On a January evening in 2025, the lights inside an IIT Bombay auditorium settled on a young woman holding a small plastic cup. Inside it sat a frozen espresso shot. In front of her, a hall full of students leaned forward in anticipation. A panel of angel investors watched, ready to raise their bidding cards.

Sheena and Karan Khurana understood that her moment on that stage was shaped by years that did not look dramatic from the outside. It was shaped by a tiny kiosk in Gurugram, by long nights of trial batches, and by conversations with her younger brother Karan about why people deserved better coffee at home.

Now, they had 10 minutes.

By the end of the pitch, investor bids for Zenma Coffee had crossed Rs 3 crore. Within minutes, Sheena and Karan secured on-spot funding that added strength and validation to a journey they had built from the ground up.

The moment felt sharp and bright. But the path that led to it was slow, steady and deeply personal.

This is the story behind Zenma’s 10-minute pitch at The Ten Minute Million at IIT Bombay’s E-Summit early this year, and the life that exists beneath the spotlight.

Sheena grew up in Delhi, studied Economics at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, and then built a corporate career in real estate private equity. Karan studied Economics at St Stephen’s College and was still in college when coffee began to take over their conversations.

In her office years, Sheena spent a lot of time in cafes. She noticed a gap. In many North Indian homes, people still reached for instant coffee. Cafes, on the other hand, served layered, fragrant drinks built on fresh espresso.

“I was going to coffee shops every day, spending Rs 250 to 300 on a cup. At home, we still had instant coffee that just did not taste the same,” she recalls.

Curious and slightly stubborn, she saved up her salary and flew to Rome for a barista course. There, she saw how seriously the world took Indian beans. Back home, she felt restless about what passed for coffee in most kitchens.

When she quit her job, she did not go straight into an online brand. She rented a small space in the same building where she once worked and opened a kiosk named ‘16 Grams’. Karan helped between classes. Office-goers stopped by, some out of curiosity, some returning every day.

That kiosk opened in 2019. It gave the siblings something precious: a close view of what people actually drink and ask for. It taught them that people wanted the depth and flavour of cafe coffee. They wanted the strength of espresso, especially in milk-based drinks. Yet most homes did not have espresso machines, and many did not want to buy one.

That gap sat in the siblings' minds for months.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, footfall vanished. The kiosk, built with their own savings, could not survive such long stretches without customers. By 2021,........

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