“Peace, love, and hot dogs.” – Darshan Ramanagoudra

I received an email a few days ago from a young entrepreneur in Bangalore India. Darshan purchased my Carts of Cash book and used the information to start a mobile hot dog biz along with some of his friends. It took off like a rocket. You’re going to be inspired by this story…

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Good day Steve,

First of all let me say that I’ve been waiting a long time to write this mail to you.

My name is Darshan and along with 3 of my friends Nag, Rahul and Akshay, an average age of 22, started a hot dog company in Bangalore, India called “Hungry Hogs”. We incorporated Hungry Hogs in October 2009.

I eventually got your book “Carts of Cash” in the Hot Dog Biz 101 course in January 2010. And let me just say that it’s been a great help.

We started operations in Dec 2009, and decided to take it one step at a time since hot dogs are relatively unheard of in India as opposed to burgers and pizzas. We started operations by catering at outdoor events such as music concerts, and college cultural festivals, and also private party orders.

To our amazement we were appreciated more than we planned for and before we knew it, we had filled our calendar of 3 months with events.

Seeing this response from the customers, we decided to take it to the next step and in April 2010, we started home delivery of hot dogs in a locality called Koramangala in Bangalore. And again, it was an overwhelming response.

We continued this for 3 months and finally in August, when we felt we were ready, we opened a small cozy diner in Koramangala, the photos of which I’ve attached along with this mail.

I’m pretty sure I’ve left a lot of details. The thoughts are going through my head at mach speeds but my hands can only type so fast.

It’s been a little more than a year since we started Hungry Hogs, and now in Jan 2011, we’re ready to open a second outlet in Bangalore, and we’re already getting franchise offers from rest of India.

Coming to the hot dogs. We have chicken and Veg sausages (no pork, no beef-so as not to hurt any customers’ sentiments), from which we have six different types of hot dogs.

Click the menu below for a larger version –

We’ve given them funky names to suit our target market, i/e the youth.

The 6 different hot dogs are:

* Plain Jane- Sausage, ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce
* Say Cheese- Sausage, coleslaw, jalapenos, onions, cheese, ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce
* Just Chili’n- Chili made of beans, hot sauce, onions
* Sev the World-Mint chutney, tamarind paste, sausage, onions and sev (an indian confectionary)
* The italian job- pizza topping, sausage, onions, capsicum, tomatoes, olives, melted cheese, seasoning
* Corny Island- garlic butter spread, mango pickle (the indian style), sausage, stir fried sweet corn

Apart from the hot dogs, we also serve a sausage masala, garlic bread, fries and stuff.

As I’ve said before we’ve been met with an overwhelming response, and we’ve been getting excellent reviews in the press as well as by our customers.

As a rule we haven’t spent on conventional marketing, our marketing includes 7-8 websites where we’ve registered. Most notable being Bangalore’s Burrp.

One of the highlights of the first year of Hungry Hogs was a high profile visitor, you might have heard of him, Dale Boone, yeah, that’s right, THE DALE BOONE.

The world hot dog eating champion visited us this December and he had a few nice things to say about us. I’ve attached a photo of me and Dale.

There is no particular reason I’m writing this to you. Primarily to thank you for giving us the confidence that hot dogs can be a profitable business and also to let you know that in a place like India, where a lot of people told us to start a burger joint, an unknown product like a hot dog and an unknown brand called Hungry Hogs can do business.

And can do GOOD business.

And also I just wanted to share our story with you. I hope our story can help someone somewhere. It looks like I’ve left out some details, do get back to me in case you need to know more about us and Hungry Hogs.

Peace, Love and Hot Dogs!
—
Darshan Ramanagoudra
Managing Partner
Hungry Hogs
+91 98861 80711

More pics below…

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Darshan – what can I say? I’m very impressed!

You’ve accomplished a heck of a lot in your twenties. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Hungry Hogs here in St. Louis before you’re thirty!

And when I bite into my first “Sev the World” (see the menu), I’ll marvel at the fact that it all started 8794 miles away with a hot dog cart, some peace, and a lot of love.

I’m glad I had a small part in your success Darshan. Keep me posted on your company’s growth.

To your success,

-Steve

P.S. Let’s give Darshan and his buddies some well deserved kudos in the comments, and share this on your Facebook by clicking the blue fShare button at the left!

Click the pics below for larger versions

Click here for free hot dog cart lessons by email.