Friday flashback: When VG Siddhartha was ready to sell his house, wife’s jewellery to build CCD
The CCD boss had spoken to ETPanache a few days before his company went public in 2015.
On role models
“Whenever I get time, I read a lot. I just finished Elon Musk’s biography. When he came from Africa to US to work, his first job was cleaning a boiler for $18. Imagine, what a tough job it is. And now, we know that man has created Tesla and SpaceX. But my first role models are [Azim] Premji and Nandan [Nilekani].”
On getting inspired by Silicon Valley
“I was once having dinner with Sequoia venture capitalist Michael Moritz. He was an investor at the time. He told me that in 1992, five people went to him, and asked for $5 million. Everybody said do not give money, IBM will lay it away. That company became Cisco. In 1999, three people went to him, asking for $5 million. Again, everyone said do not give money, Microsoft will lay it away. Yet, he gave $5 million. That company became Google. He said if that was the story, then only big guys should become bigger. There would have been no scope for you and me to go up the ladder. So, I keep these stories as inspiration. If someone is big today, it doesn’t mean there cannot be anyone bigger after 10 years... Always, dream big, put your common sense, control your cost and put your best.”
On other founders
“I meet him [Sachin Bansal, cofounder Flipkart] often for coffee in their office. Except, he always gives me my own coffee.” “Kunal [Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal] once told me that he and Ola founders [Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati] met about 45 times in one of the CCDs in Delhi, when Ola was starting.”
On big coffee chains coming to India
“I don’t want to take names but when any big foreign brand comes to India, if you are not paranoid, that means either you are wrong or you are going to fail. Honestly, when people come and say that they will open 500-700 stores, we do get worried. And they will do it, 5-10 years down the line, but then, we will also do it. With this population, one coffee brand is not enough for the world. I’ll sell anything, including my house and my wife’s jewellery to build this brand. There is passion.”
The disappearance and demise of Café Coffee Day owner VG Siddhartha left the country in shock. On Saturday, the coffee tycoon wrote a letter addressed to his 'Coffee Day' family where he apologised to them for failing as an entrepreneur and opened up about the pressure he had been dealing with. On Monday he went missing from Mangaluru, and 36 hours later his body was recovered by the fishermen in the city's Hoige Bazaar.
The tragic episode saw tributes pour in for the billionaire businessman, whose 'A lot can happen over a coffee' idea brought enthusiasts closer and sparked the trend of coffee dates in India.
Despite running a mega empire, the camera-shy 60-year-old tycoon preferred to stay away from the limelight and mostly maintained a low-profile.
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