bcbusiness.ca OctOber 2014 BCBusiness 55
personal model and it's an expression
of who I am."
For a man on a mission like Vij, Dragons'
Den doesn't just give a platform to fur-
ther spread the gospel according to Vij; it
also gives the opportunity to spread his
brand of business smarts. "It's never big
money that makes an entrepreneur," he
declares. "They start with small money
and take that to create a company. I
think Dragons' Den is a perfect fi t for me
because these people coming to pitch
are looking for seed money—they just
want to get something going. I want to
help someone like I was helped."
This has been a pivotal year for
the Vij brand. Dragons' Den catapults
Vij away from specialty cable chan-
nel Food TV into a primetime nation-
wide show with an average audience
of some 2.46 million viewers watching
live and online each week. There was
an enRoute magazine award in October
2013 for Vij's Railway Express—the fi rst
time a food truck's been given the hon-
our—which squarely places the brand
in "best new restaurant," not "best new
Indian restaurant" territory. And this
September marks the 20th anniversary
of the original Vij's restaurant (18 years
in its current West 11th location). All
that plus a personal milestone for Vij,
his 50th birthday in December, and the
start of a new fi ve-year plan.
"I've achieved my personal goal—to
have five businesses under my belt,
one for each decade, by the time I'm
50," he says. "For the next fi ve years I
want to fi ne tune each of them—make
them more effi cient, more productive
and more healthy in order to have a
life of their own after I am gone. We
want the packaged cuisine to go global;
that's one part of the business that
hasn't stood on its own yet, but it's a
bigger elephant and it needs more capi-
tal and time. Right now I don't need
any capital investment, but if I need a
large amount, I'll talk to the bank. If I'd
lived extravagantly, had boats and fast
cars, I couldn't have done this; at the
end of the day it's my money, it's not
borrowed."
Despite being quoted in a recent
Globe and Mail interview as saying,
"Don't run after money or fame," both
have somehow caught up with Vikram
Vij. It may have been by a circuitous
route, but the Indian teenager who
longed for fame and recognition as a
Bollywood star now can't walk down
the street without people shaking his
hand and asking for autographs. "I've
never pursued money," insists Vij. "I've
always been a spendthrift because I
loved taking that risk—the challenge
of going back and having to make that
little bit more. I don't go to casinos, but
I do gamble on myself—and I'm the only
asset I believe in."
■
BANFF AND BEYOND (Clockwise from
top left) Vij's wife, Meeru Dhalwala;
the cast of Dragons' Den; Vij in his rst
restaurant, Vij's, in 2002; chatting with
customers; Vij's rst cooking job at the
Banff Springs Hotel.
