This man built a Rs 35 crore turnover desi burger chain challenging the giants in the business

When Rajah Faisal opened Whataburger's first store in Noida in 2015,  he took the battle right to the doorstep of a  McDonald's store, from  where his staff made a bold  and irresistible offer to burger lovers:  taste our  burger and if you don't  like them,  we'll give you your money back.

Rajat says the company owned outlets is where they perfect their business model

Crowds poured in, tried their Indian burgers, and came back again and again for more. And no one ever asked for a refund. The reimbursement challenge was one of the strategies that Rajah, a professional driver, adopted to transform Whataburger into a brand with a turnover of Rs 35 crore (201920) in just four years.

Today there are 67 Whataburger outlets located in 15 states with Delhi alone having 11 outlets and many more located in tier 2 and 3 cities such as Muzaffargarh, Muzaffarnagar, Patna, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jaipur, Surat and Vadodara.

Rajat is a commercial pilot and has 8000 hours of flying experience.

“We opened our first store in Sector 18 of Noida, which is a favorite haunt of young people, school children and students,” says Rajah, who was targeting this crowd, which usually goes to McDonald's, KFC or Burger King. "We cut our burgers into smaller pieces and gave them away to people for free.

Our goal was to get at least 50% of McDonald's customers and convert about 10% of them to regulars. Their burgers definitely had an Indian taste and quickly became popular. “We started with the making burger as our main product, and it captivated the burger lovers,” says Rajah." We offered Also Achari, Desi Street and Chile Paneer Burgers, Morton Kebabs, as well as wraps, sandwiches and smoothies." 

Rajat Jaiswal started Wat-a-Burger with Farman Beig in 2015 with a single outlet in Noida.

"We produce our sandwiches, and we deliver them to all shops. Furthermore, we have small manufacturing units at different locations, to allow easy delivery. Furthermore, we also attach local bakers for remote areas." Rajat, 35, comes from Allahabad, where his father owns a logistics and transport company. Her mother is a housewife, while her older sister has lived in the UK for 14 years. He passed Class 12 from St Joseph's School (Allahabad) in 2004 and joined the Indian Institute of Aeronautics in Delhi to study Aeronautical Engineering.

Rajat had run an ice-cream outlet for a couple of year before starting Wat-a-Burger

Center,” says Rajat. He worked the night shift at the call center after graduation at 1 p.m. His shift started in the late afternoon and ended at 1:00 a.m. His classes started at 7:00 a.m. so he usually slept 67 hours a day and I tried to make all the waking hours productiveHe then joined Indigo, where he still works. It was his dream to become a pilot, and he achieved it. But he also had that talent for business, something he could have inherited from his father. During his aviation course in Delhi, he had worked part-time in a call center.

He was selected for Spice jet's Cadet pilot program in 2007. "I was one of 100 people selected nationwide for the program," says Rajat. Spicejet sent them as training pilots and gave them jobs after completing the course. Rajat went to Sabena Flight Academy in Phoenix, Arizona for his year and a half training. He joined SpiceJet at the end of 2009 and worked there until 2015.

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