S1E6: Millionaire Mondays - Matt Chitharanjan, Blue Tokai

Millionaire Mondays by Backstage with Millionaires

00:00 Intro 04:04 How Matt started a coffee business 07:13 Challenges while roasting coffee in India 08:58 Blue Tokai's marketing strategy 09:49 Blur Tokai's ₹40 lakh roaster 11:19 The raise of Blue Tokai 15:25 Opening their first location 21:25 Challenges faced while expanding 24:28 How Shivam Shahi joined Blue Tokai 27:01 Becoming a cafe 28:39 Delhi Police seals Blue Tokai locations 32:03 Evolving coffee culture in India 32:43 Blue Tokai during the pandemic 34:56 Blue Tokai post pandemic 36:30 Blue Tokai vs other cafes 38:56 Will coffee price increase in India? 43:27 Blue Tokai products 45:52 Blue Tokai going global? 47:14 Challenges for becoming profitable 51:08 Bootstrapped vs external capital 52:35 Blue Tokai IPO 56:11 Outro In the United States, third wave coffee culture in the United States was in full swing. During this third wave, concepts like farm to cup and single origin beans were popularised, and Matt Chitharanjan had been living in the Bay Area from 2003 to 2007, so he’d jumped into this movement headfirst during his time there. He even bought a small roaster and started preparing small batches of coffee as a hobby. When Matt came to India in 2011 for a 1-year job opportunity in Chennai, he spotted an opportunity. He saw the Cafe Coffee Days and the Baristas of India and realised that coffee’s third wave hadn’t reached India yet. It was in Chennai that Matt met his wife and co-founder Namrata Asthana, and after moving to Delhi in 2012, they got to work setting up India’s first homegrown specialty coffee brand, Blue Tokai. Now, Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters is India’s largest specialty coffee brand, with its headquarters in Gurgaon, India.