From Necessity to Passion: How Tech Investor Vivek Ladsariya Found His Soul in Cooking

In the bustling tech scene of Seattle, where innovation and entrepreneurship dominate conversations, Vivek Ladsariya has found a personal sanctuary in an unexpected place—his kitchen. As a general partner and managing director at Seattle’s Pioneer Square Labs, Ladsariya spends his days helping create and invest in startups. But when he steps away from the world of venture capital, he transforms into a passionate home chef whose relationship with food tells a deeply personal story of cultural connection, creativity, and community. His journey from cooking as a necessity to embracing it as a fulfilling creative outlet offers a glimpse into how our passions often emerge from our most fundamental needs and memories.

Ladsariya’s culinary journey began in India, where food was interwoven with daily life and cultural identity. Growing up in a family that owned a flour mill, he was surrounded by the authentic processes of food production—watching as wheat grain was transformed into flour, and then into the dishes his mother and grandmother prepared. These childhood experiences formed his earliest understanding of food as something meaningful, handcrafted, and connected to family. When he moved to the United States, the absence of those familiar flavors created a void that couldn’t be filled by restaurants or takeout. “When I moved to the U.S., I missed it tremendously, and there was no real way to get some of that home food except to learn how to cook it,” Ladsariya explains. What began as a practical solution—learning to prepare the dishes he longed for—gradually evolved into a passion that expanded far beyond his native cuisine. Today, his repertoire includes everything from handmade pastas to Taiwanese delicacies, slow-cooked meats, and creations from his pizza oven. This evolution represents not just culinary skill development but a broadening of his cultural horizons through the universal language of food.

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point in Ladsariya’s relationship with cooking. While living in San Francisco, as his healthcare-worker wife remained busy during the crisis, he seized an opportunity that most home cooks only dream about—working in professional kitchens. His experiences at Merchant Roots and Sushi Hakko transformed his approach to cooking. “I think that’s when my cooking game really elevated,” he reflects. “Up until then I enjoyed cooking, but I’d create a mess. Then I got really organized in the kitchen. I became really efficient.” This professional exposure instilled in him the discipline and techniques of restaurant cooking, but it also confirmed something important—he preferred cooking as a passionate hobby rather than a profession. “You’re standing on your feet the entire day and you are unbelievably exhausted,” he says of professional kitchen work. “I think it’d get old really quickly, and I’d lose the love for this.” This realization highlights how sometimes maintaining a boundary between passion and profession can preserve the joy that comes from pursuing something purely for its intrinsic rewards.

Perhaps the most fulfilling manifestation of Ladsariya’s culinary passion came through a charitable pop-up restaurant he created with a friend in San Francisco. They devoted two months to research and menu development before hosting guests over three days, with all proceeds going to charity. The experience ranked among “the favorite times of his life,” combining his love for food with community service and creative expression. Now in Seattle, he continues to share his culinary gifts through intimate dinners for startup founders and plans to recreate the pop-up experience in his new city. For Ladsariya, cooking has transcended the personal to become a vehicle for connection. “The joy of cooking comes from feeding others,” he emphasizes. “It’s bringing people together, the community and all of that that food enables. I’m able to provide a great meal and bring together people with something that scratches my creative desires.” In a tech world often characterized by digital connections, Ladsariya has found in cooking a way to create authentic, tangible moments of human connection centered around the shared experience of a meal.

The rewards of cooking extend beyond the finished dishes for Ladsariya. In a professional life dominated by abstract thinking and long-term strategies, cooking provides an immediate, tangible form of creation and feedback. “Everything you do is right there, you get the evidence of whether you did it well or not right away. The effort, the reward—that loop is just so instant and real and gratifying to work with your hands,” he explains. This creative outlet offers a counterbalance to the cognitive demands of venture capital work, providing a different kind of satisfaction that comes from physical creation. Today, his 7-week-old daughter is already becoming part of his kitchen routine, as he often “wears” her while cooking, introducing her early to the sights, sounds, and tastes that form his creative sanctuary. This generational passing of food knowledge—from his grandmother and mother to him, and now to his daughter—completes a circle that began in his childhood home in India.

Interestingly, Ladsariya sees profound parallels between his approach to cooking and his work with startups. “Cooking is really about high-quality ingredients and not messing it up,” he observes. “More often than not, bad food comes from bad ingredients. And I think the same is true for startups. As long as you have a good group of people, they can do something good. People are the ingredients of startup building.” This metaphorical connection extends to his philosophy about tackling challenging projects, whether a never-before-attempted recipe or a daunting business concept. “It’s easy to be intimidated and say, ‘Oh, I have no idea how to do that or where to even start,'” he reflects. “But with a little bit of research and work and just committing to it, you can do pretty incredible things.” In this way, his culinary adventures inform his professional mindset, creating a synergy between his passion and his career that enriches both. For Ladsariya, the kitchen has become not just a place to prepare food but a laboratory for developing qualities—patience, creativity, precision, and boldness—that serve him in all aspects of life.