Meet 23-YO From Bihar Who Clocked Rs 10 Lakh Revenue By Selling Bihar’s Famous Thekua To Delhi, Mumbai, Assam, and UP

In Bihar, the thekua holds cultural importance.

It is a traditional Indian sweet snack that is deep-fried to be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

During the Chhath Puja, it is offered as prasad.

When Tilak Pandit, hailing from Bihar, was in college in Assam, he saw that a lot of Northeastern students would ask people from Bihar to get them thekuas.

“The demand was real, because there is no one who makes thekuas in places like Guwahati. So I decided to experiment with building a business out of it and establishing consistent quality and taste,” Tilak Pandit, founder of Desi Tesi, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2023 and based in Assam, Desi Tesi is a homemade food startup that sells the traditional Indian sweet snack called thekua across India.

Since inception, it has served 2,000+ customers and clocked a total revenue of Rs 10 lakh.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Hailing from Motihari in Bihar, Tilak Pandit’s father came to Assam to start a repair garage for bikes and cars.

"He opened up a garage from scratch. I think it was seeing him build something from the ground up that instilled in me an entrepreneurial spirit,” Tilak says.

Currently 23 years old, Tilak Pandit has recently finished his BCom degree from a college in Guwahati.

“My education began a little late, so that's why I am 23 years old while graduating,” he mentions.

In 2023, Tilak and his friends from Bihar saw that north-eastern students would often ask them to get them thekuas from their hometown.

“In a college fest, we decided to set up a small thekua stall. I asked my mother to prepare 2 kilos of thekuas and she happily helped me. In just one day, the thekuas were sold out,” Tilak Pandit tells Startup Pedia.

Right after the fest, a lot of college teachers and professors praised Tilak and his friends for their traditional stall.

This gave them an idea to start a proper thekua business and establish consistency in quality.

Read More: Brother-Sister Duo From Delhi Start A Spinny-like Startup For Refurbished Fridges, Washing Machines, ACs – Serve 5,000+ Customers In 1 Year

THE JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

Tilak, along with two of his friends, founded Desi Tesi as a traditional homegrown food startup. They got their trademark registered in 2023 itself.

“I had completed a brief digital marketing course during college, so had enough online knowledge about website development, Meta ads, editing, and packaging. Everywhere there was a gap, I learnt everything myself from YouTube,” Tilak shares with Startup Pedia.

Next, Tilak convinced his family (mother and two sisters) to prepare thekuas for the upcoming customers.

The startup founders listed their brand on Amazon and started running ads on the platform itself.

Initially, the response was slow. Tilak and his friends started posting some content on Instagram too.

During the Chhath Puja festival, the sales for thekuas picked up and they received orders from Bihar, Delhi, and Mumbai.

“However, one of the founders decided to ask for more equity than I could give. The other was disappointed with the results and had expected bigger sales. He also anyway had to pursue higher education. So we all parted ways. Now, it's just me as the founder,” entrepreneur Tilak Pandit shares.

In 2023, during the months of June to December, Desi Tesi clocked an average monthly revenue of Rs 25,000 from Amazon.

Here, the average order value was between Rs 400 and Rs 500.

By the beginning of 2024, Desi Tesi was live in the market with its D2C website. The brand also started running Meta ads.

“Be it ads on Amazon or Meta, I did everything myself. Didn't want to hire an agency and spend additional money,” Tilak says.

THE INVESTMENT BREAKDOWN

For Desi Tesi, Tilak borrowed a total of Rs 1,50,000 in separate batches from his family.

According to him, the investment breakdown was as follows:

• Rs 20,000 went into getting the trademark registered, acquiring the FSSAI licence, and getting the domain name.
• Rs 30,000 went into locally sourcing the raw materials like sugar, jaggery, and flour.
• Another Rs 30,000 went into obtaining packaging and sticker material from Delhi and Kolkata.
• Rs 20,000 went into running ads on Amazon and later on Meta.
• The remaining amount was a contingency expense that was needed when the business was out of working capital or needed more money for packaging material.

