Most founders spend their early days worrying about whether anyone will notice their product. Revant Himatsingka worries about the opposite. Every morning, he wakes up hoping that nothing has gone wrong with what he has put on the shelf. "If I make a mistake, I am done," he said at the 17th edition of YourStory’s TechSparks. After years of calling out thousands of companies, he has now become one of them.

During a fireside chat "The trust economy: Can a consumer movement change an industry?" Revant Himatsingka, aka Food Pharmer and founder of Only What's Needed, spoke with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and The Bharat Project, about the idea behind starting his own brand.

In most industries, the leading brands are the most trusted ones. In food, Himatsingka argued, the leading brands are often the most misleading. He noticed the misleading ingredients claims on brands while living in the US. One product, for example, read "high protein" while carrying two grams of it. This nudged him to raise his voice against false advertisements.

His diagnosis of the problem was sharp: Indians are educated, but not necessarily health literate. So he took a hard line. He named brands openly, never blurred a logo, and ignored the advice of lawyers who suggested using a rhyming word instead. "Just tell the truth and people will support you," he said.

He was candid about what speaking against large companies cost. He had spent 13 years in the US, won the H-1B lottery, and then walked away from it, quitting his job.

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