Hasan Haji

founder and CEO of Food Loot

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Hasan Haji is the founder and CEO of Food Loot, a surplus-food marketplace in Karachi. Food Loot sells surplus food in surprise bags at up to 70% off. Haji says the company has been bootstrapped and self-funded to date.

Early life and background

Haji lived in Tanzania before moving to Dubai. He says he lived in Dubai for most of his life. He moved to Karachi during middle school and studied there. [1]

Early ventures

Haji says he used AI before it was popularly known, through a tool called OpenAI beta. He says he did video clipping for a couple of years and outsourced it to a group of people in Pakistan. He later moved into sneaker reselling. He also says he has outsourced projects and takes a middleman commission, and that he built a golf app for one of his uncles. [1]

Education

Haji paused his degree at King's College London to build in Pakistan. He went back to university in the UK and started learning how to code more and more. He says he would accept two more years off university, or not finishing his degree, to create value in Pakistan. He also says he has received comments, including from his grandparents, that he does not want to be a university dropout. [1]

Food Loot

Haji has described Food Loot as a platform that monetizes surplus food. He has said a bag worth about 2,000 rupees sells for about 400 to 500 rupees, and that the food sold on Food Loot is fresh and good to eat, from either that day or the earlier session. He says Food Loot works with about 150 brands and is in talks with other big franchises and chains, such as McCafe. According to Haji, the app sends a notification when a nearby brand posts a new bag. [1]

Haji says the idea for Food Loot came from a visit to a donut shop. He says he was inspired by Too Good To Go, which he had used as a student in the UK. He says the model abroad worked only on pickup, with customers showing a QR code. Food Loot began with pickup only and later added delivery. [1]

Haji says Food Loot has automated its delivery system so that, when an order comes in, it checks which delivery company performs best at that hour. He says Food Loot has talked to three delivery companies and is figuring out contracts and partnerships with them. He says his delivery partners run their business model on WhatsApp, and that a mentor of his has guided him a lot into last-mile delivery. He says Food Loot's vendor pitches were done through cold calls, and that it started from scratch with no marketing experience. [1]

Haji says Food Loot has about 10 employees, split across sales, marketing, customer support and product. He says the app has about 40,000 users, and that about 10,000 to 20,000 of them are usually active. He says Food Loot sells roughly 100 to 150 bags a day. [1]

Building the app

Haji says he built the app himself using various AI builders, including Gemini. He restarted the Food Loot app from scratch. He says React only works on the web and, even with a wrapper, would probably not work as an app or be approved on the App Store. He says a friend at Google helped him a lot and mentored him through problems, and that the app now has millions of lines of code. He says he has learned to code in several frameworks. [1]

Funding

Haji funded Food Loot entirely through his own high school hustles and freelance coding projects. He says he has not received any help from family or friends, including his own parents. He says he would put in his pocket money or work 100 hours at a bank, if needed, to fund the app. [1]

Haji says he went to about 10 venture capital firms. He says that when he pitched venture capital investors, they told him he was 19 years old, and that investors cited his age, his time outside Pakistan and doubts about his commitment. He says he comes from a very headstrong background and will do anything possible to achieve a goal he has in mind. [1]

Haji says he is not currently looking at VC funding, and that it is something he would look at in perhaps the next six to eight months. He says rapid scaling is very hard without debt, funding or grants. [1]

Goals and views

Haji's six-month user goal is about 200,000 to 250,000 users, and his six-month vendor target is 600 to 800 vendors, up from about 150. His goal is for Food Loot to be Pakistan-wide by the end of Q4 2027. He says the team set six-month KPIs for every department. [1]

Haji says goals should be set at a level with a 40 to 50% chance of being achieved. He says everything comes down to execution. He also says food inflation is at an all-time high. [1]

Timeline

2027
Haji's stated goal for Food Loot to be Pakistan-wide by the end of Q4[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2026-10-16 Ten investors told him he was too young. He built Food Loot anyway. Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Hasan Haji?

Hasan Haji is the founder and CEO of Food Loot, a surplus-food marketplace in Karachi. Food Loot sells surplus food in surprise bags at up to 70% off.[1]

What does Hasan Haji do?

Hasan Haji is the founder and CEO of Food Loot. He has described Food Loot as a platform that monetizes surplus food.[1]

Where did Hasan Haji study?

Hasan Haji came to Karachi during middle school and studied there. He paused his degree at King's College London to build in Pakistan.[1]

Where is Hasan Haji from?

Hasan Haji lived in Tanzania before moving to Dubai, where he says he lived for most of his life. He moved to Karachi during middle school and studied there.[1]

What company did Hasan Haji found?

Hasan Haji is the founder of Food Loot, a surplus-food marketplace in Karachi. Food Loot sells surplus food in surprise bags at up to 70% off.[1]

How is Food Loot funded?

Hasan Haji says Food Loot has been bootstrapped and self-funded to date. He funded Food Loot entirely through his own high school hustles and freelance coding projects. He says he is not currently looking at VC funding.[1]

How does Food Loot work?

