Great businesses are born out of great ideas and even greater products. And that with strategic leadership comes out to be the right concoction of success. Interestingly, with accessibility to data and advancements in technology, exceptional ideas might not be in short supply. But it is also thought-provoking to understand if the market has enough saturation for scalable businesses.
While collaborating with Gaurav Bothra, the editorial team understood that the situation is far more concerning than it seems from the outer shell. Coming from the food and hospitality sector, the competition is steep and profit margins are shrinking faster than ever. Gaurav Bothra has been a stellar professional during his time at Zomato. He is pretty thrilled about the fact that the F&B industry has come such a long way with delivery platforms. But he cannot shy away from pointing out that although local restaurants have been exposed to a larger audience, that does not always mean that business is booming. In the fast-tapping system of mobile applications, restaurants are finding it challenging to keep up with the online delivery system. Gaurav Bothra understood this major camouflaged gap and founded Suphal Media on November 27th, 2023, to address the pain points of increasing discoverability of restaurants in these online delivery aggregators. They are not your average ‘marketing agency’ but a strategic partner, backed with data and insights to help restaurants navigate the complexities of platform profitability.
Gaurav was winning at his job at Zomato, but there came a time when he started to understand the lifeless digital chains that were limiting these great food businesses. Gaurav shares with us that one restaurant owner opened up saying, “We are doing everything right, but still not getting profits”.
Under the leadership of Gaurav Bothra, Suphal Media in less than two years, scaled from a two-member team to a 12+ professionals working with over 100 brands and 700+ outlets across 13 cities, including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi & Mumbai. Along with marketing, Suphal Media’s expertise includes managing pricing strategy, menu engineering, aggregator partnerships, and end-to-end P&L management for restaurants.
Gaurav Bothra has never supported or enforced micromanagement. He vividly remembers a time at one of his previous posts, where he was mistreated in spite of performing well at his job. A mindset of compassion, gratitude and respect has resided within him. And we believe this helped Gaurav build Suphal Media with a team that aligns with a unified company vision. Suphal Media is looking forward to expanding to cities like Mumbai and Delhi while staying rooted in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Additionally, the startup is also aiming towards becoming a one-stop solution for all revenue streams of a restaurant — dine-in, delivery, events, and corporate partnerships. To name a few brands that have benefitted from the services of Suphal Media would be Pista House, Conçu, TrueBlack Coffee, Swiss Castle, Harley’s, Ohri’s, Slay Coffee, Lucky Restaurant and several others. Suphal Media provides services like Detailed Analytics, Ads Management, Discounting Strategy, Aggregator Management, Menu Optimization, Sales Forecasting, Pricing Strategy, and Profit/Loss Management. These ensure Platform visibility, Menu performance, Campaign efficiency, Margin protection and Growth consistency.
Gaurav Bothra is passionate about entrepreneurship and how it can evolve society. He is also proud of creating a team that understands Suphal Media’s mission statement. And that has also been possible for a distinguished leadership team that includes Anshul Chadha – Head, Strategic Accounts & Monetisation and Shashank Kumar Pawar – Head, Growth & Marketing Strategy.
As highlighted by Gaurav, Anshul leads Suphal’s key account relationships, bringing operational intelligence, pricing clarity, and margin-first thinking to every project. Having built and scaled brands from the ground up, he knows the business inside out. Shashank is the creative strategist behind the scenes – crafting campaigns, content plans, and brand ideas that give restaurants their “X factor” online. From visual storytelling to offer positioning, Shashank ensures that every brand doesn’t just sell, but connects.
Awards and recognition are a byproduct of great contributions to the economy. Suphal Media has been recognised as one of India’s fastest-growing niche agencies for restaurant growth. They have scaled brands by 300% in six months and achieved 460% year-on-year growth, which became the talk of the hour. Gaurav Bothra has also been invited as a guest speaker at NMIMS and similar institutions. To understand a company’s legacy, understanding the value given to its customers is important. Gaurav and his team were invited by Deepinder Goyal and the Zomato team as part of select consultants to discuss the online ordering industry and how to scale it in the future and are working very closely with them. For the coming years, Suphal Media is strategizing to manage all revenue streams of F&B brands and create a transparent, data-backed and holistic process for restaurants.
Gaurav Bothra says, “Good food can win hearts, but only strategy and numbers can win sustainability.”
