After spending decades across some of India’s most influential organizations—including ITC, Reliance Retail, MCX, and Yes Bank—Nitin Puri could have comfortably continued climbing the corporate ladder. Instead, he chose a far more uncertain path: entrepreneurship.

The decision wasn’t driven by a desire to build another food brand. It emerged from a growing discomfort with the realities of India’s agricultural and food supply chain—a system where, according to Puri, both consumers and farmers consistently receive the short end of the stick.

Today, as the founder of KisaanSay, he is working to address a challenge that sits at the heart of India’s food ecosystem: restoring authenticity, traceability, and fairness to the journey from farm to fork.

The Problem Hidden Behind India’s Food Economy

India is one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, yet the benefits of that scale rarely reach either end of the value chain. Consumers often receive food that has been standardized, processed, and stripped of its original qualities, while farmers shoulder most of the production risks without receiving a proportionate share of the rewards.

For Puri, years spent across agriculture, commodities, retail, banking, and supply chains offered a unique vantage point into these inefficiencies.

He observed a recurring pattern. The larger the supply chain became, the more disconnected consumers grew from the origins of their food, and the less recognition farmers received for their contribution. The result was a system where quality, transparency, and farmer prosperity were frequently compromised in pursuit of scale.

This realization eventually became the foundation for KisaanSay.

Building a Different Kind of Food Company

Rather than operating as a traditional food brand, KisaanSay was built around a model that places farmers at the center of the value creation process.

The company introduced what it calls the “KisaanSay Seal of Authority”—a co-branding and co-profit partnership framework designed to ensure authenticity, traceability, and fair value distribution.

Under this model, consumers gain visibility into where their food comes from, while farmers become active partners rather than anonymous suppliers buried deep within the supply chain.

For Puri, trust is not a marketing tool but the core product itself.

That trust, however, was not built overnight.

The First Challenge: Convincing People to Believe

Transitioning from a corporate executive to a startup founder required more than a change in job title. It demanded a complete shift in mindset.

Puri describes entrepreneurship as a leap of faith—one that requires letting go of entitlement, accepting uncertainty, and developing conviction strong enough to withstand repeated setbacks.

Financial preparation was equally important. Before launching the venture, he created a personal financial buffer to ensure stability during the unpredictable early stages of the business.

Yet the most difficult challenge wasn’t funding or operations. It was trust.

Consumers were skeptical of claims around authenticity and traditional farming practices. Farmers were cautious about new business models that promised partnership. Building confidence on both sides required extensive fieldwork, pilot projects, and consistent engagement.

It took nearly a year before the foundation of trust began to solidify.

Why Impact and Profitability Must Go Together

One of the most common assumptions in social-impact businesses is that commercial success and societal impact often compete with each other.

Puri rejects that notion entirely.

In his view, sustainable businesses are built when impact and economics reinforce one another. If farmers earn better incomes, product quality improves. When consumers receive healthier, authentic food, trust increases. As trust grows, commercial performance follows.

For KisaanSay, impact is not a separate initiative attached to the business—it is the business model itself.

This philosophy has shaped everything from sourcing decisions to product development and market expansion.

Lessons from a Career Across Industries

Looking back, Puri believes every stage of his professional journey prepared him for entrepreneurship, even when it didn’t seem obvious at the time.

His exposure to agriculture provided insights into production realities. Commodity markets taught him price dynamics and risk management. Retail revealed consumer behavior, while banking sharpened his understanding of financial systems and growth.

Together, these experiences helped him develop a holistic understanding of the food ecosystem—an advantage that now guides KisaanSay’s strategy.

Entrepreneurship may not have been part of his original plan, but he sees the journey as a culmination of lessons gathered over decades.

Farmers: India’s Most Underrated Entrepreneurs

A recurring theme in Puri’s vision is his deep respect for Indian farmers.

He argues that farmers are among the country’s most natural entrepreneurs. Every growing season involves managing uncertainty, allocating resources, making investment decisions, and responding to market conditions—often with limited support systems.

Yet their intelligence, resilience, and business acumen frequently go unrecognized.

Through KisaanSay, Puri hopes to create systems that allow farmers to focus on what they do best while receiving support in areas such as branding, marketing, and supply-chain management.

The objective is not to replace traditional wisdom but to combine it with modern science, technology, and market access.

Reclaiming India’s Food Heritage

Puri is particularly passionate about India’s traditional food systems, which he believes have been overshadowed by industrialized agriculture and changing consumer preferences.

He points to traditional rice varieties as an example. Many indigenous varieties are naturally resilient, nutritionally superior, and less dependent on heavy chemical intervention. Yet consumers often gravitate toward heavily marketed alternatives without understanding the differences.

Changing this mindset requires education.

Through social media, retail channels, storytelling, and transparent product communication, KisaanSay aims to help consumers reconnect with the origins of their food and understand the value of traditional agricultural practices.

For Puri, informed consumption is one of the most powerful tools for transforming the agricultural ecosystem.

Unlocking the Potential of Natural Farming

India possesses nearly 170 million hectares of arable land, with a substantial portion already practicing forms of natural or low-input farming.

Puri believes this presents one of the country’s biggest untapped opportunities.

The challenge is not production alone—it is creating market systems that reward farmers for sustainable practices while helping consumers recognize the benefits of those products.

He sees immense potential in redesigning India’s food distribution framework around transparency, direct farmer participation, and preservation of biodiversity.

Such a shift, he argues, could unlock value across a food market estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars while simultaneously improving public health and environmental outcomes.

Leadership in the Early Days

When asked about the toughest decisions he has faced as a founder, Puri points to the company’s earliest strategic choices.

At the beginning, there are no established playbooks. Founders must make decisions with incomplete information, relying on research, intuition, and conviction.

Those experiences shaped his understanding of leadership.

For him, leadership is not about authority. It is about translating ideas into action, aligning people around a common purpose, and maintaining momentum during uncertainty.

In a startup’s formative years, that responsibility becomes especially critical because every decision influences the organization’s future direction.

Staying Aligned with Long-Term Purpose

As businesses grow, balancing investor expectations with mission-driven objectives can become challenging.

Puri credits KisaanSay’s investors for sharing the company’s broader vision. Their focus on sustainability, climate resilience, traditional food systems, and farmer empowerment has enabled the business to pursue long-term impact without compromising its core values.

This alignment, he believes, has been one of the company’s greatest strengths.

The Legacy He Wants to Leave Behind

Beyond revenues, market share, or brand recognition, Puri’s ambitions are rooted in something deeper.

He wants to restore dignity to Indian farming, pride in India’s food heritage, and confidence among consumers about what they eat.

India’s biodiversity, traditional knowledge systems, and culinary heritage represent an extraordinary asset that remains underappreciated and underutilized. By reconnecting consumers with authentic food and ensuring farmers receive fair value, he believes the country can build a healthier and more sustainable future.

At its heart, KisaanSay’s mission is not simply about selling food.

It is about rebuilding a relationship—between consumers and producers, tradition and innovation, commerce and impact.

And for Nitin Puri, that relationship may be the most important ingredient in creating a stronger agricultural future for India.

Interview By : Sejal Thakur & Arushi Agarwal