Shuddh Swad was not started in a corporate office or with an investor's cheque. It was started by two teenage best friends from Adra, a railway town in West Bengal's Purulia district, who had far more questions than money.
Jayanta: a curious kid and one bad bite
When Jayanta Karmakar was 16, he saw a child eating thekua at a street stall and asked his father, "Papa, yeh kya hai? Mujhe bhi chahiye." His father warned him that street snacks are not always made hygienically and that it might make him sick. Jayanta, like any stubborn teenager, kept insisting until his father gave in.
The next day he fell ill, just as his father had said. Most people would have forgotten an episode like that. Jayanta could not. He kept asking himself why a snack so close to our culture had to be either unsafe on the street or out of reach in the shops.
Kailash: the friend who was already earning for his family
Kailash Bouri is Jayanta's best friend. While most kids his age were in school, Kailash had left his studies to support his family, selling water bottles to passengers at railway stations. He knew better than anyone what it means to earn every rupee.
About a year after Jayanta's street-stall experience, during Chhath Puja, Kailash shared a packet of shop-bought thekua with him. It tasted wonderful, but it was expensive and it was only available around the festival. Once they started looking, the two friends saw the same story everywhere: besan laddoo, makhana, banana chips and many other traditional snacks were either unhygienic on the street, overpriced in shops, or limited to one state and one season.
The pitch
So Jayanta pitched an idea to Kailash. What if they made thekua the way it is made at home, kept it clean and hygienic, priced it fairly, and made it available all year, anywhere in India? Kailash said yes.
In early 2025, with roughly ₹10,000, a kitchen in Adra and an Instagram account, Shuddh Swad was born.
Doing it the hard way
Neither of them had a business degree, a mentor or a backup plan. Jayanta, as founder, kept pushing the vision forward. Kailash, as co-founder, took charge of the kitchen floor: production, quality, hiring and the daily work of making a homemade product at scale without losing its taste. Both of them say there was something new to learn at every single stage.
They told their story honestly on Instagram, and people responded. They had challenged themselves to reach ₹1 crore in sales in one year, and they crossed it in about six months (here's how). Since then the team has grown from 11 people to around 40, most of them hired locally, and Jayanta and Kailash have shared their journey on Bharat Ke Superfounders, an OTT show about Indian founder stories.
What they want young India to take away
Ask Jayanta and Kailash what Shuddh Swad means to them and the answer is bigger than thekua. They want every young Indian, especially those from small towns, to know that you do not need wealth or investors to start something. You need a real problem, a lot of patience, and the courage to keep going.
Follow their journey: Jayanta on Instagram · Kailash on Instagram · @shuddhswad49
And if you want to taste what started it all, try our Traditional Bihari Thekua.
