‘The new American dream’: Meet the US expat who built a $23M food business in India

At the age of 22, Bert Mueller left the United States and moved to India with two friends, a chef, and a dream. Today, he’s the millionaire behind the super-successful restaurant chain California Burrito, widely credited with popularising Mexican cuisine in India.

For Mueller, the journey started during a study programme in college for which he visited India. According to CNBC Make It, a fellow student in the study programme brought Mexican food for her host family and they absolutely loved it. When Mueller saw how much the Indian family had enjoyed Mexican cuisine, the idea of bringing it to India was planted.

“Something clicked in my head that maybe this was something I could do — I could bring Mexican-inspired cuisine to India,” Mueller told CNBC Make It.

When he told friends and family back in the US about his idea, they were surprised - to put it politely. According to Forbes, many asked Mueller if he had gone crazy, and one friend curtly told him, “Wake up. It’s not Alice in Wonderland.”

But Bert Mueller was dead set on his idea. In 2012, he moved to Bengaluru and opened the first California Burrito outlet. He was only 22. Today, the restaurant chain has more than 100 outlets across India and earned $23 million in revenue last year, CNBC reported.

Setbacks and regrets

But the journey has not been without its setbacks and regrets. The pandemic brought huge losses to the business, and 19 of its 37 stores were closed. In 2021, however, California Burrito resumed its march to success.

Mueller also regrets not investing in marketing during the initial years.

“Marketing was something we totally underinvested in and really didn’t start spending on until Covid,” Mueller told CNBC Make It. “I wish we had done this earlier — done marketing earlier,” he added.

When California Burrito opened its 100th store in India recently, it hired influencers to promote a deal that brought in millions of customers - the Mexican food chain priced everything on its menu for ₹100.

“We wound up with these incredible lines out of the stores because too many people had showed up,” said the founder.

“I see my journey as a new American dream,” he told Forbes.