Our Iyyapanthangal Outlet got damaged by fire!!!


Our Iyyapanthangal Outlet got damaged by fire. It was very unfortunate and frustrating news to start the day with.

Got a call by 5 AM from one of my director that our shop got damaged because of fire.

Must thank the cops and fire fighters for bringing down the fire and for their support.

They say it happened because of gas burst, but we had no gas inside the outlet. It was all induction based appliances. But there was no point in investigating.

This outlet in Iyyapanthangal has many first;

  • It was our first Coffee Outlet.
  • It was our profitable outlet.
  • It was our flagship outlet.
  • It was located near to my house.

This is the picture of the outlet when our honorable CM of the day passed away. There was no shops open and I took the risk to run the outlet to serve the people. Many people including cops appreciated us for keeping it open as there was no shops open near the vicinity.

For, now I’ve to thank the cops, fire fighters, my friend Ravi and the Land Lord for their support during this tough time.

Now, we are considering many options and one of the option is to completely close down the outlet.

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Sightglass Coffee!! Client meetup experience


Went to Sightglass Coffee at 7th Street, SFO to meet a client!!!

I was simply wowed by the rustic looks, the environment they provide for Startups & Hackers and finally their coffee!!!

This place gave me the experience and thanks to Steven to showing this place to me.

This is going to be my frequently visited spots!!

Sightglass Coffee!!

What is this situation called!!!



Two weeks back I had a discussion with my CFO Mr. Bala and we decided to rework on our Coffee Shop initiative!!!

Like we anticipated there were lots of hiccups on reworking on big Coffee Shop. It involved many challenges like;

  • Finding Coffee/Snack Menu
  • Finding a Shop
  • Working on Interiors
  • Working ways options to need capital needs!!
  • Recruiting staff

Then with lot of delebration we have decided to go for a franchise for a small coffee shop kiosk.

By doing this we thought;

  • We will have a quick start!!
  • Reduce on Capital Cost!!
  • Can meet our requiredCapital expanses through internal sources!!
  • Franchiser takes care of supply chain and stafftraining!! 

With that thought we immediately arranged a meeting with a franchiser and made an agreement him, we fixed a place and as always it was the bank which was playing spoilsport to fund us in spite of holding an FD!!!

Bank offered us 80% of our FD as loan and we asked for 100% as we have a working relationship with the bank for a long time and also we have;

  • Fixed Deposit
  • Current Account which has no interest!!
  • A 60+ salary account

In spite of threatening the bank that we have to look for another bank they stretched the limit to 90% of FD. But we agreed for this ask the money was sufficient to start!!

When we thought we have set everything is place and we were good to start. The place we finalised couldn’t be fixed as the person incharge backtracked for some reasons.

Now we are aggressively looking for place!! It is a Coffee Shop Kiosk and we need 10 * 10 sq ft space in some prime locality or commercial place which can get us lot of footfalls!!

We are looking for a place in following locations.. Kindly pass a message if you have any reference;

  • Porur
  • Valasaravakkam
  • Kesavardhini
  • Alwarthirunagar
  • Virugambakkam
  • Avichi School
  • Vadapalani
  • Butt Road
  • Manapakkam
  • Mugalivakkam

Thanks in advance for sharing leads!!

Day of Coffees


The day started with loads of appointments. But to my surprise all the appointments were cancelled and had nothing to do. Then I & Balaji had long pending shopping to do. So Balaji made some shopping in Mega Mart and then we left to iStore in to buy Laptop bag for my new Mac book.

Then we thought of having coffee at 36 Degrees Coffee & Juice Shop near Foreshore estate. We picked up two more friends and went to the coffee shop. To start off with things were not smooth as Balaji got irritated that there were no coffee’s in a coffee shop. So we settled for Sandwiches & Shakes. But Balaji got carried away with The Ambience and with the quality of food and drink… Also the price was very nominal and Balaji was finally happy.

When we entered 360 degrees there was a curious looking Birthday girl named Cathy dressed like an angel was sitting in the entrance expecting her friends for her birthday party. When we are half way having our grub slowly Cathy’s friends and their parents started dropping in with gifts.

You can imagine how the place would have become with a bunch of kids between the age group of 4 – 6 years. Kids were playing with balloons. Then Cathy’s parents arranged for magic show and the Magician really presented well in front of kids… I realized how smart these kids were when the magician was asking for colors, remembering the counts, remembering the name of cards and also finding out the trick played by him. It was absolute chaos. But watching tiny tots enjoying was real fun. Initially we though we have to vacate the place thinking we might be a hindrance for their privacy. But the magician involved other guest like us and got us connected with the party.

Then we walked out with absolute satisfaction. Then from there we didn’t know what to do. So I thought of visiting Amethyst Coffee Shop as we have not been there… Again a wonder place when it comes to crowd and ambience. I was not that impressed with Food & Drink when compared to 36 Degrees Coffee Shop and also prices were on the higher end. Again I was angry on myself that I didn’t carry my camera to shoot snaps at these wonderful places. Anyways there were no complaints as these places are in Chennai and we can make it anytime again.

Then I had an appointment to meet an entrepreneur friend of mine at 8 PM which was scheduled in Café Coffee Day located inside Mega Mart where we started the day. We dropped two friends at their home and drive to meeting and shared our latest experiences and we packed our bags. But what was interesting things for the day was; 

  • We started and ended the day in the same place.
  • We visited three different coffee shops.

Over all I was not regretting for cancelled appointments as the day was more fulfilling and I enjoyed the weekend in a different style.