STARTUP SPECIAL................ Starting Up, the Expat Way(2 )

STARTUP SPECIAL Starting Up, the Expat Way(2 )

Their geographies -the US, France, Italy and South Africa -are as diverse as their ventures. From dirtying their hands on a poultry farm to trying to crack the rented car market, expats are getting into the toughest -and most exciting -of businesses

5.    Having his Cake...

Perhaps it was inevitable that a Frenchman would start up a French patisserie and boulangerie chain -and, for good measure, have the French embassy as one of its outposts. But when Kazem Samandari and his wife Christine sold their apartment in Paris and moved to Delhi seven years ago, L'Opéra wasn't as much a gleam in their eye as was their grandson. “We wanted to spend time with our grandson,“ recounts Samandari, an electrical engineer who has under his belt over 40 years of professional and entrepreneurial experience in countries from Singapore to Israel to France.

It was only when his son Laurent, fresh out of business school, joined the family in Delhi in 2008 that the idea of setting up a patisserie chain was born. “My son was just back from Paris and missed good French bakery products in Delhi. It took us over two years to put the business plan together and start operations.Initially, we got a lot of support from the French Embassy and were given access to their kitchen to bake our products,“ adds Samandari.

In 2011, L'Opéra opened its first outlet in Khan Market. Today, the chain has nine more outlets at upscale locations in the Capital, including a Parisian style Salon de Thé at the Epicuria food hub at Nehru Place, as well as outlets at the trendy Hauz Khas Village and Select Citywalk and DLF Galleria malls in Gur gaon. The chain started with 3,000 sq feet for manufacturing in Noida, which has since been trebled. “In the next phase of growth we are in final stages of talks with a hotel in Mumbai, another one in Delhi and a private hospital in the NCR to run L'Opéra outlets in-house for them,“ lets on Samandari.

While a French chef was brought in to create the products, keeping in mind Indian tastes and sensibilities, the whole family pitched into the venture with ideas for décor, training and the like. “Though I've been part of teams setting up cutting-edge technology ventures in many different geographies, food services was completely new to me. But there was definitely a space in the Indian market for top quality French products, which we were able to fill,“ says Samandari.

6.    Zooming In

When Greg Moran went to business school at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California in 2011, many of his classmates were from India. “Our B-school was very popular among Indian students and I had friends from Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. I was fascinated to hear from many of them about the family businesses run by their fathers and the entrepreneurial spirit in India. And that was when I first felt that there were business opportunities in India waiting to be tapped,“ says Moran, whose family is from New York. His stint in 200405 at a Wall Street investment banking firm that had large infrastructure clients in Hyderabad also attracted him to the India story.

“We [college mate David Back is cofounder of Zoomcar] decided to start a rent-a-car operation in India because of the flexibility of the business model. Car ownership in India is still low and the market for car rentals has huge potential,“ says Moran, who is also a champion for sustainable development across the globe. From a small fleet of seven cars in Bengaluru in 2013, Zoomcar now plans to expand its fleet to 2,000 across 10 cities over the next few months. The company has so far raised close to $11 million from investors led by Sequoia Capital.

Bengaluru was chosen as the launching pad for the company because the city is startup friendly.“For any new product or services launch in the Indian market, Bengaluru provides the best market. It's a city of young professionals and many NRIs, who are early adopters of new concepts,“ says Moran.

“My work keeps me too busy to go on vacations in India. But I do enjoy Indian food very much, despite sometimes being wary of the hygiene standards and inconsistent quality,“ he says. As for road infrastructure, he is happy to walk to work from his apartment though he rates Delhi roads and Indian highways quite high. Time to begin zooming on them, perhaps.

Ishani Duttagupta

 ETM24MAY15