Here's a story about someone who traded coding for carbs and somehow made it work. Jacob Cooper spent nearly a decade as the CTO of a startup he cofounded in college, pulling down a comfortable $120,000 annually. Then he walked away from all of it to sell pizza bagels in New York City.
Eight months in, Pizza Bagel NYC is generating more than $20,000 per month. Not bad for someone with zero restaurant experience who's essentially betting that people's childhood food memories are a viable business model.
The Exit Strategy
Cooper's tech career wasn't a disaster—he managed engineering teams, wrote code, reviewed pull requests, and handled all the startup CTO responsibilities. But after almost ten years of the same routine, the excitement faded. He and the CEO were butting heads constantly.
"We both kind of said, 'This is not really working,'" Cooper told CNBC.
So he did what most people dream about but rarely execute: he left. To fund his pizza bagel vision, Cooper took an unconventional approach.
"I sold my equity back to my previous company," he explained.
The first few weeks of unemployment were rough, but eventually the idea for Pizza Bagel NYC crystallized. He went all-in, leveraging his equity to get the startup off the ground without any formal restaurant training.
Building Momentum, One Event at a Time
The business started small. Pizza Bagel NYC brought in $3,000 in February, then $4,000 in March. April slowed down, but May changed everything when Cooper bought a car. Suddenly, he wasn't hostage to subway schedules or delivery services.
"I finally got a car, which meant I could hit way more events without relying on the subway or delivery services, so we scaled up the pop-ups and catering gigs big time," he said.
Revenue jumped to $6,000 in May, climbed to $13,000 by August, and hit that $20,000 milestone in September. October pushed even higher at $22,800.
But here's the reality check: revenue isn't profit. After covering payroll, kitchen costs, food, event fees, and other expenses, Cooper took home $5,500 in September. That's a significant pay cut from his tech days, but he's playing a longer game.
Most of the revenue flows from pop-ups, catering gigs, and farmers' markets. Weather plays an outsized role—cold, rainy days tank farmers' market traffic, which directly impacts sales. Running a food business means accepting that Mother Nature has veto power over your revenue projections.
Competing on Nostalgia
Cooper knew launching Pizza Bagel NYC was risky. He had no industry experience and was essentially banking on a hypothesis: that people's childhood memories of pizza bagels would translate into paying customers.
"I'm competing on people's memories of pizza bagels," he said.
But he gave himself permission to take the risk by maintaining a safety net mentality. If the pizza bagel dream collapsed, he could return to tech or pivot to something else.
"If this business doesn't work out, I can go get another tech job or do something else," he noted.
The physical demands surprised him most. Tech work involves long hours at a desk, but running a food business means hauling equipment, standing for extended periods, and constant physical hustle. He's adapted, though, and says he genuinely enjoys the work—especially when customers lose their minds over his pizza bagels.
That enjoyment matters more than you might think. Cooper believes finding joy in your work is the best defense against burnout, something he learned the hard way in his previous career.
"One of the things that I think causes burnout is when you lose your joy in what you are doing," he said.
So Cooper went from managing engineers and reviewing code to managing dough and reviewing event schedules. He's making less money now, working harder physically, and dealing with weather-dependent revenue streams. But he's also building something he cares about, one nostalgic pizza bagel at a time.