Ashneer Grover's business partner shares journey of building startup with ₹8,000

Aseem Ghavri co-founder of Third Unicorn and Ashneer Grover's business partner took to LinkedIn to share his entrepreneurial journey that he started in 2009 with only ₹8,000.

He shared how he always wanted to become a businessman as he in his words wanted to 'break the ceiling'. In his LinkedIn post he said, "I started my first entrepreneurial stint back in 2009 while I was in my college. Since my early childhood days, I was sure that I want to become a businessman, I think being from a service-class family and seeing cost-cutting all my life made me think that job will not help me to break this ceiling."

Ghavri further said he was not sure where to begin and the ₹8,000 he had was saved from his pocket money or money that he got from relatives. Additionally he also said that the money he had was all his savings.

He finally realized what he wanted to do as he got an idea to create a food cart. "One day looking at the Kwality Walls ice cream cart, an idea came to me to create a hot food cart. So I designed and worked on fabrication, tested a few food products and zeroed down on hotdogs and hence the first cart was ready."

Difficulties while starting company

But like all many others he faces severe difficulties with starting a company. In addition to the neighbors, he said that he was also threatened by 'municipal corporation goons' and the cops. He said he was heckled by the policemen and intimidated by people from the municipal corporation. He also could not afford employees so he had to make the hot dogs and serve them to the customers in their cars. This was not conventional and his parents were embarrassed in front of friends and family. He said, "I remember my neighbor aunty walking up to me onto my cart and asking if everything is fine at home, or do I or my family need any monetary assistance. Log toh maze lenge, you do not have to worry about what people think. Even my parents were embarrassed in front of friends and family."

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These difficulties did not stop him from progressing. He said that the first two days the dishes were completely sold out and he received an amazing response. The cart was scaling month on month and with the money he made he opened a few more carts in Chandigarh.

Learnings

Sharing some of his learnings he said that one has to keep their ego aside as an entrepreneur. He also added that one can't shy away and most importantly one has to always start small. "What's more important is that you take the plunge to move out of your comfort zone and put your best foot forward," he added.