The Business of Feeling Welcome: Nikita Khandheria on Hospitality That Lasts

Some businesses sell a product. Some businesses sell a service. But hospitality sells something harder to define.It sells a feeling. It sells the way a room looks when someone walks in. The way a guest is greeted. The way an event flows without anyone noticing all the work happening behind the scenes.And that raises a really interesting entrepreneurial question: how do you scale something that is so personal?My guest today is Nikita Khandheria, Founder and CEO of ERIA (long e) Hospitality. Nikita started her entrepreneurial journey at a very young age and has grown ERIA from an idea into multiple hospitality spaces in the Bay Area.Her work sits at the intersection of design, operations, brand storytelling, and guest experience. She describes hospitality as emotional architecture, which I think is a fascinating way to look at it.Today, we’re going to talk about what it means to build a company around creativity, experience, and taste while still creating the systems needed for growth. We’ll talk about founder dependency, letting go, maintaining a founder’s voice, and how to build a company that can carry your vision without requiring you to personally touch every detail.Eriahttps://www.eria.co