Siddhi Mittal, Co-Founder @ yhangry

Hi everyone, welcome back to The Graduate Guide. Today we have Sidi Mitzel with us, the co-founder of Why Hungry, a startup that helps you hire private chefs for home and for private events. Welcome.

Thank you so much.

Well, great to have you here, Sidi. Um, maybe we can just start with your much younger self at university. What was your outlook on careers like? What were you thinking you were going to do when you were grown up older?

Oh wow, going all the way back. Um, so actually I was born in a very small town in India, and even going to uni in America was kind of wild for me. Like, I just thought, wow, I will actually be a housewife in India because all the successful women around me did that. And then my older sister went to Stanford and suddenly was like, wait, you should go to American uni. And it was— and then that led the path to me going to Columbia. In Colombia, I suddenly had all these like really smart people around me and none of them wanted to be a housewife. And I was like, wait, what are you guys up to this summer? And I think that's where kind of the whole sort of paths opened up. But I would say to me, I was a computer science engineer, so it was either be an engineer or a developer at like Google, Facebook, etc., or do this thing called consulting. Or the third was finance. And then in finance, it was like banking or trading or mid-office, back office. And those were sort of the paths initially that I was exposed to when I was in university.

And then obviously, like, when you were at university, you said yourself you came from this like really small Indian town in Columbia, like middle of New York City. What was your university life like? What were you passionate about? Or like, how did it change your mindset from coming from this like small Indian town?

Yeah, so I think, um, environment really shapes how big you can think. So when I was in India in the small town, I think like there were boundaries to my thinking, which I didn't even realize. And then when I got to Columbia, suddenly it felt as though the whole world had opened up. People talked about, I mean, things I didn't even understand, you know, it's like doctors across borders. I was like, whoa, what is that? Be a doctor in some African country. I was like, wow, you can do that? That's wild. Or Teach for America. So I just think it was huge in shaping the environment. And suddenly what I thought I could do with my life just became bigger. And instead of thinking, oh, I had to be in India, suddenly I just thought, wow, I could be anywhere in the world doing anything I want to. So I think that was the huge difference. I think B, I don't love the word diversity, but really like meeting people, Americans or international kids, all of these people for the first time made me realize, wow, everyone is so different, so unique in their interests. And I think I'd never thought of life like that. I just thought I have to graduate and then just do whatever, you know. It's just like everything felt so homogeneous. So I think if anything, it just showed me there is so much out there, but yet I didn't know how much was out there for me. I still went into finance.

Yeah, I think, um, well, the value of going to a really diverse university is like the same for me going to LSE and then UCL. I think it opens up your mind to the possibilities out there, and at the same time at least in London, there's a lot of pressure to, you know, get the corporate job and go into a career. And I was wondering, did you feel the same? What was, what was your outlook in the sense of like, oh, what career do I need to do? And where you have— did you feel like you had to kind of do that at 19, 20? Already know where you're going to get into? What was the environment at Columbia regarding careers?

Yeah, so I think I'll answer this back then and like how I would do it differently now. So I think back then, a lot of people don't realize there is a lot of other stuff out there. However, the issue is there are some set paths that are like, it's tough to get in, but it's like a very linear path, like finance. You know what you need to do to get in. You might not be able to get in. Same with consulting, same with some other paths. And then you have the whole world of like startups, tech, and it starts to get very confusing because there is no clear path, there is no clear role. And I think I didn't know about any of that. So to me, I prioritized success as like an Asian founder or like an Indian founder. My parents were all about like, you need to make money, and which made sense. Like, my parents have paid a very big tuition for me, so I was like, I'm gonna make this back. For me, success at that point only meant money, which meant a finance career and how quickly I could earn the biggest paycheck. And I think it's important to say this because a lot of people don't think of what success means for them. Like, I didn't realize back then that's what I was optimizing for, which is why 6 years down the line when I had a very big crisis, it was because I didn't care only about money. And I think it's crazy to think that way because then your life is so hollow. But for some people, if that is the main thing, that is the main thing, and you will be happy. And then you can sort of switch what you're optimizing for. Yes. So I think just like going back, I made a choice based on an assumption of success, which was true back then, but then changed radically as years progressed. And the second was I was not aware of everything else out there. And I think the third is— actually, there is no third. Then the solution to second is how you figure out everything out there and how you fight against like the current of people just heard like going into finance or consulting and saying, is there something else that really will fulfill me for my longer, um, term?

