A Pinch of Risk, a Lot of Sauce: Veeba's Path to Success According to Viraj Bahl Looking back on his early days as an entrepreneur, Bahl said that the difficult years in the restaurant business became the stepping stone for Veeba.
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Veeba's current e-commerce presence jumped to 8-9 per cent from 1-1.5 per cent two years ago, and the company's strength comes from three pillars: product and product innovation, distribution, and team, according to its Founder and Managing Director, Viraj Bahl.
Speaking in a fireside chat at the recently held Entrepreneur Summit 2025, he said, "I think some credit goes to my honourable opposition for keeping me on my toes."
Looking back on his early days as an entrepreneur, Bahl said that the difficult years in the restaurant business became the stepping stone for Veeba.
"Eventually, I pulled the plug on the restaurant business. And for my restaurants, if you think of India before 2009 or 2010, it was predominantly ketchup, hot and sweet sauce, mayonnaise, and mustard. And I always wanted a variety of sauces for my restaurants, which were not available. So, with that in mind, I said, let me try and get the variety of sauces into India. And that's how I started Veeba," said Bahl.
Before Veeba, Bahl turned to the option of selling his house, and said he is grateful for his wife's agreement on the matter. Even though the company's start-up money came from the sale of their property, Bahl warned future entrepreneurs against the move.
"If anyone is thinking of starting a business here, please don't sell your house. That was a different India. At best, that was a story of naivety, not a story of a hero. You know, at that time, neither the consumer companies got investment, at that time, there was no Shark Tank, at that time, there were no VC funds. It was a different India. You do not have to take those kinds of drastic steps," said Bahl.
During the early days of Veeba, Bahl set a goal to hit INR 100 crore in revenue, and only then enter the retail business. After knocking on the doors of the likes of Pizza Hut, KFC for business, the company got its first order from Domino's Pizza for 70 tons of sauce. "I will never forget, I sat down on the couch, and I said, Now this company will not shut down. The company started doing well after the Domino's order."
After the big Domino's order, came orders from Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, and Burger King, allowing Veeba to hit the 100 crore revenue mark three and a half years after the inception and enter the retail realm.
Asked about which part of the journey was tougher- 0 to 100 or 100 to 1000- Bahl said, "Undoubtedly 0 to 100. So I feel 0 to 100 is the most difficult, and 100 to 300 is easy. After 300, the band plays again. Because then, suddenly, the company becomes slightly bigger."
Bahl said that distribution plays a key role in how the company operates. VRB, which owns the Veeba and WalkTalk brands, recorded almost 71-72 per cent of its distribution revenue from general trade, 21 per cent from modern trade, and close to 9 per cent coming from e-commerce and quick commerce, according to the founder. The company also boasts a reach of 800 cities.
As competition grows, Bahl sees it as an opportunity. "If I see a company has made a good product, I get anxiety from inside. Then I buy their products, then I sit with my lab team, R&D team, chef, and we make sure we launch a better product than that company, and because of our volume of scale, we will always be able to undercut that new entrant by 20 per cent. So, I will never, ever make the mistake of taking a young entrepreneur lightly," said Bahl.
