Staple Food ... :P

I think every startup comes up with their own staple food. :) It sounds funny doesnt it?

What I mean is that through all the nightouts and brainstorming sessions each startup team discovers its own chai ka thela that serves them hot n piping tea at 1 in the night ; a vadapav wala if in Bombay/Pune ; aloo ke parathe joint if in Delhi ; piping dosas in Bangalore/Chennai ...

These are places that create their own special importance for the teams, where they sit, eat, talk, dream ... and for those who have make it big, look back with fond nostalgic memories!

We are still in the early stages of establishing a company, and even now we look back at times where vadapav and ganne ka juice were our staple food. Those were times where we had to do loads of running around in the Bombay summer, and taking 5 minutes off for a sugarcane juice n vadapav used to be like a carot dangling in front of us. It was like "Dekh, itna khatam karke break lete hein!". : )

Since then we've graduated to having proper meals during the day and having employees do the running around for us. But even now, the concept of having a staple diet continues. Now its this neighbourhood chai wala ... with his kadak chai and bun maska. Thats where all our brainstorming starts.

At times we wonder what would happen to the startup if bantu chacha shuts down his tea shop! Thats one threat that isn't captured in our SWOT slides for the VC. ;)