A fun tête-à-tête happened over a cup of coffee at the café named ‘All The Perks’ in Ahmedabad. Owned by young cousin duo- Yogesh Darwani, 25, and Chirag Mehtani, 22, this café is one of the most happening and aureate designed places in the city. We asked Yogesh to share their success story with us.
With an untouched cup of coffee kept on a side, he started narrating their journey. “We were always passionate about coffee and we always wanted to do something related to it. And then, as we all know there isn’t any international café chain in Ahmedabad, we came up with this idea. We researched about it then and later, got to know about this brand. After that, for almost first six months, we just did the research related to coffee and its brands in Ahmedabad. We found many coffee lovers in the city. Taking this idea to the next level, we went to every single café in the city and tasted their coffees and noticed their services. Gradually, we applied for the franchise of the brand ‘All The Perks’ and that’s how we started off.”
About his personal life, he said, “Well, I don’t have a happening life to share as such. I was always very close to my mother but she passed away recently. I believe that was the moment that taught me a lot. I became mature since then. And as far as my dad is concerned, he is the person I see as my hero. He is someone I adore the most. He has always been on my side and supported me.”
Talking about his education background, he said, “Well, after school, I took up graduation in commerce, maybe because I liked playing with numbers. But by the third year of college, I joined my father’s business.”
When asked about rejections, he revealed, “Who doesn’t face rejections? Like everyone, we too had to face many rejections. I still remember the days when Chirag was in the US, completing his studies and I was here, managing everything. As we were the amateurs in the industry, there were many things we weren’t aware of. As I look behind, the first huddle I remember we faced was finding a place and settling there. Then, I literally used to run along with our contractor for licensing work at different government offices. Just paying extra money doesn’t help; you need to beg to them too. It was a tough time. I myself used to run around for many things. For example, all the posters around here are the ones I got printed by myself. I went from store to store to find the chandeliers hanging up here in the café. We were rejected by the franchise people once after all the set up was ready due to the staff issue; they fired our manager and also charged us a huge penalty. We had to do everything again after that. We didn’t have the approval from the franchise till 13th of August, and our launch was dated on 15th. It hasn’t been an easy journey.”
“The good thing that happened to us was that when we had a mock test, where we had invited the family and friends for testing, someone had uploaded the pictures on social media and they went viral and we had many people coming over before the opening. So on the day of opening, we had a nice crowd without any marketing. A start-up is something for which you need hard work, dedication, passion, some good luck, and blessings too, I believe. Fortunately, things did work out for us somehow, and I feel really happy and find it all worth now when I see people enjoying and hanging out here. I still remember the day of opening, a group of youngsters were standing outside and as soon as one of them sipped the coffee, she had said, “Wow! This is heaven!” that was a real happiness moment for me.” he added.
When asked to give a tip to the youngsters taking up start-ups as their careers, he laughed and said, “Well, for this, being an SRK fan, I’ll just recite on of his famous dialogues “Agar tum kisi chiz ko sacche dil se chaaho, to poori qayanat tumhe usse milane ki saazish me lag jaati hai.”
We wish Yogesh and Chirag good luck for their future.
