What It Takes to Build a Brand That Didn't Exist: HOOKD on The Next Class
What does it really take to build a completely new food category?
Not just launching a product but convincing people that a product they've never heard of deserves a place in their snack drawer.
That question took center stage when HOOKD Co-founder Dia Goel appeared on Disney + Hotstar's NextClass. Instead of talking only about business milestones, the conversation explored the journey behind building India's first real chicken chips - a brand that started with a simple observation and grew into a category of its own.
The story began during a holiday in South Africa, where Dia and her brother Akul discovered flavoured meat chips. Curious to find something similar back home, they searched the Indian market only to realize it simply didn't exist.
That gap sparked an idea.
At a time when protein snacks were largely limited to shakes, bars, and powders, HOOKD asked a different question: Why can't protein be as enjoyable as chips?
Turning that idea into reality, however, was far from easy.
Building a food brand from scratch meant product development, manufacturing, testing, and educating consumers about a category they had never seen before. As Dia shared on The Next Class, the biggest challenge wasn't just creating the product it was taking the first step toward building something entirely new.
What followed was years of experimentation, learning, and refining until HOOKD became what it is today: India's first real chicken chips, made from real chicken breast and designed for people who don't want to compromise between taste and better snacking.
The journey eventually led to Shark Tank India , where HOOKD received investment from Varun Alagh, bringing national attention to a category that was once just an idea. Since then, the brand has continued expanding through its website and leading quick-commerce platforms like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart, reaching consumers across the country.
For us, The Next Class wasn't just another feature—it was an opportunity to share the story behind the brand, the decisions that shaped it, and the belief that innovation often begins by questioning what's missing.
We're not just building chicken chips.
We're building the future of protein-first, ready-to-eat non-vegetarian snacking in India.
And this is only the beginning.
Watch Dia's feature on Disney+ Hotstar's The Next Class (Episode 3)
https://www.hotstar.com/in/shows/the-next-class/1271647570/start-before-youre-ready-business-and-entrepreneurship/1271647578/watch?search_query=next+class
Watch HOOKD's Shark Tank India pitch: https://youtu.be/KjXJ8rsbZ9E?si=OdhF6_WLwn_Epr34
Explore HOOKD: https://hookdsnacks.com
By – Upasna Sharma
