Building a Chain of Restaurants - Burma Burma ft. Ankit Gupta

The Indian Dream

On the episode today, we have with us Ankit Gupta, Co-Founder of Burma Burma
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On the episode, we talk to Ankit about the business of restaurants, how food entrepreneurs can do market research, how restaurants are conceptualized and the painful processes that restaurant founders have to go through to get a concept to life! Burma Burma is one of my favorite restaurants, and what makes this even more unique is that its a vegetarian restaurants with no alcohol. A brave counter-positioning in the tough business of restaurants.
Episode Outline:
(02:41) - Thesis Behind Burma Burma
(06:02) - Validating the idea of Burmese Cuisine in India
(07:53) - What does it take to start a restaurant?
(12:16) - Ankit's advice to people who want to start a restaurant
(14:30) - Challenges in the Restaurant Industry
(15:12) - The issue with Alcohol license in India
(17:00) - Economics of Restaurant Business
(20:00) - The Value and Supply Chain of Restaurants
(25:10) - How to market a new restaurant?
(27:20) - Burma Burma's scale up journey
(28:23) - Challenges with growing through franchising
(29:38) - How Burma Burma built its processes and talent pipeline to scale to 6 cities?
(32:42) - The Backend team to required to build a chain of restaurants?
(35:28) - Decision to enter the D2C Phase with Pantry
(37:55) - Surviving the pandemic
(41:05) - Scaling up the Burma Burma Brand beyond food
(42:55) - What kind of investors invest in restaurant businesses?
(44:40) - How has Ankit's relationship with money evolved over a period of time?