neighbour aunty walking up to me onto my cart asking if everything is fine at home, or do I or my family need any monetary assistance." Mr Gharvi said, "even my parents were embarrassed in front of friends and family". However, this did not stop him.
He said that the dishes were completely sold out on the first two days. "The response was crazy! We were scaling month on month. With whatever money I was making, I opened a few more carts in Chandigarh."
Learning from his journey, the Third Unicorn Co-founder explained that one has to "keep his ego aside as an entrepreneur". "I did not shy away from serving food to the customers. My neighbours and relatives judged me for it but that did not stop me. You always start small. And that's totally fine. What's more important is that you take the plunge to move out of your comfort zone and put your best foot forward," he concluded.