Hasan Haji says Food Loot sells surplus food in surprise bags at up to 70% off. A bag worth about 2,000 rupees sells for about 400 to 500 rupees, he has said. Food Loot began with pickup only and later added delivery.[1]

Who built the Food Loot app?

Hasan Haji says he built the app himself using various AI builders, including Gemini. He also restarted the Food Loot app from scratch.[1]

References

  1. Ten investors told him he was too young. He built Food Loot anyway. . Thought Behind Things , 2026-10-16.
Show the source passages (60 statements)
  1. Hasan Haji is the founder and CEO of Food Loot, a surplus-food marketplace in Karachi. I sit down with Hassan Haji, founder and CEO of Food Loot, a bootstrapped surplus-food marketplace operating in Karachi.
  2. Hasan Haji has described Food Loot as a platform that monetizes surplus food. Food Loot's a platform that monetizes surplus food.
  3. Hasan Haji has said Food Loot sells surplus food in surprise bags at up to 70% off. We sell that to you users at, you know, up to 70% off uh, in surprise bags.
  4. Hasan Haji has said a Food Loot bag worth about 2,000 rupees sells for about 400 to 500 rupees. you get, you know, 2,000 rupees worth of food at only 4-500 rupees.
  5. Hasan Haji has said Food Loot works with about 150 brands. We're partnered with about 150 brands
  6. Hasan Haji says Food Loot is in talks with other big franchises and chains, such as McCafe. we're in talks with some other big, big franchises and chains, such as, you know, McCafe.
  7. Hasan Haji lived in Tanzania before moving to Dubai. starting, I lived in Tanzania, uh, got a lot of exposure to Africa there, and then pretty much moved to Dubai.
  8. Hasan Haji lived in Dubai for most of his life. Lived there most of my life, hence the accent comes.
  9. Hasan Haji moved to Karachi during middle school and studied there. came to Karachi during my middle school years and studied here
  10. Hasan Haji says he used AI before it was popularly known, through a tool called OpenAI beta. I would, you know, use AI before it was uh, popularly known. It was actually called OpenAI.beta.
  11. Hasan Haji says he did video clipping for a couple of years and outsourced it to a group of people in Pakistan. So I'd done that for a couple of years, outsourced that to uh, a bunch of guys in Pakistan actually, where they would clip the videos
  12. Hasan Haji later moved into sneaker reselling. Did that for a while, got into sneaker reselling.
  13. Hasan Haji says the idea for Food Loot came from a visit to a donut shop. how the idea actually came about. Um, so I'd gone to a donut shop and I saw that there they had, you know, a ton of donuts
  14. Hasan Haji says he was inspired by Too Good To Go, which he had used as a student in the UK. by this company called Too Good To Go. We were first inspired by these guys, um, as I was a student in the UK and I had used the app multiple times as well.
  15. Hasan Haji says the model abroad worked only on pickup, with customers showing a QR code. The model abroad only worked on pickup where, you know, you would get um, you would order your bag, you'd go, show the QR code and pick it up.
  16. Food Loot started with pickup only, about four and a half months before the interview. we first started about four and a half months back on only pickup.
  17. Food Loot added delivery about two weeks before the interview. we launched delivery two weeks back and have seen a great response from it.
  18. Hasan Haji says Food Loot has automated its delivery system so that, when an order comes in, it checks which delivery company performs best at that hour. we've automated our delivery system that as soon as an order comes in, we see what delivery company does the best on these certain hours
  19. Hasan Haji says Food Loot has talked to three delivery companies and is figuring out contracts and partnerships with them. Um, so the first one is Drop Off. Uh, he's one of the guys that we're working with. The second is Speedway. Um, and the third is Speedy. So all three of these companies, we've, you know, uh, talked to them and are figuring out certain contracts and partnerships
  20. Hasan Haji says his delivery partners run their business model on WhatsApp. these guys are pretty much their entire business concept and model works on WhatsApp.
  21. Hasan Haji says a mentor of his has guided him a lot into last-mile delivery. Rafiq saab, uh, is actually a very good mentor of mine and he has guided me a lot into this last mile delivery
  22. Hasan Haji says Food Loot's vendor pitches were done through cold calls. pitching to vendors and all of that stuff was done through a ton of cold calls.
  23. Hasan Haji says Food Loot started from scratch with no marketing experience. we we started from complete scratch. No marketing experience, nothing.
  24. Hasan Haji says Food Loot has about 10 employees. we have about 10 employees in the team right now, uh, at our five-month scale
  25. Hasan Haji says Food Loot's team is split across sales, marketing, customer support and product. you've got a division between sales, marketing, customer support to give you the best experience, and obviously product
  26. Hasan Haji says Food Loot has about 40,000 users on the app. We have about, uh, roughly about 40,000 plus users on the app
  27. Hasan Haji says about 10,000 to 20,000 Food Loot users are usually active. about 10 to 15 to 20,000 are usually active users, about 50% of our entire user base
  28. Hasan Haji says Food Loot sells roughly 100 to 150 bags a day. about 100, 140, 150 bags are sold a day
  29. Hasan Haji says Food Loot sends notifications when a nearby brand posts a new bag. So, you follow your nearest brand or, you know, uh, you you live one kilometer away from a brand, you'll get a notification that this brand has just posted a bag