Yeah, I hear you in the sense that like I think the value of university is getting to know yourself and like knowing who you are. If you, you know, are still young, what if you can somehow kind of think about, do I care about money? Do I care about making an impact? Like, what's important to me?

Um, and I, by the way, didn't do any of that in university, so super hypocritical sat here and say you guys should really figure out who you are. Chances are you just had a great time, you took courses, you like skipped a bunch of classes, had a great— and that's amazing. But I think as you're looking for jobs, at that point you should ask yourself, am I just doing this because everyone is doing this? Or should I go out there and see what else is out there?

And at the same time, I think if your peers are applying to all these banks or consulting firms, yeah, you think I have to do the same.

Yeah.

And at the same time, then these firms come to campus and they put so much money into getting the best graduates, even if it's not maybe the best thing for them, right?

Yeah.

So you ended up going into banking and moving to London for Barclays and having a very financial career.

What—

how did that feel like? What was your path with that? Were you happy with it? Because you just mentioned you had a crisis point.

Yeah, so I actually went to trading, very different to banking, but yes, the whole thing is called banking. Actually, I got rejected from every banking interview. I was way too loud and like apparently obnoxious, but for trading it was perfect. I actually loved it. I thought it was like the best job out there. It was like a perfect energy fit. I had no clue what the job entailed, but I was like, this is really fun. I get to just be loud and like learn about all these like macro things going on in the world. So So from that POV, I think I was like a 22, 23-year-old. It was an incredible job. I was having the time of my life. I didn't really ever think of what will be next. I was very focused on day-to-day, and it was amazing. As a grad, I got to take— I mean, I literally ran a book for like £500 million worth of risk. What does that even mean? These numbers were wild. And at some point, I got to this weird point where if I tell someone, hey, I need to give you £100, I'd actually say, oh, I'll give you 100K, because 100K was such a small number in trading. I would add the K in front of everything, and it was weird. However, that being said, I think as you grow up, let's say this is a cool job, amazing. After, let's say, 2-3 years, the coolness starts to fade. You kind of figure out what you're doing, and I think at that point you realize, oh, you never really thought of things like purpose. I mean, that's such a hard one for people, or even like If you— actually, this is a great one— if you were gonna die tomorrow, if you look back, would you be happy that this is all you did? I think questions like this you don't ask yourself because life just happens to you. And I think as I started continuing and my paycheck got pretty big, and I think I hadn't even gotten to like the million, but like half a million, pretty decent, I think I started realizing I didn't care for any of it. Like, I didn't care for vacations, I didn't care for amazing hotels. So if I don't care for the things that— I'm sorry— a lot of money gets you, what am I doing? And I think that was like the crisis moment. And it took me, let's say, 4 and a half, 5 years to get there. And that's when I really started saying, look, I thought I really wanted to build something. My dad's an entrepreneur, but I don't even know how. Like, I don't even know what that first step is. Can I do it? Do I even have the skill set? And I think that's sort of what I call the crisis, where you start to question everything because you haven't had those questions before or throughout your career.

Yeah, yeah. I think obviously there are certain things, especially when you're young and you don't have money, and you're like, oh, there's this massive job out there, like, why wouldn't I go for that? And I think especially if your parents are a bit more pressuring and they're like, oh, I went to expensive, you know, American university, I need to make it back. I, I'm 100%, I think, you know, we all feel the same in, in that situation. So you at that point and Barclays, like, you know, in your like mid-20s, what did you then decide to quit? Was it like very like, oh, from one day to the other, like, I'm going to quit, or did you build like you started up on the side and just tried to explore ideas. What was that process like?