“This happened because I discovered that Amazon credits the sales money only after 7 days of the delivery,” Tilak remarks.

As far as the unit economics is concerned, if a 450 gram jar of Desi Tesi’s thekua is sold for an average of Rs 400, then:

• Rs 60 goes into manufacturing and production cost
• Rs 60 goes into the packaging, sticker, and silver foil
• Rs 150 accounts for shipping costs
• Rs 60 goes into running ads on Amazon, paying a daily wage to helpers who come from the neighbourhood, and other miscellaneous costs
• Rs 70 is the profit

“Earlier we partnered with Shiprocket but received a lot of complaints from our customers. Late deliveries and unfulfilled orders had spiked. So we changed to another courier partner called Delhivery,” startup founder Tilak Pandit says.

However, the shipping costs remain high because of the source being Assam and the north-east. The founder wants to resolve this in the future.

Read More: Delhi Man Went To Uttarakhand To Make Gin With Darjeeling Tea – Today His Indian Spirits Brand Has Served 1Mn+ Customers

DESI TESI: TAKING BIHAR TO INDIA

Since 2024, Desi Tesi has been fulfilling orders via Amazon as well as its own website.

Today, the homemade food startup brand offers products like Sooji and Coconut Thekua, Wheat and Jaggery Thekua, and Maida and Sooji Thekua. Desi Tesi also offers sample packs as well as combo packs.

All the products are freshly made at home in small batches by Tilak’s mother Mrs Chand Jyoti, and his sisters.

Earlier, the brand used boxes but now sends their thekuas in air-tight jars. The shelf life of the products is up to 30 days.

The price range varies from Rs 349 to Rs 1,099.

Currently, Tilak Pandit does not run Meta ads regularly and gets visibility via his Instagram audience.

In the beginning of 2025, he started posting regular reels about building his startup from scratch and sharing the everyday journey and behind-the-scenes operations of Desi Tesi.

Currently, the handle has more than 50,000 followers with an average view count of 50,000 to 70,000 on each video.

“We now get a lot of organic orders from Instagram itself, and we redirect them to our website. The rest of the orders come from Amazon. It's an equal mix, honestly. We are still investing money in keeping our rank high on the e-commerce platform. As an exception, we run Meta ads before, during, and after Chhath Puja,” entrepreneur Tilak Pandit explains to Startup Pedia.

In 2024, Desi Tesi had an average monthly revenue of Rs 30,000.

But with Instagram audience flowing in during 2025, the brand has already touched Rs 5 lakh revenue to date.

In total, since inception, Desi Tesi has recorded a revenue of Rs 10 lakh and served more than 3,000 customers across Delhi, Mumbai, Bihar, Kolkata, and Uttar Pradesh.

In August 2025 alone, Desi Tesi achieved a combined revenue of Rs 1,20,000. This includes Rs 60,000 revenue coming in from website orders and another Rs 60,000 coming in from Amazon.

“Our customer growth was steady. In 2023, from June to December, we served 247 customers. That number grew to 800+ in 2024 with Amazon and website orders. In 2025, to date, we've already served 2,000 customers from our website as well as Amazon, Flipkart, and JioMart,” startup founder Tilak Pandit says.

PERSONAL FRONT

Having just graduated, Tilak spends most of his time working on Desi Tesi and fulfilling orders. He supervises and monitors the thekua preparation process and hires additional workers from his neighbourhood if there is higher demand.

“I work out at the gym in the morning and then, till the end of the day, I look into Desi Tesi. I still consider the startup a fairly young one and learning is still a priority,” he says.

Content creation, for Tilak, has changed the game for his homemade food startup. With a supremely supportive family, he plans to launch a manufacturing facility and automate processes in the future.

Also Read: Meet India’s 1st Sports Social Media App ‘Dugout’ Built By A Hyderabad-based IIT-IIM Alumnus; Gets 2 Lakh+ Downloads In Just A Year