When Nidhi Singh and Shikhar Veer Singh took the decision to stop their jobs as scientific researchers to check entrepreneurial waters, everybody warned them towards it. “It isn’t sensible to go away a well-settled, profitable life to chase a dream,” was a typical remark they heard.  

However the Bengaluru couple had by no means been the type to restrict themselves to their consolation zone. Nidhi, who was with a healthcare firm for a decade, and Shikhar, who labored in biotechnology, have been at all times eager on fixing intriguing issues and bridging gaps that existed on the earth via their respective analysis. 

Their profession paths would shift after a visit to the native meals courtroom, the place they noticed keenly the recognition of a beloved Indian snack — the samosa. The duo acquired speaking about how, regardless of the recognition of the snack, there was a scarcity of organised gamers available in the market. Nidhi says that in the case of samosas, most sellers are native outlets. Not like pizzas and burgers, there weren’t many large manufacturers in 2015 that have been into promoting the snack. 

They weren’t prepared to go away the dialog at that and needed to provide you with an answer. 

In a dialog with The Higher India, they communicate of how this dialog led to what’s as we speak Samosa Singh. 

“We shared a ardour to handle this hole and begin a enterprise of our personal. Shikhar — who was of the thoughts that one ought to take the deep dive and begin as a substitute of getting a backup possibility — stop his job in 2015. I stop a yr later. He would typically say {that a} backup possibility makes you too comfy,” reminisces Nidhi concerning the starting of the enterprise. 

In 2016, the couple have been set to launch a model that might, in time, “got down to reclaim the rightful place of samosa within the story of Indian snacks”. The model, they are saying, is a mix of innovation, aspiration and legacy. As a result of in any case, the snack has been the nation’s pleasure for hundreds of years now. 

Crunching numbers and recipes 

When Nidhi and Shikhar got down to construct Samosa Singh, they thought that contemplating the snack they have been constructing a model on, it could be pretty easy. However they have been incorrect. Offered at each native store and crossroad, they must ideate and provide you with a singular promoting level. How would they stand out in a market brimming with samosa sellers? 

However they quickly discovered a means round this daunting query.

“Consider your favorite pizza model or favorite burger outlet. Do you like it as a result of it sells the perfect pizza or burger on the earth? No. You like it and order from it as a result of regardless of the day, season or time, or metropolis, the style is constant. So we, too, determined we might construct a model that prided itself on consistency, as a substitute of aiming to beat the market,” Nidhi explains. 

Whereas off to this enthusiastic begin, the couple quickly hit a speedbump after they started realising that “a samosa can by no means be excellent”. “There exist scores of recipes. Everybody has their very own model of a samosa that they love. So as to add to this, there are such a lot of completely different varieties — the samosas of Hyderabad and the samosas of Punjab are completely different. We would have liked to excellent our samosas based on the situation whereas retaining consistency,” Nidhi explains.  

Within the quest of establishing Samosa Singh on these pillars, the duo determined that in the event that they have been going to be a one-stop answer for the snack, they wanted to handle the ever-prevalent downside — soggy samosas. 

There’s science within the dough

How typically has it occurred that you just ordered or picked up samosas out of your native retailer to get pleasure from with chai, however the brief journey residence meant opening a bag of soggy samosas?  

Having skilled the identical, the duo considered utilizing their biotechnology experience to know how samosas are made “at a scientific degree”, and resolve the issue as soon as and for all. 

“One answer was, after all, frying the samosas solely as soon as the order was positioned in order that they’d stay contemporary. However one other method we got here up with was utilizing particular rollers. The dough has gluten bonds inside the construction, and so these rollers put strain on sure elements of the dough, inflicting the gluten bonds to interrupt. That is our secret.” 

“At present, we pleasure ourselves on the crispiness of our samosas, even with supply instances,” Nidhi says including that they continue to be crispy and contemporary for six hours. 

With a batch of crispy samosas which might be reasonably priced as nicely, nobody might say no to Samosa Singh. The model quickly discovered clientele in households throughout India, giant corporates, cafes and eating places, and even Air India.

And on the forefront was a Bengaluru couple proving naysayers incorrect. 

“We’d hear quite a bit that our earlier expertise would come to no good. However making meals is, in any case, a science. In science we autoclave merchandise. Within the kitchen, we strain cook dinner them. It’s all associated. We believed in our model and fervour, and it labored,” Nidhi exclaims.  

From one outlet to a multi-city standing

Although they might be enterprise companions who oversee completely different facets of the enterprise as we speak, Nidhi and Shikhar say they have been only a couple with a dream a very long time in the past. 

“However I feel what set us aside was that we by no means procrastinated. We might provide you with a plan, after which execute it rapidly. That has helped immensely. Within the early days, Shikhar would ship orders and I’d handle issues on the bottom. We didn’t have workers, and began with one outlet in Bengaluru,” she notes. 

This begin occurred in a 300 sq-ft kitchen with one cook dinner, whose most vital process was to make sure the samosas take in much less oil. Nidhi notes that whereas they might have resorted to baked samosas that weren’t as greasy, the market appeared to need fried ones as a substitute, and so, their try was to maintain these much less oilier than regular. 

To strike a stability between these two was robust, however they noticed it via. By the years that adopted, Nidhi and Shikhar employed extra workers members and cooks, and constructed the model into the empire it’s as we speak. 

With a presence in eight cities together with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Mysuru, Chennai amongst others, the model sees cumulative gross sales of fifty,000 samosas day-after-day from all retailers, amidst different gadgets like chaat, kachoris, and so on. 

Whether or not it’s an aaloo masala samosa, a veggie spice samosa, a Manchurian samosa and even cheese chilli samosa, they’ve all of it. Evaluations say their snacks are “superior”, “most superb recipes”, “real and genuine” and “crispy for therefore lengthy!”. 

Ask Nidhi and Shikhar the sensation of getting scaled their ‘child’ into the booming enterprise it’s, they usually say, it began with a dream. You simply must consider. 

Edited by Divya Sethu