Sudeep Gupta says, “The most important Entrepreneurship motto is to know when to stop! When people are in business, they find it difficult to get out of it. That is when the learning stops. Ego plays a fundamental role here.”
Sudeep is currently the International Business director of OYO Hotels. He is also popularly known for the immense success he has garnered through his business chain, Cafe Buddy’s. He won the prestigious award for ‘Young Promising Entrepreneur’ in 2010-11. He was later part of the senior leadership team at Cars24.
Sudeep is a self-proclaimed lover of all things luxurious in life! He loves travelling, good food etc. It wasn’t until the birth of his beloved daughter that he broadened his scope and sphere of interest to include things such as savings and investments. It was incumbent upon him to secure the future for his now growing family.
Pinkbull Investors is an Investment Management firm which is metaphorically ‘your financial intelligence’. “Money Stories” is our series that features interesting people talking candidly about their financial & professional lives.
WRITTEN BY PINKBULL INVESTORS ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
I was born and bred in NCR, India by a middle-class family. My father was the CEO of a French Company owing to which his work involved a lot of travelling. Resultant, I got to travel around the globe from a tender age of 10 years. It was almost a rule for us to visit a new international destination every year. I am thus self-assured that my upbringing contributed immensely in the culmination of the holistic person I am. It assisted in me being an open-minded individual with a widened world view who’s not only comfortable in the global environment but especially thrives in it.
“I would rather have spent almost half of my savings in travelling. Before I finish my ongoing holiday, I would have already planned my next destination.”
Of course, like most other children on the block, I happened to follow the piggy bank doctrine. I’d religiously save a few pennies and would then spend them judiciously. However, the most instrumental counselling that I can recall from my childhood, which has progressively facilitated my growth as an individual, are: straightforwardness and honesty. These were taught to me by my parents. The inculcation of these values in the nurturing process of any individual will yield exceptional brand value. These values assist immensely in the building of a positive environment in the workplace. They enable one to excel one’s own professional journey instead of pulling a peer’s journey down.
I kicked off my career in marketing after choosing to do MBA. Any MBA aspirant typically has three options to choose from – Human Resource/ Marketing/ Finance. I preferred Marketing since my father was in the same field. He was working with Dabur and was instrumental in introducing several flagship brands in India such as ‘Uncle Chips’ and ‘Real’ juice. His successful professional journey acted as an inspiration to my choice of a career path in marketing.
I pursued my MBA from the prestigious ESCP Institute in Europe. The best learning from my MBA journey was when I was completing my masters in 2008 – the days of subprime crises and financial recession in the US & Europe. Although those were difficult days for job seekers, I feel it was also the best time to look at the possible avenues which open up during a pandemic, crisis times. There are some great examples of start-ups which we have seen emerging out of subprime like catastrophes – Uber and Airbnb.
My recommendation to young graduates and budding entrepreneurs alike is, it is all about the perspective. The grass is always greener on the other side. Thus, instead of being panic-struck, they should take advantage of the pandemic. They have the option of giving up and losing hope now that they are amassed with job losses and pay cuts or they can fetch for ‘glow in the dark’ opportunities.
My entry into the business was a pure twist of fate. Never did I even think, leave alone plan, to get into the business field. After my master’s, while still working with Henkel in Dusseldorf, Germany, I used to visit India every 3 months. In all my trips, I was always fascinated by the great and vast development in India. India brought forward impressive opportunities for people who were seeking to offer a value proposition to some of the existing problems. This birthed my grand idea of launching Café Buddy’s as there was a vacuum in the QSR segment which helped me to scale to 120 Outlets across India within a short span of time.
“After I got into the start-up boom, I realized how people around me have made a fortune by investing at the right time in the markets by picking up right funds or
real estate for that matter.”
The key to our success in the QSR model was driven from the fact that we had identified the problem set which our model needed to solve. In one of my visits to India during Christmas vacations, I went to see the Delhi Metro. At that time, the Delhi metro was just developing and contrary to the likes of London and Paris undergrounds, there was an absence of proper food outlets such as Pret A Manger and Brioche Doree, to satisfy the hunger pangs of metro commuters. This was my eureka moment!
I soon realized that the lack of vendors to provide this service meant a great business opportunity was lying untapped. The original plan was to open one magnificent restaurant but with wise counselling, we decided to open several small cafes instead.
This led me to meeting Mr. Sreedharan who was the then Managing Director of Delhi Metro. He ratified my business pitch almost instantly and gave me 10 days to open up the first café. He also came to inaugurate the first café and was so delighted by our service that he allowed us to open our second cafe at the Yamuna Bank metro station. That marked a great milestone that enabled the company to extend its horizons into universities, hospitals, corporates among others. After about 55 stores, we expanded through the franchise model.
“The best learning from my MBA journey was when I was completing my masters in 2008 – the days of subprime crises and financial recession in the US & Europe. Although those were difficult days for job seekers, I feel it was also the best time to look at the possible avenues which open up during a pandemic, crisis times. There are some great examples of start-ups which we have seen emerging out of subprime like catastrophes – Uber and Airbnb.
