Do you dream of doing meaningful work of your own that truly excites you? Are you tempted to leave your desk job and follow your passion for making delicious food?
Meet these techies who did just that. They quit their well-paying jobs to venture into the food industry, transforming their passion into successful businesses. Their stories will leave you motivated.
Hailing from the scenic Srinagar in Kashmir, Azmat Ali Mir moved to Bengaluru in 2018. Although she became a computer science engineer, she always dreamt of owning a caravan food truck and serving grilled hot dogs around the city.
To fulfil her childhood fantasy in the food industry, she started to bring the true taste of Kashmir’s cuisine to South India. Her eatery offers a wide range of authentic Kashmiri delights, from the multi-course meal Wazwan, which includes tabak maaz (Kashmiri-style lamb ribs), methi maaz (made with lamb intestine and fenugreek leaves), rogan josh (lamb curry), and more.
Azmat started Sarposh to bring the true taste of Kashmir’s cuisine to South India.
On one fine day in 2015, software engineer Murali Gundanna told his employer that he would not be showing up to work the next day. His reason, he says, was that he had decided to follow his passion for starting a food business.
Today, he runs , which sells affordable home-cooked meals across Mysuru using his grandmother’s recipes. Starting from Rs 70 per meal, he sells a variety of food items such as balekai bajji (banana fritter), kesari bhat (semolina sweet), puliyogare (tamarind rice), and thatte idli (rice cake).
From receiving orders for 15 to 20 boxes a day initially, Murali now gets orders for more than 2,000 boxes a week. The venture makes a revenue of about Rs 1.5 crore a year.
After completing his graduation in robotics and automation in 2015, followed by a stint at his family business of automobile dealerships and running restaurants, Sibi started Gramiyaa in 2017 with his college friends Mohamed Yaseen and Naveen Rajamaran.
The startup manufactures wood cold-pressed oils using traditional stone mills to offer a healthier alternative to refined oils. The trio produces about 50,000 litres of in three categories – groundnut, sesame, and coconut oil. So far, they have sold their oils to at least 30,000 customers and helped them replace refined oils in their kitchens.
Sandeep Jogiparti and Kavitha Gopu quit their jobs to launch LadduBox to offer healthier alternatives to traditional ladoos.
Sridevi fed her first child homemade food, but it wasn’t so easy to manage with her second, owing to her full-time job as a software engineer. Like any new mother, she found it difficult to make healthy food and focus on her children’s nutrition.
After working for 15 years in the field, she finally quit her job and established in 2019 to ensure that babies get good food. The venture sells easy-to-make organic baby food such as porridge mixes and pancake mixes for infants from six months of age onwards. They also have a line of mixes for adults with health problems like diabetes.
Sandeep Jogiparti had a sweet tooth and wanted to establish a venture related to sweets. Concerned about the amount of refined sugar in traditional sweets, he thought of making healthy ladoos.
So after working for five years as a software engineer in the US, he and his wife Kavitha Gopu quit their jobs to launch , which offers healthier alternatives to traditional ladoos. The couple used native ingredients such as millet, flax seed, dry fruits, peanuts, jaggery, and ghee, and made 11 varieties of ladoos. Each has a shelf-life of 21 days. Within one year, the duo made a turnover of Rs 55 lakh.
Edited by Khushi Arora.
Meet these techies who did just that. They quit their well-paying jobs to venture into the food industry, transforming their passion into successful businesses. Their stories will leave you motivated.
1. Azmat Ali Mir
Hailing from the scenic Srinagar in Kashmir, Azmat Ali Mir moved to Bengaluru in 2018. Although she became a computer science engineer, she always dreamt of owning a caravan food truck and serving grilled hot dogs around the city.
To fulfil her childhood fantasy in the food industry, she started to bring the true taste of Kashmir’s cuisine to South India. Her eatery offers a wide range of authentic Kashmiri delights, from the multi-course meal Wazwan, which includes tabak maaz (Kashmiri-style lamb ribs), methi maaz (made with lamb intestine and fenugreek leaves), rogan josh (lamb curry), and more.
Azmat started Sarposh to bring the true taste of Kashmir’s cuisine to South India.
2. Murali Gundanna
On one fine day in 2015, software engineer Murali Gundanna told his employer that he would not be showing up to work the next day. His reason, he says, was that he had decided to follow his passion for starting a food business.
Today, he runs , which sells affordable home-cooked meals across Mysuru using his grandmother’s recipes. Starting from Rs 70 per meal, he sells a variety of food items such as balekai bajji (banana fritter), kesari bhat (semolina sweet), puliyogare (tamarind rice), and thatte idli (rice cake).
From receiving orders for 15 to 20 boxes a day initially, Murali now gets orders for more than 2,000 boxes a week. The venture makes a revenue of about Rs 1.5 crore a year.
3. Sibi Manivannan
After completing his graduation in robotics and automation in 2015, followed by a stint at his family business of automobile dealerships and running restaurants, Sibi started Gramiyaa in 2017 with his college friends Mohamed Yaseen and Naveen Rajamaran.
The startup manufactures wood cold-pressed oils using traditional stone mills to offer a healthier alternative to refined oils. The trio produces about 50,000 litres of in three categories – groundnut, sesame, and coconut oil. So far, they have sold their oils to at least 30,000 customers and helped them replace refined oils in their kitchens.
Sandeep Jogiparti and Kavitha Gopu quit their jobs to launch LadduBox to offer healthier alternatives to traditional ladoos.
4. Sridevi Ashala
Sridevi fed her first child homemade food, but it wasn’t so easy to manage with her second, owing to her full-time job as a software engineer. Like any new mother, she found it difficult to make healthy food and focus on her children’s nutrition.
After working for 15 years in the field, she finally quit her job and established in 2019 to ensure that babies get good food. The venture sells easy-to-make organic baby food such as porridge mixes and pancake mixes for infants from six months of age onwards. They also have a line of mixes for adults with health problems like diabetes.
5. Sandeep Jogiparti and Kavitha Gopu
Sandeep Jogiparti had a sweet tooth and wanted to establish a venture related to sweets. Concerned about the amount of refined sugar in traditional sweets, he thought of making healthy ladoos.
So after working for five years as a software engineer in the US, he and his wife Kavitha Gopu quit their jobs to launch , which offers healthier alternatives to traditional ladoos. The couple used native ingredients such as millet, flax seed, dry fruits, peanuts, jaggery, and ghee, and made 11 varieties of ladoos. Each has a shelf-life of 21 days. Within one year, the duo made a turnover of Rs 55 lakh.
Edited by Khushi Arora.