Brothers and NaanStop Co-Owners Samir and Neal Idnani Are a Testament to the Power of Family
When asked the most obvious question, NaanStop CEO and co-founder Neal Idnani shrugs and laughs. “So many people ask us, ‘How are you in business with your brother? I could never be in business with a sibling!’ For us, it’s just natural. We’ve always been close, best friends and confidantes.” Sitting across from his brother at their downtown Atlanta NaanStop location, company CFO and co-founder Samir Idnani adds, “When you grow up sharing a Game Boy on long car trips as kids, you learn a lot about sharing, compromise and figuring things out!”
Reflecting on their relationship and business partnership, Samir and Neal have much to celebrate. They founded NaanStop in 2012, a fast casual concept serving their mom’s recipes in a quick service environment. Twelve years later, they have three metro-Atlanta locations with more on the way and attribute their success to the close bond as brothers.
Explains Samir, “Before we ever worked a day together, we agreed our relationship would always be the priority and that we’d rather walk away from the business than damage our bond as brothers. Knowing someone you trust without question is in this business can bring so much calm in moments of tension and stress.”
And stressful days in the restaurant business don’t come more tension-filled than the spring afternoon Neal was about to drive the NaanStop food truck onto Santa Monica Boulevard in California. While on the way to the beach, he noticed a grease fire had started on the truck. To kick the tires on the NaanStop concept, Neal, a former Chicago bond trader, and Samir, who has a master’s in business administration from University of Southern California, created a business plan together. Both had maxed out credit cards and pooled their savings to start their dream company. And now, that dream was engulfed in flames in the middle of the street.
Recalling the panicked phone call from Neal, Samir remembers, “I was like, ‘You did WHAT to the truck? On the third day of our business?” Noticing the flames, thankfully, a passerby ran up to Neal with a pair of fire extinguishers, and the pair doused the flames.
But even through NaanStop’s literal baptism by fire, the brothers’ proof of concept worked, and in 2012, the two Georgia natives returned home to open the first brick-and-mortar NaanStop location on Broad Street in downtown Atlanta. It was followed by a store in Buckhead in 2014 and Atlantic Station in 2019. The idea for creating an approachable, fast casual Indian concept was born from childhood friends coming over and opening their mom’s leftovers stashed in Tupperware containers in the refrigerator.
“We always had that one friend who would look inside the container and say, ‘Nope, not doing it,’” Neal recalls laughing. “But when our mom made keema, basically ground turkey with Indian spices and served it up as a taco, he devoured it, and a light bulb went off for us.”
The brothers say the family recipe for their business success was recognizing each other’s areas of expertise and trusting the other. While Samir, who also has a Georgia Tech mechanical engineering degree, is the technology and numbers guy, Neal learned to make their mother’s family recipes by working in the kitchen with her to create NaanStop’s book of recipes and got schooled in the fast casual food business by taking a minimum wage job at Jimmy John’s for a year starting as an assistant manager trainee.
“We always defer to each other in our areas of expertise,” Samir explains. “We have different styles of decision-making. I like to sit with a decision. I need time to process.” Adds Neal, “I’m more ready, fire, aim. But it’s about respecting each other and our individual processes. We’re not afraid to tell each other, ‘Here’s what I think, but this isn’t my department. Ultimately, this is your decision.’”
As they make plans for new NaanStop locations, Samir and Neal will occasionally allow themselves to peer back into that inaugural food truck rearview mirror to celebrate their successes over the past 13 years. In 2012, there was a line out the door and down the block when they opened their first store on Broad Street—the same day Samir got discharged from the hospital following heart surgery. In early 2020, the pair spent 45 minutes on a Zoom call with President Biden discussing the impact the pandemic was having on their small business. And when business dropped 70% overnight in March 2020 as the world shut down, Neal and Samir hustled around the clock to keep all three of their locations open and their staff employed. They came up with NaanStop family meals that customers could order online and pick up, contact-free in makeshift carpool lanes. The meals proved so popular that NaanStop continues to offer them as a way to help raise money for local charities. “Even now, people like the convenience, and we’ve been able to donate more than $40,000 to Atlanta-area charities,” says Neal.
And the Idnani brothers’ advice for other siblings considering going into business together? Create and respect professional boundaries and treat each other respectfully, even when things get stressful. “We have literally bled, sweat and cried together over this business,” says Neal. “Our experiences together at NaanStop have only brought us closer together.” Adds Samir, “We trust each other implicitly in a business that doesn’t foster a lot of trust. Ultimately, we know we’re always going to have each other’s back.”