I'm Darshan Soni, 23 founder of Harvest Direct, a B2B food supply startup helping restaurants, cloud kitchens, and hotels streamline sourcing through one reliable partner. Built from scratch in Mumbai APMC market visits at 6am, 50+ restaurant walk-ins, self-taught React Native.
"Sales isn't about pushing a product. It's about building trust. And trust compounds faster than revenue."
Darshan SoniI didn't come from an IIT pedigree or a tier-1 MBA. I grew up in Mumbai, earned a BCA from YCMOU, and spent my early 20s doing something far more valuable than following a prescribed path I paid close attention to real problems.
What I found was a massive, under-served industry. Thousands of restaurants across India juggling 6–8 vendors daily via WhatsApp and phone calls inconsistent quality, chaotic pricing, zero reliability. The problem wasn't a lack of food. It was a lack of infrastructure.
Before writing a single line of code, I spent months visiting APMC markets at dawn, sitting with vendors who'd been doing this for 20+ years, interviewing 50+ restaurant managers. I taught myself React Native in 25 days and built the MVP myself. Applied to WTFund got rejected posted the rejection email publicly and kept building.
I believe the best businesses are built on the hardest problems. That's exactly where I chose to stand.
India's restaurant industry is fragmented by design. Multiple vendors, zero traceability, quality that varies daily, margins that bleed. Harvest Direct is building the centralised supply ecosystem to fix all of it.
Whether you're an investor, a potential restaurant partner, a fellow founder, or someone curious about how a full-stack distribution startup gets built from scratch I'm always open to meaningful conversations.