Chicken Warehouses to Blue Tokai: The Bet That Changed Indian Coffee | First Cheque Ep. 1

How do you build a coffee brand in a country that barely drinks coffee? Blue Tokai’s Matt Chitharanjan started by roasting coffee in a spare bedroom. The first roastery was in a cheap warehouse in Delhi’s Champa Gali, where the surrounding area was largely chicken warehouses and Blue Tokai’s business was 90% e-commerce. Years later, the brand has become one of the most recognisable names in India’s specialty coffee movement. In this episode of First Cheque, Matt sits down with Sanil Sachar of Huddle Ventures, one of Blue Tokai’s early investors, to revisit the journey from passion project to scaled consumer business. They talk about: Why Matt and his wife started Blue Tokai without a business plan Roasting coffee from a spare bedroom and starting out in Champa Gali Why Huddle believed specialty coffee could become a major Indian category The fundraising lessons Matt learned from hearing “no” repeatedly How Blue Tokai navigated the COVID-19 lockdown when a funding round fell through Why delivery became a much bigger part of the business after COVID How Blue Tokai thinks about stores, standardisation and expansion What founders actually want from their investors And why Blue Tokai still hasn’t launched an instant coffee product Watch the full conversation to hear how that passion project became a much bigger bet on the future of coffee in India. __________ When one thinks of the origins of India’s startup ecosystem, the period 1995-2005 stands out as the real OG. The economic liberalisation followed by the IT boom laid the ground for what was to come. The years between 2005 and 2010 were foundational as the internet began to scale and the now-omnipresent e-commerce platforms started taking shape. The real takeoff though started post 2010 and up to 2015, riding on the back of cheap smartphones, mobile internet, entry of global VCs and founders building product companies, among others. The period post 2015 till now, there have been episodes of consolidation, the so-called funding winter, and a push by the government. All these time periods were marked by the start of umpteen business ideas, most of which fell through. But then are those which have become the poster names, redefining how we shop, pay, dine, unwind and everything in between. And behind them were those who believed in these ideas, and pitched in with the most critical element: funds. First Cheque is a podcast series by ETEntrepreneur which brings together founders of breakthrough startups and their early backers, and reminisce–well, mostly–the early days. #BlueTokai #Coffee #StartupIndia #Entrepreneurship #Investing #VentureCapital #IndianStartups #SpecialtyCoffee #FirstCheck #ETEntrepreneur