S1E3: Millionaire Mondays - Gowtham Kudapa, Barkaas

Millionaire Mondays by Backstage with Millionaires

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00:00 Intro

1:52 Vijayawada - Barkaas' First Location

7:57 Hustle - The Struggles of Running a Restaurant

10:16 Mangalagiri - Barkaas' Second Location

12:05 Money - The Financials of Barkaas

17:09 Bengaluru - Experiences in Marketing

20:39 Expansion - The Challenges of Franchising

25:05 Scale - Managing 10 Locations

27:29 COVID-19 - Barkaas During the Pandemic

33:13 New Normal - Bouncing Back After the Pandemic

38:25 Round 2 - Expanding to 20+ Locations

40:00 Strategy - The Barkaas Business Model

45:34 Global - Barkaas' International Expansion

49:13 Gyaan - Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

51:38 New Frontiers - Old Mill Brewery

56:03 Outro

Gowtham Kudapa launched his first Arabic cuisine restaurant, Barkaas, in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, in 2016. The idea for Barkaas as an Arabic mandi-centric restaurant first came to him on a trip to Sharjah where he was fascinated by the culinary culture of sitting while eating. He decided to bring the tradition of mandi back with him to Vijayawada.

Gowtham Kudapa is a hotel management graduate, and understood flavours and recipes well, and from this education he also understood hospitality. Using his skills and experience, he was able to craft an Arabic mandi restaurant menu which preserved the dishes and styles of food from the UAE, while enhancing flavours and adding masalas which would be recognised and appreciated by the palate, and more specifically, the palate of people in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Barkaas also brought in new ways of experiencing food via large plates upon which food for multiple people was placed and eaten, as well as cushioned seating areas instead of elevated tables and chairs like most restaurants.

Gowtham Kudapa and his business partners spent between ₹30-₹35 lakh to get their first location up and running, and this initial ROI paid off immediately. Barkaas saw a tremendous response from the people of Vijayawada, and it quickly became the most popular Arabic restaurants in Andhra Pradesh. This meant that Gowtham Kudapa and his business partners and staff often worked 16-18 hour days just to keep up with demand.

In spite of these challenges, Barkaas expanded to a second location about 6 months after the success of the first location. This second location was located in Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh, about 15 kilometers from the first location. This second location was very successful.

From the financial side though, Barkaas was doing well. They were taking a margin of 35-40% which was amazing. These margins enabled the Barkaas team to think about expanding beyond Andhra Pradesh, to Karnataka, and more specifically Bengaluru.

Expanding to Bengaluru was a real challenge for Barkaas. This was when Barkaas began allocating some of their expenses to marketing. It took 6 months for Barkaas to begin seeing acceptable footfall in Bengaluru.

In Bengaluru, Barkaas took a very conscientious call to only onboard franchisees who were ready to be restaurant operators and managers. They didn't want any absentee franchisees.

By taking control of the kitchen and inserting their own people into franchisee's locations, Barkaas was able to bring restaurant quality back to the level that they had envisioned in 2016. However, then the pandemic hit, forcing Barkaas to halt their expansion plans.

As the pandemic came to an end, Barkaas began experimenting with technology to offer a contactless dining experience, including QR code menus from their restaurant operating system platform, Explorex.

Today, Barkaas is still doing well financially - they take a margin of about 20-25%, and have expanded to more than 20 locations across India. They have plans to go global too, and Gowtham Kudapa is also setting up his first brewery, called Old Mill Brewery. This new business, Old Mill Brewery, will be established in 2023.