Table of Contents
BerryyLife:
Some businesses begin with a market gap. Others begin with a belief.
At Millet Advisor, we meet many people who want to take millets from the farm to the plate. Some start with a machine, some with a recipe, and some with a market report.
Today’s story begins with a belief: healthy food should not be boring, complicated, or something people are forced to eat.
That belief is the foundation of BerryyLife, an award-winning, bootstrapped millet brand founded by Pooja Madan Kohli. In its fourth year, it has grown from a small idea into a portfolio of 45+ millet-based products.
If you are a millet entrepreneur, an aspiring food startup founder, or a family trying to eat better, this journey has something for you.
Meet the founder: Pooja Madan Kohli
Pooja is a nutrition professional and entrepreneur with more than 11 years of experience in nutrition consulting, education, public nutrition initiatives, and food innovation.
| Area | Background |
| Education | M.Sc. in Food and Nutrition; MBA in Human Resource Management |
| Public nutrition | Ex-State Nutrition Consultant, Department of Women and Child Development, Madhya Pradesh |
| Teaching | Guest Faculty at IGNOU and a Nursing College in Bhopal |
| Practice | Freelance nutrition consultant working directly with individuals and families |
| Author | Co-author of Yoga and Millets, with a chapter on the role of millets in the treatment of cancer |
| Recognition | Felicitated by the Southern Command, Indian Army, for innovation in millets; recognised by the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), Hyderabad, for innovation in packaging |
Her combination of nutrition science and management training is rare. That’s why BerryyLife thinks like a nutritionist and operates like a business.
The insight: knowing what is healthy is not the same as eating healthy
Years of consulting, teaching, and public nutrition work taught Pooja one lesson again and again:
Knowing what is healthy and actually eating healthy are two different things.
People understand balanced nutrition. But busy schedules, limited cooking time, children’s preferences, convenience, and taste get in the way.
That led to the question that shaped BerryyLife:
How can better food choices become easier, more convenient, and more enjoyable? For anyone building in the millet space, this is the most important question.
The shift: from “How do we sell more millet?” to “How do we make people want to eat millet?”
Bajra, jowar, ragi, foxtail, little, barnyard, browntop and kodo millet have been part of Indian kitchens for generations. As lifestyles sped up, many of these grains drifted out of everyday urban diets.
BerryyLife did not try to lecture people back to tradition. It met them where they already are, in familiar formats:
- A millet becomes a pancake.
- A millet becomes a dosa.
- A millet becomes pasta.
- A millet becomes a snack.
- A millet becomes part of a child’s breakfast.
- A millet becomes part of festive gifting.
Nobody needs to learn a new way of eating. The grain simply fits into the meals they already enjoy.
Blog Post by Pooja Madan Kohli: Millets During Pregnancy: A Nutritious Choice for Expectant Mothers
From consultant to food entrepreneur: the real test
Explaining nutrition is one skill. Building a food product is another. As Pooja’s journey shows, a food entrepreneur has to get everything right at once:
- The recipe has to work
- Taste and texture have to appeal
- Ingredients have to be sourced carefully
- Quality has to stay consistent batch after batch
- Packaging has to protect the product
- Consumers need to know how to use it
And then comes the hardest question of all:
“Would you choose to eat it again?”
That repeat-purchase question is central to BerryyLife’s product philosophy. Many health foods get tried once. Few get chosen again.
The BerryyLife product philosophy
BerryyLife’s formulations aim for cleaner ingredient choices. The brand avoids:
- Preservatives
- Refined flour
- Refined sugar
- Palm oil
Instead, it uses ingredients such as:
- Jaggery
- Desi ghee
- Rice bran oil
- Unpolished grains
The guiding line is simple: nutrition should not take the joy out of eating.
Beyond packets: building a millet movement
BerryyLife’s vision grew beyond individual products. The brand looked at the occasions where healthier food can enter daily life: breakfast, snacking, children’s food, gifting, and institutional food service.
Its involvement in a millet canteen initiative associated with AIIMS Bhopal reflects this approach. Making millets relevant takes more than selling packets. It means creating chances to eat them at home, at work, in institutions, at celebrations, and in everyday meals.
Lessons for millet entrepreneurs
This is the part I want every aspiring millet startup founder to read twice. The BerryyLife journey is also a practical playbook.
- Start with a belief, not just a trend. Credibility comes from real expertise.
- Sell the experience, not the grain. Awareness of millet nutrition does not automatically turn into regular consumption.
- Use familiar formats. Dosa, pancake, and pasta lower the barrier to trying millets.
- Taste is non-negotiable. Long-term acceptance depends on taste, convenience, trust, and quality.
- Protect consistency as you scale. Maintaining the expected consumer experience gets harder as a brand grows.
- Innovate beyond the recipe. Packaging and presentation matter, as the IIMR recognition shows.
- Be patient. Changing eating habits takes time, trust, and familiarity.
- You can bootstrap. Four years in, BerryyLife has built 45+ products without outside funding.
The challenges are real
BerryyLife’s story is not a fairy tale, and the brand is open about the ongoing challenges:
- Consumer education: awareness does not equal consumption
- Consistency: quality must hold as volumes grow
- Innovation: preferences and trends keep changing
- Balance: nutrition, taste, convenience, quality, and affordability must all be held together.
These are the same hurdles every millet startup faces. The difference is how steadily one keeps working through them.
Frequently asked questions:
What is BerryyLife?
BerryyLife is a bootstrapped, award-winning millet-based food brand founded by nutritionist Pooja Madan Kohli. It now offers 45+ millet products.
Who is the founder of BerryyLife?
Pooja Madan Kohli, who holds an M.Sc. in Food and Nutrition and an MBA in Human Resource Management. She has more than 11 years of experience in nutrition.
What ingredients does BerryyLife avoid?
Its formulations avoid preservatives, refined flour, refined sugar, and palm oil. It uses jaggery, desi ghee, rice bran oil, and unpolished grains.
Which millets does BerryyLife work with?
Bajra, jowar, ragi, foxtail millet, little millet, barnyard millet, browntop millet, and kodo millet.
Where can I buy BerryyLife products?
You can find the product list on the website: BerryyLife. Follow the brand on Instagram at millets_by_berryylife.
Final thoughts: one better choice at a time
Healthy living does not have to mean changing everything overnight. It can begin with one breakfast, one ingredient, one recipe, or one better choice.
Millets are not a discovery. They are part of India’s food heritage. What is changing is how we bring them back into our lives: through convenient, creative, and enjoyable food designed for modern living.
So the next time you think about healthy eating, don’t ask “What do I have to give up?” Ask “What better choices can I discover?”
Over to you: Have you tried millet-based ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat foods? What would make you choose millets more often? Share your thoughts in the comments, and if you are building a millet brand of your own, tell us your story too.
Author: Tapas Chandra Roy, A Certified Farm Advisor on Millets, ‘Promoting Millets from Farm to Plate ’, and an Author of two books -” Millet Business Ideas-Empowering Millet Startups” & MILLETS: The Miracle Ancient Grains. On a mission to take the forgotten grains-
Millets to Millions. To remain updated on my blogs on millets, please subscribe to my newsletter, and for any queries, please feel free to write to tapas@milletadvisor.com