It was while sitting at the back of the class that Ronak Golecha (19) and Prathyaksh Maloo (20), both final year BBA students at CMS University, started talking about the possibility of setting up their own venture. They were soon joined by their friends Sahil Gadiya (20) and Pratik Golecha (19), who is also Ronak’s cousin.
The plan was always to do something with food. First, they wanted to open a fries joint and even thought about something to do with churros. But inspiration struck after Prathyaksh and Ronak watched a 30-second video on Instagram on a cotton candy burrito in October last year. Prathyaksh says, “That is when we thought we can introduce something in the market that is innovative and unique.”
With their parents equally supportive, the foursome set about converting their idea into reality. It took six months to find the place and eight months to set up Candy Cloud Factory next to Jyoti Nivas College, Koramangala.
Though the initial budget was 10 lakh each, Pratik says, “We overshot it and now the budget has already gone to 15 to 18 lakh per person. We don’t have profits right now; it is just the beginning.”
He adds, “We were looking for hotspots: places such as Koramangala, Indiranagar, and HSR Layout. We hired a restaurant consultancy firm and they said there were two ways to go about it. One was to start in a residential area and the other in a hotspot. They told us that when you start in a hotspot, your brand value immediately increases. Since our brand was the main thing, we chose the second option.”
As for the name, Prathyaksh says, “Our options were Fairy Floss Factory and Candy Cloud Bangalore. Then we came up with Candy Cloud Factory.”
The dessert bar lives up to its name with its ‘Instagrammable’ interiors with cheery pink and turquoise colours. In fact, the aim was to design it in such a way that it’s good for the ’gram no matter where you stand.
“Ronak’s elder sister designed the place, while the paintings and painted pots outside are by Prathyaksh’s cousin,” says Pratik. Prathyaksh adds, “It has a very English café kind of vibe.”
The most important thing of course is the menu which boasts 52 items, including cereal milkshakes, freak shakes and even pizza triangles. The consultancy firm helped curate the menu, train the staff, costing, presentation and packaging and so on. But their flagship product — the cotton candy burrito — was something that the foursome decided on after a lot of experimentation.
Prathyaksh says, “The flavour of the cotton candy had to match the flavour of the ice-cream as well as the sprinkles and toppings. You can’t serve blueberry cotton candy with mango ice cream. You will be like what the hell am I eating!”
Pratik adds, “It is not easy to make a burrito. You put in the ice cream, you start rolling it and it starts to melt and break.” Prathyaksh adds, “The cotton candy for the burrito has to be made in such a way that when the ice-cream touches it, it has to stay for eight to 10 minutes so that even the customer gets time to eat it. The weather is really important (they have to keep the AC on).
That is where the ‘Instagrammable’ interiors sometimes work against them as customers are so busy taking pictures, that they forget to eat and the burrito starts to melt.
Ask them if they had any memorable reactions from customers and Ronak replies, “A group of people came in and were so excited. One person had last eaten a cotton candy eight years ago and the other nine years ago. Now, we have opened this place and it takes people back to their childhood.”
But that doesn’t mean it is only the young who walk in. Prathyaksh says, “We thought we were targeting the age group of 14 to 26 but I see four to 70-year-olds walk in. On the day of our opening, our grandparents walked in and said, ‘We will try a green mango cotton candy. Why not?’”
Candy Cloud Factory is located at #88, Jyoti Nivas College Rd, 5th Block, Koramangala. Call 49652501.
