Profile Overview
Sharan YK is the founder of GroundUp Coffee in Bengaluru, Karnataka and the co-owner of Chikmagalur-based Salawara Estate. The flagship coffee shop aims to create an environment where people can work while learning about the intricacies of coffee and its processes. Along with his brother Eshwar, he is redefining coffee from his estate which has been a part of their family since the 1960s.
In Chikmagalur, Karnataka, Salawara Estate, a coffee plantation blending tradition with innovation, thrives under Sharan YK. As a third-generation coffee planter, he reshapes the family legacy with specialty coffee, transitioning from a bottling company job to launching his startup. His journey showcases a deep love for coffee and a drive to elevate Indian coffee standards.
Foundations in Coffee Heritage
Sharan’s roots in coffee run deep. In the 1960s, his grandfather, a paddy farmer in Karnataka, decided to diversify from rice to coffee. Starting with rice mills, he gradually invested in coffee estates, including acquiring Salawara Estate, which became central to the family’s holdings. By the time he passed away, Sharan’s grandfather had amassed the coffee plantations, divided among the family.
Despite having a strong family background in coffee, Sharan’s entry into the world of coffee was not immediate. After completing his Master’s in management in London, he pursued a career abroad, working in Dubai for an LED company. Despite these experiences, he found himself unfulfilled.
Sharan recalls those years filled with a sense of uncertainty about his future. In 2016, after years of exploration, Sharan returned to India.
I didn’t want to be just another coffee brand—I wanted to create something that people would remember.
- Sharan YK
A Key Experience in Coffee Bottling
Before starting his own coffee business, Sharan gained valuable experience in marketing and distribution at Good Stuff, a Bengaluru-based coffee-bottling company. The company's focus on ready-to-drink bottled coffee influenced Sharan's career. But as he spent more time with the product, he grew increasingly dissatisfied.
“The coffee was too sugary, and it lacked depth,” Sharan recalls. “I didn’t enjoy consuming it myself, and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t better.” This dissatisfaction planted the seed for what would eventually become GroundUp Ventures. Sharan realised there was a gap in the market for high-quality coffee that wasn’t masked by sugar and additives. His experience with the bottled coffee company gave him the insight he needed to break away and do something different.
The Birth of GroundUp Ventures
In 2016, armed with a newfound passion for coffee and a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve, Sharan co-founded GroundUp Ventures with his friend Umar Shabeer. The idea behind the venture was simple but ambitious: to elevate the coffee grown on Salawara Estate and bring it directly to consumers, offering a product that was rich in flavour and reflective of the quality of their beans.
Sharan’s first step was to immerse himself in the world of coffee. Realising that he lacked the technical knowledge required to produce specialty coffee, he took courses for coffee roasting, cupping, estate management and more at the Coffee Board of India.
Sharan’s commitment to learning went beyond formal education. He visited cafes across Bengaluru, speaking with baristas and café owners to understand the challenges they faced with coffee quality. He discovered that many cafes struggled to find blends that worked equally well for both black coffee and milk-based drinks like cappuccinos and lattes.
“It became clear that there was a gap in the market,” Sharan explains. “Cafes needed a versatile blend that could suit both types of customers.”
A barista brewing magic at Sharan’s GroundUp Coffee, Bengaluru.
Sharan aims to create a minimalistic, noise-free ambience at GroundUp Cafe for coffee lovers.
Collaboration with a Coffee Legend
One of the significant moments in Sharan’s coffee journey was his collaboration with Sunalini Menon, India’s foremost coffee expert and the first woman professional coffee taster in Asia. Sharan and his business partner Umar sought Ms Menon’s help in 2016 to create a coffee blend that would set them apart in the market.
“We were young and inexperienced,” Sharan recalls, “but Sunalini saw potential in what we wanted to do.”
Under her guidance, Sharan and Umar developed their first blend, which would later become their venture GroundUp’s signature product. The blend was designed to cater to a wide range of customers, offering a balanced profile that suited both milk-based drinks and black coffee. It quickly became popular in the cafes they partnered with, helping to establish GroundUp as a serious player in Bengaluru’s growing coffee scene.
