Now we are starting with one that you’re probably familiar with, it’s a household name across India, Wow Momo, so Wow Momo is from the capital city of West Bengal, Kolkata and the startup ranks Kolkata as the ninth best startup ecosystem in India, and there are several reasons for this, but one of them is the city’s incubator, so IIM Kolkata has innovation park, then there’s also NASSCOM’s startup warehouse, which alone has incubated more than 200 startups in the state.
Now coming back, It’s not technically a startup anymore because the company was founded all the way back in 2008, but we thought it was worth mentioning because it’s so well-known. So back in 2008, two college friends, Sagar Dariyani and Binod Homagai decided to turn their shared passion for momos into a business venture. But how do you turn Momos into a viable business with so much competition, because there are momo stands in pretty much every locality of every major city across India and they’re selling Momos for very affordable prices.
Well, the answer, as you can probably imagine isn’t to undercut that competition because Wow Momo actually sells their momos at between 3 to 4x the normal price of momos so why would anyone want to buy these momos, well part of the reason is the standardization of hygiene and taste, they’ve pretty much taken the playbook of brands like Domino’s to build a momo QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) brand which is pan India and another reason for their success is, just like domino’s is the dine-in experience and as we all know street vendors are selling momos where you have to stand and eat your momos after you’ve purchased them, wow momo allows you to sit down inside of a restaurant. and while their momos are definitely more expensive than street momos.
Also, meals at Wow Momo are typically more affordable than most QSR restaurants, making it an affordable restaurant experience for consumers on a tighter budget. They opened their first kiosk in Kolkata with just 30,000 & one of the rare companies that are exclusively focusing on their offline rupees, and today Wow Momo is selling momos worth 440 crore rupees from more than 800 outlets across India.
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