29-year-old left 6-figure tech job and opened a pizza bagel business

Cooper didn’t plan to become a pizza bagel expert. His first career was in technology.

He studied computer science at Cornell and founded an artificial intelligence company with his classmates in 2017, becoming the startup’s chief technology officer. Over the next seven years, the team raised money, hired staff and weathered the Covid-19 pandemic.

But by 2023, Cooper was running out. He and the CEO argued a lot, “and we both said, ‘this isn’t really working,'” he says. Cooper left the company and his $120,000 annual salary in 2024 without a plan.

After a few months of feeling lost, inspiration struck: Cooper loved Bagel Bites as a kid, but revisited them when he became an adult and felt they might need an upgrade.

Cooper experimented with pizza bagel recipes with the help of Reddit forums, cookbooks and “a million” online videos. She started cooking in her apartment and even bought an extra refrigerator so she and her roommate had enough space. Cooper estimates he made about 40,000 bagels before his recipe became consistent.

Cooper had sold some of his equity back to the AI ​​company for $250,000; He pocketed about half of that, after taxes, to pay his rent, insurance, and other essential expenses. He also transferred this money to Pizzabagel.nyc. “That’s what allowed me to take a few months off, start this business, buy the equipment, buy the minivan, test some things. [and] You lose money on that,” says Cooper.

Currently, Pizzabagel.nyc makes money three ways: pop-ups, catering, and farmers markets.

It offers six pizza bagel options, including cheese, pepperoni, spicy vodka, buffalo sauce, ricotta and French onion. Bagel prices vary, but at the Queens Night Market, two bagels are sold for $5.

The company had sales of about $3,000 in February, its first month of operation. Cooper bought a car in May and expanded his activities further. The business began to stabilize over the summer, with July sales jumping to about $10,000. By September, the business reached a milestone of $20,000 in revenue.

This month was enough to cover the expenses of the business. Cooper’s operating costs fluctuate, but totaled $15,000 for September; This includes payroll for one full-time employee and a small team of part-time employees, kitchen rent, food costs, event fees, and other expenses.

Cooper reinvested the $5,000 profit into the company.

Cooper is not currently taking a salary and plans to plow his profits back into the company. He estimates he’s saved three years’ worth of basic living expenses to keep it going. He also invested $50,000 of his own money into the business.

“At the end of the day, if this doesn’t work out, I know I can find another tech job or do something else,” Cooper says. “I probably won’t sit on my parents’ couch. Probably.”

Before opening his food business, Cooper says he had never set foot in a commercial kitchen, cooked professionally, or worked in a restaurant service business. He was concerned about his lack of experience in this field.

Cooper made the mistakes he learned as a technology leader to better position himself in the food world.

“My biggest regret was that I was young and inexperienced and didn’t know what I was doing,” Cooper says of his CTO days. “I was very stubborn about seeking help most of the time. Now I know I need to seek help. I know I’m new to the food industry.”

Another big challenge is out of his control: the weather.

For example, on a recent rainy Saturday the business sold $1,000 worth of food at the Queens Night Market, while on a good day it sold $2,000 worth of food.

“You’re essentially praying for good weather so people can go out and buy things,” Cooper says.