In this episode, Tim sits down with Cheetie Kumar — chef, owner of Ajja and Big Cat in Raleigh, NC, and two-time James Beard Award nominee — for a wide-ranging conversation about what it looks like to build a life and a business from scratch with more passion than experience. Cheetie traces her path from immigrating to the US as a child, through punk rock and bartending, to opening a music venue and eventually a restaurant with no formal training. She speaks candidly about the financial blind spots that nearly derailed her early restaurant — underpricing her menu, not understanding cost of goods, and spending years without a real grasp of finances. She also reflects on the emotional weight of growing up with financial insecurity and how that shaped her relationship with money through the present day. Throughout the conversation, Cheetie brings the same thoughtful, collaborative ethos she applies in the kitchen to questions about entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and what it means to build something that reflects your values.

Cheetie's question for Tim: What are five essential financial literacy elements for a first-time small business owner?

Key Takeaways:

1. Cheetie describes herself first as someone who fixes problems: the reality of running multiple restaurants is that the job is mostly about solving whatever is in front of you.
2. Her path to being a chef was indirect: she was bartending to support her touring life when a lease on a real restaurant space presented the opportunity to start her own restaurant, and she learned how to do that entirely on the job.
3. The DIY ethos of punk rock deeply shaped how she approached opening her first venue and restaurant — not waiting for permission or credentials, but simply identifying what was missing and building it herself.
4. Cheetie shares how not taking on outside investors meant keeping full ownership so that no one else had a claim on what she built, even when that made things harder in the short term.
5. She now approaches finances with diligence and rigor — tracking expenses, reconciling regularly, and understanding that there is no substitute for staying on top of the numbers, because looking away even briefly can put you in the red.

Links:
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Cheeti's IG account
Ajja
Big Cat on Brookside