Agency: Back in October 2022, The Bhutanese featured a promising young entrepreneur, Jangchub Dorji, who had started a startup called Kuen-Gha Potato Fingerling that was selling frozen fries, and in fact, he was the first Bhutanese to do so.
However, Jangchub encountered two problems. The first was that the machine he had initially bought was not big enough to meet the demand, and secondly, he said the Bhutanese potatoes contained higher sugar starch content, and so there were issues with the fries turning brown due to the caramelization of the sugar in the potatoes.
The only solution was to buy a bigger machine with the capacity to process 300 kgs or more fries in a day, and at the same time, reduce the starch content.
He needed around Nu 10 million (mn) for this.
In 2022 and 2023 he tried for the Nu 1 mn grant per project of the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives (DAMC) where he would have to come up with an additional 30% but he could not get the grants.
In 2024 a private business person approached him and offered a partnership. Jangchub said he offered the business person 50% of the company in return for Nu 10 mn to buy the machine. Things were going smoothly until at the last minute, the private business person offered to take over the whole company and keep him as an employee and only issue shares a few years down the line if the company did well. He rejected the offer.
