Meet The Squad
We’ve got a host of oddballs and eccentrics in our crew.
If you’re the kind of person that likes to get way deep into a company’s background, you’re in for a treat.
RIZWAN AMLANI
The Seed
CEO/Co-Founder
A trained Chef from New York’s Culinary Institute turned coffee maniac, Rizwan put together Dope Coffee with the singular purpose of doing something to help put Indian coffee on the map.
A young but experienced veteran who has played every part possible in the hospitality industry, he knows running a business is important but creating a culture and fostering a community is important-er.
To him, CEO stands for Coffee Everyday Only. Besides being the co-founder of this dream, he’s also our Chief Roasting Officer and comes up with all the roast profiles and for all our coffees and blends.
Driven by a strong connection to nature, leaving the land better than how he found it is as crucial to him as making Dope Coffee a household name.
On his days off, he likes playing table tennis and listening to hours of psytrance. Completely sober. How he does that we will never know.
NITU POHOOMUL
The Deal Sweetener
CFO/Co-Founder
He's worn multiple hats across several businesses the one that he liked the most was selling caffeine extract by the container to some really big names that most people consume on the daily. It lead him deep into coffee and he had an idea of what to do next. With his eyes set on changing the coffee scene in India, Nitu partnered up with Rizwan and co-founded Dope Coffee Roasters.
An OG of the era where Dope meant something totally different, he's seen the stuff that we talk about first hand. 60s Beatlemania, 70s psychedelia and the neon 80s. He lived through those times and uses it to make sure we're staying true to the roots when we're borrowing from cultures of the past.
As CFO, he makes sure that Dope and anyone we partner with get a solid bang for their buck. At Dope Coffee, we've god mad respect for his intelligence and interesting choice of hats. White-haired wisdom and worldly wit make him the cool uncle everyone wishes they had in their life.
Now after all that hard work, Nitu likes to relax by swan diving into the nearest pool while listening to some chill instrumental music.
TURIYA KAPUR
The Method
Lead Strategy
Obsessed with being at the junction of innovation, design and intelligence she aimed for automobile engineering but ended up drifting [yes it's a car joke] into a different path.
After ODing on the sciences she headed over to England with our ex-landlords to complete her MSc in Investment Analysis at a fancy pants business. Graduating like a boss, she was on the corporate grind until managed to get her love of numbers married to her passion for creativity at Dope Coffee.
Butterflying over our CEO Rizwan and CFO Nitu, she's the bridge between their visions. As precise as a manual brew method, she creates the strategies that make their ideas come true. Whether it's levelling up innovations, playing with numbers and budgets, preparing models for growth or coordinating for daily ops and design - Turiya just likes to get stuff done.
Instead of becoming the automobile engineer, she's became a racer on the track thar keeps an eye out for well-calculated pit stops while working with an equally slick and speedy team.
On her time off Turiya likes to plan her futuristic farmland for animal welfare, tell deadpan jokes and figure out the "two pehlus" of existence and the universe.
PRANAL VAIDYA
The Bloom
Business Development Head
Bombay bred and with a super successful streak in the new consumer goods startup market, Pranal is the driving force behind all of Dope’s efforts to become bigger, better, faster and stronger.
Just like how fresh coffee really blooms when you hit it with a little hot water, Pranal makes sure Dope Coffee Roasters mixes with all the right peeps and extracts a win-win scenario for everyone involved. Like we do with our farmers, we like all our tie-ups to be sustainable and sensible.
Always on the job, even on his days off, he likes to help other startups find their feet. A strong supporter of the group effort, he’s working towards creating a network for the peeps in his industry.
HARTEJ SAWHNEY
The Taste
Culture & Communications
Putting words on the digital pages to the thoughts and ideas of the team, Hartej makes some dope copy for Dope Coffee. God, that joke is getting old.
Besides writing, he also has the ability to come up with ideas for drinks and events that the people at Dope Coffee really enjoy. Ranging from recipes like Cold Brew Lemonade to creating and speaking at coffee workshops and styling photoshoots.
Brimming with novel concepts, charm and oozing personality we’d say he’s a super useful guy to have around, even though he’s literally typing this out himself.
On his days off, Hartej likes to produce music, write films he sees in his head and pet all cats within arms reach.