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Jacob Cooper's Saturdays don't look like a typical 29-year-old's. On a recent one, Cooper was up by 4:15 a.m., out of his Brooklyn apartment by 4:30, and ready to cook at a nearby commercial kitchen by 5. He and his staff prepared hundreds of hand-rolled, bite-sized bagels they'd sell that day across two events in New York City. Cooper spent his morning selling freshly baked pizza bagels to pop-up shoppers in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, worked at the Queens Night Market until midnight, and finally ended his day at home at 2 a.m. Despite the 22-hour day, Cooper says he doesn't regret leaving his former six-figure tech job to start his food business, Pizzabagel.nyc. Cooper launched the business in January 2025 and as of October has brought in close to $92,000 for the year. He logs up to 90 hours per week on the job but says it's a 180 from the burnout he felt before. "Even though I'm working as hard as I ever have, every customer that comes up to the stand and tells me how great they are, every time they come back wanting more, it helps keep me going," Cooper says. "I have a lot of fun doing this." From burnout to bagels Cooper didn't plan to become a pizza bagels pro. His first career was in tech. He studied computer science at Cornell and in 2017 co-founded an AI company with classmates, 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 burning out. He and the CEO fought a lot, "and we both kind of said, 'this is not really working,'" he says. In 2024, Cooper left the company and his $120,000 annual salary without a plan. After a few months of feeling lost, inspiration struck: Cooper loved Bagel Bites when he was a kid, but as an adult revisited them and felt they could use an upgrade. Cooper experimented with pizza bagel recipes with the help of Reddit forums, cookbooks and "a million" online videos. He started cooking in his apartment and even bought extra refrigerators so he and his roommate had enough space. Cooper estimates he made some 40,000 bagels before his recipe became consistent. Cooper had sold a portion of his equity back to the AI company for $250,000, pocketing about half of that after taxes to pay his rent, insurance and other basic expenses. He also funneled that money into Pizzabagel.nyc. "That is what allowed me to take a few months off, start this business, buy the equipment, buy the minivan, test things out, [and] lose money on it," Cooper says. How the business makes money Right now, Pizzabagel.nyc makes money in three ways: pop-ups, catering and farmers markets. It offers six pizza bagel options, including cheese, pepperoni, spicy vodka, buffalo dip, ricotta and French onion. Bagel costs vary, but at the Queens Night Market are sold two for $5. In February, its first month in business, the company made around $3,000 in sales. Cooper bought a car in May and scaled his events way up. The business started to break even over the summer and jumped to roughly $10,000 in sales for July. By September, the business hit a milestone of bringing in $20,000. It was enough to cover the business's expenses for the month. Cooper's operating costs fluctuate, but for September totaled $15,000 including payroll for one full-time employee and a small crew of part-timers, his kitchen rental, food costs, event fees and other costs. Cooper reinvested the $5,000 profit back into the company. Cooper currently doesn't take a salary and plans to pour any profits back into the company. He estimates he has three years' worth of basic living expenses saved to keep this up. He's also invested $50,000 of his own money into the business. "At the end of the day, I know that if this business doesn't work out, I can go get another tech job or I can do something else," Cooper says. "I'm probably not going to end up on my parents' couch. Probably." Learning from old regrets Prior to opening his food business, Cooper says he'd never set foot in a commercial kitchen, cooked professionally or worked a restaurant service job. He worried about his lack of experience in the field. Cooper took the mistakes he learned as a tech leader to set himself up better in the food world. "My biggest regret is that I was just young and inexperienced and didn't know what I was doing," Cooper says about his CTO days. "I was too stubborn to look for help a lot of the time. Now I know to look for help. I know that I'm a newcomer 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 compared to the $2,000 it moves on a good day. "You're basically just praying it's nice weather so people come out and buy stuff," Cooper says. Eyes on the freezer aisle Cooper says he originally gave himself six months to see if Pizzabagel.nyc had momentum; by the summer, he decided to keep at it and additionally launched Littlebagel.nyc, a sister pop-up operation that specializes in mini-bagels with fun offerings like chili crisp spreads; tomato and ricotta sandwiches; and the classic bacon, egg and cheese. Events will slow in the winter, but Cooper knows his next move: In year two of the business, he wants to get his pizza bagels into the freezer aisle of grocery stores, specifically by his 30th birthday in January. He believes cracking the consumer packaged goods space will mean long-term success for the business. Making and selling pizza bagels might not be his forever career, Cooper says, but he's excited to see where it goes. "I'm not going to force this business to work for me," he says. "I look at it really practically, and if I'm having fun and I think there's a lot of growth, and people are really enjoying the product, I'm going to keep doing it." Want to level up your AI skills? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It's new online course, How To Use AI To Communicate Better At Work. Get specific prompts to optimize emails, memos and presentations for tone, context and audience. Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.
