Going Big: Business Lessons from a Street Food Vendor

You can learn about entrepreneurship from a fair amount of people around you. One of the earliest humans who got me interested in entrepreneurship, was a Street Food Vendor based in Delhi, India.

In the year 2006, I attended a session on Entrepreneurship by Mr. Ishan Gupta, Co-Founder of Appin. He talked about a guy who sold ‘Tikki’ (a fried dish made from Potatoes and sometimes lentils, usually served with Chutney and Green Salad) in North Delhi. He had a small cart, which got popular among people. As customers started coming in, he expanded his business by hiring few people, and then began catering at weddings. His staff would wear a chef cap with the words “BTW” on them, which stood for “Bittu Tikki Wala”, thereby making it a polished brand.

Two years later, I attended a big scale Jain wedding in Punjab, and noticed BTW catering there. They were serving snacks like Pav Bhaji, Matar Kulcha, Papdi Chaat, and of course Aloo Tikki. Looking at the response among people, it was evident that BTW was a super duper hit.

Subsequently, I attended several wedding functions in North India, having snacks served by Bittu Tikki Wala.

If you look at BTW without knowing the origins, what would you think about them?

• Will you think they became a top brand by doing something which even you could have done?
• Will you look at the fact that they make so many varieties of dishes, which so many others also prepare?
• Would you think that it’s easy to prepare such things provided you hire staff to do all the work?
• Will you want to do something similar, because you are unhappy with your current situation and feel you’ll make a lot more money this way?

Since I told you about BTW’s origins, I wish you wouldn’t think of these things. Because you know that he started small. First, he made a product (Tikki) which sold pretty well among his target audience. Then, he worked on expanding his base (hired staff, got into catering). His core competency remained the same (can be relied on for North Indian snacks). He could cook things himself (so when he started he wasn’t entirely dependent on staff for everything). Diversification happened only after he established himself strongly in one area (street food). So, even if his newer ventures didn’t work out, he always had one aspect to fall back on (Tikki).

I meet a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs who on seeing a famous brand, want to ape them. Mainly because they’re financially successful. We don’t always look at what goes behind the scenes, plus the journey and time it took them to reach this stage.

All successful brands don’t always start with a lot of money, what they do start with is a quality product. They know that customer will do repeat business them, only if they’re listening to their feedback. And it takes them several years of hard work with perseverance, to reach the stage you see today.