A few days ago, I received a message on WhatsApp. It was an analysis of customer behaviour as a consequence of some changes for a QSR chain. The message was pretty enlightening, clear as a day, and concluding in nature. As usual, I read it, brainstormed a bit, and entered my response. It had two statements. Soon after I hit send button, I panicked and said to myself – “OMG, what have I done!” I had responded to Mr Ajay Kaul – the man who led Dominos India from the front for 13 years.
It was silly of me to raise the questions to someone who had practically lived in the food and beverages industry for decades. By the time I thought of deleting the message but I got the pingback. He wrote – “Your 2nd statement is not necessarily true. (well off waala point). Various pilots over the years suggest differently. The only factor right now that makes ordering customers price-agnostic is… (sic)” Then he went on to explain the nuances of how the food industry works.
It was a long text full of wisdom. I read it carefully and realized my viewpoint was not correct. More than the message, what shocked me was that he read my message in the first place and then cared to reply even after knowing that I’m just a toddler a the food business and have only begun to understand it.
Support by Mr B D Goel (Former Chairman & CEO Wave Crest Group)
My interaction with Mr Kaul started during the pandemic. We (Prerna and I, cofounders of Daalchini) were looking for support. In the process, I approached Mr B. D. Goel, one of my mentors at Paysafe. He is one of the tallest men I have worked under and has an equally big heart. He has already founded multiple companies across continents and understands the startup ecosystem to its core. Since he is located in the US at present, I used to wait until 7-8 PM for his reply. He calmly listened to my problem, understood it, and recommended me to connect with Mr Ajay Kaul, his classmate from IITD.
Knowing Mr Kaul
I was as quick as lightning to check his profile which turned out to be a magnanimous one. In 2004, when Mr Kaul started his stint as the CEO of the Dominos India, it had 90 stores. By the time he stepped down in 2017, Dominos had over 1100 stores and had become a common household name. During his tenure, he took the company to one of the best IPOs of the decade.
Before leaving the organisation, this IITD and XLRI alumnus made sure that India was the largest market for Dominos Pizza outside the USA. Currently, as a food and beverage industry veteran, he is a senior director at a private equity firm, Everstone Group.
At first, I was somewhat fearful to contact him thinking to myself– “Would a person like him even bother to respond to me?” Somehow, I mustered the courage to ping him. He patiently listened to what I had to say (maybe because I was referred by Mr B D Goel, I don’t know!). But as they say, hands-on people get convinced by hands-on experience, the next day he was at one of our vending machines. A series of meetings followed after that.
Mr Ajay Kaul as Chief Advisor
Now that he has agreed to help us by guiding us as our Chief Advisor, we look forward to learning from his enormous ocean of in-depth knowledge and focus on increasing ‘same-store-growth’ which has been a big challenge so far for the vending machines.
I wish ourselves good luck and thank Mr Kaul for accepting us. I also thank Mr B D Goel for helping us when it was needed the most.
Read more about Pre Series A Funding of Daalchini and Mr Ajay Kaul joining as chief Advisor
