Page 47 - Forbes India (December 2015)

two managers were allowed to run
the earlier restaurants (though the
restaurants eventually came back into
the fold) while Barman and Banerjee
began expanding the franchise. The
brand’s purple and yellow signage
began popping up in Pune, Mumbai
and later in Bengaluru. A typical store
consisted of a kitchen and a small
standing area that would sometimes
have a table or two, but was usually
bare. The focus was clearly on
delivery. The chain quickly grew from
six outlets in 2011 to over 50 in 2013.

EntrEprEnEurs-in-Arms
The number of outlets was a fair
measure of its growth because even
till 2013 Faasos was run as a QSR
chain. In the early years, the food
would be prepared at the front-end
kitchens, but as the company grew,
the supply chain had to be simplified.
The first three cities in which Faasos
then operated all got a central
kitchen which would supply food to
the outlets. But Barman concedes
that although it was expanding, the
company was still on shaky ground.
Two significant events took place
in late 2011 that began the process of
consolidation. First, Faasos received
an investment worth $5 million (about
Rs 33 crore) from Sequoia Capital in
October 2011. Following this, they
announced the Faasos Entrepreneur
So, in 2003, he quit his job and they Barman was getting impatient. “I was in Residence (FER) programme.
launched their first restaurant. the most broke that I have ever been,” “We were basically very
While setting it up, “we did he says, laughing. By expanding in lazy,” says Barman. “We wanted
everything that we thought we the face of early failures, they had to find people who would run
should be doing,” says Banerjee. They found it hard to come by additional it as their own company.” The
hired good cooks, set up a quality capital. So Barman left for INSEAD programme requirements were
facility with a glass facade, which in France to pursue his second fairly straightforward. It needed the
was something of a novelty then. But MBA and Banerjee followed a year applicants to be entrepreneurial,
with no experience of working in the later. Faasos was put on autopilot not look for instructions and love
food and beverages sector, they were with two people managing it. their customers, he says. “We were
in for an unpleasant surprise. In the It was only in 2010 when Barman looking for younger versions of
first month, their restaurant’s sales quit his job as an associate partner ourselves,” says Banerjee. Essentially
were lower than the electricity bill. with McKinsey in London and professionals who had graduated from
The next few years weren’t easy returned to India did the Faasos story business school not very long ago and Joshua navalkar
either. Although they managed to resume. Banerjee too returned from had just begun to realise that some
add four more restaurants by 2006, his Bosch stint in Singapore. The of their jobs could be very dull. They

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