Meet Shreyanshu Rana and Pratham Pengawala: The Surat teens who turned their post-board exam break into a Rs 2 lakh coffee business

In India, completing Class XII boards is a milestone in life. It is considered and hyped up to be one of the most important exams a student will ever appear in, resulting in them staying up endless nights to excel.

After the exams, most students take a much-needed vacation, rewarding themselves for their hard work.However, two Surat teens decided to utilise this time even more positively, by launching their own version of a mini-startup. Class 12 graduates Shreyanshu Rana and Pratham Pengawala turned a simple school fair idea into a thriving cold coffee venture, earning lakhs monthly.

A fair to founders

The idea began during a school fair where the duo sold around 150 cups of cold coffee.

The response shocked them and made them realise that this could be a bigger opportunity.Rather than letting their age or inexperience scare them away, they decided to pursue the idea wholeheartedly. After completing their exams, the friends began working on a business plan and explored ways to bring premium cold coffee to students at affordable prices. Soon, they launched their own coffee venture, Aes The Thick Coffee.

A coffee cart and brand

With the café culture booming in the country, one would expect them to open up a café. However, these two went for a cart in order to avoid massive investments, high rent and additional operational costs.They invested nearly Rs 90,000 and designed a customised open-air coffee cart from scratch. Then, they chose a profitable location, near the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Surat, where there is a steady flow of students and young customers.

Their goal was simple, to offer delicious café-style cold coffee without the high price tags.The opening day came with uncertainty. The duo was able to sell around 30 to 35 bottles of coffee. While the numbers were modest, they kept serving customers consistently and focused on building a relationship and trust based on quality and affordability. As the word about their venture spread among students and local residents, customers began to repeat and increase.Since their idea was focused on customers, they operated the cart every day from 5:30 pm to midnight, typically the period when students and young professionals ventured out in search of refreshments.Soon, the holiday experiment turned into a full-blown successful startup. As per media reports, the venture has generated between Rs 1.18 lakh and Rs 1.58 lakh in revenue in less than three months.The story of Shreyanshu and Pratham stands out for their peculiarity. At a time when most kids their age would have vacationed across the world or scrolled endlessly through social media, they picked up an idea and acted on it. Moreover, they proved that when it comes to entrepreneurship, there is no age barrier. Anyone can identify a gap in the market and fill it with a product of their own, gaining profits in return.However, the friends gained more than just profits, they got a head start in successful entrepreneurship that begins with a simple idea and transforms into a successful business.