23-YO From Thane Sells Authentic Benne Dosas Via A Street Stall & Clocks Rs 40,000 In Daily Sales - Now Setting Up A Fixed Dosa Shop

When one looks at a street stall selling Indian food and doing exceedingly well, one thought comes to mind: how easy, how smooth, how low-risk it is.

And that’s the thing about a street stall - nothing seems too flashy. People call it a “taste wonder” and stop at that.

For Ganesh Sathe, a 23-year-old from Thane, the experience of starting a food street stall was completely opposite. It was rooted in raw doubt, multiple episodes of trial and error, emotional breakdowns, and finally finding the inner belief to start all over again.

“On the outside, everybody thinks a food stall is a low-investment business option, which you can scale within months. It’s not. Like any other business, numerous problems like customer acquisition and conversion-related marketing come into play. As for me, I am just happy that my family has been so supportive throughout. It is because of them that we are now able to scale our Benne dosa business even further,” Ganesh Sathe, founder of The Benne, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2023 and officially launched in October 2025, The Benne is a Thane-based authentic dosa small business which started as a street stall and has now turned into a fixed food shop.

THE BACKGROUND

Hailing from Thane in Maharashtra, Ganesh Sathe completed his schooling as well as college education in Thane itself.

His father is a Maharashtrian, while his mother comes from Bengaluru.

“After college, I started preparing for CA. Alongside, I would get an entrepreneurial itch all the time. We had an old cart kept at home for six years. I would regularly pitch the idea of selling vada pav via this cart. We even had a small chutney grinder, plates, and bowls in place. But this plan was always parked for the future,” Ganesh tells Startup Pedia.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

Finally, in January 2023, Ganesh convinced his parents to lend him Rs 50,000. This was his first serious attempt at starting a food street stall.

“My mom makes the yummiest dosas. I decided to sell exactly that: benne dosas with authentic white butter sourced from Pune. My tagline was simple: high-quality dosa. I used the old cart that was already available at home, so I didn’t have to spend a lot,” the small business founder explains.

But when Ganesh Sathe started running his food street stall, multiple challenges came up.

Many new carts and food trucks started appearing on the same street that he would set up his stall on. These carts had better lighting and flashier setups. They would also sell pizza rolls, momos, and other popular Chinese food.

“Right in front of me, I could see customer preferences change. Here I was, trying to use the best-quality ingredients like the Fortune oil, barely getting any customers. My sales had dropped,” he mentions.

Then, operational issues took over. Running the cart and catering to customers during the rainy season became difficult.

From weekend sales of Rs 2,000-3,000, The Benne saw a sharp drop to barely Rs 200.

“For most of 2023, I was running at a loss. The thing about South Indian food is that it has to be prepared fresh and served hot. You can’t just reuse stuff the next day, unlike Chinese food that can be reheated. My mother and sister, Sapna Sathe, would prepare batter for the dosa, only to see it getting wasted every day. I was also giving a small salary to a stall worker at the time. It just stopped making sense,” Ganesh Sathe opens up.

Drowning in losses without a glimmer of hope, the small business founder had an emotional breakdown by mid-2024.

“I remember I came home crying, told my family that no one values fresh and authentic food anymore, and decided to shut down the cart immediately,” he adds.

MONTHS OF SELF-DOUBT AND FINALLY BOUNCING BACK

For the next five months, Ganesh Sathe and his sister Sapna Sathe stayed at home and wondered what had gone wrong.

“Our maama (mother’s brother) lives in Rameswaram in Bengaluru. We randomly decided to visit the famous Rameswaram Cafe there. It was a great experience. It felt like the universe wanted us to experiment with dosas again,” young entrepreneur Sapna Sathe tells Startup Pedia.

After observing authentic Bengaluru-style dosa culture, the Thane-based siblings came home and decided to restart their food cart business.

Even though mentally exhausted with the prior failure, Ganesh and Sapna decided to do things a bit differently this time.

“Around the same time, I came across a Ratan Tata post. I was about believing, building, and becoming. It was very motivational and almost pumped new life into me. I knew I couldn't stop. Later, I even wrote on the front of my cart: inspired by Ratan Tata sir,” Ganesh smiles.

In early 2025, the small business founders started working on restarting The Benne. This time, with more practice and more grit.

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THE DOSA SHOP PLAN THAT FELL THROUGH: A RUDE REALITY CHECK

Sapna Sathe told her brother that starting The Benne via a fixed food shop would be an ideal, more stable option.

