At age 29, he quit his six-figure technical job and opened a pizza bagel shop.

Jacob Cooper didn’t look like a typical 29-year-old Saturday.

At a recent event, Cooper woke up by 4:15 a.m., left his Brooklyn apartment by 4:30, and was ready to cook at a nearby commercial kitchen by 5:00. Cooper and his staff prepared hundreds of hand-rolled, bite-sized bagels to sell that day at two events in New York City.

Cooper spent the morning selling fresh pizza bagels to pop-up shoppers in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, worked at the Queens Night Market until late at night, and finally ended his day at home at 2 a.m.

Despite the 22-hour days, Cooper says he has no regrets about quitting his six-figure tech job to start his food business, Pizzabagel.nyc.

Mr. Cooper launched his business in January 2025, and as of October, it was generating nearly $92,000 in annual revenue.

He logs up to 90 hours a week, which he says is 180 hours less than the burnout he felt before.

“Even though I’m working harder than ever, every customer that comes to the stand and tells me how great it is, every time they come back wanting more, that helps keep me going,” Cooper says. “I have a lot of fun doing this.”

Cooper never intended to become a pizza bagel expert. His first career was in the technology industry.

He studied computer science at Cornell University and co-founded an AI company with a classmate in 2017, becoming the startup’s chief technology officer. Over the next seven years, the team raised money, hired staff and weathered the coronavirus pandemic.

But by 2023, Cooper was burnt out. He and the CEO fought a lot. “And we both said, ‘This isn’t going to work,'” he says. In 2024, Cooper left the company with no plans and an annual salary of $120,000.

After a few months of hesitation, inspiration struck. Cooper loved Bagel Bites as a kid, but revisited them as an adult and felt they could be upgraded.

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 an extra refrigerator so he and his roommates had enough space. Cooper estimates he made about 40,000 bagels before the recipe was stable.

Mr. Cooper sold some of his shares back to the AI ​​company for $250,000, and used about half of the after-tax money to pay rent, insurance, and other basic expenses. He also funneled the money into Pizzabagel.nyc. “That allowed me to take a few months off, start this business, buy equipment, buy a minivan, test things, (and) lose money on it,” Cooper says.

Currently, Pizzabagel.nyc makes money in three ways: pop-ups, catering, and farmers markets.

We offer six pizza bagel options including cheese, pepperoni, spicy vodka, buffalo dip, ricotta and French onion. Prices for bagels vary, but Queen’s Night Market sells them for two for $5.

In February, the company’s first month of operation, it generated sales of approximately $3,000. Cooper bought a car in May and has greatly expanded the scale of the event. Over the summer, the business began to break even, with sales jumping to about $10,000 in July. By September, the business reached the milestone of $20,000 in revenue.

That was enough to cover business expenses for the month. Cooper’s operating expenses fluctuate, but totaled $15,000 in September, including salaries for one full-time employee and a few part-timers, kitchen rental, food, event attendance and other expenses.

Cooper reinvested $5,000 of his profits into the company.

Mr. Cooper is not currently receiving a salary and plans to return any profits to the company. He estimates he has saved up three years’ worth of basic living expenses to sustain this. He 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 just get another tech job or do something else,” Cooper said. “I probably won’t be sitting on my parents’ couch. Probably.”

Before starting his food business, Cooper said he had never set foot in a commercial kitchen, cooked professionally or worked in restaurant service. He was concerned about his lack of experience in the field.

Cooper used the mistakes he learned as a technology leader to better position himself in the food world.

“My biggest regret is that I was young and inexperienced and didn’t know what I was doing,” Cooper says of his time as CTO. “I was too stubborn to ask for help. Now I know to ask for help. I know I’m new to the food industry.”

Another big challenge is that he has no control. It’s the weather.

For example, on a recent rainy Saturday, Queen’s Night Market sold $1,000 worth of food, compared to $2,000 worth on a nice day.

“Basically, we just hope the weather is nice and people come shopping,” Cooper said.

Cooper said they initially gave Pizzabagel.nyc a six-month period to see if it had traction. By summer, he decided to keep at it and further launched Littlebagel.nyc, a sister pop-up business specializing in mini bagels with fun items like chili crisp spread. Tomato and ricotta sandwich. And the classic bacon, eggs, and cheese.

Events slow down in the winter, but Cooper knows his next move. In his second year in business, he hopes to have pizza bagels in grocery store freezers, especially by his 30th birthday in January. He believes that cracking the consumer packaged goods space will mean long-term success for the business.

Cooper said that while making and selling pizza bagels may not be his forever career, he’s excited to see where it goes.

“I’m not going to force this business for me,” he says. “I’m actually thinking about it. And if I’m having fun and I think there’s a lot of growth and people are really enjoying this product, then I’m going to continue doing it.”