Entrepreneurship is often presented as a formula. 

Find an opportunity. Build a Product. Find customers. Scale.

But Karan Tanna’s journey through restaurants, QSRs, hospitality and food-tech tells a different story. From Automobile Engineering to General Motors and McKinsey & Company, and later into restaurants, franchising and food tech, his career has never followed a conventional path.

Today, Karan is the Founder and CEO of Ghost Kitchen India, a technology-led company focused on building and scaling delivery first food brands. Yet across these different chapters, one belief remains constant:
“There is no thumb rule for business. There is only a clear understanding of your purpose.”

For Karan, entrepreneurship isn’t about finding someone else’s formula. It is about understanding your purpose, assessing your risks and making decisions that fit your own journey. 

Your Degree Doesn’t Define Your Destination 

Karan’s entry into food entrepreneurship did not follow the traditional route. He grew up around the food business through his father’s restaurant. He later studied Automobile Engineering and began a career with General Motors before moving to McKinsey & Company. 

None of these experiences directly pointed towards building food brands. Yet, each eventually became part of his entrepreneurial toolkit.  Engineering brought structured thinking. Consulting brought analytical and strategic skills. The food industry brought operational understanding.  Together, they created a different perspective. 

For young entrepreneurs, there is an important lesson here: Your education can shape you, but it does not have to define what you build. 

Business Has No Fixed Formula 

Entrepreneurs today have access to more playbooks than ever. There are founders to follow, podcasts to listen to case studies explaining what worked. But Karan believes copying someone else’s formula can be dangerous. 

“Business has no fixed formula. Know your purpose, understand your risks, and make your move.” 

A strategy that works for one business may fail in another. A premium brand cannot always operate like a mass-market business. A bootstrapped company cannot make decisions like a heavily funded startup. 

The purpose determines the Strategy.

The strategy determines the Risk.

And the risk determined the Move.

The real entrepreneurial skill is knowing which playbook belongs to you. 

Failure Is a Milestone

Entrepreneurship often celebrates the visible wins. But Karan’s approach to failure is more practical.

“Failure is not the end. It’s a milestone where you learn, grow, and gain the knowledge to move forward.”

A failed experiment can create clarity. A difficult decision can expose a weakness. A business that doesn’t scale can teach an entrepreneur what the next one needs. The objective isn’t to eliminate failure. It is to make sure failure leaves you with knowledge.

“Don’t take failure too seriously. It’s not the end of the journey, but a milestone where you learn, grow, and gain the knowledge to move forward.”

For founders, that is a powerful way to look at risk. Don’t romanticise failure. Learn from it—and move.

From Building Businesses to Building Brands

Karan’s entrepreneurial journey also reflects a larger shift happening in India’s food industry. The opportunity today isn’t limited to opening more restaurants. Technology has changed how food brands can be created, discovered and scaled. Delivery-first models, digital marketing and shared infrastructure have lowered some of the traditional barriers to entering the market. But lower barriers also mean greater competition.

When almost anyone can launch a food brand, the brand itself becomes the differentiator.

The question becomes:

What makes this brand worth choosing?

What makes it memorable?

And more importantly, what makes it scalable?

That is where food entrepreneurship increasingly meets technology, branding and consumer psychology.

The Playbook Is Yours to Write

Karan Tanna’s journey has moved through engineering, consulting, restaurants, hospitality and food-tech. Each chapter has been different. And perhaps that is exactly what entrepreneurship is supposed to be.

The market changes.

The customer changes.

The business model changes.

And the entrepreneur learns to change with them.

Failure becomes feedback, Experience becomes an advantage, People become the force behind scale, And purpose becomes the compass. There may never be a perfect formula for business. But there can be a clear reason to build.

“Find your purpose. Know your strengths. Take the risk. Learn from the setbacks. And build something that is uniquely yours.”

Because the most successful entrepreneurs aren’t always the ones who followed the best playbook. They are the ones who had the courage to write their own.

At Gujpreneur, we bring you stories, ideas and insights from the entrepreneurs shaping Gujarat’s business landscape.