Bengaluru: Entrepreneurs Kushal Reddy and Chahak Jain have reportedly transformed a failed cloud kitchen venture into a food business generating around Rs 2 crore in revenue within 10 months. Their journey from a Rs 4 lakh investment that did not work out to a fast-growing food truck brand has drawn attention for its focus on business reinvention and social media marketing.
The founders initially entered Bengaluru’s food business with a cloud kitchen, investing around Rs 4 lakh. However, the venture struggled to attract sufficient orders and faced mounting costs associated with food delivery platforms and digital advertising.
Instead of abandoning the food industry altogether, the duo changed both their business model and approach to marketing.
First venture struggled under high costs
Reddy and Jain’s first attempt was a cloud kitchen in Bengaluru. While the model allowed them to operate without a traditional restaurant space, the business reportedly struggled to generate enough orders.
High commissions charged by food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy added pressure to the business. Advertising expenses further increased the cost of acquiring customers, while the founders were unable to generate enough direct orders.
With the economics becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, they eventually decided to shut down the cloud kitchen.
The failure could have marked the end of their entrepreneurial journey in the food sector. Instead, it prompted the founders to rethink how they wanted to operate and reach customers.
Kried brings a new approach
Their second venture was Kried, a fried-food brand built around a food truck in JP Nagar.
The new business differed from the cloud kitchen not only in its physical format but also in its approach to building a customer base.
Rather than depending primarily on food delivery platforms to bring customers to the business, the founders focused on creating an audience themselves.
The food truck became the centre of their new strategy, giving customers a physical destination while also providing the founders with content that could be shared online.
Instagram audience built before launch
One of the most notable aspects of Kried’s launch was the decision to start marketing the business before the food truck had even begun serving customers.
While the truck was being constructed, Chahak documented the process on Instagram. The content showed the journey of starting a food truck in Bengaluru and allowed potential customers to follow the development of the business.
This strategy helped create curiosity around the brand before its launch.
According to reports, Kried had crossed 5,000 Instagram followers even before the food truck served its first burger.
Instead of spending heavily on conventional advertising to attract customers after opening, the founders had already begun developing a community around the brand.
More than 100 customers on opening day
Kried opened in September 2025, and the response reportedly exceeded expectations.
More than 100 customers are said to have visited the food truck on its first day. The business recorded around Rs 30,000 in sales during its first three days.
The early response gave the founders an indication that their second business model could work.
The combination of a focused menu, a physical food truck and an audience developed through social media helped Kried establish an early customer base.
Business now serves hundreds daily
The business has reportedly grown considerably since its launch.
Kried is now said to serve around 350 to 450 customers a day and generate close to Rs 1 lakh in daily sales.
Its menu is centred on fried chicken and paneer burgers, with additional offerings such as chicken popcorn, chicken strips and fries.
The focused menu allows the brand to build its identity around fried-food products rather than attempting to offer a wide range of dishes.
The reported daily sales also represent a substantial change from the founders’ experience with their first venture.
From Rs 4 lakh investment to Rs 2 crore revenue
The turnaround gained wider attention following an X post by Pratham of CapitalLens, which highlighted the contrast between the founders’ first business and Kried’s subsequent growth.
The post described how Reddy and Jain had invested Rs 4 lakh in their Bengaluru cloud kitchen before shutting it down after facing difficulties with delivery commissions, advertising expenses and low direct orders.
It then highlighted the launch of Kried and its reported growth to around Rs 2 crore in revenue within 10 months.
The figures have been reported in the social media discussion around the business, rather than being independently verified financial statements. Nevertheless, the story has attracted attention because of the dramatic difference between the founders’ first and second ventures.
Social media became a customer-acquisition tool
Kried’s growth also illustrates how social media can play a role beyond conventional brand promotion.
For the founders, Instagram was used to document the business-building process rather than simply advertise finished products.
The process of constructing the food truck gave Chahak a steady stream of content. By sharing the journey, the founders allowed potential customers to become familiar with the brand before it opened.
This meant the launch was not starting entirely from zero.
The strategy also demonstrates how entrepreneurs can use storytelling to make customers feel connected to a new business. Instead of simply announcing that a food truck was opening, the founders showed the work and development behind it.
Learning from a failed business
The experience of the cloud kitchen appears to have played an important role in shaping the second venture.
The first business exposed the founders to the challenges of depending heavily on third-party delivery platforms and paid advertising.
With Kried, they adopted a different model and worked on developing direct interest in the brand.
The failure therefore became a learning experience rather than the conclusion of their entrepreneurial efforts.
For many small food businesses, costs associated with commissions, customer acquisition and advertising can have a major impact on profitability. Kried’s reported journey highlights one alternative: developing a loyal audience and creating demand before investing heavily in expansion.
Plans to expand beyond the food truck
The founders are reportedly preparing for the next phase of Kried’s growth.
They are said to be working towards establishing a larger central kitchen and exploring fast-casual restaurant outlets.
Such an expansion would represent a significant shift from the original food truck format. A central kitchen could help the business support multiple outlets, while fast-casual locations could provide a more scalable physical presence.
The challenge will be to maintain the brand identity and customer connection that helped the food truck gain traction while expanding its operations.
A lesson in starting again
The story of Reddy and Jain is ultimately less about a single salary-like revenue milestone and more about responding to failure.
Their first investment of Rs 4 lakh did not produce the expected results. Instead of continuing with a model that was proving difficult to sustain, they changed direction.
Kried combined a simpler product focus with a physical food truck and an audience-building strategy centred on Instagram. By the time the first burger was sold, thousands of people had reportedly already followed the journey.
The reported Rs 2 crore revenue milestone within 10 months has since turned the venture into a social media success story.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, the broader takeaway is that a failed first attempt does not necessarily mean the business idea itself has failed. Sometimes, the lessons from one venture can help reshape the product, operating model and customer-acquisition strategy for the next.
In Reddy and Jain’s case, the cloud kitchen’s failure became the starting point for a very different food business — one that built its audience before opening its doors.