Naseef Gafoor and Annjo Salins traded a decade in advertising for pickle jars and built PuliPOP, a Kerala-based food brand betting that convenience doesn’t have to mean bad food.
Think of a scenario where you’ve come home late from work, opened the fridge, only to realise that there is nothing worth making. Maybe you’re too tired to spend an hour preparing dinner. Maybe you want something different to eat, but you’re also trying to break the habit of ordering in. That was the problem Naseef Gafoor and Annjo Salins wanted to solve with PuliPOP.
The two founders had spent nearly a decade working in advertising, but the idea of starting something of their own had been around for a while. “There was a plan to start a brand for a while,” Naseef says. It took a while to land on food. “We all love food,” he says. “So we looked at food as a consumer brand. Everyone eats good food. We didn’t think of any other option.”
Building food for people who don’t have time
With PuliPOP, Naseef and Annjo didn’t want to create another instant meal or a packet that promised to be ready in two minutes. They wanted convenience without taking away what makes food enjoyable in the first place. They wanted to keep the flavour and the comfort of food that feels like it could have come from home.
The first question they asked was who they were building the brand for. Their customer wasn’t someone who didn’t know how to cook. It was someone who didn’t have the time. A parent who wanted a break from the kitchen, a founder rushing between meetings, someone working a nine-to-five job, or anyone coming home after a long day and wondering whether they really wanted to spend another 45 minutes making dinner.
“We thought about people who don’t have time,” Naseef explains. “And then we thought about how to make it for them.”
The basic idea was to create good and tasty food that could be ready in 10-15 minutes. Compare that to the reality of everyday cooking. A biryani could take an hour or more, while even an everyday curry could take 30 to 45 minutes once you factor in prep. What if there was something you could just reach for instead?
That’s how they landed on their first product. Their specialised homemade pickles.
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From a family recipe to PuliPOP’s first product
The first PuliPOP product – their pickle – came from a family recipe that had been around for years. The pickle was made by the Annjo’s mother. “We’ve been eating her pickles for years. We used that pickle to take to our close friends and friends.”
Interestingly, the product didn’t fit neatly into either category of a pickle or a curry. It wasn’t either, but there wasn’t an obvious word that would immediately tell a customer what it was. So they went with the more familiar option. Calling it a pickle made it instantly understandable to a first-time buyer, and easier for them to buy.
The initial range focused on non-vegetarian pickles, including buffalo, chicken and anchovies.
Testing PuliPOP in Kochi
The first year of building PuliPOP was mainly to find out whether people would actually buy the product. The founders wanted to understand their customers and test the market themselves. So they took PuliPOP to a live audience at a flea market in Kochi and watched how people responded to it.
“They sold out within two days,” Naseef recalls.
That was the confidence boost they needed to treat it as a serious business. They set up their own production space in Thrissur, laying the foundation for everything that would come next. Today, PuliPOP calls itself a “convenience-first food brand,” with pickles being just the starting point of a much larger category. The current range includes four non-vegetarian varieties -buffalo, chicken, prawn, and anchovy- made in small batches and preserved in gingelly oil, with no artificial preservatives.
“We’re going to launch our next product in December,” Naseef tells me during our conversation. The product, which the founders are positioning as a One Pot Meal, is intended to become PuliPOP’s flagship offering. It makes sense when you look back at the original problem they wanted to solve.
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A two-person team
“It’s just the two of us,” Naseef says.
But that doesn’t mean they are doing everything alone. Their advertising background has also shaped how they have built the brand. Thrive Marketing handled the business’s performance marketing, while Yepic Creatives handled brand collateral.
PuliPOP is betting that the future of convenient food doesn’t have to mean making food feel less like home. It could just mean making home food easier to reach.
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FAQs
What is PuliPOP?
PuliPOP is a convenience-first food brand based in Thrissur, Kerala. It started with non-vegetarian pickles and aims to create convenient food that doesn’t compromise on flavour or the feeling of home-cooked food.
Who founded PuliPOP?
PuliPOP was founded by Naseef Gafoor and Annjo Salins, who both have backgrounds in advertising.
What products does PuliPOP make?
PuliPOP currently offers four varieties of non-vegetarian pickle: buffalo, chicken, prawn, and anchovy. The brand is also developing a One Pot Meal as its next major product.
Is PuliPOP only a pickle brand?
No. The pickles were the starting point for PuliPOP, but the founders intend to build a wider convenience-food brand. Their upcoming One Pot Meal is expected to become a flagship product.
Where can you buy PuliPOP products?
PuliPOP sells its products through its direct-to-consumer website and Amazon, and has also used flea markets and other direct-to-consumer events to reach customers.
