When Nidhi Singh and Shikhar Veer Singh from Bengaluru decided to quit their jobs as scientific researchers to start a food business, everyone was surprised.
Nidhi, who was with a healthcare company for a decade, and Shikhar, who worked in biotechnology, were always keen on solving intriguing problems.
While at a local food court one day, they observed keenly the popularity of a beloved Indian snack — samosa.
That is when they got talking about how, despite the popularity of the snack, there was a lack of organised players in the market.
Nidhi says that when it comes to samosas, most sellers are local shops. Unlike pizzas and burgers, there weren’t many big brands in 2015 that were into selling the snack.
So, they decided to bridge the gap.
In 2016, the couple were set to launch a brand that would, in time, “set out to reclaim the rightful place of samosa in the story of Indian snacks”.
When Nidhi and Shikhar set out to build Samosa Singh, they realised they were up against intense competition from local market players.
But they managed to figure out a USP for their brand.
“Think of your favourite pizza brand or favourite burger outlet. You love it and order from it because no matter the day, season or time, or city, the taste is consistent,” says Nidhi.They decided to apply the same rationale to their samosas.
Another unique aspect of their samosas is that they remain crispy for over six hours.They achieved this using their knowledge of biotechnology.
“A technique we came up with was using special rollers,” says Nidhi.
Since the dough has gluten bonds within the structure, the rollers put pressure on certain parts of the dough, causing the gluten bonds to break.
Though they may be business partners who oversee different aspects of the venture today, Nidhi and Shikhar say they were just a couple with a dream a long time ago.
While they started in a 300 sq-ft kitchen with one cook, today they have a presence in eight cities and see cumulative sales of 50,000 samosas every day from all outlets.