Priyanka Naik worked at Twitter where she led up North American and Latin American partnerships with large companies developing products with its API, or backend to its tweet data. She then got laid off amidst Musk’s multiple cuts.
“I was already trying to put together my exit plan from corporate for a little bit,” Naik, 34, told The Information in a recent interview. Her plan has followed through and more and now Naik boasts a full blown food creator career.
On her Instagram, which has 138,000 followers, she shares posts and Reels such as low-waste vegan recipes and photos from her latest TEDx Talk. But she’s found Facebook pages are also an underrated way to build communities among other vegans and connect with a more diverse and international audience. Some of Naik’s most viral content has been videos posted to Facebook, like one where she demonstrated how to make a single-serving griddle pancake that garnered 6.7 million views.
Naik has also been diversifying her following with now also 75,800 followers on TikTok, where she’s posted videos such as a recent three-lentil protein dosa recipe she filmed with her mom, which garnered over 295,000 views. She also recently started uploading videos to YouTube Shorts, typically cross-posting content she originally made for TikTok or Instagram Reels, which she said is a convenient way to get more visibility for vertical videos.
As with most content creators, most of the money Naik makes from online content comes from brand partnerships. But she has also been a contestant on a Food Network show, a Washington Post freelance columnist and an author.
While she’s found success on TikTok, Naik said she wished platforms focused on promoting content from smaller creators, and that the way algorithms prioritize trending content isn’t always conducive to her recipes. “My whole premise is showcasing how we can make vegetables the star of the show,” she said. “That doesn’t necessarily fall into.
