Founder’s wife sold her $2,500 Cartier watch to fund business. Years later, he bought it for her again

Georges Bandar, founder & CEO of Beirut-based Salata, said in a LinkedIn post that his wife sold her Cartier watch so they could launch the business.

Published on: Sep 4, 2025, 20:05:55 IST

By Sanya Jain

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The founder of a restaurant chain specializing in salads has shared a post of gratitude for his wife, who sold her Cartier watch to fund the business. Georges Bandar, founder & CEO of Beirut-based Salata, said in a LinkedIn post that his wife and her watch is the reason their business exists today.

Georges Bandar and his wife Yara Abi Jaoude launched Salata in 2018.

Bandar said that in 2018, shortly before the launch of Salata, he and his wife Yara Abi Jaoude realized they had made a big mistake – they forgot to budget for the food.

No cash, no investors

The couple had no cash left to buy the food they would need for their salad restaurant in Beirut, Lebanon. They had no investor and no backup plan, Bandar said in his post.

“I had nothing to sell. Yara had one thing: her Cartier watch. She sold it for $2,500,” he revealed.

The $2,500 allowed the couple to finance their first week of supplies. “That watch built SALATA.

Without it, nothing would’ve started,” Bandar said in his post.

A full circle

Bandar acknowledged his wife’s contribution and, a few years later, bought her the same Cartier watch again. By his own admission, however, the second watch did not matter as much.

“Because the first one wasn’t jewelry. It was sacrifice. It was survival,” he explained. “Success isn’t about what you own. It’s about what you’re willing to give up,” added the Dubai-based founder.

Responding to the LinkedIn post, Yara hailed their decision to sell the luxury watch. “That was the best decision ever… look where we are,” she wrote.

Bandar had also opened up about the challenges of starting a business in a 2022 interview with Forbes Middle East. “Financing the business with low capital from personal savings was the very first challenge we faced. We had to be efficient and do everything ourselves. We reduced our reliance on third parties. Then as we grew, we started hiring the best talent we could afford,” he revealed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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