FICCI FLO, under the leadership of the 42nd National President, Ms. Poonam Sharma, hosted a virtual session, “Mitti Cafe’s Journey: From Zero To Scale,” to celebrate inclusion, purpose, and change. Founder of Mitti Cafe, Ms. Alina Alam, led the session to provide insights about how she made a successful and unique chain of cafes named Mitti Cafe run entirely by adults with disabilities. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree & National Award Winner for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (2024).
This virtual session benefited attendees through the exchange of ideas. Also, it talked about the journey of Ms. Alina from the challenges she faced while working on her startup idea to building an inclusive brand. She has turned the cafes into platforms of resilience, inclusion, and entrepreneurship.
Her journey is proof that business can change lives — one plate, one cup, one opportunity at a time. The virtual session was chaired by Startup Cell Initiative head, Ms. Priya Goutham, with the support of team members Archana Burman, Nupur Handa, Shuchita Gupta, Simran Sahni, Pooja Arambhan, Anupama Modi, Charu Gupta, Jyothi Thomas, and Archana Doshi.
Mitti Café’s Journey session was organized under the National FLO Startup Cell initiative, which focuses on empowering women at every level of entrepreneurship- whether at the ideation stage, a growing enterprise, or a scaling business. This virtual session is a part of FICCI FLO’s efforts towards encouraging community-driven start-ups.