When Indian-born Karan Bilimoria arrived in the UK aged 19 to study law at Cambridge University he found that English lager was not to his taste.
But his student dream to create a smoother, less gassy lager to complement Indian food took a back seat as a career in accountancy with Ernst and Young beckoned.
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Karan Bilimoria tells the story of Cobra Beer and discusses the challenges in getting an entrepreneurial business off the ground
Bilimoria soon came back to his idea despite ?20,000 in student debts, creating Cobra Beer in 1989 and importing it to the UK from Bangalore. ?I built it up from the grass-roots going door to door [to Indian restaurants] in a battered, old Citroen 2CV,? says Bilimoria in an video interview with FT.com.
Cobra is now one of the fastest-growing brands in the UK, with a turnover of ?80m and is sold in 38 countries.
Bilimoria?s top tips for entrepreneurs:
? ?Most business ideas stem from being dissatisfied with a product or a service and thinking, ?I can do this differently,? or, ?I can do this better?.?
? ?What is it that enables people to supply you and finance you and buy from you...? I think they do these things if you have complete and utter passion, faith, belief and confidence in your product, in your idea, in your brand.?
? ?With good advisers, particularly in the early days, it seems very expensive but you very quickly learn, yes, they probably are expensive but you get what you pay for.?
? ?That?s almost a definition of enterpreneurship...you?ve invariably got all the odds stacked against you, you?ve invariably got limited resources and you go out there and you make it happen.?
Read other entrepreneurs? top tips
