Left Rs 52 LPA job, now runs Rs 5 crore momo business: Gurgaon man explains how small idea turned big

Gurgaon man quits job, builds Rs 5 crore momo brand. (AI-generated image)

In a time when many professionals focus on high-paying corporate jobs, some choose to follow a very different path. Saket Saurabh, a Gurgaon-based entrepreneur, decided to leave a well-paying position to pursue a business that started small but grew rapidly.

Saket, co-founder and CEO of The Momos Mafia, launched the venture after quitting his job in 2023, and in just two-and-a-half years, the business has generated over Rs 5 crore in revenue. He shared an Instagram video with the caption, “50 lakh ki job resign kar chale momo business karne.”

Saket’s decision came after a successful career in the corporate world. After graduating from NIFT Delhi in 2014, he co-founded Wowflux. When the company was acquired by FlixStock, he joined as a product manager, earning Rs 52 lakh per annum by September 2023.

Despite the high salary, he chose to take a different route. In an interview with HT.com, Saket revealed that before leaving his job, he had already tested the food business. He joined his sister and brother-in-law in running the Bamboo Café in Gurgaon. “It was a generic cafe. We were selling everything. As an experiment, we opened a small canopy selling only momos right outside the cafe,” he said.

Encouraged by the response, Saket and his partners opened a cart at a location called Infotech in Gurgaon. “That cart did great business. We were doing Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 in sales every day. We met many office workers at that stall who wanted to open their own momo carts. That’s how the franchising business started,” he explained. The business now has five partners.

After a year of operating carts, Saket realised that they alone could not form a scalable business. “After doing this for one year, I realised that momo carts could not grow into a meaningful, scalable business. A Rs 500 crore brand cannot be built around carts,” he said.

Aware that most momo sales take place on the roadside, the team adopted a new approach. They began opening small shops with carts outside, a model they call CSR - Cart Service Restaurant. Saket said that in the first year, the company earned Rs 16 lakh. “In the 2023-24 financial year, for the three months of January, February and March, we did Rs 16 lakh,” he said.

He further revealed, “Last year, we did Rs 2.2 crore. This year, we have already done Rs 2.2 crore, and we will be closing this year at Rs 3 crore. So in two-and-a-half years, we have earned more than Rs 5 crore.

Talking about advice for those entering the momo business, Saket said, “Start with a proper outlet. Do not start with a stall. With a stall, you can earn maybe a lakh, 2 lakh or 4 lakh. But when you talk about the bigger number and a proper business thing, start with an outlet. This is one of my big learnings.”