So I think I definitely— I am pro a lot of risk, but I also understand like it's not very easy because if you don't know like what are you like jumping into, that's a little bit wild. So I think for me it very much was that I needed to figure out on the side what that meant. So I actually went to this like career accelerator thing called Escape the City. I paid £1.5K, I remember, and I remember thinking that would be like a vacation. Who cares? Like, you know, let's go figure out. And that was the first time I had a group of people who all wanted to switch from corporate careers. And that's where the idea came up. It was like one of the ideas out of like thousands that made sense to me. But more importantly, for the first time I had a community around me that wasn't laughing or saying, ah, that's so stupid. Because actually in finance and all of my column— like, college crew was actually in New York, so they were very far away. So in London I only had work colleagues weeks. And if I would ever bring up the idea of, oh, I have this idea, or like, do you think we could do this? Like, a lot of these people were never going to switch. So of course, if you're never going to switch, you just look at it and think, that's crazy. And actually, like, starting a company is crazy. Like, you are the crazy one and you're doing something that goes against the grain. So I needed a community which almost kind of said, yeah, that makes sense, that's so cool, try it. And that was the first space I got to try out my idea and kind of step by step try and get a customer, try and get a chef, etc. After that ended though, I realized that I didn't want to do it myself and I needed a co-founder. And I say I needed a co-founder because I did not want to be in my flat by myself on a kitchen table doing what? Like, it sounded so crazy and scary. I have said the word crazy a lot, I, I realize this, but it really was like, I think in that moment I just couldn't understand how things could change. So then to myself I said, okay, I will go and get a co-founder. And then I really got lucky. Um, Hinen had joined from GS Barclays. She's my now co-founder. We had worked together for a very long time at Barclays, and we just ended up confessing to each other that we felt the exact same way. And she was one of the other, like, women on the floor that— she was incredible. And it was only after this, like, deep meaningful chat, like, in Germany in some hotel on a client trip, we were like, right, this job is not doing it for us. Like, this is not where we want to be 20 years from now. We need to do something about this. And then we just like, yeah, kind of like started saying, okay, there's idea, let's just work on it on the side. So we did start all of that on the side, but I had to find a co-founder first.

Yeah, I think I, I really resonate with you because I think people— everything is people, right? Like at work, you think even if you sit in front of your laptop for many hours, like it all comes down to the relationships you have and The idea of building something alone in isolation, it doesn't sound fun to me. And I think there's a bit of this trope of being a founder is lonely and boring. You have to put in the hours, that's certainly true, but I think it can still be fun and you can be in interaction with other people. So I think I'm very glad that you found this community and that showed you that this doesn't have to be your own treacherous, boring path.

Yeah, I think you touched upon something very important there where— and I think I will take a moment to articulate this— people are so caught up in like, oh, I need to find the next thing, I need to do something, and they think like they're there by themselves alone. They don't realize there are thousands of people out there, like even your community on this podcast you've created. Everyone's listening to this because they all are in the same spot. And the issue actually is not that you're alone, it's actually you don't know how to find these other people to make you feel validated in your feelings. Co-founder is one way, because I agree, like, it's so lonely, but it can also be so fun. We used to go to cafes, we used to do the craziest stuff, and I was like, wow, you know, like, it was so fun, the two of us, when we started. Like, and it was, it was strange because no one listened to us, or no one— like, at that point, you— there are no sales, like, no one cares about you, but you have each other in everything and makes it fun. But however, a substitute that for that could be a community. Imagine you had 3, 4 people that held you accountable you could do this together with them. So I do think it all kind of comes down to, as you say, people. And if you are struggling, you need to go find that one or two people, even one person that feels the same, and it will help you realize that you're not in it by yourself. And I think the struggle comes from not knowing other people and thinking something's wrong with you, or you're the only one who feels this way.

So you have then like found your co-founder and it was working really well. So now I have the question like, why YHangry? Why food? Why private chefs? Where did all of these ideas come from and how did you kind of settle on that and was like, okay, this is really, this is gonna work out, good product market fit, let's go.

