For a part of his research overseas journey to India in 2010 Bert Mueller stayed with a number household in Jaipur. Mueller and a few of his classmates who had been additionally finding out overseas introduced their respective households meals from their residence international locations.
“They did not prefer it very a lot,” Mueller says of the meals he introduced from america. However he seen one other classmate had the precise reverse expertise.
“One among my mates was of Mexican origin and he or she would make chips and salsa and beans and tortillas,” he says. “Sooner or later I came to visit to her home and I noticed she’d made this meals for her household she was dwelling with they usually had been loving the meals.”
Mueller hadn’t actually thought-about beginning a enterprise — his main at The School of William & Mary was music and public coverage — however seeing a household who had by no means had Mexican delicacies take pleasure in it a lot gave him an concept.
“One thing clicked in my head that perhaps this was one thing I may do — I may deliver Mexican-inspired delicacies to India,” he says.
After ending his diploma, Mueller, 22 on the time, returned to India to open California Burrito, a fast-casual Southern California-style burrito restaurant.
In the present day, 12 years after opening the primary brick-and-mortar, there are 103 areas throughout the nation.
‘Nothing is predictable’
Mueller attributes his determination to review overseas in India to being a “contrarian.”
“I needed to go someplace that was radically completely different than the U.S. and so I made a decision that India was the place to be on condition that, first off, I cherished Indian meals and second, individuals spoke English,” he says.
Whereas a few of his classmates discovered the cultural variations off-putting, Mueller thrived.
“Nothing is predictable,” he says. “Day by day is completely different and so in the event you discover monotony boring, in the event you discover consolation boring, then India is an ideal place to be.”
Photograph courtesy of Bert Mueller.
After graduating in 2011, he determined to truly execute the imaginative and prescient he’d had throughout undergrad and begin a Mexican restaurant in India.
Mueller and his companies companions, two childhood mates who’ve since left the corporate and returned to the U.S., picked Bangalore, the fourth-largest metropolis within the nation, for the restaurant’s first location. It being an IT hub meant that many residents had traveled to america and had possible tried Mexican or Mexican-adjacent meals.
Mueller estimated it could price $100,000 U.S. {dollars} to open his first retailer, so he raised $250,000 from family and friends “to watch out,” he says.
The primary location earned about $500,000 USD in the course of the first yr, in keeping with paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It. And that unique $250,000 in funding ended up being sufficient for Mueller to open two extra shops.
Since 2012, Mueller has continued to open up areas in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi. In 2024, California Burrito introduced in $23 million in income.
‘I by no means felt like quitting’
The model’s success got here regardless of some distinctive hardships.
“The most important problem was that the individual we had employed in the beginning to run our whole operation and assist us out was a really crooked particular person,” Mueller says.
He employed an space supervisor who had labored at different chain eating places.
“He was very nicely educated,” he says. “He spoke nice English, so it was straightforward to speak with him. And he was very useful. He would drive us round to search out distributors. He would advocate distributors. It made our lives a lot simpler as a result of we had been 22-years-old on this international land with no information of the way to function.”
Mueller quickly came upon the person he employed was charging suppliers double the price of merchandise and had plans of replicating California Burrito.
“He would name authorities officers to the shop and say, we weren’t doing X, Y, and Z,” Mueller says. “He would collude with distributors to do issues. After which later he went off and began his personal burrito restaurant, which failed.”
The setback did not deter him from making California Burrito as profitable as attainable.
“My mother is a marathon runner, and I’ve that trait in me,” he says. “You need to hold going till you have reached the end line. And I by no means felt like quitting.”
Mueller’s unique plan was to solely keep in India for 5 years, he says. However after these preliminary 5 years, he realized it could be higher if the corporate grew its personal substances.
Now California Burrito sources from 5 completely different rooster suppliers and planted 500 avocado bushes, a few of which had been trampled by elephants. The corporate grew tomatillos in Karnataka, however “an enormous quantity of rain got here and worn out all of them,” he says.
Investing extra within the farming side of the provision chain had Mueller begin “pondering in many years,” he says.
And, as for now, his keep in India feels indefinite: “I haven’t got an exit date deliberate in my thoughts. I like India. India appears like residence to me and being residence, you do not suppose a lot about leaving.”
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