Indian-origin techie quits Meta to launch AI startup, learns coding from YouTube: 'It wasn't easy'

An Indian-origin tech professional, Ruchir Baronia, in New York, said his AI entrepreneurship journey began with learning to code through YouTube tutorials as a school student.

Indian techie starts AI entrepreneurship journey from YouTube

He left Meta in February 2025 to launch Frontdesk, an AI startup that automates business calls, recalled pacing around his bedroom while testing a voice app he had built.

Ruchir Baronia told Business Insider that his tech journey began with early phone-based coding experiments carried out in his bedroom, where he built simple voice applications that responded to spoken commands.

"I had just learned to code from YouTube. My apps were getting downloads, and I was addicted," he said. "I would run home from school, drop my backpack, and open the reviews before starting my homework. It was the first time I saw that code written alone in my bedroom could reach people I would never meet."

That early understanding of scale stuck with him through college.

Baronia studied engineering and business at the University of California, Berkeley, and then joined Meta’s engineering ranks.

Baronia worked on a fintech team, where the work culture was closer to a high-growth startup than a traditional corporation, with significant ownership and trust given to engineers early on.

The experience sped his learning curve, exposing him to building and shipping products on a global scale.

What began as side projects, including a phone-based AI experiment that later went viral, started to resemble viable commercial tools as hundreds of businesses reached out to him.

Seeing an unmet need, Baronia decided to leave Meta despite the security of a high-paying role and stock-based compensation.

"Leaving wasn't easy," he told Business Insider. "Meta was comfortable, offering an incredible salary, stock refreshers, and interesting problems. Everyone told me to stay another year, vest more equity, and build more credentials. The rational move was to wait. I kept asking myself, if I waited, would I regret it? The window felt finite. Every month I stayed was a month these businesses were not being served."

So he raised capital, relocated from California to New York, and founded Frontdesk, now serving as its chief executive.

Ruchir Baronia’s startup automates business calls and customer interactions. It employs former Big Tech professionals who similarly exited established careers to develop AI systems.

Also read: Sarvam AI to invest Rs 10k crore to set up India's first Sovereign AI Park in Tamil Nadu (startuppedia.in)