Sai Alluri is the co-founder and CEO of Momos, a software platform that helps bring more customers to restaurants everywhere. Before Momos, he spent six years at Uber and Grab building out their ride-sharing, food-delivery and cloud kitchens businesses across APAC.

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I work with the best engineers and restaurant operators to build software that can help bring more customers to restaurants everywhere.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I am a first-generation immigrant to the US from India, where my parents sacrificed everything to build a new life for us in America. After graduating from college and starting work at Uber in SF, I definitely shocked my family by moving to Delhi — and Singapore afterward, where I have been for the last seven years. Looking back, this was the best decision I could have made that early in my career.

I consider myself American and Asian at heart, and it has been an incredible dream come true to build and start scaling a startup across both Asia & America at the same time.

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

Starting Momos to help restaurants of all sizes with my co-founder Andrew during the middle of COVID. We are both big foodies at heart, and it was devastating to see some of our favorite restaurants in Singapore struggle or shut down permanently. We decided to build Momos to make it easier for restaurants to generate demand and bring back loyal customers. I have wanted to be an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember, and it has been absolutely magical to build it with a close-knit team supporting an industry that we all deeply care about.

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

I am excited to see more startups going back to building sustainable business models while still being able to deliver long-term value for their customers. This gives the startups the freedom to invest and grow on their own accord as opposed to being susceptible to broader market changes.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

I don't believe in instant product market fit — for the founders who have achieved that, it is truly rare, and I am envious. Getting product-market fit takes time, creativity, rigor, luck, and, oh yeah, a ton of iteration every single day to build something that your customers care about.

It is important to start with a critical problem that you are trying to address, but I am learning that it is even more important to listen to your customers, take in feedback and keep building until it really clicks. As a founder, if you have a team and culture that is oriented around problem-solving and building towards a unified mission, then it should be possible to achieve PMF many times, not just once.

🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Food! I start my day thinking about where to eat lunch/dinner and usually also plan my trips around trying out new and interesting restaurants.

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Breaking Bad - I am a huge fan of everything Bryan Cranston & Vince Gilligan!

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

I am a convert from Salted Caramel to Black Sesame!