Founder to operator to educator: Siddharth Handa traces how The Baker’s Dozen and later Eklavya (Bengaluru) were built on a simple promise — quality, integrity, and patience that compounds.

He and family co-founded two ventures in 2012, running primary care clinics in Navi Mumbai while learning artisanal bread from first principles. They self-funded, opened four stores, supplied 35–40 restaurants and 15–20 supermarkets, and only later raised external capital. Playbooks were practical: society sampling, pop-ups, conservative rollouts, and “one-day fresh” bread to protect trust. At Amazon he learnt mechanisms and annual planning—then applied them to launching a school guided by parent trust and clear policies.

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Chapters:

[00:00] Upbringing and values that set the bar

[00:07:09] Family co-founding: aligning life goals first

[00:14:24] Narrowing to five needs; clinics vs bakery

[00:16:50] Two ventures at once; choosing focus

[00:19:05] Learning craft bread; sourcing pro equipment

[00:24:11] Funding, capex and unit economics

[00:29:54] Flagship stores; break-even discipline

[00:33:08] Sampling and pop-ups to win first users

[00:39:03] Channels, B2B and saying no wisely

[00:46:56] Demand patterns and supply planning

[00:54:30] Amazon mechanisms and scale lessons

[01:01:20] Starting Eklavya (Bengaluru): plan and build

[01:11:16] Admissions, parent trust and school policies