At Lemon Ideas, we always support startup to showcase themselves and present their journey to inspire another entrepreneur to stay motivated in the journey. We want enthusiast and passionate people to choose Entrepreneurship as carrier option and create more and more startups for the betterment of society. This time the occasion was I summit 2016 which was held at Chitnavis center on 21st Dec 2016, the summit was organized by Lemon Ideas in association with Vidharbha Industry Association powered by Creatifox as Event partner and flying Penguins as a digital partner. The stage was honored by eminent personalities like Mr. Pranav Sharma from Baidyanath group, Mr. Vishnu Manohar from Vishnuji ki Rasoi, Mr. Sanjay Arora from shells Advertising, eminent personalities from VIA and many more. The hall was occupied by over 200 enthusiastic public of Nagpur. This time the summit was about the Emergence of Desi power. The journey of an Indian fast food which traveled its journey from the streets of Mumbai to the desk of Harvard, Goli vadapav. The keynote speaker was Goli vadapav founder Mr. Venkatesh Iyer.
An evening starts with the felicitation of the keynote speaker Mr. Venkatesh Iyer by Mr. Vishnu Manohar, Mr. Pranav Sharma with eminent personalities from VIA and rich pool of mentor from Lemon ideas. Followed by the launch of I-Adda, an Adda for likeminded budding entrepreneur, mentors, enthusiast to encourage entrepreneurship for the better India. Followed by the journey of Vadapav.
The Goli was the brain child of Mr. Venkatesh Iyer, A person with over 15 years of experience in corporate finance and investment banking. He had raised finance for many big brands including Future group. Venky has been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs translate ideas into storyboards using his unique strength of critical thinking, imagination, and communication.
The guy born and brought up in Mumbai and having very fond of eating vadapav from streets of Mumbai while working with many foreign companies and observing the brand growing in India. One day, when he was listening to his favorite song “hum Hindustani ” from one of the films of Sunil Dutt, knocked his head. While thinking in the context of the song he observed the products like a razor from Gillette, Colgate toothpaste, lux soap, Pantene shampoo Levis jeans, Rayban sunglasses, Reebok shoe cross pens and blackberry mobile, Give him a thought of where is India among those products. One day a senior marketing agent of a very big multinational brand once remarked “Kuch Bhi Karlo yaar Hindustani aadmi Hindustani hi khata hai” and the thought come to his mind of creating a brand for Indian ethnic food, and while finalizing the product from Idli, Dosa Pani-Puri and vadapav he found vadapav as the only option which can be served to 50 customers in 5 minutes and he decided to create a Blue collar job opportunity in vadapav food chain, to make humble vadapav a brand which will stand along with pizzas and burger like McDonald. With this thought in mind, he started sharing his dream with a colleague, family members and many people which he had been working with since his investment banking career, the reply was always”Kya Goli de Raha hai” in a typical lingo of Mumbai Janta. Till one fine day his best friend and co-founder Shiva supported him to go forward and the journey of the vadapav started.
In the journey duo faced many problems like cash crunch which usually solved by shiva, he always manages money for Venky’s dream by many ways like borrowing from friends many times by pawning jewelry of his family members. The problem of non-standardization pilferage and wastage which was led to quarrels amongst the franchise owners and make Venky and shiva suffer from many sleepless nights and legal notices from banks was solved by Bhupinder Singh by offering the automated solution for making vadapav, the same facility which was utilized by Mc Donald for making their burger Pattie and many more. But the sheer passion for creating a brand for vadapav, ability to perceive the dream make them work relentlessly over nights and nights.
Venky shared his secret of success like the power of network he built in his finance career, inspiration he got from the books, his passion about his dream and his choice the support he got from friends and family and his staff He also mentioned a famous quote by Paulo Coelho “you have a dream has come in the womb of universe…it is the responsibility of the universe to fulfill the dream….the universe conspires to help achieve your dream” which is one of the inspiration for him and motivated him to march ahead.
The powerful and energetic talk of around two hours came to an end with the gift from Venkatesh Iyer to many budding entrepreneurs in the form of book launch, his own biography named “My journey with vadapav” the book covered all his journey and secret traits which helped Mr. Venkatesh Iyer in making Goli a global brand.