Overall, the business thrived for about 5 to 6 years. It was a lucrative business owing to the business model and strategic bets that we took. A common cafe usually has more business on weekends in comparison to weekdays. Contrarily, we had business on all days as the metro pulled huge gatherings on weekdays and weekends alike. Besides, our strategic location added merit to the endeavor. We had placed our outlets at exit locations as commuters could not take food inside the metro (the same reason why the Cafe Coffee Days and Nirulas were losing business).
After 6 years in the business, IRCTC took over the Delhi metro tenders and then started subleasing outlets. We felt it was unwise for us to renew the contract as it did not make business sense to take up spaces at a higher price than before. Also, we did not want to lose the money we had earned. It had been a worthy experience.
The most important entrepreneurship motto is to know when to stop! When people are in business, they find it difficult to get out of it. That is when the learning stops. Ego plays a fundamental role here. It wasn’t easy to step back into the professional world. However, I thought it would be good to get into a startup which was scaling up because those were days when a lot of start-ups were coming up with disruptive and innovative ideas, I would be a good fit there.
All of a sudden, when in India, corporates wouldn’t value your skill set and risk-taking appetite of being an entrepreneur, Start-ups were looking out for those entrepreneurs who would scale up their business and were willing to take risk! That’s how I got approached by a headhunter for Cars24.
The Cars24 business model was unique and unheard of in the Indian Market. It addressed the crucial pain points of both the individual car owners and pre- owned car dealers by creating and delivering value proposition for instant valuation, free inspection of cars, instant payments and support for the RC transfer. It went further and made the process swift, simple, suitable and subtle for all the stakeholders: both car owners and dealers.
Come November 2016 – Demonetization was the talk of the town and I happened to share a cab ride with the Founders and Co-Founders of Cars24. With the unsure market scenario, customers were scared to sell and buyers were not easy to come by for used cars. One of the founders suddenly drifted to a separate discussion away from the core business and it was about how he had read about companies like Subway and other global brands re- negotiating their rentals of a store location in case the market slows down or if a particular store is not performing as per expectations. This triggered the first thought that we could renegotiate rent for our stores and I set out exploring this. As this exercise of re-negotiation was done by me quite successfully and independently, I became the “Negotiation Guru” of Cars24. (Some skill-set of negotiation were already developed from my last venture and some real learnings came from my father).
After my stint with Cars24, I joined OYO Hotels as the International Business Director. Initially, I had been instrumental in launching Europe and Canada regions for OYO. In my new role, I am leading the Global Partner Engagement and Marketing for all the Asset Partners globally. This pandemic has made a lot of industries redundant. The aviation industry is probably the worst hit. However, it is not like the hospitality industry is impacted any lesser. The sentiment of the customers like you and me, who wouldn’t think twice before planning a weekend trip, has been hurt. Until the customers start feeling it is safe to travel, the fear will remain. As a hotel owner, we are taking all the necessary precautions. Our primary motto is to convince the customers that we are offering a safe place.
Initially, I was not much into the habit of saving. I favored the concept of living in the moment. However, I have unearthed and appreciated the role of savings especially when hit by crisis situations such as the; 9/11, demonetization, subprime crisis and the monster that is now affecting us, the Covid-19. After I got into the start-up boom, I realized how people around me made fortunes by investing at the right time.
The most integral differentiating factor for me was having a child. It necessitated me to have a complete change in perspective. I’m now more financially cautious man!
I have also demystified amidst this pandemic that anyone can live well enough without buying and wearing luxury brands. It is also pointless to buy high-end items as the pandemic defeats the purpose. After all, there are so many luxury brands that have become redundant in the first year so far. It is only when one fathoms what the most important things in life are, when they begin to prioritize things such as savings and investments.
Budgeting is yet another important factor to consider. I have a tracker of checking my expenditure and savings quarterly. It guides me onto the right track. It is imprudent to realize after 10 years of your career, that you should have saved. It will be too late! My advise to young people would be that they should start saving as soon as they start a job and have some funds to explore the world as well.
“You shouldn’t be worried about investing, you should start early by taking assistance of your colleagues and professionals in this field. Key is to start early!
In all conscience, I was unenthusiastic to get into mutual funds or stocks. I am yet to get into stocks. I feel like I don’t have time to do that as well. I got into a couple of mutual funds which my bank manager suggested, I saw them for 6 months to 1 year and realized they weren’t good funds. Then I saw Moneycontrol and started re-investing.
Once you start investing some amount from your monthly savings, you will comprehend what are the right platforms to invest in. One should not be worried about investing! You should start early by seeking advise from your colleagues and professionals in this field. The key is to start early!
“To every millennial reading this, living one moment at a time is great, however, my thoughts here would be it’s good to set up financial goals early in life including budgeting. Secondly, you should listen to money podcasts and educate yourself. It takes time, but you should learn early in life about how investing works. Even if someone in your life does arm you with some money and investing insights, it is incumbent upon you as to what to do with that information. So buckle up your financial goals and strategy as early as you can.”
WRITTEN BY KARAN BARMECHA & POONAM DASH. ILLUSTRATION BY MARIANO ANDRES.
WRITTEN BY PINKBULL INVESTORS ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