So you never know it's gonna work out. Yeah, you never know. In terms of ideas, had like so many ideas as I said before, there was a whole notepad. YHangry just seemed to be one of those things that made sense after a lot of scoring and seeing, ooh, is this idea better or this idea? When I met Hinen and I told her this idea, she immediately was like, oh my God, I have the same need. Like, I would love to use this. Even in that moment, you're validating it because some other person's saying, I also want this product. Like, let's try and see what this is about. Uh, and I think at that point, so what we then did was we said, okay, there— we actually understood the market need, by the way. I'm from India, she's Chinese-German. In India and China, you have cooks. You always have home-cooked food. And then when I went to New York, she went to Germany, we both went to London, there is no concept of home-cooked food. And suddenly I could not believe that people either ordered in or you just, you had like these Instant Pots and I didn't understand what to do. This was wild. And we were in corporate jobs, so we had money, but there was no way to procure this home-cooked food. And, but what we did understand coming from finance is there has to be a need for this on both sides. And we also knew that hospitality industry is one of the lowest paid professions in London. Like, chefs are super low paid. And when I tell people this, they get so surprised because they think of Gordon Ramsay or like personal chefs, and they're like, oh my God, I cannot afford one. At which point I want to turn around and say, do you know they barely make the minimum wage? So actually, imagine you can book a chef at the exact same cost as a restaurant, like £40 per person, £45. Of course you can book all the top ones also, That's insane value, but you can do it and their lives will be better. So I think we kind of knew this one fact where we were like, wow, chefs are not getting paid very much. People do want this like great thing in their homes. Let's see if we can make something happen. Now, all that being said, we didn't know how big it will be. I think ultimately we sort of— we ran a couple beta tests. Like, we literally had a PDF, we wrote a bunch of dishes, and we said, okay, we're gonna find 10 or 20 colleagues and book them in with a chef. And we did that. And we were like, look, you can pay at cost because we know how much you earn. Come on, you can test drive this with us. And as people started using us, they started giving us feedback. And some of the feedback was terrible because it was like, oh, I had so much food in my fridge because they were booking it as meal prep. And they were like, it was so much leftover, I actually then invited my friends over to try some. And slowly I was just thinking, so they're booking it for themselves, but they're actually having like a dinner or like a party with friends. So there was something there we didn't know fully, but I think at some point we said, look, we're having so much fun doing this, so let's actually finally quit because we want to do this 24/7.

So I really love that you brought like a different cultural understanding of food into Why Hungry. And it's true, like as a European or Westerner, I think we have a specific way of eating that's very processed, you know, like a bit of you know, you do cook, but a lot of people just don't have time. And yeah, what ends up happening is that even if you could afford to have a private chef, that's true, you don't, you order in and you pay expensive Uber Eats fees and then you end up with, you know, like a half-warm meal from some restaurants. I love that you brought in like that perspective from like India and China into like what we have in Western countries. And so obviously, how do you see like why Hungry Now, you know, it's kind of been established, you tested it with your friends, how did it go from that initial beta phase to something really big now? Yeah.

Ah, yes. So in the beginning, things are usually the hardest because no one cares about you or your product. One of the first successes we had was It was like the first customer who had booked us and we didn't know them, which was amazing because actually in order to have a business you need to have paying customers, but also they shouldn't know you, aka they're not paying because they're trying to do you a favor. And the next morning we woke up and it was like all over Instagram. There were like these 8 girls having like the most fabulous hen do and there was a chef. And I just looked at it and we grew like suddenly like so much on Instagram. It was like 2,000-3,000 followers just from this one thing. And I was thinking, oh my God, we'll build a billion dollar company in like 5 days. Oh my God, that was a bit too optimistic. I know, I was like, it's so easy, every booking will go this way. But I think that was the first time that showed us, wow, there is a need. There's so many events in people's lives, like birthday, your mom's 65th— oh sorry, your mom's maybe 50th birthday, or your grandma's 70th birthday, you getting together with your friends at Airbnb. And all of these amazing occasions could be incredible if you could just have this great chef having amazing food, because then it's all about you guys rather than the cooking or like bad food or having to go somewhere in like a busy restaurant and all that stuff. And yeah, that's terrible. So in India it was easy, everything was just at home and there would be all these celebrations. So actually looking at few bookings going well started to make us realize, right, we are on the right path. So there are customers out there already looking, they just don't have this as an alternative. They're either like super expensive Michelin-style private chefs available but there is nothing like casual, like just something you can book with your friends which could be really memorable. So I think seeing people use it, getting their feedback, pivoting, that was sort of a lot, lot of our journey, and it still is. And I think you just compound from there where you first, like, your target, let's say 10 customers, then you make it 100, then you find like 200. And it takes a very long time in the beginning because like every additional customer you're like, oh, how am I gonna find the other one? It gets easier. And I think then you realize, oh, actually someone's using that, maybe I should go there and sort of talk to those people because that actually sounds like a target demographic. So I think it also sort of organically grows, but you need to have some positive signals at the beginning that it is working and people like it and/or there's a need for it.

