Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gaurav Gupta. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gaurav, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I have taken many risks in my life to achieve the life I want for myself. I moved to the States in February 2017 for work. I am the first person in my family to achieve such an accomplishment as moving abroad. It was the biggest risk I had ever taken as I was uprooting my life to move to an unknown country with no one around for support. I took the risk of uprooting my life to try and sustain a successful future for myself and that of my family. I lived month by month, trying to build a life in the States and establish my “American Dream”. It was very challenging not having any family or friends to help ease the stress or loneliness someone is bound to feel in a situation such as this. The toll this had taken on me after being in the States for several months made it so difficult that I decided to move back to India and leave my dream behind. During this time, I randomly found a Hookah lounge where I started going regularly and met some great people who turned into close friends along the way. In short, it was because of Hookah that I managed to get over the hump and continued to stay in California.

I took the second biggest risk of my life by leaving my full-time job of over 11 years to focus 100% of my time on growing LA Hookah Lounge (formerly Blue Lounge). At the beginning of this journey, I was managing the Hookah lounge by myself while continuing to work full-time for nearly 6 ½ months. I was putting in 18-20 hours of work each day. In December 2023, I decided to take the risk and leap of faith to quit my full-time job. Leaving stability and not knowing what the future would hold as a business owner was a difficult decision to make but one that I am proud to have made as I was able to make LA Hookah Lounge into a great atmospheric environment for everyone to enjoy a unique Hookah smoking experience.

Gaurav, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Northern India. I moved to the States for work 7 years ago. I started smoking Hookah when I moved to the States and became an instant Hookah enthusiast. I started working at a Hookah lounge on a part-time basis while maintaining full-time employment as a Sr. Analyst/Project Lead for one of the biggest IT Consulting organizations. The owners of the Hookah lounge were young and energetic and taught me about the business. After working there for two years, in 2023, I decided it was now or never for me to open my own lounge and make my dream a reality.

I have been to a lot of Hookah lounges in the U.S. and overseas. I constantly faced issues with the quality of the hookah, poor selection of flavors, hookah being overpriced, or the tendency to burn too fast. At LA Hookah Lounge, we took the core of these problems and provided a different experience to our clientele with over 200 flavors that cater to their needs or mood for any smoke session. We don’t believe in house mixes. We curate mixes based on each client’s taste. We serve the best quality Hookahs that are custom-made for the lounge. We have affordable prices and deliver high-quality smoke sessions that our clients rave about! We have a unique ambiance that is felt the moment you walk in with an outdoor patio area that is perfect for those fresh Spring/Summer nights.

LA Hookah Lounge has a large lot of free parking space at the entrance of the lounge. You can come at any time and ample parking will be available which is difficult to find with other lounges in the area.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our quality and customer service have helped us in building our clientele and reputation.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

We are active on all the major social media platforms and we constantly post and try to engage our customers. We are always available on the phone to answer any questions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/hookahloungela
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hookahloungela
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094183595563&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-hookah-lounge-los-angeles-7