Ruchir Baronia’s journey from a middle school coder tinkering with voice apps to leaving Meta to found his own AI startup is a story of purpose, persistence, and the courage to walk away from comfort. His earliest memory of coding dates back to middle school, when he paced his bedroom, repeating the word “wake” into his phone to test a voice app he’d built from YouTube tutorials. That small experiment sparked a lifelong passion—seeing code he wrote alone in his room reach strangers across the world. After studying engineering and business at UC Berkeley, Baronia joined Meta, drawn by the opportunity to build at scale. He thrived in the fast-paced environment, working on fintech systems where a single line of code could impact millions. The culture felt like a startup, with autonomy and rapid learning. Yet, despite the excitement, he felt disconnected from the business side—the part he’d grown to love during college. The turning point came in 2023, when ChatGPT exploded into the spotlight. Inspired, Baronia spent a weekend connecting ChatGPT to a real phone line—a prototype that quickly gained attention. Though technically flawed, it revealed a powerful possibility: AI could automate real-world conversations for businesses. He began hearing from companies desperate for solutions. Missed calls meant lost customers. No one was building for this. He realized he had a chance to fill the gap. Leaving Meta wasn’t easy. The salary, stock, prestige, and supportive team were hard to walk away from. Friends and mentors urged him to stay, to vest more equity, to gain more experience. But he kept asking himself: If I wait, will I regret it? In February 2025, after 18 months at Meta, he quit. He raised capital, moved from California to New York City, and launched Frontdesk—an AI operating system that handles customer interactions across channels, from scheduling to follow-ups. Today, Frontdesk operates from a SoHo office where many team members share a similar story: they left big tech for a chance to build something meaningful. They traded stability for purpose. At night, Baronia still paces, talking into a phone, listening for what’s off. The process is the same as it was in his bedroom years ago. The difference? Now, his work powers millions of real conversations. He’s not just building a product. He’s building on a belief: that code, when driven by purpose, can change lives. And that sometimes, the most rational move is the one that feels like a leap.