Coffee saplings are often nurtured in a controlled environment for some time before being planted.
Building a Brand from the GroundUp
Launching GroundUp Ventures was challenging. Sharan and Umar had to work hard to break into Bengaluru’s competitive café market.
“We approached dozens of cafes, but only a handful showed interest,” Sharan recalls. “It was tough, but we didn’t give up.”
One strategy that helped GroundUp gain traction was its store-in-store model, in which it partnered with cafes to manage its coffee operations.
“We’d bring in our equipment, handle the coffee, and provide training to the staff,” Sharan explains. This approach allowed GroundUp to showcase its coffee directly to consumers, giving them the chance to experience the product in real-time.
As GroundUp Ventures began growing, Sharan remained committed to his vision of producing high-quality coffee. He wasn’t interested in scaling rapidly or cutting corners.
“For me, it was always about quality over quantity,” Sharan says. “I didn’t want to just be another coffee brand—I wanted to create something that people would remember.”
We wanted people to see the full range of what coffee could offer. It wasn’t just about serving a cup of coffee—it was about educating customers on the complexities of flavour, process, and brewing techniques.
- Sharan YK
Innovation and Experimentation at Salawara Estate
While GroundUp Ventures was gaining momentum in Bengaluru, Sharan turned his attention back to Salawara Estate. He realised that to produce truly exceptional coffee, he needed to innovate at the source. This meant experimenting with different coffee processing methods, such as honey processing, washed processing, and more complex fermentation techniques like carbonic maceration and yeast fermentation.
“Convincing the workers on the estate to adopt new practices was one of the biggest challenges,” Sharan explains. “For them, coffee was just another crop—they didn’t understand the impact that these new methods could have on the final product.”
But Sharan persisted, introducing new techniques and showing the workers how these changes could improve the quality of the coffee. He finds it surprising how many workers never taste their own coffee. But once they do, it ignites a deep interest in improving the quality of the produce and a sense of pride within them.
By 2019, Salawara Estate had expanded its offerings to include 23 different processes for Arabica and 14 for Robusta, making it one of India’s most innovative coffee estates.
“We became known for our specialty Robusta. It’s something that not many estates focus on, but we’ve been able to produce some amazing results,” says Sharan.
The culmination of their hard work was recognised when Salawara Estate won the Illy Award for Best Quality Bean from India in 2018, a testament to their commitment to excellence.
Investing in a Roastery for Full Control
As GroundUp Ventures continued to grow, Sharan realised that to maintain the high quality of his coffee, he needed full control over the roasting process. In 2019, after years of outsourcing roasting to third-party facilities, Sharan invested in a Giesen 5kg roaster for GroundUp’s operations.
The roaster allowed Sharan and his team to experiment with different roast profiles, ensuring that each batch met their exacting standards. Sharan could now produce coffee exactly the way he envisioned it, offering a more consistent and higher-quality product to his customers.
The man behind GroundUp with the man behind SoCoffee
Sharan's GroundUp Coffee is where people enjoy and learn more about their brews.
Crafting the Coffee Experience
Beyond coffee, Sharan was deeply committed to creating an ideal café environment for customers. At GroundUp’s flagship café in Bengaluru, he has designed a space where customers could explore different brewing methods, from espresso-based drinks to manual pour-overs. The café also features a rotating selection of beans from Salawara Estate, allowing customers to taste different flavours produced by different processing methods.
“We wanted people to see the full range of what coffee could offer,” Sharan explains. “It wasn’t just about serving a cup of coffee—it was about educating customers on the complexities of flavour, process, and brewing techniques.”
The café quickly became a hub for coffee lovers in Bangalore, drawing in both casual drinkers and coffee connoisseurs alike.
A Vision for the Future
As Sharan looks to the future, his focus remains on balancing growth with sustainability.
“I don’t want to expand too quickly and lose sight of what makes us special,” he says. His vision for GroundUp Ventures is one of measured growth, ensuring that the brand’s reputation for quality remains intact as it continues to scale.
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