Young Married Couple In Kochi Started By Selling Homemade Bomboloni On Streets - Got Bulk Orders From Cafes Within 30 Days, Now Make Lakhs

The F&B industry is a tricky one to navigate: restaurants fail fast, burn capital faster, and demand a patience level most first-time founders underestimate.

On social media, however, the grass is always more than just green. It's an entire forest.

People excitedly (and longingly) watch other people wear their cute aprons and make coffee for their new cafe customers. It just looks like the perfect dream for someone who is even remotely creative.

For a young married couple in Kochi, however, the picture has been raw, messy, and full of learnings.

“We invested Rs 8 lakh in starting a very small cafe, it had seating for just eight people. Running it for four months taught us everything we needed to know about how unpredictable and taxing running a restaurant business can be. Even though food is our passion, the business side of it is filled with challenges. We closed the cafe within four months. Then, the idea of selling bomboloni on the street came to us,” Mohammed Ameer, co-founder of Sweet Matter, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in November 2025, Sweet Matter is a Kochi-based small food venture that offers freshly made bomboloni and butter cookies. It is run by young entrepreneurs Mohammed Ameer and Afeefa.

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THE BACKGROUND

Hailing from Kochi, Mohammed Ameer is currently 28 years old while Afeefa is 26 years old. They have been married for over a year now.

Ameer is a college dropout and has five years of experience in the Food and Beverage industry. In Bengaluru, he helped a friend run a cafe and handled the end-to-end operations. It was shut down after the second lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Later, he partnered with his brother to run his small-scale food outlets.

“After marriage, I shifted to Kochi with Afeefa,” Ameer tells Startup Pedia.

As for Afeefa, she finished her MBA degree in 2022. Next, she secured and worked in Human Resource Management roles for two years in Bengaluru. Upon moving to Kochi, she continued working for a few months.

“In 2025, I was working with my brother and managing his outlets when I realized I wanted to start something of my own with Afeefa. Both of us are very passionate about food in general,” young entrepreneur Ameer says.

The couple had savings of Rs 8 lakh, which they invested in starting a small cafe in Kochi.

“We created a tiny hangout space for people. We were serving yummy burgers and coffee. But from the get-go, we could see how much daily capital was getting burned in the process,” Afeefa reflects.

By October 2025, the entrepreneurs shut down the cafe.

It was a moment of learning for them: they knew the cafe would scale one day, but it would take time.

THE GOA TRIP THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

After shutting down the restaurant, Afeefa and Ameer went to Goa for a brief trip.

“We didn't know what to do after the cafe was shut down. We just needed a break. Little did we know, this small break would give us an idea,” small business founder Afeefa tells Startup Pedia. 

On numerous Goa beaches, the young married couple from Kochi saw foreigners selling small dessert items they had baked themselves. They had makeshift stalls, often just small plastic tables. People came, bought their desserts, and went their way.

“It was so wholesome to see that. We thought to ourselves: why can't we do something like that? What would it take? Just some courage, right? At this point, we had nothing to lose,” Mohammed Ameer shares.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES: FROM A ONE BHK APARTMENT TO SELLING ON THE STREET

On coming back to Kochi, young entrepreneurs Mohammed Ameer and Afeefa founded Sweet Matter as a small food venture. This was on 2 November, 2025. 

Next, they invested Rs 500 to buy raw materials and ingredients to make bomboloni.

For context, bomboloni are an Italian dessert which are typically airier and smaller than doughnuts, and are filled with cream, jam, or chocolate, or any other filling. 

Unlike doughnuts, they do not have a hole and aren't necessarily glazed. Instead, they are coated with granulated sugar.

“We got wholesale prices for the ingredients because we also had contacts in the field. Rs 500 went into getting enough material for just ten bomboloni and ten butter cookies. We wanted to start small and test the waters first,” small business founder Afeefa tells Startup Pedia. 

In the small kitchen in their one BHK apartment, the young entrepreneurs started making the desserts. It got messy real fast. 

Ingredients on the slab. Mess in the bedroom. And barely any time left for themselves. 

But these weren't even the main challenges. For Ameer and Afeefa, battling social anxiety was the primary obstacle.

“I had a bit of social anxiety. I didn't know how I would face people on the street and just show up with my desserts. Even though I've worked in the F&B industry for years, this was a completely new experience. But I decided to show up regardless,” Mohammed Ameer opens up.

