Whether it is waffles with maple syrup or health ingredients making yoga bars or roasted coffee beans brewing coffee across the city, QSR chains in various forms are burgeoning across Indian states. The distribution of crepes and waffles is still within a limitation in India. Shushant Yadav, Vivek Gupta and Bharat Talreja began to build the idea for
Stop My Starvation which is a QSR chain for waffles and crepes. In early 2016, the trio began to set shops in New Delhi after gathering four years of work experience from Oberoi and Taj.
They target the millennials of India serving both sweet and savoury flavours of waffles and crepes. When asked about how they differentiated their QSR, they mentioned, “Pink Paradise which has fresh strawberries with whipped cream and Chicken Tikka waffle are our USP’s. In crepes, banana with nutella and Shrooms of the Wood (Mushroom with Herbs&Cheese) are amongst the top pick”.
Both the co-founders Vivek and Bharat completed a master's degree in business administration with specialization in Finance and Marketing respectively. The founder of the startup, Shushant Yadav states that having a background in hospitality, he always had plans to make value addition to the culinary industry. After a period of contemplation, the team recognized to move in the untapped market of waffles and crepes in India.
In this age, the young demographic of India are well traveled and love to explore food delicacies across the world. The two food delicacies at Stop My Starvation have started to receive an acceptance from the market which they precedented. Within a period of 3 months, Stop My Starvation reached their profit expectations, as millennials are consuming more and more of waffles.
Although Tier 1 cities people have already made their taste buds familiar with waffles, the market is still at the nascent stage in India. “With our market research, we foresee waffles and crepes to be a part of the menu for most of the restaurants in next 3-5 years”, says the founder Shushant Yadav.
However, many early stage startups are succumbing to predatory rivals in the competitive ecosystem as they do not have focus on any differentiated offerings. In order to prevent such a closure, the New Delhi based creppes&waffles startup are introducing savoury waffles with a local touch.
At present, there are two locations within the city, in GK1 and Malviya Nagar. In 2017, they are planning to scale up and broadbase their offerings. The team aims to expand services to various parts of New Delhi. They have identified Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Pune as their next location for setting up shops.
