I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to find out about Karma Kitchen in Berkeley. This is a business based on generosity and is an extremely magical & redemptive experience to participate.

Imagine a restaurant where there are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, we invite you to pay it forward for those dine after you.”
That’s Karma Kitchen, a volunteer-driven experiment in generosity.
Karma Kitchen

Karma Kitchen
Sundays, 11AM-3PM
Taste of Himalayas Restaurant
1700 Shattuck Ave,
Berkeley, CA 94709

I’ve written before about the Pay It Forward business model and this is a living example of this in action! I would thoroughly recommend you try it yourself to experience real trust in business. You can read further information about Karma Kitchen in a Washington Post article Karma Kitchen in Northwest D.C. serves trust and generosity

“We are trying to move away from a transaction-based society to a trust-based society,” said Aparna Kothary, one of the volunteer coordinators and co-founders of the D.C. location. “By removing your expectation when the bill says zero dollars at the end of your meal, a note is attached and we ask you to continue the circle of giving by paying this act of kindness forward for the next person’s meal based on trust. We’re just trying to see what happens.”
Washington Post

Any business can generate a redemptive experience of trust in users by going that extra distance, displaying that they are in it for a win-win not winner takes all. It renews your faith in humans and the possibilities of business.

Our Recent Podcasts

FinTech Silicon Valley

FinTech Silicon Valley podcasts are focused on educating and highlighting FinTech in Silicon Valley to the global community both through video and audio. These podcasts are short and fun, one on one interviews by FinTech Silicon Valley journalists with experts and investors on how they are contributing to the community and what their perspective is on the future of FinTech.

Sankaet Pathak, Founder & CEO Synapse completed a Master’s in electrical engineering at the University of Memphis, where he previously majored in computer engineering, physics and mathematics. A scientist at heart, much of Pathak’s academic work was focused on physics and research related to the solar corona. As a student at the University of Memphis and a recent immigrant to the USA, Sankaet Pathak needed to open a bank account. He was surprised to learn that wasn’t an easy task. Sankaet knew he had to develop a better option not only for himself but for the over 20% of adults in the USA with poor or limited credit history. Sankaet founded Synapse with an eye toward offering a viable alternative to legacy banking systems, while providing operational simplicity, efficiency & ease of integration to perform virtually any banking interaction. Sankaet is launching an AI startup soon called Foundation. Foundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage. Foundation’s mission is to create advanced robots that can operate in complex environments, reducing human risk in conflict zones and enhancing efficiency in labor-intensive industries.