The first day, the young married couple from Kochi went to the street at 6 PM with just ten bomboloni and ten butter cookies. The next day, they increased the quantity slightly and went with thirty bomboloni and ten butter cookies. On the third day, their box had forty bomboloni along with fifteen butter cookies. 

Sweet Matter’s setup was simple: one foldable table, two foldable chairs, and yummy desserts in containers. 

“In just three days, we made sales worth Rs 5,000. Our energy shifted. We knew we were onto something,” Afeefa mentions.

“Meeting new people, having them try Sweet Matter’s desserts, and spending breezy evenings watching our stock sell out…it was a dream. We started having fun,” Ameer adds.

THE CONTENT GAME

Since day one, young entrepreneurs Mohammed Ameer and Afeefa made it a point to document their journey via Instagram reels on their small food venture’s Instagram handle.

The reels started performing well on social media, and simultaneously, the offline interest also increased.

“Documenting everything online was one of the best decisions we took. We showed people everything, from why our bomboloni were being loved, how we set up our Sweet Matter space on the street every day, and our earnings as well,” small business founder Ameer tells Startup Pedia. 

Currently, Sweet Matter’s Instagram handle has more than 16,000 followers.

GETTING A SEPARATE KITCHEN SPACE

Within just thirty days, the young entrepreneurs realized that operating out of their home and making desserts there wouldn't be possible in the long run. 

The house was getting messier by the day, and they knew they needed a dedicated kitchen space to run Sweet Matter in a more professional, structured manner. 

“By the end of November, we went to look for a kitchen, paid the token amount using our savings, and agreed on a rent of Rs 11,000 per month,” small business founder Afeefa says. 

By 5 December 2025, Sweet Matter shifted its operations to the separate, dedicated kitchen. 

Earlier, while making bomboloni in their house, the young married couple from Kochi would knead the dough with their hands. But in the new kitchen, they started using a spiral dough mixer to reduce cooking time and scale the process. 

“It took us nearly six days to get the consistency right. There was a lot of trial and error. We also hired a worker,” Ameer shares.

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SWEET MATTER: YUMMY BOMBOLONI AND COOKIES IN KOCHI

Currently, Sweet Matter runs as a small food venture in Kochi that sells bomboloni and butter cookies. 

The founders claim to use premium quality ingredients as well as very hygienic methods of preparation.

“We are currently only a team of two, apart from the additional worker we have hired. We go to collect the ingredients for our desserts ourselves and always perform quality checks for anything that is sold or sent via Sweet Matter,” young entrepreneur Mohammed Ameer tells Startup Pedia.

The prices have been kept fairly affordable:

• The basic bombolone with vanilla custard is priced at Rs 80

• The chocolate bombolone sells for Rs 100, the hazelnut flavour sells for Rs 90, and the coffee cream flavour sells for Rs 120

• Each butter cookie is for Rs 40

The founders revealed their unit economics breakdown for one bombolone that is priced at Rs 80:

• Rs 30 goes into the ingredients.

• The remaining amount is taken up by rent, electricity, and other miscellaneous expenses

“We are currently reinvesting everything we are making into Sweet Matter. The idea is to scale it,” small business founder Afeefa shares with Startup Pedia.

GROWTH OF THE KOCHI-BASED BOMBOLONI FOOD VENTURE

In the first month of business, November 2025, Sweet Matter clocked a revenue of more than Rs 1 lakh.

In December 2025, the figure surged to Rs 2 lakh. By this time, the young entrepreneurs started receiving enquiries for bulk orders from nearby cafes and restaurants.

“Currently, we are sending bulk orders to three cafes in Kochi. We are open to supply to more restaurants as well. We now have that kind of a production capacity. We have also started doing offline events where we put up a stall and sell bomboloni, butter cookies, and espresso coffee,” Afeefa explains.

As for street selling, that continues at Sweet Matter. They regularly post stories about the location they plan on setting up their table.

In January 2026, the young entrepreneurs crossed a monthly revenue of more than Rs 2 lakh.

Since inception, Sweet Matter has catered to more than 6,000 people on the street, during events, and small pop-ups.

THE UNWAVERING CAFE DREAM

For Mohammed Ameer and Afeefa, the dream is to come back to the restaurant business and open a beautiful cafe of their own.

They believe they have had a lot of learning and unlearning phases, and know exactly how to get their cafe right this time around.

“It will happen for sure. We believe in our cafe dream. As for now, building and scaling Sweet Matter has been a heavenly experience for us. There are so many customers who are yet to be served, and we are working tirelessly to increase our production and margins very soon,” young entrepreneur Afeefa signs off.

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