excellent start to be able to create Kolkata's 1st successful Chain of Momos with 10 outlets at High Footfall Zones across the city. Apart from Momos, they also serve 'Thukpas' (A Tibetan Meal) - It's a meal which is again different, tastes good, satisfies your hunger and does not really make you feel heavy on your tummy.

Their mission is to become Kolkata's and India's biggest chain of Momos, to create lots and lots of jobs and achieve their dream of becoming a successful employee sensitive organization, where every team member has his upliftment and enjoys his work to the fullest.

 

Your Journey so far….
My journey has been nothing short of a movie script so far. I come from a business family, my father has a garment business and from a very young age I got the practical exposure as to how a business is conducted and most importantly how to deal with people and understand their mindsets. Spending time in our garment factories, in the workshops helped me to learn the tricks of the trade and use them when me and my friend Vinod started our own business ourselves just after completing our graduation in commerce from St. Xavier’s College

Your biggest inspiration in life…..
My father undoubtedly has been the biggest inspiration of my life. The fact that I could start my business so early in my life was because of the encouragement he provided and also because of all the things that I learned from him. He has been through many ups and downs in life but I have never seen him ever giving up. He faced every difficulties in life with a smile on his face. Even when his business suffered a huge loss of approximately 32 lakhs and he had to sell of his car and house, he never gave up and started again from scratch and slowly brought his business back to life.
My mother was also inspirational in giving me moral support and teaching me during my school days. She used to work along with my father in his business.

Starting off so early…..
From the time I joined college, I was thinking about starting a business. Since I come from a business family, the idea of starting something of my own came very naturally to me. I was very much interested to start something with food items as the chance of succeeding in the food business is always and all the practical experience I got from seeing how my father’s business used to operate helped me to start the business early.

Something about your partner Vinod Homagai……
Me and Vinod are very close friends from college and just like me, he was also very much interested in starting a business. Vinod is a down to earth, simple, humble yet hard working guy. He is more of a realist compared to me who is at times too extravagant. Vinod looks after the supply chain of our business, which is undoubtedly the most important part of our business, and he has been handling the operation brilliantly. I feel that me and Vinod complement each other brilliantly and that is why our partnership has worked so well through all these and I am sure it will continue for a long time.

How Wow! Momo Happened……..
The story of the inception of Wow Momo is fascinating. Initially I had an idea of opening a pastry shop in Bombay, a place I knew well as I have been there many times. The idea of starting a pastry shop in Bombay came when I was in the final year of my college and was working in Red FM. I saw most of my colleagues from Red FM’s Bombay office who came here packed a lot of pastries from Cookie Jar, the confectionary shop in Kolkata as there was a lack of good bakery shops in Bombay.
But my idea never materialized and I decided to open a choco-café in Kolkata instead. In the meantime Spencers was coming up in Rash Behari Avenue just opposite to our garment shop. I went to talk with Mr. Hindol Sinha, who was in charge of the food section at Spencers, to get a space to open a choco-café in there. But he said that they are not really interested in choco-cafes and would look at snack items instead like samosas or momos. I remembered that Vinod, just a few days ago told me about starting a business of selling momo but I never took it seriously. After I could successfully persuade Mr. Sinha, we got the permission to open a 15 sq.ft stall in Gachtala Spencers, near Tollygunge and started with just Rs.30,000.

The success story…..

• Bright and attractive kiosks.
• Constant innovation in the way momos are made. 9 different kinds of momos are made along with thukpas also recently launched chocolate momos.
• Successful supply chain operations. Customers not having to wait for a long time.
• High quality of the product.
• Very wide target group to exploit.
• Lack of organized chain of momo shops.
• Our success is down to the fact that we never compromised with the quality of the momos we prepeare. Also the fact that we are able to supply the momos at the right time to every stall is very crucial to our success.

The road ahead……
We already have 11 outlets of Wow Momo in Kolkata and plan to expand further in the near future. We are also opening up branches in Bangalore and Hyderabad with the plan already in place. Later on we are planning to move into more cities. I dream of taking Wow Momo to international market in the future just like so many foreign companies who are doing their business in India. We also plan to create lots and lots of job opportunities through expansion and help as many people as possible as our employees. 

Message for budding young entrepreneurs……
Marketing is very important. You need to be seen and you need to show. For a start up, one would never have too much money for marketing. So one needs to identify their product’s target group and be in their minds all the time through different forms of social networking. One has to make the brand he/she is creating, visible at most places. Also remember to give something back to the society as an entrepreneur gets so much opportunity to work with so many different types of people under him and becomes indirectly responsible for the well-being of their family as well. As an entrepreneur, I have always thought that creating jobs and helping people to contribute to their families have been my biggest achievement. I am also proud of the fact that wow momo is sponsoring 4 children’s education and we also plan to start a fund dedicated to help the unprivileged that will be called positivity fund.