Yeah, and I think you really had that when you, well, got into Y Combinator, right, in 2022. We actually had someone on recently, co-founder of an app for skincare that also got into Y Combinator.

Nice. Ahana.

Ahana, yes, you know her, yeah. And she got into Y Combinator with like an idea that was very young still, and you had, you know, a more developed product. So I'm curious from your perspective, like, what do you think did you get out of Y Combinator? And maybe especially building a consumer product, which is, I think, something that a lot of founders shy away from. So I'm curious, like, what was, you know, briefly your experience like with Y Combinator?

And yeah, I think it was actually, uh, the biggest reasons we sort of pivoted and we are where we are. So if I were to break down into the value of Y Combinator, you have a bunch of mentors that have actually run companies, grown them to $150 million, a billion, have worked with founders who have built billion-dollar companies, and you're getting all that expertise and suddenly you're— when they ask you questions, they're good questions. And those questions make you think, oh my God, that's true. They don't allow you to feed yourself BS and pretend that things are working. Because number one, first-time founders have a terrible habit of doing everything and doing the things that make no difference, like don't move the needle. Example of that is spending so much time on, let's say, branding day one or a logo. I mean, who literally cares? There are no customers. Like, get out there, like do other stuff. I think A, keeping you accountable, prioritizing, and having great questions was very important. But B is they reminded us that we have to speak to the customer. If you're building a company, it's not because you are solving a problem which is hypothetical, it's real. Then you need to be speaking to those people and asking them, did that solve it for you? What else are your issues? And that is literally the core to YC. It sounds so easy, it's so hard to do. Even now there are weeks where suddenly I think, oh God, I haven't spoken to a customer or a chef this week, let me go get on a call. Because unless we're doing that, we don't have a pulse on what the real problems are, and then we make up problems. So that was second, and I, I guess the third really is like the community and the network. And actually there is a fourth, which is like funding and investment, which is obviously very important. And it's ultimately a label which like just puts you in a position where everyone takes a meeting. But I will say the most important thing isn't even that, it's the fact that you learn how to build a better company.

And yeah, no, I absolutely understand. I think the value of just having someone there that tells you like, oh, if you're not talking to your, like, you know, users, what are you doing? And constantly improving and building, I think that is definitely something an accelerator can help you with.

Yeah.

Just to like touch upon, obviously now you're still building Yhang Green, it's going really well. Um, what would you say is, um, we've touched upon success briefly, but now that you've quit like your massive corporate job and you look back, you know, as being a young computer science student at Columbia, what is your outlook now on what it, what a fulfilling career is or what success is now and going forward?

Yeah. Such a good question. So success definitely was very monetary before, whereas I think now I am super grateful every day that I get to do this. I think we have, for example, 11, 12 people in our company. We pay everyone's wages. You— we have over 500 active chefs across UK. We actually have over 1,000 chefs. They're earning a living on Why Hungry. Like, our top chef, some, some of the top chefs in a month can earn between 10 to 20K on our app, which is insane. As a customer, people are able to celebrate their Hindu, stag do, birthdays, like special moments with their family, go to air— So I think what we're doing now daily is life-changing. It is changing people's lives and it's like touching people. They're real people on both ends. And I think that's super fulfilling when you realize you are doing this. And like, I can very much see a world where like anywhere you go, you have Airbnb, you can have this like amazing chef and the experience. And on the flip side, the chef's earning a great salary and they're not stuck behind the kitchens with like low wages. So for me, this is super rewarding. And I think now to me, success is about building a huge company that makes a big difference. And difference means it improves lives of the people that are involved. And I think even the way we run our company is so different to our corporate company. Like, we— it's all about the impact you can make, the risk you take. You should make mistakes. You shouldn't do anything just because you have to. There is no red tape. There are no approvals. It's like a place you would want work if you were out of university, you know. Like, that's a cool job to have because it allows you to do your best work without any faaf or like red tape. Or at least that's what I think, right? Like, people in my company will say otherwise. Yes, I think for me this is what— like, to me this is the definition of success. Now I want to do more of this. I never want to go back to like a sort of a job which I did it just for money. It has to have purpose in it and it has to have like a future vision which makes this world like a better place, or you— for me to have impact.

Yeah, 100%. Remember, let's start up to the top. Great, thank you. Then we'll leave it here. And perfect, great.