Oh My Goodness! founder Ramya Ragupathi: “Not every opportunity is a good opportunity”

The journey began not with a grand business plan but with a personal health crisis. In her early 30s, Ramya experienced severe hair loss, which led to a diagnosis of gluten and dairy sensitivity. Determined to reclaim her health, she experimented with recipes, eventually perfecting a gluten-free chocolate cake that became the catalyst for her unexpected entrepreneurial pivot.

“People kept whispering to me at Christmas dinners, ‘You should sell this,’ and I thought they were crazy,” she laughs. “I told them ‘I will never be an entrepreneur’.”

Despite Ramya starting her business nearly S$150,000 in debt, today Oh My Goodness! is eyeing international expansion to Thailand and the Middle East. 

“We’re actually in the best place we’ve been in seven years,” says Ramya. “We currently have the best functioning team we’ve ever had. We don’t just hire intellectually disabled individuals—we’ve hired former prisoners, single mothers from low-income households. Two members of our team have been with me from the very beginning—one is an ex-prisoner and one is a person with intellectual disabilities. And we’re continuing to build the team.” 

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Transitioning from corporate to business ownership was eye-opening. Ramya quickly realised that being the boss meant being a magnet for unsolicited advice—even from individuals with no actual background in food manufacturing. Having no background in F&B herself, heeding advice from such people was a natural reaction at first. 

“I had a guy once put his leg up on the table and say, ‘You know what you should do?’ And I was like, ‘Huh? I didn’t ask,’” she recalls. “At first, imposter syndrome made me second-guess myself. But over time, I learned to evaluate the counsel I was getting. Not all of it was applicable—some people just didn’t understand my business model.” 

One advisor, however, stood out. Though she didn’t invest in Oh My Goodness!, she fell in love with the business and stayed on as an informal mentor. Her most valuable counsel?

“I was about to hire a mansplainey operations director because he had the right credentials. But I felt terrible about it. My mentor told me, ‘Ramya, at this stage, you need someone who builds you up, not tears you down.’ That was good advice.”

Building a socially responsible business comes with challenges few talk about. A social enterprise, Oh My Goodness! actively hires individuals from marginalised backgrounds—including those with intellectual disabilities. While rewarding, the process requires immense patience, resources, and the right ecosystem of support.

“When one employee with intellectual disabilities started showing emotional distress and aggressive behaviour due to a major family event, I almost let him go. But I didn’t want to give up on him,” Ramya shares. Instead, she rallied his parents, a job coach, and a psychologist to help him adjust. Today, he is one of her most capable employees.

However, not all hires work out. “I had to learn the hard way that social impact cannot come at the expense of business viability. If there’s no business, there’s no inclusive hiring.”

“We cannot forget—you have to be an enterprise first, a social enterprise second. We don’t go out shouting that we’re a social enterprise, we go out shouting about the quality of our product. We produce amazing products that taste great, feed people, and are better for your health.” 

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Perhaps the greatest lesson Ramya has learned is that “not every opportunity is a good opportunity.” As a marketing veteran, she initially believed being available on multiple retail platforms was a win. Then reality hit.

“Some opportunities are actually deeply unprofitable. Being available on many platforms may look great—customers and shareholders love it. Some platforms seemed prestigious, but they were bleeding us dry. Logistics costs in Singapore are brutal, from warehousing, transportation and distribution costs,” she explains. “I had to crunch the numbers and make the tough call to pull out of some.”

It wasn’t easy. “Ego kicks in. But then your brain has to go, ‘Now, now, there’ll be better opportunities.’”

Yet, despite the small and big wins in her life and career—including paying off her MBA loan and making plans for her second and third export markets—Ramya still battles what she calls severe ‘founder’s disease’.

“I never feel successful,” she admits. “My friends have to remind me to celebrate the small wins. But I know this: we survived the pandemic, we have an incredible team. We’ve been doing this for seven years already. My first employee who joined us in 2017 is still with us and she’s my biggest success story. If you don’t celebrate the small wins each step, you’ll never be satisfied!” 

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