  30. Hasan Haji says the Food Loot app now has millions of lines of code. Now the app has, you know, millions of lines of code
  31. Hasan Haji restarted the Food Loot app from scratch. So I restarted the entire app, um, from pretty much zero
  32. Hasan Haji says React only works on the web and, even with a wrapper, would probably not work as an app or be approved on the App Store. React only works on the web, and even if you put a wrapper on it, it still won't be able to be, you know, functionable as an app and probably won't even get approved on the App Store.
  33. Hasan Haji says a friend at Google helped him a lot and mentored him through problems. my friend at Google, um, helped me out a lot. He mentored me through the problems
  34. Hasan Haji says he built the app himself using various AI builders, including Gemini. I decided, you know what, I'm gonna build it myself. And so, I used various different AI builders from Gemini, Lovable, Replit, everything you could name.
  35. Hasan Haji says he has learned to code in several frameworks. I I've learned how to code in many various different frameworks.
  36. Hasan Haji says that when he pitched venture capital investors, they told him he was 19 years old. every single person told me, look, you're 19 years old.
  37. Hasan Haji went back to university in the UK and started learning how to code more and more. I went back to university in the UK and I started, you know, learning how to code more and more.
  38. Hasan Haji says he went to about 10 venture capital firms. I went to about 10 VCs here.
  39. Hasan Haji says investors cited his age, his time outside Pakistan and doubts about his commitment. the only thing that's holding you back is you're 19, you're not in Pakistan full-time maybe, and we don't know if you're committed to the idea
  40. Hasan Haji says he comes from a very headstrong background and will do anything possible to achieve a goal he has in mind. I come from a very headstrong background where I said, you know, if I have if I have a goal in my mind, I will do anything possible to conquer that
  41. Hasan Haji says he would put in his pocket money or work 100 hours at a bank, if needed, to fund the app. if I have to put my pocket money, if I have to work 100 hours at a bank or whatever, I will do it just to fund this app
  42. Hasan Haji says he has outsourced projects and takes a middleman commission. I've outsourced all those projects, I take a middleman commission, and, you know, have been doing that as well
  43. Hasan Haji says he built a golf app for one of his uncles. one of my uncles wanted a golf app, so I ended up making him a golf app
  44. Hasan Haji says he has not received any help from family or friends, including his own parents. have not got any help from family or friends or anything like that, even by my own parents.
  45. Hasan Haji says Food Loot has been bootstrapped and self-funded to date. everything, I can assure you, is all been bootstrapped and self-funded.
  46. Hasan Haji funded Food Loot entirely through his own high school hustles and freelance coding projects. funding his startup entirely through his own high school hustles, freelance coding projects, and sheer grit
  47. Hasan Haji says he is not currently looking at VC funding. for me personally, personally right now, I'm not even looking towards the VC funding aspect.
  48. Hasan Haji says VC funding is something he would look at in perhaps the next six to eight months. I maybe in the next, you know, six to eight months, definitely something that we'd look at.
  49. Hasan Haji says rapid scaling is very hard without debt, funding or grants. without debt, without funding, without, uh, you know, a grant or anything like that, it's very tough to scale rapidly
  50. Hasan Haji says goals should be set at a level with a 40 to 50% chance of being achieved. you have to set a goal that you have a 40 to 50% chance of achieving.
  51. Hasan Haji's six-month user goal is about 200,000 to 250,000 users. we want to be at about 200, 250,000 users by the end of six months
  52. Hasan Haji's six-month vendor target is 600 to 800 vendors, up from about 150. we're at about 150 vendors right now. By the end of six months, we should be at 6, 7, 800 vendors
  53. Hasan Haji's goal is for Food Loot to be Pakistan-wide by the end of Q4 2027. I want to be Pakistan wide by the end of Q, uh, by the end of Q4 of 2027, we should be Pakistan wide
  54. Hasan Haji says the team set six-month KPIs for every department. we were just sitting with the team today only, um, today morning and we were deciding our six-month KPIs for every single department
  55. Hasan Haji says everything comes down to execution. everything comes down to execution, right? Everything comes down to execution, how you approach every problem
  56. Hasan Haji says he would accept two more years off university, or not finishing his degree, to create value in Pakistan. if for example, that means that, you know, I have to take another two years off uni or I don't complete my degree even, but that means that I can create value for people in Pakistan
  57. Hasan Haji says he has received comments, including from his grandparents, that he does not want to be a university dropout. in the start, my grandmother, my grandparents, everyone, you could say, still to this day, I get a lot of things saying that, you know, you you don't want to be a university dropout.
  58. Hasan Haji paused his degree at King's College London to build in Pakistan. why he decided to pause his degree at King's College London to build in Pakistan.
  59. Hasan Haji says food inflation is at an all-time high. The food inflation is at like an all-time high where you're seeing, you know, uh, cost of living go up
  60. Hasan Haji says Food Loot sells fresh food from that day or earlier that session. What we sell on Food Loot is the fresh, good to eat food from either that day or earlier that session