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Sashi Chimala: From software to coffee

Shobha Warrier in Chennai

Normally, one does not expect a software whiz kid, busy raking in the moolah in the Silicon Valley, to leave a cushy life to set up a coffee pub in Chennai.

Well, meet Sashi Chimala, chief executive officer of 'Qwiky's, India's first coffee pub, who did just that; though not before he sold - "for good money" - two software firms he had started when the IT boom was at its peak.

What drove him from software to coffee was the passion to do something "daringly different."

Exporting software engineers to the United States is not unusual these days, but it was unheard of in the 1970s. When Tata Burroughs started sending software engineers to the US, it was setting a new precedent. Sashi Chimala was a member of the second batch that went to the US in 1979.

"There were not many Indians in the US then, and Americans didn't know much about us either. So there was a lot of cultural bias. They had some preconceived notions about India and Indians. Some of them were actually surprised when I told them that we had English newspapers in India!" Chimala smiles.

"However, in the 20 years that I was in the US, I saw their perceptions about India undergo a sea change. They first accepted the ability of Indians in software development, and then actually started demanding Indian software professionals," Sashi Chimala reminisces.

When in the US, Sashi Chimala co-founded CBSI - now known as Convansys - a Nasdaq listed company, in 1984, but left the firm to start Indigo Technologies in 1992 all by himself.

It was the desire to create new products that made him start Indigo Technologies. "It would have been easier to build an IT company that 'did projects', but there was no fulfillment in the job." His dream came true when Indigo Technologies developed products that automated stock exchanges. "The product we created was very 'mission critical'. The Nasdaq uses our product. The Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the Madras Stock Exchange run on it, too. So it was quite an achievement for us," he says.

Meanwhile, the US had entered infotech boom time. Chimala got an attractive deal from SSI Technologies in 1998: he sold Indigo Technologies in return for stocks in SSI. The share price of the SSI was around Rs 500 when he Indigo Technologies, but soon thereafter jumped to Rs 2,500 and at onetime even touched Rs 7,000.

However, after two decades of American experience, Chimala decided to return to India - to do something different. But the question was 'what'? Having built two successful software companies, starting a new business was not a scary idea for Chimala.

However, he swam against the current. 'Dot-coms' and 'IT start-ups' were the buzzwords in the late 1990s, but he decided consciously not to get into software again.

"Everybody was getting into the dot-com business. I don't want to come across as a wise man after the event, but I knew that the dot-com bubble would not last. I found the business unreal. I had the experience of running two companies and knew the kind of expenses needed to run a business. Who pays for all that? I asked where would the revenue come from for dot-coms? Can a company survive on advertising alone?"

After analyzing all the opportunities, Chimala brewed a new idea. He decided to start a coffee pub and sell coffee. It seemed like a particularly courageous move, if not quirky, to try and sell his idea to the people of Chennai who have always been the connoisseurs of filter coffee.

Why coffee and why Chennai? It's a question Chimala has faced a hundred times ever since he set up 'Qwiky's in 1999.

"My wife and I were regulars at the coffee pubs in the US, and when we came here, we really missed the coffee pubs and the hours of conversation that we had there. It was the place where we went to relax. In India, we had various food joints where we were forced to order, eat and go. Not exactly a place conducive to pouring one's heart out to the other. We felt the need for a coffee shop - or rather a community place. And then India has the largest coffee consuming population. So we decided on a coffee pub," he says.

Many of his friends advised him against the move. The usual refrain being: "How can you build something on one beverage alone?" But by then, the idea had kindled a fire within Chimala. He could not rest till a coffee pub was established.

But things were easier said than done. Ideas need to be implemented to make them successful and Chimala was faced with a logical problem. He had no experience in the coffee business at all. He knew his programming, he could even create software products, but the brew was something new.

"If I were to go for a job interview connected with coffee pubs, I would have been rejected outright. I had no experience in running a coffee pub. I had no knowledge of the Indian consumers as I had been living in the US for twenty years. I had all the handicaps, but by then the idea had become a passion for me. The mind of a possessed entrepreneur sees only the positive aspects of a venture," says Chimala.

Soon he set about making amends. He went to Italy, visited a lot of coffee places and obtained firsthand knowledge of how to run a coffee pub. The more he learnt the more confident he became of the success of his proposed venture till, that is, the day before the inauguration of his coffee pub.

"I was worried. What if nobody came? I must have asked my wife a hundred times, "Will people come tomorrow?"'

He says that a supportive family is a must for the success of an entrepreneur.

On October 1, 1999, he opened the first Qwiky's pub in Chennai. He knew if he could sell coffee to the people of Chennai, he could sell it to anyone in the world.

"On the day of the opening I was shocked. You won't believe it but people waited outside for the pub to open. When I saw people lining up to buy coffee, I knew I was on the right track!"

The young and the old, the connoisseur and the amateur, the fussy and the easy, all seemed to have willingly embraced the idea. Like Radhika, a young college student, who says: "I don't mind spending twenty bucks for a cup of coffee. My friends and I frequent the place quite often. We sit and yap for a long time. Nobody disturbs us. That is what we like. And, the coffee, it's great,".

Sixty-year-old Palaniswamy frequents the coffee pub. "Till I came here, I didn't know that coffee could be so tasty," he declares in amazement.

Qwiky's is the pioneer in revolutionising coffee pub culture in India. With the entry of Qwiky's, many more players have entered the field all over India. Qwiky's now has 15 outlets and over 20 coffee kiosks in Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. It has served more than a million cups of coffee in just two years.

The success of Qwiky's, according to Chimala is: "You can just sit sipping coffee and watch the world go by and no one will ask you to clear the table. That is why our slogan is 'Because the world can wait'."

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