My present life or rather my lifestyle bears no resemblance to my life before I started The Chai Cart. I quit my job in December '09 and started a new venture, Green Coriander - San Francisco's first and only home delivery service for healthy and organic Indian food.
There is no dearth of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the mother ship of tech start-ups, and VC firms. There are hundreds of books, blogs, stories, articles, etc written on how to build a successful start-up. All of them geared towards creating the next Apple, Google, Facebook, or Zynga.
Seven months back, that was my world. Entrepreneurship meant starting an internet-related service or product company.
The Chai Cart opened my life to a whole new world. A world where customer service means a smile, not a call center; where lowering costs means saving an extra 5% on raw material, not cutting down on business class travel or lavish parties; where success is defined as being able to meet payroll and pay rent, not options worth seven figures.
In this new world, I have met some of the most amazing people. And for the first time, I truly understand the meaning of the word "community".
I often get emails from people around the world asking me for advice on starting a similar chai or food stand in their city. The first thing I say is - if you are doing it for money, then don’t do it. The food industry isnt the most profitable one. I take The Chai Cart out because I love hanging out with my food cart friends and love meeting people who stop by.
I started Green Coriander because I passionately believe that we all should eat fresh, unprocessed foods and support a sustainable food system.
Life as an entrepreneur is not easy, yes we all heard that. Sleepless nights, crazy hours, personal sacrifices - life literally becomes a roller coaster. The only way you can pull through the lows and enjoy the highs is you inherently believe in yourself. your convictions and choose to follow your inner passion.
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