Indian-Origin Start-Up Founder Quits Meta To Build An AI Startup From Scratch, Thanks To YouTube: ‘It Wasn’t Easy’

An Indian-origin tech professional in New York has traced his AI entrepreneurship journey back to learning to code through YouTube tutorials as a school student. Ruchir Baronia, who 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.

“My clearest memory from middle school is pacing in my bedroom, phone in hand, repeating the word ‘wake’ again and again,” he told Business Insider. Baronia quickly became hooked as his early apps began getting downloads. “I had just learned to code from YouTube. My apps were getting downloads, and I was addicted. It was the first time I saw that code written alone in my bedroom could reach people I would never meet.”

How Did He Get Inspired?

A family emergency later inspired him to focus on real-world impact. “When I was starting out, I realised code could protect people,” he said, leading him to build Rescuer in 2016, a voice app that triggered emergency alerts with a shouted phrase. “What mattered more was that I learned that code written from my bedroom could help someone. From then on, I began building for real impact.”

After studying engineering and business at UC Berkeley, Baronia joined Meta, working on a fintech team. “I’d push one line of code, and millions of transactions would be affected,” he said. While the scale was exciting, he felt removed from the business side of building products.

As AI models improved, his earlier phone experiment gained traction. After a viral college post, “hundreds of businesses reached out, asking for a solution,” he said. Feeling the opportunity was urgent, he left Meta. “The window felt finite. Every month I stayed was a month these businesses were not being served.”

What Happened Next?

He founded Frontdesk in New York, providing an AI operating system that manages customer conversations, scheduling, and follow-ups. “Most people in our office share a similar story to mine; they left Microsoft, Amazon, or Meta, walking away from good salaries and stock options, because they believed this was worth building.”

“Most nights, my work looks the same as it did in middle school. I pace, talk into a phone, and listen for what feels off. The difference is that now, when it works, it works across millions of calls,” Baronia said. “The phones are still ringing, and the models are still getting better. I know where I want to be while that happens: close to the code and building something worth leaving comfort behind.”

He now runs Frontdesk from New York City, helping businesses avoid losing customers to missed calls.