As part of our quest to bring to our community interesting and meaningful startup stories from the ecosystem, we recently invited Aashish Takia for an interview with us to understand more about his startup Infusion Tea and Coffee Co. Aashish is a tea aficionado and his love for tea led to this brilliant business called ChaiInfusion or CI. Let’s read more about his interesting entrepreneurial journey so far!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Talk us a little about yourself please:
From the end of my academic journey, I was fairly clear that entrepreneurship was my path in life and while the capital markets excited me, I sensed a deeper calling to my creative side. I was always a tea aficionado and I strongly recognized that my olfactory and gustatory senses were strong pointers to how I lived my life. The world of aroma and flavours created a strong attraction and I would often play with how I liked my chai to affect my senses.
The more I explored, the more it led me to dream of making Chai the centre of my life, and in 2009 I began exploring how I could take my deep discoveries & learnings to share with the world this wonderful ‘High-On-Chai’.
Chai Infusion or CI as it is fondly known as today has been my journey and these 5 years has helped me plan and build a couture brand of chai that impacts the taste buds, health and hearts of many. We are at only the tip of the iceberg and have a long journey to go. I aspire to make CI a household brand across tea-drinking nations!
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I was never a slogger and more a thinker and while setting my foot forward in working in the world of capital markets, I soon realized that I am more inclined to explore rather than follow something that’s already being driven.
With the creativity and inquisitiveness being a very strong family value, I soon gave up working in the capital markets to explore the world of entrepreneurship and began exploring the world of colours, dyes, flavours and the F&B world found my excitement at the highest levels.
CI becomes an obsession and the more I discovered, the more I believed that I have a lot that I want to take into the world. The journey has been challenging as it has been a boutique start but now I am at the launchpad stage of my entrepreneurship moving into the next sphere of my goal.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Like every other person I often wake up to the challenges rather than the opportunities, but what gets me going is my strong belief in what I enjoy doing and my first cuppa of my favourite chai strongly grounds my thoughts to the wonderful world of my belief. Most often than not, I am blessed with one of my tea lovers complimenting a CI flavour and it sets the adrenalin flowing to go right into work and build on my plans to do all I can on that single day. My motivation comes from a strong belief of ‘One-Day-At-A-Time.
Why should people choose your products/services?
The fortunate part of the business is that Tea is historically a kick-starter, a motivator and a wake-up dose to nearly 1/3 of the world. In India, its almost 2/3 and this means great opportunity. Generally, people consume tea in its typical brew of the dose of milk and tea that has simmered for long periods to bring a flavour that they need, but in recent times the typical urban citizen is getting exposure to the Wonder World of Chai in many avatars. Health for one has become one of the most in-focus points for most and with the realization that chai has great medicinal values has set one more large chunk of people sipping it to glory.
At CI, our tea is serious business and we have explored over a 100 blends & brews that meets the desires of a wide group of consumers. The fact that we have a 90% and more repeat consumer, it makes us believe that we’ve hit the right note for the entire mix of the population. From health teas to teas for times of the day, to blends that are a treat for those special moments, CI has them all. The other fact is that tea is not a generic and consistent product and this means that each batch, each lot have a specific result on taste and recall and at CI we have mastered the art of sourcing, blending and enriching chai to ensure our consumer has the same taste and experience with every cup he brews. This along with our direct to consumer sales options drives people to choose, order and enjoy the CI experience.
What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
The world recognizes that the choice of your toothpaste and beverage is one of the most difficult products to change. Once a brand user, you almost get addicted to repeating your choice. Fortunately for us, the tea industry has just got exploratory, and the consumer is happy tasting and choosing products to enjoy. Keeping aligned to the fact that the tea you taste is an outcome of the choice of tea leaf, the cut, blend and storage etc, we have weaved in our processes of sourcing and blending that is loved and respected by many.
At CI we’ve invested well in our relationships of sourcing, blending and mastery on how those special steps can entice and keep our customer connected and happy. It may not be difficult to attempt copy, but it certainly will never be possible to replicate the exact taste and experience. There’s a lot of years that have gone into bringing the CI taste we offer and we are confident that with the fact that the result of every blender is unique, you would like to ensure you repeat your experience and enjoy the CI taste forever.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
The key challenge has been around building our presence and availability. The team market has been driven on the traditional model of the chai we brew for years. Although people have just begun exploring, the key challenge is being right there available for them to try. Marketing, promotion and advertising have been expensive and our boutique process has made it a long wait to explode and grow.
With our current investments being ploughed into the business, we see this challenge slowly moving out of the way of success.
The gestation period can be frustrating to most, and on the personal front there have been compromises a one too many, but it has been a worthwhile waiting and I am certain we are on our way to making CI a household name soon.
What are your expansion plans/breakeven projections?
The tea market is huge and that makes it quite fragmented. Without boring you with large numbers, let me simply share that the plan is to be present across the 7 metros by 2020. Our consumer is a mix of the typical chai drinker to the boutique tea consumer so the plan is to stay more focused on modelling and promoting our e-platform of selling. With the Amazon and Big Basket formats only growing, we see a big opportunity to making the availability a simple step for a consumer.
We will be soon growing to offer our blends in all leading café’s, restaurants and hospitality properties. Besides this, we are busy building our sales channel partnerships that will become a key point of focus to support the business plan.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
The old one ‘Never Give Up’ sounds motherhood, but the reality is that if there were shortcuts then the world of success would’ve been a crowded space. I did have the typical criticism of my close ones who were a little shocked that I want to move from capital markets to the world of colourants to finally, “chai”, and, not too many initially felt strongly about my dream. The investment also often was a frightening path with sweat pouring out of fear that I hope we will make it all back one day. The great part has been that every time CI blended and anyone tasted, there was instant followership, people would soon start patting the back and say ‘Make This A Reality’ as its too good to be true. So with all the challenges, the product stood us strong.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
If you ask me I want to say something wise! and the money bit has been certainly a stretch, but given the taste of the capital markets and money and my choices in life, it is starkly true that I am driven mainly by my emotions and passion.
Food, Flavour, Taste & Touch as all sensory dimensions and it is only when there is a strong emotional drive can one be successful in this industry.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
CI is my life and tea is a way of life for me forward so as long as one enjoys the journey, the toughest trail can become pleasurably exciting. I enjoy my pets, my music and love to catch up on reading and these are a few of the stress busters.
What advice would you give to someone starting, particularly to entrepreneurs?
Passion, Passion, Passion, everything else comes next. You can begin without any plan, but focus on what you believe in and translating that belief is the north star of your journey. The money will follow, but, of course, be a vigil, take advantage of every opportunity and do not ever compromise on your product and the passion.
Honesty is the best policy and if you stay on course and don’t let the world take advantage of your core beliefs, the money and plan will fall through for you! Remember no one has been able to take away anything of what they might have accumulated in terms of wealth with them on their onward journey beyond this life – so decide what you want to leave behind for the next generation/posterity? Money, wealth or good way of life, moral values?? Once you have the clarity in your mind (either way), be sure the universe will guide you to where you want to go! Work away today!!
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem. Stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
