A TECHNO’S CUP OF TEA…….

Entrepreneur NITIN SALUJA’s journey!

His Life at a glance...

Born on 30th September, 1983 in Lucknow.

Education:Schooling: Seth M.R. Jaipuria School, Lucknow (passed out in 2001)

Graduation: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (BTech, Mechanical Engineering,

batch 2002-2007)

Socities: TECHFEST 2005

Was a Summer Research Scholar at University of EXETER in the field of Experimental

Economics in the year 2004.

Worked on setting up and conducting various experiments to study behavioural

preferences of subjects when faced with varying situations.

Activities and societies: School of Business and Economics

Personal interests in Motorcycle travels, Formula 1 racing and some other sports.

Professional life:Intern

Worked as an Intern in Mercedes Benz India, Pune for 3 months( from May 2005 to July 2005). Helped Mercedes BENZ set up a BIO- DIESEL refuelling station within their manufacturing facility .

He Designed and helped in procuring the infrastructural setup to get the station up and running.

Co- founderNitin Saluja, co founded, THINKLabs, an educational robotics company that enabled school and

college students learn the fundamentals of robotics via hands on training in the field of science and technology. ThinkLABS is a IIT-alumnus venture in the field of hands-on science and technology

education catering to schools and colleges. A pioneer and a leader in this space, ThinkLABS instills scientific temper in school students through innovative programs and prepares college students for

careers in embedded systems and robotics.

Senior ConsultantNitin Saluja has been a senior consultant in Opera Solutions, for around 5 years. He has helped several fortune 500 companies optimize their supply chain and achieve amazing reliability and tremendous savings. They design their solutions with Man + Machine in mind, using science to maximize the power of the machine and then bringing it to frontline workers such that they can

apply their judgment and experience.

Founder and CEO

Nitin Saluja, along with his wife, Yosha, and Raghav Verma, an IITB

graduate, developed this idea of ‘chai adda’ and came up with a

retailing chain of CHAAYOS.

Chaayos was born in November 2012 out of this premise - a

contemporary interpretation of the chai adda, serving freshly made

chai. The entire focus is on serving the customers "Meri Wali Chai",

a chai made exactly to its customers' liking the minute they place

their order - be it an ‘adrak tulsi kadak’ chai or a ‘paani kam elaichi

cinnamon ‘chai. Their are 12 add-on options which gives customers a

total of over 12,000 ways to customise their tea.

Qualities of a good entrepreneur:

Visionary: Nitin Saluja, as an entrepreneurial venture: Chaayos, seeks to bring back the fading

‘tea’drinking trend ! He has clear missions and objectives, one of them being brand expansion

and increased presence throughout the DELHI- NCR region, with more than 6 outlets in the

coming year.

Planner: He has planned out everything in a very sorted manner, starting from the concept, to

the target market, to the interiors of café , to the products in the menu, to arranging for all the

needed resources.

Multitasker: Nitin Saluja has proved to be quite a multitasker, initially when he started up on

his own, he looked into and understood marketing, HR, Finance, law etc.

Passionate: Being so passionate and a true chai lover, he took his love of drinking tea to a

next level altogether, finding a business prospect from the same. Nothing could deter him from

his track, even though he was a mechanical engineer, he landed up into owning a tea café.

Risk taker: Business is all about taking risks. When Nitin saluja decided to open up a chai

café, amongst the coffee dominant beverage industry, it was a huge risk, as it was tough to

make way for ‘tea’.

Challenges faced:

• Turning a simple business idea into reality

• Budget overruns

• Risk of failure/ lack of acceptance

• Experimentation

• Insufficient funds/reserve

• Product quality

• Competetion

• Skills requirement

An entrepreneur's way to survive :

Think out of the box! : small idea, big thinking.

Invent and re-invent.

Better than the rest.

Strive for more

Build the best team

Lots and lots of research

Optimism and positivity

Superior product and service

Lesson’s learnt

Learn to spend smart, optimize for learning and focus on customer delight.

If you are not 100% excited about an idea, it should be declined.

The best way to get famous is make amazing stuff. That’s it. Not blogging, networking etc.

Always trust your gut. Always.

Two things to keep in mind: 1. Always have a plan. 2. your plan will not always work.

When you first have an idea, tell Everyone. This will help vet your startup idea.

Figure out what your superpower is. Then identify what other superpowers u need for your

business to be successful. Build your team around it.

The best breakthroughs are the unexpected ones.

Success in entrepreneurship has less to do with what you do and who you are. Confidence,

Integrity and Drive are more critical.

Thankyou for your

time.

Presented by:

Sheryl Mehra

Promita Majumdar