“The thing is, there were so many TMC issues in 2023 that we knew that getting a fixed shop would make everyone’s life easier. It would also help customers know exactly where The Benne is set up,” small business founder Ganesh Sathe mentions.

Around the same time, Ganesh and Sapna made the Instagram handle for The Benne and started documenting their journey of establishing their small food business.

After multiple family discussions, the siblings’ parents agreed to give them Rs 4 lakh to start The Benne from a fixed rental shop in Thane.

“We were very happy. We felt like everything was making sense now. A proper dosa shop for ourselves? It was a dream. But it crashed,” young entrepreneur Ganesh says.

“When we met a real estate agent through a friend, we got a reality check,” Sapna says.

The monthly rent alone for the shops was Rs 1 lakh, and all the owners required at least 5-6 months of deposit.

This time, Ganesh and Sapna didn't let the setback affect them for too long. The latter came up with an idea: revamp the old cart instead of setting up an expensive shop.

“My observation was simple: benne dosas were trending on social media again, yet no one was selling them on the street at the time in Thane. I thought it was our moment to shine,” Sapna tells Startup Pedia.

All this while, the sibling duo kept showcasing their journey on social media. People started connecting with them, and that gave them hope that they were on the right track.

Ganesh and Sapna requested their mother for Rs 30,000.

“Honestly, she was hesitant. Our parents thought we were wasting our time and money on this dosa plan. They had seen it not work out earlier. Somehow, we convinced them. There was a lot of argument at home,” Ganesh Sathe shares with Startup Pedia.

For additional money, the small business founders took out a loan of Rs 30,000 using an online quick loan application.

“We used this money to revamp the cart completely. We made it clean, shiny, and almost premium-looking,” Sapna laughs.

For one full month, the siblings and their mother practiced making the batter for the benne dosa. They wanted it completely golden and crispy. After nailing the preparation, they were finally ready to set foot in the market.

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THE BENNE: AUTHENTIC SOUTH INDIAN DOSAS MADE WITH HIGH-QUALITY INGREDIENTS

On 18th October 2025, The Benne food stall was officially launched and established.

Since Ganesh Sathe and Sapna Sathe had already shared their journey via Instagram reels, they started getting a lot of local visibility as well. 

In October, their stock would get sold out within just one hour of operations.

“We gradually began increasing our stock. In the first week, we got 20 customers per day. Then, soon after, that number jumped to 100 customers per day,” Sapna Sathe beams.

By November 2025, The Benne started seeing a surge of 300-400 customers per day. Within just two and a half hours of operations, they would be completely sold out.

Their daily sales went up to approximately Rs 40,000.

“In November, we ran The Benne for the entire month. But then TMC issues started happening. One time, they crushed an entire stall in front of us. We immediately packed up and ran,” Ganesh tells Startup Pedia.

In the first 10 days of December 2025, the siblings didn't bring their stall to the street. Then, they started setting up only on the weekends - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Currently, The Benne sells three dosas:

• The Benne Masala Dosa (retails for Rs 130, out of which Rs 40 is the take-home profit).

• The Podi Masala Dosa (retails for Rs 140, out of which Rs 40 is the take-home profit).

• The Plain Masala Dosa (which retails for Rs 100, but gives the small food business neither a profit nor a loss).

While Sapna and her mother prepare the dosa batters every morning, Ganesh makes the dosas live at The Benne stall.

The small business founders claim to use the highest-quality of ingredients and use an authentic style of preparation.

THE BENNE DOSA SHOP

With a surge of customers coming in from all parts of Thane and Mumbai, Ganesh and Sapna realized one thing: operating out of a mobile cart, fearing every time TMC showed up, and making customers wait for 20-30 minutes for a single dosa was not going to work.

“We now have enough funds because of the successful operations of The Benne. We have savings from there. For additional money, my mother has pledged her jewellery and my father has taken out a loan too. This wouldn't have been possible without our parents’ faith in us. We are now ready to set up our dosa shop in Thane,” small business founder Ganesh Sathe tells Startup Pedia.

With life coming full circle, Sapna Sathe and Ganesh Sathe have secured a fixed shop in the exact location where they had first set up the old food cart in 2023.

With the shop plans underway, the young entrepreneurs are regularly documenting every step of the journey, from building the dosa shop, setting up equipment, and sourcing utilities, through Instagram reels. Their social media handle now has more than 5,000 followers.

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