IndiaOn

Entrepreneur of the Month: Saravana Pat Bhava

This month’s Entrepreneur of the Month has a taste for flying fighter planes, deep sea diving and tandoori chicken. Find out how they all contributed to his unique culinary model, bringing Indian cuisine to the common American man in Florida.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up in Chennai during my early childhood, and was fortunate to get selected to join RIMC (Rashtriya Indian Military College) in Dehra Dun for my middle and high school years. RIMC is an extremely elite institute, admitting 24 students a term, one student from each state, after a grueling entrance examination, interview process and medical checks. Once admitted, the Government funds part of your expensive training, and you take care of the rest. The school is not very well known to those outside of the field, but let me put it this way: the Doon school campus next door looks like an impoverished cousin in comparison. For a school with only about 250 students in total, we have a large campus, state of art facilities including an in-campus horse stable, rifle shooting range, olympic size swimming pool , gymnasium and other umpteen extra-curricular activities .The school was conceived at the time of the British Raj in 1922 to impart world class education and training facilities to the Indian royalty, so that they could be inducted into the British army as Officers. I consider myself fortunate to have spent my formative years in such an esteemed institution.

After finishing school, I then went on to the National Defense Academy in Pune, where I indulged in my fascination with the Navy by training for four years and being commissioned as an officer in 1994.

While In the Navy my priorities were not to climb the ranks but were rather to try and leverage all the opportunities available and enrich my experience in every sphere possible. I had chalked out a route in my head: I was going to try my hand at deep sea diving and then at aviation. Before I did either of these, I needed to get my Watch-keeping certificate (qualified to independently pilot a ship at sea) as a prerequisite. Aviation had a cut-off age of 26, so before that I qualified as a Naval diver and , signed on for a two year training with the air force, and finally graduated to flying fighter planes.

Wow. So do you come from an army background?

Not at all! We have been civilians for generations, and that might have been the motivating factor, now that I look back at it. In the south, in Chennai, people only think of doctors and engineers as career tracks. I wanted to do something different.

You mentioned in our conversation that you were fortunate to have participated in Kargil Operations. Is “fortunate” the right word for being part of a war?

When you are in the military, war is ultimately what you train for, so it is definitely being fortunate when you are able to put all your years of training to good use, in the service of your country. There is a saying in the military, “We’re here to protect democracy, not practice it”. Many of our beliefs and ethos in the military may seem contrary to the tenets of democracy – we have to function on discipline, authority and hierarchy. You can’t have someone stand up at the heat of the battle and say “ hey wait a minute, I think the President is wrong in interpreting the situation!”

Do you believe that people who serve in the armed forces are more patriotic than those who don’t?

Absolutely not – I was given the opportunity to contribute my 2 cents in the service of my country. This does not make my civilian neighbor who was a dispatch clerk in the local railway station any less patriotic. Anybody would rise to the occasion when the situation so demands.

So what happened after the military?

My wife was working in the UK and the USA since our marriage back in 2000. We were hard pressed to find a solution to our long distance relationship, so I finally decided to put in my papers for premature retirement. I reasoned that after having spent 13 years in the Navy, I was in line for a cushy desk job which was just not enough action for me. After retiring prematurely, I decided to check out what civilian life had in store. I joined my wife who had been the U.S., and started to think about what I wanted to do. I had done my MBA while in the navy, and also got my US flying license in Florida. But I had a bug for something different, something entrepreneurial.

So you landed on this idea

While in the US, I strongly felt that the rich culinary history and tradition of Indian cuisine is being grossly under-represented. One look around at what was being passed on as Indian food at ridiculously high prices and you would realize why Indian food is not getting into mainstream chow list of Americans. I have been all over Europe and have seen how Indian food has captured the taste buds of Europeans there. There was an opportunity in the underserved market segment and decided I wanted to fill the gap with good quality, “quick-serve”, (because fast-food is now such a tainted term) Indian food at honest prices. Again, no one in my family has any culinary experience; I was going at it completely green. So I conceived the idea of Tun-Du-Ree : Magic of the Indian Grill

So how did you go about converting this idea into something concrete?

It took me about a couple of months to put a plan together after studying the demographics, target audience, menus, finances involved, and finally came up with a strategy that eventually became my business plan. I approached a consultant, a veteran in the food industry, to help me understand the nuances of the local market. We know how things work back home, but in an alien country, it is critical to understand what’s black what’s white, and how to navigate all the “grey” areas. I got lucky- when he looked at my business plan and said “you can’t afford me now, but I will provide you free consultation and wait for my million when you go public”. I don’t know about the million, but he is still on board!

So you had the business plan and the guidance, what was the strategy?

I had to start with a test platform to put my plans in effect. At the same time I had have an exit strategy to minimize my losses. I chose to launch the model on a snazzy, eye-catching mobile platform, for a couple of reasons. I would have the advantage of customers walking up in a whim, reacting to the sights and smells, without being intimidated by a fancy restaurant behind closed doors. Secondly it would be much easier to shut down than a restaurant, from which money is virtually impossible to recover.

My menu had to be simple, with no more than 10 items. I thought fondly of parties back home, of which tandoori chicken and biryani were such a critical part. I added those, along with 3 basic chicken curries, and 3 vegetarian curries.

My target clientele was the common American on the street. I did the math. The Tampa Bay Area has 2.4 million inhabitants, of which 18900 were Indian. So rather than targeting the Indian expatriates, I decided to go after the rest. If the food is good, I reasoned, Indians would eventually come. I was going to provide a good, wholesome, healthy, fresh cooked, Indian meal, with all the entrees priced $6.99 and below (we launched with $5.99), including a salad, raita, curry and rice. That is a good, fresh, healthy meal costing just a shade over the fast food chains. Good food at honest prices is what I had aimed for.

With no culinary experience in your immediate sphere, how did you find the chefs?

My plan runs on taking the “chef” out of the system. I wanted a replicable and consistent product day after day. With only ten items on the menu, that is not much to ask for. There had to be no room for discretion or ambiguity. I have developed the cooking process so that I am able to hire any one off the streets, give them the checklist and have them produce the same product with minimal training. Nothing fancy, just the basics.

And the response has been tremendous?

Absolutely. The response had been phenomenal so far. We have such faithful regulars who are down right obsessive about the food and most of them had never heard such thing as Indian food before! We have hit the front pages of five of the local news papers. We were also featured in the annual food guide by Weekly Planet. A lot of bloggers in the net brag about our food and service too.

And you are taking this nation-wide?

I started off with one stall and now have a second one. Two more are in the pipeline in the next couple of months. The plan is to set up a centralized kitchen that will supply prepped food to multiple units within a city. Going National seems a far-fetched dream now, but definitely we have our sights on it.

Any advice for potential entrepreneurs in the IndiaOn community?

You have to be willing to make some sacrifices. I gave up an offer of a $150K job as a commercial pilot to sweep floors and wash dishes! When you start small, you are a one man army. Every thing seems difficult. But as long as you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve a chalked out route to get there, you would do just fine.

Pat is building his team in Tampa Florida. If you have the passion and drive to join the budding start-up, contact him at tunduree@gmail.com and let Pat know you have what it takes! Check out Tun-Du-Ree

Pat is IndiaOn’s newest Featured Writer. Check out his first article here

Former Entrepreneurs of the Month
January – Ranjiv Khush
December – Vipul Vyas
November – Shondip Ghosh

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